KATRINA
Weathering the Storm
Occurring only 18 months after Hurricane Katrina, the devastating tornadoes in Greensburg, KS this month again prompted the question of whether our government can adequately respond to another Katrina-like storm. For residents of New Orleans, that question will be particularly pressing this summer, as the hurricane season officially begins this Friday. Hurricane prediction experts expect a "very active" tropical storm season for 2007, estimating "the probability of a major hurricane hitting the Gulf Coast at 49 percent, compared to last century's average of 30 percent." To prepare for another Katrina, the federal government needs to develop an adequate response system, including the rejuvenation of a shattered emergency response network in New Orleans. Unfortunately, the government has failed to provide this system, leaving the residents of New Orleans again woefully unprepared for the active hurricane season on the horizon.
AILING PUBLIC SERVICES: Nearly two years after Katrina, much of New Orleans's public infrastructure is under reconstruction and stretched dangerously thin. General infrastructure repairs, "which by law are to be funded by federal sources, continue to be mired in red tape." As of April, 298 "essential public buildings" remain unusable, as "bureaucratic hurdles impede the dispersal of allocated federal funds." For example, 70 public schools remain closed, crippling the ability of families to regain their footing. The area is struggling with only 64 percent of health care facilities open and no state-licensed hospitals reopening since Oct. 2006. The effects of a broken health care system permeate the city. With psychiatric hospital closures since Katrina causing overcrowded emergency rooms, Terry Ebbert, director of the New Orleans's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, sees "a crisis in emergency mental health care." "Of the 200-plus psychiatric beds that existed in the city prior to Katrina, only 20 are in service at the moment." Police and ambulance drivers now must wait "hours" with these patients to bring them adequate emergency care, "depriving the city of essential crime fighters and first responders." Subsequently, the murder and violent crime surged in the last year, "clearly outpac[ing] the city's population growth."
IRAQ LIMITS EMERGENCY RESPONSE: "To put it bluntly, the members of the Guard cannot protect us here if they are fighting over there," said Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Lawrence Korb this week. "Countless lives were lost" waiting for help when Katrina struck in 2005, as "the combat brigades of Louisiana and Mississippi and their equipment were in Iraq and Afghanistan." While most of the state's National Guard will remain at home for this hurricane season, Iraq has absorbed vehicles and equipment necessary for hurricane response in New Orleans. Come storm season, "the Louisiana National Guard still lacks hundreds of military troop trucks that can forge high water. ... [T]he 256th Infantry Brigade's yearlong combat tour in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 gets the blame for the vehicle shortage." With a shortage of 200 to 300 vehicles, "We're below 50 percent for authorized equipment" said Lt. Col. Pete Schneider, Louisiana Guard spokesman. "Do I have enough for a major event? No. For a smaller event, yes." And the federal government "still lacks a formal structure for coordinating a national response," said Coast Guard head Adm. Thad Allen yesterday. According to Allen, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is still "reworking its national response plan to incorporate the lessons of Katrina and other incidents." To train and equip the necessary units, "the president should ask the Congress to increase the budget of the DHS by at least $10 billion, the cost of one month's operations in Iraq."
STILL UNREADY TO HANDLE THE STORM: According to a recent investigation from National Geographic, "flaws in New Orleans' repaired levee system could leave the region vulnerable to another disastrous breach." Even a less powerful storm than Katrina "could breach the levees if it hit this season." In rebuilt levees by the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet ship channel, which broke in more than 20 places during Katrina and led "to devastating flooding in the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish," engineers found several areas where storms have eroded the newly constructed levees. The engineers also found that, currently, "water appears to be seeping under the stout new floodwall erected along the Industrial Canal to protect the Lower Ninth Ward." A recent report from the Government Accountability Office revealed that water pumping systems installed by the Army Corps of Engineers in 2006 would only be operating -- at best -- at 82 percent of maximum capacity, with the total capacity still not meeting the "drainage needs to keep the city from flooding during a hurricane." One engineer who works with the corps said "that in the next big storm the [flood gates and pumps] may be 'doomed to fail' as the gates lack any mechanism to remove debris that could keep them from closing in advance of a storm. The corps is currently depending on divers to clear obstructions."
