Pushing Katrina into the flood (op-ed)

After Hurricane Katrina (2005) Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean stated Katrina showed that President George W. Bush was incompetent. Dean also said, “Before Katrina, everyone, including America’s friends and enemies, believed if something awful happened in the world, you could call in the Americans and they’d fix it.” But Bush’s response ruined that reputation.

International reliance on American relief efforts might have made Dean over confident in America’s reputation abroad, but Americans have expectations foreign to many citizens of the world. 

For example, Americans expect rapid responses to every calamity. If there’s a power outage, chemical spill, disease outbreak, or natural disaster, Americans expect the government to manage the crisis just as instantaneously as it began.

Here’s how President George W. Bush recalled the beginning of Hurricane Katrina. “The eye of the storm passed over Plaquemines Parish, at the far southeastern tip of the state, and plowed north across the Louisiana-Mississippi border, about forty miles east of New Orleans. ‘The worst weather in this system is indeed going to bypass downtown New Orleans and go to our east.’ NBC News’s Brian Williams reported … Several Journalist on the scene said the city had ‘dodged a bullet’. Governor Blanco confirmed that while some water had spilled over the tops of the levees, they had detected no breaches. My staff and I went to bed thinking the levees had held … Early Tuesday morning, Day two of Katrina; I learned that the first reports were wrong. The levees in New Orleans had been breached. Water from Lake Pontchartrain began to pour into the city, filling the bowl. An estimated 80 to 90 percent of residents had evacuated, but tens of thousands had not, including many of the poor and vulnerable.”

This was unprecedented.

But partisans on the left exploited the fact to promote that President Bush failed to meet American expectations. President Bush was criticized for lacking compassion by taking too long to visit the sites on the ground.

But President Bush stated, “Joe Hagin (deputy chief of staff) reached out [to the governors] to discuss the possibility of a visit. Both felt it was too early. A presidential arrival would have required dozens of law enforcement officials to provide security at the airport, an ambulance and medical personnel on standby, and numerous other resources. Neither governor wanted to divert rescue assets to prepare for my arrival. I agreed.”

Last month Louisiana was struck with another flood. The Red Cross labeled it the worst natural disaster in the past four years, and the Associated Press reported, “President Obama is unlikely to break from his New England vacation to survey flood Damage in Louisiana, despite calls for him to visit and meet with responders and victims.”

This time partisans on the right criticized the lack of criticism by the mainstream press of President Obama. A Fox News headline read -- Bias Alert: Media that ripped Bush on Katrina ignores Obama on La. Flooding.

Other critics decided to declare the Louisiana flood Obama’s Katrina.

Meanwhile the governor of Louisiana stated he’d prefer that Obama wait because such visits pull local police and first responders into providing security.

Both presidents visited their respective disaster areas when it was deemed appropriate. But there is nothing more inappropriate than pretending to protest the inaction of a President when it’s known he’s prevented by procedures from acting, and regardless of American expectations all natural disasters require relief from a power higher than the President of the United States.

First published in New Pittsburgh Courier 9/ 7/16