Posted on 10/13/2005 5:20:13 PM PDT by Chris_Shugart
If nothing else, hurricane Katrina reaffirmed something many of us already know. Government bureaucracies are slow inefficient entities-even on a good day. On a bad day, as we've recently seen, government can be much worse. The stories of delayed evacuation, slow rescue response, and inadequate relief are many, and unnecessary to rehash.
There is one thing however, that deserves another look. What exactly should we demand from our government? And what can we realistically expect? If New Orleans is any kind of reliable gauge, expectations were much greater than what was delivered. Immediately following the disaster, a deluge of criticism inundated the Bush administration with accusations that it didn't do enough to aid the hurricane victims. In the minds of many, the government fell woefully short.
As the saying goes, stuff happens. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin said he couldn't find any drivers to drive the available evacuation buses. City policemen abandoned their posts. At every turn, rescue personnel were impeded by the lack of a coordinated plan and a vague, almost non-existent chain of command. The best that Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco could do was go into panic mode and send in armed swat teams to quell disorder that turned out to be largely exaggerated.
Louisiana's U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu offered a revealing comment that was so telling that it transcended the situation. She explained, "Most mayors in this country have a hard time getting their people to work on a sunny day, let alone getting them out in the city in front of a hurricane." There you have it. Even under favorable conditions, a U.S. Senator shows little confidence in her government's ability to perform even the most ordinary of duties.
In spite of the obvious inadequacies of the emergency response, it was mostly Democrats who assumed that federal relief should have been instantaneous and complete. Where did they get that idea? Anyone who has dealt with any kind of bureaucracy, from the Department of Motor Vehicles to the IRS, knows that government machinery moves in slow and clumsy lurches. Why would a disaster make that any different?
The recent complaints about the government not doing enough is only a reflection of a liberal vision of the ideal bureaucracy--an uberwelfare state--a champion provider that takes care of everybody all of the time, under all and any circumstances. In a utopian make-believe world, maybe that sort of thing happens. In the real world, we see time after time that government agencies tend to be poor examples of model efficiency and reliable problem solving--hardly the gallant defender you'd want running to your rescue.
Many of those who found themselves trapped in New Orleans couldn't understand why the government wasn't there to save them. The reality of their situation may have conflicted with their expectations, created by years of indoctrination from our country's liberal leadership. The result may have been a false sense of security that all was well-a misplaced confidence that the government was in charge and therefore taking care of everything. The care and provisions did come of course, though not as quickly and to the amount that would have satisfied the critics.
Perhaps hurricane Katrina has helped to expose the many shortcomings of the American welfare state. Maybe it takes a hurricane to shake that liberal myth that government has an inalienable obligation to provide its citizens with all of its needs and wants. Maybe now some people are wising up to the fact that government doesn't always have the skill and wherewithal to solve all of our problems.
I hope I never find myself in the kind of situation that New Orleans citizens had to deal with. And I'm not talking about the hurricane. I hope I never ever find myself in circumstances where my very survival depends on how well my government manages to respond to my needs. I can't even get my mail on time. While it's not unreasonable to expect the U.S. government to deliver when required, we need to at least meet them halfway. That means more focus on individual initiative, self-reliance, and an honest appraisal of government capabilities. We are after all a government of the people.
It also reveals how completerly ignorant of nature urban dwellers are. For example, 1100 busses should be waiting round the corner, and felled trees and broken freeways are no impediment to them getting there. Only city dwellers have such unrealistic expectations after a huge storm.
The Fed employees must be doing just super...right?
Compare what happened in New Orleans with what happened at a high rise apartment complex next to the Two Towers during 9/11. What was the diference?
http://www.upmc-biosecurity.org/pages/events/peoplesrole/lapson/lapson_trans.html
(excerpted from transcript)
The Public as an Asset,Not a Problem - Community organizations acting during crisis: 9/11 and neighborhood associations presentation by Diane S. Lapson
...Immediately following the attack, our tenant association structure took over, and we realized that we were facing many serious problems. Building 9, closest to the Trade Center, lost all power and had been hardest hit by the debris dust. Many people had no choice but to evacuate. The other buildings had electricity but no hot water. All phone service was out. Cell phones worked sporadically. We didn't know if our buildings were structurally safe, or if they would fall down, as well. All businesses were closed, including our supermarket and drug store. And actually, Dr. Lewis talked about this before, when she was talking about what the seniors had to face. This is a slightly different story, because the seniors were not abandoned in our complex.
Anyone who left Ground Zero was not allowed back into the neighborhood. Some tenants had been in the Twin Towers when it happened, some had been below. Some tenants died, some lost relatives and friends, all had witnessed the terrible after-math, including very young children. People were getting sick, traumatized, confused, depressed and very frightened, and for better or worse, I was in charge with no experience in this kind of -- with no disaster experience at all.
Sean, the vice president of Building 9, was forced to take his family to safety, so the other vice president, Dorothy, she was vice president of Building 1, and I set up our posts in our respective lobbies. I think I have a picture of that. There we go. This is actually not me, but this is where I stood. I stood next to that black phone for about -- between that and the street for about 16 hours a day. That's how we ran the complex, and we used this very antiquated intercom system which miraculously worked for the first time in 20 years.
Seeing the vice presidents at the security desk, they knew that -- the floor captains came down to the lobby, and when they saw us they knew that we were part of the -- they were part of the team. Management gave us a list of seniors and disabled for each building, and this was our A list, people to check-in on first. Everyone talked to their neighbors, made sure the elderly were okay. We made mental notes of who returned home safe, consoled the frightened, watched the news hoping they would find believe alive and prayed the attacks were over.
Although rescue services and armed forces were all around us, it was as if we were invisible. The reporters used our building for video. All eyes were understandably on the rescue site, and we were on our own. We didn't know it would be for 10 days...
That is an amazing number, but I remember the phenomenon of sidelining. There was a man who just sat around and read the newspapers in my husband's office when he worked for the USIA. Couldn't do the work and couldn't be fired.
http://www.fedsmith.com/articles/articles.showarticle.db.php?intArticleID=715
That it's easier to write a piece parroting the loudest message rather than the correct one?
The Federal response to Katrina was not slow judging by the standards of past hurricanes like Hugo and Andrew. It was faster. In responding to Katrina, the Fed Gov. moved more supplies and people than ever before.
Your essay is a swing and a miss.
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