By Henry J. Stern
September 6, 2005

Everyone is writing about Hurricane Katrina, the storm and its aftermath.  Rather than expound on the disaster from far away, we would simply like to ask questions which occur to us.

There has been a torrent of words and pictures describing what has been called the worst natural disaster in American history.  Actually, the meteor that fell in Arizona about fifty thousand years ago may have been worse, but we don't have written records to prove it.
 
Here are the questions we would like you to consider, and the authorities to answer, authoritatively if they can.  If they cannot answer the questions, they should search for people who can, before they step aside and receive their Medals of Freedom.
 
1. It appears to be absolutely nutty that the arrival of the hurricane was predicted days in advance and so little was done in preparation for it.  Is there any rational explanation for this apparent lapse?  Was it the responsibility of the state or federal government, or both?
 
2. It is said to have been fortunate for New Orleans that the hurricane, pushed by a cold front from the west, veered thirty miles east and struck Mississippi hardest.  If the eye of the storm had struck New Orleans, as originally projected, would the death toll have been closer to 100,000 than 10,000, the current estimate?  
 
3. The fact that the President stayed on vacation in Crawford until Wednesday is difficult to assimilate.  Even if there was nothing he could have done about the disaster, the king must appear to be concerned when his subjects are losing their lives en masse.  Waiting seven minutes to finish reading a children's book on 9/11 is nothing compared with spending two days flitting around the West while New Orleans was drowning.  Who tells the President what to do when Cheney and Card are on vacation?
 
4. FEMA chief Michael D. Brown is utterly unqualified for his office, his previous experience having consisted of the unsatisfactory management of an Arabian Horse Association.  He probably got the job because he was a drinking buddy of Joe M. Allbaugh, a major Bush contributor.  It has been the practice, in a number of administrations, to give political donors Ambassadorships to small countries in places where the State Department people do the work anyway.  But is this the proper way to choose an individual for a position as agency head, where the lives of Americans may depend on his competence and expertise?   
 
5. Michael Chertoff is the puzzle here.  He is supposed to be very smart, that is why he was appointed after the Kerik affair.  What did he know, when did he know it, and what did he do about it?  The Third Circuit was a much cushier spot than the one he has now.
 
6. Why didn't the city of New Orleans or the state of Louisiana provide buses to take out the people who had no other transportation? It was obvious that there would be thousands of people with this problem.  How can you tell people to leave a city if they have no practical way of doing that?
 
7. Since Amtrak has a station in New Orleans, why didn't they take people out by train?
 
8. Why didn't they airdrop supplies into the Superdome; if it is true that thousands of people went without food and water for days?
 
9. What are tens of thousands of people displaced by the flood and scattered in different states supposed to do now?
 
10. How can we make it reasonably certain that this undeniably inept government response to a predictable and predicted natural catastrophe never occurs again?  Are officials aware that, although Katrina was climatic and climactic, it will not be the last hurricane to strike the United States?  If so, what are they going to do about such situations now that they would not have done before New Orleans?
 
If you, or a friend, has an answer to any of the ten questions, please let us know.

Your comments on Katrina are invited, and will be placed on our blog so they can be shared with other readers.  We will use your initials, unless you advise us that you prefer your full name, anonymity, or pseudonymity.  Use of the names of other people or animals, whether real or fictional, is inappropriate..


#250  9.6.05  730wds