CELEBRATING DANGER: The federal government is more concerned with fanfare and glitz rather than real preparedness for the vigorous storm season ahead. National Hurricane Center director Bill Proenza said recently that the administration is "spending millions of dollars on a publicity campaign that could be used to plug budget shortfalls hurricane forecasters are struggling with." The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is spending up to $4 million to publicize a 200th anniversary celebration while the agency has cut $700,000 from hurricane research, Proenza said. "No question about it, it is not justified. ... It is using appropriated funds for self promotion." "It's part of our responsibility to tell the American people what we do," a NOAA spokesman said in defense. "It's inaccurate and unfair to just characterize this as some sort of self-celebration."
AILING PUBLIC SERVICES: Nearly two years after Katrina, much of New Orleans's public infrastructure is under reconstruction and stretched dangerously thin. General infrastructure repairs, "which by law are to be funded by federal sources, continue to be mired in red tape." As of April, 298 "essential public buildings" remain unusable, as "bureaucratic hurdles impede the dispersal of allocated federal funds." For example, 70 public schools remain closed, crippling the ability of families to regain their footing. The area is struggling with only 64 percent of health care facilities open and no state-licensed hospitals reopening since Oct. 2006. The effects of a broken health care system permeate the city. With psychiatric hospital closures since Katrina causing overcrowded emergency rooms, Terry Ebbert, director of the New Orleans's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, sees "a crisis in emergency mental health care." "Of the 200-plus psychiatric beds that existed in the city prior to Katrina, only 20 are in service at the moment." Police and ambulance drivers now must wait "hours" with these patients to bring them adequate emergency care, "depriving the city of essential crime fighters and first responders." Subsequently, the murder and violent crime surged in the last year, "clearly outpac[ing] the city's population growth."
IRAQ LIMITS EMERGENCY RESPONSE: "To put it bluntly, the members of the Guard cannot protect us here if they are fighting over there," said Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Lawrence Korb this week. "Countless lives were lost" waiting for help when Katrina struck in 2005, as "the combat brigades of Louisiana and Mississippi and their equipment were in Iraq and Afghanistan." While most of the state's National Guard will remain at home for this hurricane season, Iraq has absorbed vehicles and equipment necessary for hurricane response in New Orleans. Come storm season, "the Louisiana National Guard still lacks hundreds of military troop trucks that can forge high water. ... [T]he 256th Infantry Brigade's yearlong combat tour in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 gets the blame for the vehicle shortage." With a shortage of 200 to 300 vehicles, "We're below 50 percent for authorized equipment" said Lt. Col. Pete Schneider, Louisiana Guard spokesman. "Do I have enough for a major event? No. For a smaller event, yes." And the federal government "still lacks a formal structure for coordinating a national response," said Coast Guard head Adm. Thad Allen yesterday. According to Allen, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is still "reworking its national response plan to incorporate the lessons of Katrina and other incidents." To train and equip the necessary units, "the president should ask the Congress to increase the budget of the DHS by at least $10 billion, the cost of one month's operations in Iraq."
STILL UNREADY TO HANDLE THE STORM: According to a recent investigation from National Geographic, "flaws in New Orleans' repaired levee system could leave the region vulnerable to another disastrous breach." Even a less powerful storm than Katrina "could breach the levees if it hit this season." In rebuilt levees by the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet ship channel, which broke in more than 20 places during Katrina and led "to devastating flooding in the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish," engineers found several areas where storms have eroded the newly constructed levees. The engineers also found that, currently, "water appears to be seeping under the stout new floodwall erected along the Industrial Canal to protect the Lower Ninth Ward." A recent report from the Government Accountability Office revealed that water pumping systems installed by the Army Corps of Engineers in 2006 would only be operating -- at best -- at 82 percent of maximum capacity, with the total capacity still not meeting the "drainage needs to keep the city from flooding during a hurricane." One engineer who works with the corps said "that in the next big storm the [flood gates and pumps] may be 'doomed to fail' as the gates lack any mechanism to remove debris that could keep them from closing in advance of a storm. The corps is currently depending on divers to clear obstructions."
CELEBRATING DANGER: The federal government is more concerned with fanfare and glitz rather than real preparedness for the vigorous storm season ahead. National Hurricane Center director Bill Proenza said recently that the administration is "spending millions of dollars on a publicity campaign that could be used to plug budget shortfalls hurricane forecasters are struggling with." The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is spending up to $4 million to publicize a 200th anniversary celebration while the agency has cut $700,000 from hurricane research, Proenza said. "No question about it, it is not justified. ... It is using appropriated funds for self promotion." "It's part of our responsibility to tell the American people what we do," a NOAA spokesman said in defense. "It's inaccurate and unfair to just characterize this as some sort of self-celebration."
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