Images of death, destruction and desperation cluttered newspapers, Web sites and televisions this week. Some of the photos – like those of dead bodies lining the sidewalks of the Superdome – were disturbingly shocking. Still others, such as five-person families holding all their worldly possessions in a trash bag, were just plain sad.
At the root of this catastrophe is the question of how New Orleans, a major American metropolis, was knocked to its feet, turned into a war zone of refugees and lost its functioning government.
To find the answer to this, one must go back to the last American tragedy, which was September 11, 2001. That day in New York City, many firefighters, police and citizens died. Subsequent investigations showed that the lack of communication between the various agencies responding to the emergency in the World Trade Center that day was what killed them.
Since then, it was revealed that the police and fire departments saw that the building was leaning 25 minutes before it collapsed. These officials were not able to fully able to relay this message to the forces inside because radios did not receive signal in some of the staircases. Compounding this was that the fire department and police department each used different frequencies to communicate- meaning that if one had critical information, they could not relay it to the other.
As a result of this, the Bush Administration allocated billions of dollars to create the Department of Homeland Security to bring these communication systems and the emergency preparedness of cities up to date. Once again, it looks like the Bush administration failed because homeland security preparedness is a joke.
As Hurricane Katrina roared through New Orleans, the city weathered the storm fairly well, although they did lose power. It was not until the following day when levees started to give way that the massive flooding began. At this time, roughly 48 hours into the hurricane, communication systems began to fail.
Fire, police and city government were not able to communicate with each other. Evident also was that there was no hierarchical system in place, meaning that if communications with headquarters ceased, no one assumed responsibility – avoiding this is the essence of why police departments are run in the quasi-military way they are. It would seem to me that a decent homeland security emergency preparedness plan would take this into account as it would be assumed that terrorists would take aim to eliminate leadership.
Preparing for a hurricane also means preparing for a prolonged lack of power needed to charge cell phones – and keep the pumps running that keep New Orleans dry .
Also inexcusable is that people are dying – not because they drowned in floodwater but because of a lack of food, water and sanitary conditions. Getting people efficiently out of an affected area safely and quickly is the most important element of any emergency plan.
All of which leads to looting and lawlessness, as people who are in desperate situations will do what they have to do to survive. If I had been in dirty water for three days I might break into a store to get dry socks and shoes. If I had been sitting on a sidewalk promised help was coming for days, I may loot a grocery store to feed my family.
What I would not do is get a gun and shoot people, which is what some of the people are doing, as they don’t believe help is coming. It seems there is no legal presence and no organization.
Ideally, the police should have multiple plans and resources to use. One of those resources would be to have people and resources in leadership positions at evacuation points like the New Orleans Convention Center and the Louisiana Superdome.
Where are these peoples leaders? Where are the resources and supplies that should have been allocated? If an emergency preparedness plan were in place, certainly it would look at not only removing citizens from an immediate threat, but also sustaining them.
Hurricanes come and go, and when they do, they usually scar the cities, states and countries they impact as they shift the sands that make up the beach. This time the hurricane exposed something – that emergency preparedness and homeland security in major cities is a joke.
Michael Dickinson may be reached at mdickinson2112@aol.com