White House report cites Katrina failures

Pentagon role could increase
Among the White House’s suggestions is a stronger role for the Pentagon in planning for disaster response, including working with Homeland Security to determine when the military should take over federal relief efforts in extraordinary cases.

To better prepare for mass evacuations that overwhelm local authorities, it says the governments needs to have ready arrangements for more buses, temporary housing, medical services and other items that proved inadequate for Katrina.

The report also encourages private citizens to take more responsibility for themselves, and recommends a public awareness campaign on individual preparedness, noting the success of slogans such as “Stop, Drop and Roll” for fire safety information.

Students should be required to take courses in first aid and disaster preparedness starting in the 2007 fiscal year, the report says. It also suggests state tax breaks to encourage citizens to purchase disaster preparedness supplies.

The report says that despite people and resources sent after the storm hit, “the response to Hurricane Katrina fell far short of the seamless, coordinated effort that had been envisioned by President Bush” when he ordered the government to craft disaster response plans two years earlier.

“We are not as prepared as we need to be at all levels within the country: federal, state, local and individual,” the report said.

The review found “significant flaws” in the national response plan the Department of Homeland Security issued last year that serves as a blueprint for action the government is supposed to follow during emergencies.

And the review called for establishing a National Operations Center to coordinate disaster response at all levels of government for future crises.

Miscommunication example
In one example of miscommunication among Homeland Security officials, the report notes that the National Weather Service issued a flash flood warning in New Orleans at 9:12 a.m. the day Katrina hit, stating up to 8 feet of water was expected because of a levee breach at the Industrial Canal.

However, at 6 p.m., the Homeland Security Operations Center told senior department officials and the White House that “preliminary reports indicate the levees in New Orleans have not been breached, however an assessment is still pending.”

Meanwhile, response officials at the Federal Emergency Management Agency delayed sending aid supplied by the Agriculture, Interior and Veterans’ Affairs departments because of inexperience in coordinating help and unfamiliarity with those federal programs, the report found.

Written in an even, methodical tone, the report characterizes Katrina as the storm of a century, comparing its destruction in New Orleans to the deadly Chicago fires in 1871 and the earthquake and fire in San Francisco in 1906. It calls Katrina the nation’s deadliest natural disaster since Hurricane San Felipe in 1928.

It also describes Katrina as the first U.S. disaster — natural or man-made — with damage estimates approaching $100 billion. It does not look at ways to improve state and local preparedness and response missions.

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