NationStates Jolt Archive


My Blame for the Katrina Mess: Institutions, not Individuals

Lotus Puppy
07-09-2005, 02:46
I'm not sure if this is the right time to play the blame game. However, I've given my donation to the Red Cross, and that is all I can do for now. I can only blame people.
Perhaps I should say that I don't blame people as much as I blame institutions. The guys who created them are dead or too senile to know what's going on. You see, no one, anywhere, wants to see anyone on the Gulf Coast die. But each layer of government feels entitled to do something in the disaster zone, and when they coordinate resources, it is never that effectively. Because of this, plus the inherent political nature of disaster relief (FEMA Undersecretary Michael Brown had little prior experience in disaster relief), the system just collapses on itself. I have no faith that the government would help in time if a flood, or earthquake, or nuclear detonation on an American city, happened.
There is also something disturbing that I'm surprised no one here picked up on. You see, the Mississippi River is probably this nation's greatest commercial natural resource, so naturally, the private sector is just incapable of handling it (sarcasm). Instead, the Army Corp of Engineers has managed the Mississippi River system for decades. Whether or not it has helped shipping, I don't know. I do know that, since the fifties when they started going overboard with projects, the Lousianna coastline has actually receded because of the lack of sediment. Yes, that's right folks: land is sinking underwater! And saltwater is killing off freshwater plants, too. Countless swamps have been lost, offering far less flood protection. New Orleans may still have been flooded if more swamps and marshes were around, but perhaps not as much. And I can almost gurantee that Slidell, Metarie, the Delta, Grand Isle, and Madiesville would not be underwater.
These instutions and policies were not created by bad people, and the blame game should not focus on people. These people, however, were short-sighted. I guess I'd be, too. Too many things can happen so quickly, and the government can't adapt for it all. But I have a few suggestions on how to improve the situation.

1. Let the Army Corp of Engineers build pontoon bridges in Iraq and things like that. Keep them off American projects non-essential to military well being. While the federal government should retain control of the river for legal reasons, the Corp should either sell the dams, levees, and canals on the Mississippi-Missouri river system to either private investors or municipalities, whom will decide what to do with them. I have a feeling that the private sector, or at the very least, local government, can do a better job at this, because they are forced to consider several things, unlike the feds, which can allocate resources anywhere and raise only minor protests.

2. We need a change to FEMA. Have actual disaster management be in the hands of state agencies with federal funding. Each will have teams of rescuers, plus volunteers, water purification specialists, crack fireman, and toxic waste disposal crews (for large environmental disasters). While each is privvy to the state governor, should he/she find the task overwhelming, a FEMA like office in Washington kicks in, coordinating rescue efforts, and therefore, forcing state governments to surrender their control. Think of it as operating in a similar manner to the National Guard.

3. Keep FEMA a small office in the Homeland Security Dept. This will have fewer than fifty employees, and its head will be a civil servant that is hired by merit, not appointed.

4. For these type of emergencies, the President needs to maintain a disaster cabinet, similar to a war cabinet. It will consist off the Sec. of Homeland Security, Defense, Commerce, and Interior. An emergency management coordinator, probably the head of FEMA, should also be present, just like the National Security Council coordinates State and Defense. This will allow for a unified and effective response at the top.

I believe this will coordinate efforts better than what we have now. We cannot prevent natural disasters, and when man made disasters, like 9/11, occurs, politics go out the window for the first few weeks. Pres. Bush can regain much needed political capital in implementing these suggestions. He has already did the biggest government reorganization in fifty years. The question is if he can succeed this time.
Lotus Puppy
07-09-2005, 03:12
bump
Lotus Puppy
07-09-2005, 22:23
bump
And btw, is my first post long enough to intimidate everyone? I won't change it, but I'm just wondering.
Selgin
08-09-2005, 00:46
It's not intimidating, just hard to read. Break it up into paragraphs of no more than 4 to 5 sentences long, with one idea to each.

As to your post, I disagree, as I disagreed with the 9/11 commission report. This habit of blaming institutions, instead of individuals, simply emboldens individuals to be lax in their duties.

People should have been fired for the 9/11 fiasco. No one was.

People should be fired for this fiasco. And no one will.

Which results in government, whether Democrat or Republican, always being able to engage in a little CYA action, without accountability to the public that elected them.
Lotus Puppy
10-09-2005, 00:10
It's not intimidating, just hard to read. Break it up into paragraphs of no more than 4 to 5 sentences long, with one idea to each.

As to your post, I disagree, as I disagreed with the 9/11 commission report. This habit of blaming institutions, instead of individuals, simply emboldens individuals to be lax in their duties.

People should have been fired for the 9/11 fiasco. No one was.

People should be fired for this fiasco. And no one will.

Which results in government, whether Democrat or Republican, always being able to engage in a little CYA action, without accountability to the public that elected them.
9/11 was hardly the blame of one person. Rather, it was the blame of leaders unable to adapt Cold War institutions, as no one saw the threat terrorism posed, as it was quite different from anything preceding it. The disaster of Katrina may have been a bit more predictable, but the underlying problem was the same: the government stumbled over itself. It can't prepare for everything, and in future disasters and attacks, the government will stumble again. Yet this can be prevented. We must streamline the government. No single individual can drastically help or hurt these problems in this current government structure.