The Big Uneasy
Posted 9/2/2005
http://www.investors.com/editorial/IBDArticles.asp?artsec=20

Disaster: Who's responsible? That's the great question that keeps rising above the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina. More specifically, many have wondered, "Where's the federal government?"

Along with others in the media, we could easily blame Uncle Sam for New Orleans' misery and be done with it. Even President Bush on Friday suggested the federal government's initial response was "not acceptable."

The Homeland Security Department, in particular, has been faulted for what some see as tardiness. Beginning March 1, the new agency was supposed to take charge of managing natural disasters.

"Where in the hell is the cavalry? For God's sakes, where are they? We're going to have more casualties. . . . People without water. People without food. Babies without formula . . . I am not the disaster czar down here."

Comments like this have become typical from local officials. Except the comment above was made a decade ago, after Hurricane Andrew killed dozens and did $30 billion in damage across Florida. The angry words were those of Kate Hale, head of Dade County, Fla.'s Emergency Management Office, doing what local officials always seem to do best - blame the feds.

No, this is not new. "Where's the federal government?" is a question we seem to ask more often than ever. And not just when natural disasters hit. Terrorism, health care, jobs, AIDS, avian flu, gasoline prices, you name it - people expect the feds to do something - NOW! Sometimes it's legitimate; sometimes it's not.

Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans, speaking on WWL radio Thursday night, screamed that federal officials "don't have a clue what's going on down here." Yet, even as he spoke, tens of thousands of National Guard troops were on their way to afflicted parts of the Gulf. Tons of supplies - food, water, medicine - were being airlifted in.

Scapegoating the federal government misses the point. No president can stop a hurricane, or keep people from looting, rioting or shooting at government aircraft. Nor, for that matter, can a president know all that's needed, and how much, in an emergency.

Indeed, the federal government's response is almost always elephantine, and inadequate to local needs. That's why we elect local officials and have local government.

Unfortunately, many of those affected by Katrina have, in one way or another, been crying, "Where's the federal government?" all their lives. And their lives are more miserable for it.

New Orleans, a 287-year-old city built below sea level in the middle of a superhighway for hurricanes, needed at least a bare-bones plan for a catastrophic emergency - a Category 4 hurricane or the breaching of one of its levees.

As far as we can tell, it didn't have one. Certainly not one that worked. Maybe years of political and police corruption in Louisiana and New Orleans matter today more than people think.

Yes, the federal government can help clean up the mess, police the streets with federal troops, even bring in food. It can also budget more than the $4 billion it now spends each year on an average 50 or so declared emergencies nationwide.

But it can't make local officials prepare for the inevitable or make local victims immediately whole. Nor can it make New Orleans rise from the rubble.

That will take more than federal largess or bureaucratic diktat. It will require local people to roll up their sleeves and, with help from the rest of us, rebuild their beautiful city. Let's get to work.