Katrina

Top stories of 2005 | Disaster defined | Marvin Olasky

In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, some said New Orleans' problem was lack of planning. Then the truth emerged: At least three different bureaucracies had produced lots of plans and succumbed to rule by paperocracy.

  • The city of New Orleans' "Comprehensive Emergency Disaster Plan" was not comprehensive enough to call for evacuation of the sick, the elderly, and the poor.
  • The State of Louisiana's comprehensive plan assumed movement of New Orleans residents to shelters outside the city: Relief agencies were not to bring food and supplies into New Orleans because that would only slow down the evacuation.
  • The Federal Emergency Management Agency's comprehensive plan was based on national disaster standards that tell local and state officials not to expect federal aid for 72 to 96 hours. Up to then, FEMA wanted residents to depend on themselves and on local leaders, with a disciplined police force responsible for preventing looting and assault. The overall plan was to cross-pollinate these comprehensive plans to create something truly comprehensive and realistic, but that wasn't done.

Instead, we had government by acronym. According to the New Orleans emergency plan, "The Office of Emergency Preparedness [OEP] will coordinate with the Louisiana Office of Emergency Preparedness [LOEP]" and the Association of Contingency Planners (ACP), with OEP and LOEP working together to conduct workshops at the Emergency Support Function (ESF) level, prepare Mass Casualty Incident (MCI) scenarios, and learn Emergency Operating Center (EOC) procedure.