Katrina Comparisons
It is difficult to be sympathetic to people in Iowa and Missouri when you read some webloggers who gloat about how "well" their state did compared to how well the people did in New Orleans after Katrina. I think it's time to take a closer look at events; to get some perspective on both events.
Early estimates put the number of damaged or lost homes in Iowa at about 8,000 to 10,000 homes, based on the number of displaced people. I estimate from the numbers I've heard in the last few weeks that Missouri will end up with about 500 to 1000 damaged or destroyed homes.
The number of homes destroyed by Katrina varies widely, but I've seen estimates from 275,000 to over 850,000 homes, many of them in New Orleans. In fact, 80% of the city was impacted, and only 45% of the New Orleans population has been able to return to New Orleans, years after the storm.
I couldn't find numbers of people killed in the recent floods here in the midwest, but from an old estimate, we lost about 30 people. Over 1836 people died from Katrina, and the long term impact of the flood could result in thousands more dying.
Though we like to think floods along the Mississippi are sudden, this one was not. We had all the indications of a bad flood building up along the Mississippi beginning in April. The people impacted by New Orleans had three days, four tops, to prepare.
The people in Missouri and Iowa were not cut off and isolated. Most had neighbors and friends who helped. The people in New Orleans were shoved into a coliseum or left marooned on damaged bridges, as the surrounding communities would not let them leave the city. Why? Because rumors talked about roving bands of thugs shooting everything in sight; rumors proven to be untrue, but still persisting in places like Wikipedia—an article I nominate for being the worst edited, most inaccurate, and outdated article in Wikipedia. These people were left without water and food, in intense heat for days. No comfortable Red Cross shelters for them.
River floods like the recent flooding in the Midwest impact across class lines, especially after the federal buy outs resulting from the the 1993 flood. The flood in New Orleans impacted on some of the poorest people in this country. People who were then bused as far away as Salt Lake City, and cut adrift.
This recent flooding is terrible, and I don't want to downplay the awfulness of the event, or the extent of the damage and the help that will be needed to rebuild in Iowa and Missouri. At the same time, it angers me to see those pontificating in how "better" we handled the flood than the folks handled Katrina in New Orleans and the rest of the south. Especially when the purpose for such comparisons is politically, and even racially, motivated.
Additional
Comments
Back in 2004, the area I live in Central Florida was seriously effected by 3 hurricanes: Charlie, Frances, and Jeanne. While there are many reasons we didn't have the same issues as New Orleans, I can definitely say we had one issue that was exactly the same: After the storm, it took 48-72 hours for FEMA and the National Guard to arrive. I know that personally because I spent time at relief stations distributing MREs, water, and ice right off the trucks.
But the other issue that comes to mind is the timing of the evacuation order. For a discussion of that, I would point you to a post by Glenn Reynolds dating back to September 2nd, 2005.
http://www.pajamasmedia.com/instapundit/archives/025311.php
I still vividly remember watching the coverage on that Friday Night and being tremendously concerned that there was no move to issue an order. There is a lot of difference between a flood and a hurricane, but it is still inexplicable to me how unprepared the state of Louisiana and City of New Orleans were.
Yes, I do agree. New Orleans, in particular, was not prepared. But think of this: when was the last time you heard about a general evacuation for Miami? Or San Francisco with the recent fires? LA?
The point is, you don't "evacuate" huge population centers like New Orleans. Where the real failure happened was not having facilities for people, and not moving those people out more quickly after the storm was passed. And for allowing neighboring communities to mount armed barricades effectively keeping the New Orleans people in the city.
Go further back: allowing homes built right next to the levee. The levee system, by itself.
The National Guard, which was so good here in the midwest flood, was horrible with Katrina. So was FEMA. Even the Red Cross took too long to respond.
So, plenty of blame to go around.
Michael your memory as to the Friday Night (Aug 26) and the State of Louisiana's emergency procedure is a little hazy or maybe your recollection is due to the incorrect information that was played in the media in those chaotic days and continues to be referred to even now. Many hurricane blogs were predicting a 'nightmare scenerio' for NOLA but such predictions are a norm for hurricane prone areas, kind've like the 'big one' earthquake prediction for CA. A clarification of timeline from public records may help your understanding of the events as they happened.
At 2 pm on FRIDAY, Katrina was a barely a Cat 2 hurricane located 60 miles west of Key West, FL. a long way from LA coastline. Though Gov Blanco DID declared a State of Emergency for LA (as per state emergency procedures) and received confirmation from WH, on Friday evening. You, as a (former)resident of FL and informed hurricane survivor--you would know that once a Gov declares a state of emergency, agencies at local, state and federal levels are on alert but evacuations are not generally called until the state is under a hurricane warning (which LA was NOT at that time) The initial NHC forecasts were for the storm to land in the panhandle of Florida.
As Katrina became a Cat 3 & moved slightly s of due west, on SATURDAY (Aug 27) computer models focused on the states to the west. The FIRST NHC hurricane warning was issued for LA and later MS & AL on SATURDAY afternoon, replacing the hurricane watches for the region. On SATURDAY Aug 27, Blanco requested a Federal State of Emergency Declaration and RECEIVED it giving DHS & FEMA full authority to respond to Katrina. Also on SATURDAY Aug 27, Gov Blanco declared a VOLUNTARY EVACUATION and along w/NOLA mayor, Nagin and other local authorities urged citizens to evacuate as per emergency procedures, where coastal and lowlying areas evacuate first and so on. Contraflow was ordered on interstates.
On SUNDAY Aug 28, at 2 am, Katrina was upgraded to a Cat 4 and at 7 am upgraded to a Cat 5. Gov Blanco along w/Mayor Nagin declared a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans through the media and all low-lying areas on SUNDAY AM and declared the SuperDome as a shelter of 'Last Resort'. As to the mandatory evacuation...NO U.S. city has ever been totally evacuated, let alone an entire region of a state...just look to your city at rush hour, can you imagine every citizen, every hospital, every prison, institution, hotel emptied in a matter of 36 hours...it had NEVER been done, especially w/closed airports, train stations, bus stations. Also if you check, probably 85% or more were evacuated prior to landfall.
The eye of Katrina went to east of NOLA and tore through se LA and into the MS coastal communities, with outer winds affecting areas to the FL stateline. Within hours, the federal levee system had collapses or failures on over 50 different sections around the NOLA and surrounding communities, flooding approx 80% of the city and surrounding communities.
Another reminder is that less than a month later, Hurricane Rita hit the State of LA at the LA/TX stateline with devastating affects on sw LA communities & compounding Katrina damage and issues.
According to a Weather Underground article at http://www.wunderground.com/education/Katrina_surge_intro.asp describes the power of the advance of this storm.
"...even these dramatic predictions were eclipsed over the coming weekend, prior to the core of the storm coming ashore just after midnight on Sunday. By the time the official landfall occurred, sometime around 5 am (Monday Aug 29), when the geographical center of the storm moved over land at Empire and Buras in Plaquemines Parish, LA, those towns had already been leveled by the strong winds of the northeastern eyewall and the storm surge, several hours before." This article is very informative and shows the level of damage along the affected areas. The different areas are highlighted at the 'Katrina Surge Table of Contents'.
for people to compare disasters and then gloat over how they coped with it better than another community. I am shocked to read that such things are happening. It would have been better for them to have described how they did things and try to help others improve in those areas as well, wouldn't you say?
Yeah, I don't think they helped their communities with such an attitude.
Luckily, most of the people of Iowa and Missouri (not to mention Illinois and Wisconsin) are too cool to say something so foolish.