Better Living Through Thinking

It is time for me to add my two cents worth on the whole hurricane mess. Keep in mind that the situation in Mississippi is markedly different than in New Orleans. My first comment is simply that news reports aim to be sensational and emotional and often do so at the expense of the truth. Based on my experiences over the past 3 weeks, I would not base any judgement or decision based solely on news articles.

I just got back from Southern Mississippi where the "wildland fire" crew of which I was a part was deployed. We spent half our time working in the town of Pearlington, MS which has been the subject of several news articles.

<http://www.clarionledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20050918/NEWS0110/509180375> <http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/nation/12606531.htm>

According to these two articles and others I read, there are no tetanus shots available, no one has been there to help the town, the only road into Pearlington is still blocked by fallen trees, and every structure was destroyed. Every one of those claims is false.

Tetanus shots have been availbable in Pearlington since Sept 3, there have been National Guard and US Marine Corps troops there since Sept 3rd, FEMA people since the 4th, we got there the 2nd, the main road into town was cleared on Sept 2nd, and although many structures are destroyed, the families that had the foresight to buy or build homes on 12 foot stilts (we saw 3 on the main road) were in great condition and many other buildings that looked to have more solid construction were certainly not destroyed.

The week in Pearlington really highlighted the absolute failure of the local and state governments. They were nonexistant in the first week and no emergency plans were carried out at all. The town of Pearlington didn't have an evacuation order so most people were at home when the storm surge hit.

By the time we were pulled out of Pearlington on Sept 6 (8 days after the storm) there wasn't anyone from the city, county or state that had taken charge of any part of organizing shelter, distubution of water, etc. Our wildland fire crew from Wyoming was almost solely responsible for organizing the supply center (Pearlington Fire Department), and unloading supplies from trucks and helicopters.

The National Guard (deployed by the federal government) and the Marines were taking supplies from there to people in surrounding homes and providing law enforcement and enforcing curfew laws. The initial emergency plans are up the local and state governments, and they were absolutely nonexistant. The only presence in the first week was crews sent by the federal government.

Our second week was spent witnessing the overreaction by FEMA to accusations that they weren't doing enough. We were stationed at the Stennis Space Center directing and parking semi trucks loaded with water, ice, food, etc. To show they were doing enough, FEMA ordered thousands of semi trucks of ice, water, food, etc and had them brought to Stennis to await orders from specific points of distribution in needed areas.

The orders rarely came and there were over 500 semi trucks sitting at Stennis, some of them for over a week, waiting to be sent to these distribution points. The distribution points didn't have the capability to distribute the goods to people, or the goods were no longer needed (no one needs water or ice once power and water services are back in place).

Again, to me this shows a failure of state and local governments in knowing what the needs were in inidividual communities and in getting goods distributed to people. This is not the federal government's responsibility.

I separate the disaster into two parts. 1) The Mississippi coast, where development right on the coast (but on land above sea level) was hit by a 25 foot storm surge, and 2) New Orleans, where an entire city is below sea level.

I only fault the federal government in not taking steps to help states lessen the impact of number 2 and in the plans for rebuilding. If people want to build right on the coast where hurricanes frequently hit, that is not the federal government's fault so the state and local governments in Mississippi should have been better prepared for such an event.

But in the case of New Orleans, where an entire city is built below sea level and the only thing holding water out are levees, many of which were built and are maintained by the Army Corps or Engineers, the federal government should have some role in mitigating the potential for a city wide flood.

Now, I do not support scare tactics used by environmental groups for obscure, unlikely or far-fetched scenarios. But dire predictions of the vulnerability of the New Orleans area has been well documented and was not far fetched. Along a coast where large hurricanes are inevitable and in a city that is so vulnerable to a sudden rise in sea level, there should have been more focus on preventing it by the feds and more preparation in case it did happen by the states and local governments.

<http://www.ocnus.net/cgi-bin/exec/view.cgi?archive=77&num=20061> <http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/>

Finally, since having a major metro area below sea level is a bad idea to begin with, why should we now spend $200 billion to rebuild it.... I totally disagree with Pres. Bush that we should put that much effort into rebuilding New Orleans. Since we didn't invest in additional projects to prevent it, and now that it's happened, why not just cut our losses and let New Orleans be the swamp it's meant to be.

So... the local and state governments get an F all around, the federal government gets an F in prevention, a B in support after the fact, and a D in what it wants to do to rebuild.

I don't care what grade I get, I am simply glad to be home....

After thinking it over a bit more, I would add that although the federal government is certainly spending money on the Katrina relief effort, the mismanagement and waste of money was enormous. I don't think I made that very clear in what I said yesterday. Examples I witnessed included:

The 500 semi trucks parked at Stennis Space center for a week. Each driver was making between $500-$1200 per day for just sitting there. Do the math.... $850x500=$425,000. That's almost a half million spent every day just on trucks sitting there waiting and a twenty person crew required to sit around and direct them where to park, etc. Trucks can get half way across the country in 2 days. It would have been much more efficient to just order as needed.

We were called down as a saw crew, so we assumed we'd be clearing roads of fallen trees. Eight other BLM/USFS crews from the west and upper midwest were also there with equipment and skills to do the same. All eight crews were either doing warehousing, data entry, unloading trucks, directing trucks, or clearing fallen trees from office lawns at the Stennis Space Center. Even when the saw crews were clearing debris, it was from areas that a logical, thinking person would put at the bottom of any priority list.

At one point we had 6 supervisors watching 20 of us clear a vacant lot. It was all busy work and if only they had been out driving around scouting local roads that needed cleared, we would have actually been helpful. We spoke to a city fire employee from Laramie, WY who, unaware that we were a wildland fire crew with 8 chainsaws, mentioned that the biggest need he saw in the area they were working was for saw crews to help clear fallen trees so people could get back to their homes... we agreed. FEMA was not doing a good job of managing resources and putting the right crews in the right places.

For at least 4 days after the main road into Pearlington was open, the military kept delivering supplies by helipcopter. A few semi trucks came in and could carry 15X the amount of water and food a helicopter could, likely at a much lower cost. But guess what all the reporters were snapping pictures of... it wasn't the semi truck loads of supplies.

The best term I heard about the spend crazy operation was "overcorrection". To avoid the appearance of "not doing enough" that so many claimed in the first week (when it should have been state and local emergency crews doing the work), FEMA overcorrected and just started throwing supplies, money and resources willy-nilly all over southern Mississippi.