The US Government response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster and the failure to provide reasonable relief to the multitude of hurricane victims has been a festering sore that besmirches America's history of compassionate response to natural disasters, in this country and throughout the world. The taint is all the more evident because this particular disaster happened right at home, where relief should be the easiest to deliver. Yet nearly two years after Katrina struck, even the most solicitous evaluation of the Bush Administration’s response would have to call it a “disaster.” Temporary housing purchased for millions of dollars sat rusting in Arkansas and was never delivered to families in hurricane stricken areas. Millions of pounds of food and supplies intended for victims were never delivered. Reconstruction has proceeded at a snail’s pace with red tape being the rule rather than the exception. Insurance companies have been given free license to initially deny claims that turned out to be valid and thereby rake in profits on cash flow at the expense of delays to distressed hurricane victims. Many of the poor and Black victims lack the expertise of resources to challenge the claim denials and never receive relief. And the itemization of documented failures stretches on.
The failures take on an additional dimension when the US Government actions that blocked the delivery of hundreds of millions of dollars in aid pledged and provided by allies and foreign sources are also considered. Simply put, if the Bush Administration was incapable of providing the necessary assistance to hurricane victims, obstruction of help provided by other sources was a cruel tragedy. Consider the following Washington Post article:
Only a fraction of promised aid collected
Allies offered $854 million in cash and in oil that was to be sold for cash. But only $40 million has been used so far for disaster victims or reconstruction, according to U.S. officials and contractors. Most of the aid went uncollected, including $400 million worth of oil. Some offers were withdrawn or redirected to private groups such as the Red Cross. The rest has been delayed by red tape and bureaucratic limits on how it can be spent. In addition, valuable supplies and services -- such as cell phone systems, medicine and cruise ships -- were delayed or declined because the government could not handle them. In some cases, supplies were wasted.
[WP April 29, 2007]
The President of the United States first praised the incompetent performance of FEMA head Brown, and subsequently fired him after his utter incompetence was publicly exposed. Bush interrupted critical relief efforts to stage a national TV "photo opportunity" to solemnly “promise” bold action to help New Orleans and the Gulf Coast recover from the disaster. After the cameras departed and the relief personnel were allowed to get back to their tasks of rescue and relief, the primary “bold action” by the Administration was to point fingers and blame state and local officials for recovery problems and delays. This took place despite the billions of dollars appropriated by Congress and made available to the Bush Administration for hurricane disaster relief, recovery and reconstruction.
When the Mayor of New Orleans and other critics of the Bush Administration response efforts posed the quandary whether the failure to provide relief and recovery assistance was linked to the fact that most of the victims were poor and non-white, the Administration supporters were quick to take offense. Yet these same sycophants are at a loss to explain or reconcile the abysmal failures of the Administration. The failures could be an example of incompetence of epic proportions by the officials Bush has assigned to the task [Other US Administrations have delivered more effective relief to flood and earthquake victims of other countries halfway around the globe]. Alternatively, the failures could be explained by willful indifference and a deliberate policy decision to place a lower priority to delivering the necessary relief because of the lack of political gain Bush perceives from providing aid to constituencies that are unlikely to support his Administration and political party. Such speculation is not cynical, but rather logical and common sense analysis of facts and circumstances that are extremely difficult to reconcile.
When the leadership of the country has the obligation, financial resources and the logistical support to come to the aid of its citizens when they are most vulnerable and fails to do so, the failure is inexcusable. Whether the reason for the Administration's atrocious failure to provide the promised aid is incompetence or intentional neglect the end result is an embarrassment for the United States. The compounding of that failure by blocking others from addressing that vacuum of leadership by providing critically needed aid is a double embarrassment. If the failure is due to incompetence, then the Administration officials should immediately resign and allow someone competent to take their place. If the failure is a deliberate act motivated by petty political agendas, the officials and their superiors who condone such actions should be impeached and removed from office for gross dereliction of duty. The American people should be ashamed not only of their leaders for such dramatic failures, but also ashamed of themselves for failing to hold the responsible leaders accountable.
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