From news reports, it looks as though local and federal officials including Mayor Nagin of New Orleans and Governor Bobby Jindal of Louisiana, as well as the folks at FEMA are far better prepared. Although once again there were problems procuring transportation, that seems to have been solved. A big difference seems to be that FEMA is now run by emergency professionals such as R. David Paulison, rather than former Arabian horse trader Michael Brown, who was fired in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. While Katrina hit east of New Orleans, overwhelming lower lying neighborhoods such as the Ninth Ward, Gustav is poised to impact to the West of the city. Unfortunately, in the three years since Katrina, the levees have still not been adequately prepared:
The levee system in New Orleans, which is the responsibility of local officials and the Army Corps of Engineers, is still not sufficient to handle a Category 4 or 5 hurricane, leaving the city vulnerable to major flooding if Hurricane Gustav arrives at such strength, said Jane Bullock, a former chief of staff at FEMA.
“People knew what had to be done to bring the levees up to the point that they could protect the city,” Ms. Bullock said. “But it has not happened.”
This is a question that needs to be answered, and the improvements made over the abysmal performance of the Bush administration after Katrina, while deserving of praise, should not prevent it from being asked. According to the Times-Picayune, there are about 10,000 residents left in the city.
The economic effect of Gustav is likely to be fairly serious. According to The Washington Post, a quarter of crude oil production and an eighth of natural gas production takes place in the Gulf. About 40 percent of U.S. refinery capacity is located in the region as well, and all of these facilities have either shut down or are running at "minimum rates."
I should add that I find John McCain's decision to turn Gustav into a photo-op frustrating. The last thing areas hit by the storm need are for their public-safety personnel to be occupied with political pageantry, and I don't understand why the press is eager to describe McCain's actions by visiting the region as having a "presidential bearing." A president should know when to get out of the way and let people do their jobs. Far from "putting country first," McCain seems to have decided that his campaign should take priority. But then, that's becoming a theme isn't it?
--A. Serwer
