Who is officially to blame for all those people being left in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina?

Question

The second anniversary of that horrible tragedy is coming up. Everyone seems to be pointing fingers at who dropped the ball that caused people to be left behind in a doomed city, whose job was it to strenthen the levees long before Katrina came along, why was N.O. so impoverished to begin with....

When it is all said and done-- isn't the HURRICANE to blame for the destruction of New Orleans?

Answer 1

Mayor Ray "Nobody gets on my bus" Nagin, and Governor Kathleen "we are bringing order out of the chaos" Blanco.

Both of whom ignored their responsibility according to the Louisiana Hurricane Evacuation plan,

Paragraph B.5. "The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.

Answer 2

I live in a supburb of New Orleans called Metairie. If the levee had broken on the other side of the canal, I would have been flooded completly. I got lucky.

Officially, it is the responsibility of the people to get out of the way of a hurricane. Is it the responsibility of the government to get cars out of the way of the speeding trains? The government can and should only do what it can to protect its people.

Now that being said, it was the Corps of Engineers who were completely responsible for St. Bernard flooding. The MRGO was, is, and will be the sole cause of that parish being destroyed. It is a totally unneeded waterway the corp built and is now going to be closed at the taxpayer's expense.

As for the destruction of New Orleans, no it was not all the hurricane's fault. It was again the Corps of Engineers, New Orleans Levee Board, and the present and past mayors of New Orleans.

The corps constructed levees along canals, but used lesser materials to do the job and did not follow the recommendations of the third party engineers. The Levee Board became a politically appointed job that no one listened to. They could find problems in the levees and report them to the corps, but neither could fix the problems without the mayors spending the money to do so or acquiring the money from the feds to fix the problems. It was a fiasco.

And as for why New Orleans was so impoverished, I have mentioned that before. It was the White Flight that began under the Moon Landrieu administration and the criminal activities of the administrations since. Isn't Marc Morial being investigated now in Washington D. C.?

Answer 3

First, the hurricane did not destroy NO, the breaking of the levee did that. Second, in the 1980's NO was given a federal grant to up grade the levees but environmental groups sued the city in federal court and won the case which prevented the city from building a 2 stage levee system similar to the ones in Holland. This suit was brought to protect the sea birds and other creatures that live in the LA wetlands. Third NO was only impoverished to the degree that in was invested with 10's of 1,000's of welfare recipients, those who worked for a living in that city were doing just fine. Fourth. those left behind had no where to go. Are you suggesting that the mayor should have loaded up the housing project population, driven them out to the center of MS left them of the bus to wander around in the woods? Had the levees held Nagin would have been given a medal for housing these folks at the super dome. Some people also stayed because they rightly assessed the danger. The French Quarter was almost untouched, those who stayed there were somewhat inconvenienced but never in real danger. Some people stayed behind because they didn't think the levee would break, after all it survived Camile and Betsy, this was for some a deadly miscalculation. Fifth, stop trying to hand blame to people for an act of nature. Hindsight is 20 20, were mistakes made? yes. are things in NO improving? you bet.

Answer 4

No city of that size can ever be 100% evacuated. Nagin was successful in that 90% were evacuated before the storm hit. The real failure was the lack of a coordinated outside relief effort - the state was crippled after the storm.

Governments typically hold a responsibility for particular functions toward the citizens. We have an agency that is responsible for responding to catastrophic disasters with the full resources of the federal government. Surely the aftermath of Katrina in New Orleans qualified.

There are indications that politics may have played a part in the slowness and combative conditions placed on Federal help for Louisiana - God help us.. There are also indications that racism played a part in the refusal of neighboring communities to allow passage out of the city for fear of 'rioting' and the false stories of rapes and killings in the Superdome.

So yes, the hurricane caused the destruction, but continued suffering and deaths resulted from the lack of rescue and response.

""Ninety percent of the residents of southeast Louisiana were evacuated in the most successful evacuation of a major urban area in the nation's history. Despite this, many remained (mainly the elderly and poor). The Louisiana Superdome was used as a designated "refuge of last resort" for those who remained in the city. The city flooded due primarily to the failure of the federally built levee system. Many who remained in their homes had to swim for their lives, wade through deep water, or remain trapped in their attics or on their rooftops.""

