Evacuation planning

Father Jake posts about a National Geographic article on what might happen if a Category 4 hurricane hit New Orleans. Written in October 2004, the report is chillingly close to what actually happened.

Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level – more than eight feet below in places – so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.
Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

Worryingly, the article continues

The Federal Emergency Management Agency lists a hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the most dire threats to the nation, up there with a large earthquake in California or a terrorist attack on New York City. Even the Red Cross no longer opens hurricane shelters in the city, claiming the risk to its workers is too great.

This threat was known about, discussed and yet still the planning and execution of assistance after the disaster were woefully inadequate. In today’s New York Times, the editorial asks why some less threatened areas have better plans than did New Orleans and the rest of Louisiana. Comparing the two areas, it says:

These coastal communities [in Virginia], unlike New Orleans, are not below sea level, but they’re much better prepared for a hurricane. Officials have plans to run school buses and borrow other buses to evacuate those without cars, and they keep registries of the people who need special help.
Instead of relying on a “Good Samaritan” policy – the fantasy in New Orleans that everyone would take care of the neighbors – the Virginia rescue workers go door to door. If people resist the plea to leave, Mr. Judkins told The Daily Press in Newport News, rescue workers give them Magic Markers and ask them to write their Social Security numbers on their body parts so they can be identified.
“It’s cold, but it’s effective,” Mr. Judkins explained.

It’s not a politically partisan issue, either:

Yes, the White House did a terrible job of responding to Katrina, but Democratic leaders in New Orleans and Louisiana didn’t even fulfill their basic duties.
In coastal Virginia – which, by the way, has a large black population and plenty of Republican politicians – Mr. Judkins and his colleagues assume that it’s their job to evacuate people, maintain order and stockpile supplies to last for 72 hours, until federal help arrives. In New Orleans, the mayor seemed to assume all that was beyond his control…The local officials who knew about that problem didn’t do anything about it – and then were furious when Mr. Bush didn’t solve it for them. Why didn’t the man on the mound come through for them?
It’s a fair question as they go door to door looking for bodies. But so is this: Why didn’t they go door to door last week with Magic Markers?

Simple, direct, honest ideas. Realistic and properly-funded emergency plans. They cannot stop disasters happening, but can prevent needless death and suffering. As the aftermath continues, we need to ask the hard questions as well as care for the survivors. For none of use, whether we live in the USA or not, are immune to natural disasters, and we must learn the hard lessons as early as possible.

pax et bonum

Article posted at 5:14pm on 06 September 2005
Category: Politics, Struggling, General