Post-Katrina hand-wringing echoes earlier criticism

WASHINGTON - Withering criticism in the United States over the flawed response to Hurricane Katrina may seem unprecedented, but much of the same hand-wringing has been seen before.

President George W Bush, as well as local and state authorities, have been under attack for a week for being too slow to help people hit by the storm that swamped New Orleans and other parts of the US Gulf Coast.

Similar questions over the speed and effectiveness of relief efforts followed Hurricane Andrew in August 1992, a storm that flattened parts of the Miami area and, until Katrina, was the costliest hurricane to strike the country.

"Where in the hell is the cavalry?" That plea from local emergency official Kate Hale days after Andrew hit land became emblematic of a sense that then-President George Bush, the current president's father, and his government had been slow to send in people and supplies.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin echoed that with a "desperate SOS" on Sept 1, three days after Katrina slammed ashore and two days after it was evident that his city was flooded out and thousands of people were stranded in danger and squalor.

A report by the US General Accounting Office to the US Congress, on "Improving the Nation's Response to Catastrophic Disasters" and issued the year after Andrew, raised many of the questions that have been heard again this week and probably will be for months to come.

"The response to Hurricane Andrew raised doubts about whether FEMA is capable of responding to catastrophic disasters and whether it had learned any lessons from its responses to Hurricane Hugo and the Loma Prieta earthquake," it said, referring to a hurricane and earthquake in 1989.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency and its director, Michael Brown, were under attack again this week, with critics of the Bush administration saying the agency had improved for a time but lost teeth when it was placed under the control of the sprawling Department of Homeland Security after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the United States.

On Friday, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff pulled Brown off on-the-ground relief operations.

Bush, while saying last week that the results of relief efforts were unacceptable, has called for a moratorium on the "blame game." But with layers of local, state and federal government involved in storm preparations and relief, fingers can be pointed in many different directions.

If some people wondered why Bush did not rush in troops to help stranded victims of Katrina, others say Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco could have been faster to order up her state's National Guard -- part-time soldiers who serve under state governors -- or question whether Nagin prepared the city well enough before the hurricane hit. Or they wonder why leaders at all levels were not on the same page.

The GAO report of 1993 found it was not clear who was responsible for what in dealing with Andrew.

"The response in South Florida suffered from miscommunication and confusion of roles and responsibilities at all levels of government -- which slowed the delivery of services vital to disaster victims."

The report also called for a strong presidential lead in times of disaster, saying "presidential leadership creates a powerful, meaningful perception that the federal government recognises an event is catastrophic, is in control and is going to use every means necessary to meet the immediate mass care needs of disaster victims."
The current Bush White House has been criticised for appearing slow to grasp the magnitude of Katrina's impact. A Pew Research Center poll found 67 percent of Americans believed Bush could have done more to speed up relief efforts, and just 28 percent believed he did all he could.

- REUTERS