Answer 5

There is no single person or organization to blame but I feel that a good percentage of the people that were left behind just didn't think It would happen to them. Due to my job I was out of the county but I would have stayed, it would have been a bad choice. But the mindset of a lot of the people here is that the government should bail them out of every problem they have, that is not fair to the rest of the U.S.

The main problem is the mindset of the people and the LOCAL government, most of the people that I see complain are the lower class, not the down on there luck lower class but the multi-generational lower class. these people are sucking the local and federal government dry while the middle class and even the upper class are finding it hard to get by due to the drain the extremely impoverished have on the economy.

The Local government is ALWAYS at odds,they can never agree with a plan to improve the local community and money is tied up so NOBODY can use it. add in all the corruption you see in the news and there you have it.

and I think FEMA just wasn't ready to help that many people.

Answer 6

If you are gonna look at New Orleans then you really need to look at all of Louisiana. That is such a poor and corrupt state. They are full of casino's which steal from the poor.

N.O. knew it was in a bowl. Most people living there just hoped they would never get a direct hit. This is similar to Los Angeles or San Francisco. San Fran has many places built on the ruins of the 1906 earthquake and a massive earthquake would be devastation on an enormous scale. Who do we blame for these natural disasters? If you live in tornado alley and get hit by a tornado...shouldn't you know that's a risk?

N.O. has kept their people poor and dependent. The blame can go all over the place. Can we start with self responsibility first?

Answer 7

Back in the 70's, a flood gate was proposed that would have nearly stopped the flooding and saved most of the people that perished, BUT wacko left wing environmentalists didn't want it and swayed the decision makers not to allow it to be built. There is a similar flood gate in Norway I believe, that prevents flooding of the North Sea, which has violent storms. So this flood gate has been proven to work!

The state and mainly the local governments are to blame for the tragedy that could have been prevented or at least handled much better!

Answer 8

I live in Hurricane country and we had a close eye out on that one for DAYS! It was predicted ahead of time where it would likely hit and evacuation was called for. Why is it that 100's of school buses where floating in the streets instead of being utilized to get people out of there in a timely fashion?

They have an idiot (reelected) Mayor and a Governor that isn't much better. For them to get federal help, they had to ask for it, something that they refused to do for what seemed like forever. It's a given that FEMA certainly had it's problems, but like how many lives could have been spared if their own elected officials would have taken this situation seriously, instead of procrastinating.

New Orleans is corrupt and unfortunately many of it's people have been dependent on the government for generations. There is no legitimate reason for poverty to exist there. That city has been a major tourist attraction for years and they've always raked in the bucks. Why not take some of the the taxable income that they make and educate some of these people so that they can be utilized in the job market, instead of pandering for votes?

Answer 9

Natural disasters happen but the city Government should be the blame. The Fed Govt wait too long to even go there to see the damage, displaced families & lost hope. Just a thought, what if the state of Texas or his hometown that was hit with Hurricane Katrina instead of Louisiana, would he have reacted in quicker manner?

Answer 10

Building a home in a basin is not bright, who is responsible for allowing anyone to build or live in an area below sea level, surrounded by levies to begin with? This is like building your home on a cliff in California you take "your" chances with earth quakes. There will always be disasters, fire, flood, earth quake etc., some responsiblility belongs to the people that choose to live there. The evacuation process, I think is up to city/county/state officials. Katrina was not a surprise attack, I live in the mid-Atlantic area and watched the damn thing on the weather channel for days before it ever hit there, as I am sure others did also. Mayor Nagin really needs to step up to the plate and take some responsibility, he was right there, what did he do? The Federal Government cannot be blamed for everything that goes on. I'm sorry to rant, but I grew up in So. California, and watched people flock to the back country to build their beautiful large homes. Every year there are brush fires, homes are threatened and we are all treated to a new batch of people whining about the loss of property. It's time to stop whining and watch where you are building! Thanks

Answer 11

GEORGE W BUSH declared a state of emergency along the gulf coast. Thus, legally making the well-being of that region as a result of the hurricane the responsibility of his administration.

The levees were federally run by the army corp of engineers whose funding was cut by billions of dollars. The levees were built to withstand a Catagory 3 storm not a 5.

Blame the destruction on the hurricane. But the stranding of millions of people left to die and starve... the buck stops at Bush on that one. The Fed might not have been able to get people out in time, but certainly could have gotten help in. Faster than 5 days at least. Shame on all those who dropeed the ball. And shame on you for trying to deflect the blame. You and your party and your president are pathetic. Deal with it.