Three years later, what lessons have we learned from Katrina?

Denise Honeycutt, Columnist
Published On: 09/ 8/2008

Journalists have been returning to places like New Orleans every year since Hurricane Katrina to see what progress has been made. I had been wondering what they would report this year. I also began to think about what we really learned from what happened.

Of course, Hurricane Gustav then became a possible threat to New Orleans around the same time as the third anniversary of Katrina, and this was an opportunity to see if we had in fact learned anything at all.

Hurricane Katrina was one of the biggest disasters in this country’s history, in more ways than one. Besides the obvious structural damage, Katrina helped to shine a really big spotlight on our government.

The government’s preparation for this kind of storm was lacking. There was a slow response to the stranded residents of the area following the storm, and many complications in helping residents relocate and/or rebuild. Almost immediately after Katrina struck, the blame-game began — some blamed the Bush administration, some blamed local government officials and some blamed both.

When the threat of Hurricane Gustav was eminent, government officials seemed to want to tell every journalist they saw how much more prepared they were to handle this one than they were when Katrina paid a visit three years earlier. Mayor Ray Nagin announced a mandatory evacuation for the residents of New Orleans, shelters were set up in surrounding states, the levees were watched closely and President Bush was said to be monitoring the situation closely.

Everything seemed to be in order. Only, Gustav did not cause as much destruction as many thought it would.
As I watched coverage of Hurricane Gustav, there seemed to be less than adequate concern about helping the people of cities like New Orleans. The reports, at times, seemed almost exaggerated. It was like journalists wanted to make it as interesting as coverage of Katrina, especially after they realized Gustav would not be a Category 3 hurricane once it got to Louisiana.

Even more than this, it seemed to be about redemption for government officials. Mayor Nagin wanted everyone to know that he had done everything he could to urge residents of his city to leave, and the President and the Republican Party wanted everyone to know that they had the situation under control.

President Bush was not at the Republican National Convention on the first day, and gave his speech via satellite on the second day. The official word was that he wanted to stay in Texas and monitor Hurricane Gustav.

Vice President Cheney gave a similar excuse for not being present at the RNC. However, many journalists noted that Bush’s and Cheney’s absences were likely due to the President’s low approval rating and the concern that his and Cheney’s appearances would adversely affect John McCain’s election efforts.

I think that what we have learned from Katrina is that the government will do a better job of preparing for natural disasters in the future, not necessarily because they want to protect the citizens of this country, but because it could give them a black eye politically. They especially want to pay attention during election years.

OK, let’s face it, when those levees gave way in 2005, the people I saw helping, or trying to help, the people in Louisiana and surrounding states were just ordinary people. I still recall stories of those citizens who collected as much bottled water, food and clothes as they could and found a way to get it to the people that needed it, while government officials seemed to be still trying to figure out what to do next. I also remember how families volunteered to take in evacuees who had lost everything and had nowhere to go.

It was also regular citizens who began recovery efforts in states like Louisiana. Many celebrities, especially those from Louisiana, invested their own money in helping to rebuild Louisiana and to get its citizens to return.

What we really should take from Hurricane Katrina is what we were able to accomplish when we worked together. Republicans and Democrats were working together, and other countries offered helped.

This is not to say that the government shouldn’t have been there for its citizens, or that they shouldn’t have been held responsible for what didn’t happen. It is to say, imagine what could happen, imagine what positive changes could take place, if we simply found a way to work together.

We’ve proven it can be done. If government officials, Democrats and Republicans could only remember this, reference this, when the bickering begins and little is accomplished.

Email: honey_deni@hotmail.com