What went wrong in hurricane crisis?

Hours after the city started filling with water, the nation watched in astonishment as New Orleans began to drown.

People really were on their own as they struggled to survive.

There were heroic rescues, but there was little food and no clean water, sanitation, electricity, or phone service.

The city was rapidly sinking into chaos. Order had broken down. Looters roamed freely, some to survive, some to steal.

Everyone was watching in disbelief as one nightmarish scene played out after another. And soon, everyone was asking: how could it possibly have come to this? How could the most powerful nation on earth fail so badly in protecting and rescuing its own people?

The first sign of mismanagement

Perhaps the first sign that the management of this disaster was about to become  a disaster of its own came even before Katrina hit.

There was an evacuation plan posted on the city Web site promising that “The City of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas.”

But the plan apparently existed only on paper.

The city itself had said it would take at least 72 hours to get everyone out of New Orleans, but Mayor Ray Nagin did not call for a mandatory evacuation until Sunday, less than 24 hours before Katrina barreled into the coastline. And once he did, there was a mad scramble to get out of town—bumper to bumper traffic reported for up to 180 miles.

It was slow going but 80 percent of the city's residents did get out.  Still, just as the city's own plan anticipated up to 100,000 residents were left behind. 

The city planned to bus as many of them as possible to a shelter of last resort -- the Superdome. But when the time came, many of them couldn't get there.

One picture makes you wonder how much more the city had might've done: Dozens and dozens of buses under water. Had they been moved to higher ground, perhaps they could have gotten people out and supplies in.

Those who did make it to the Superdome would soon find themselves living in shockingly squalid conditions.

The situation might not have spiraled out of control if the state and federal governments had moved more quickly and efficiently.

Maestri: The state is supposed to be a principal coordinating agency between the locals and the feds. And that was a tremendous breakdown there, it didn’t happen.

The state has also been criticized for not moving enough national guardsmen in soon enough to evacuate so many people who so desperately needed help.

Louisiana’s Republican Senator David Vitter has been critical of the state’s Democratic Governor Kathleen Blanco.

Sen. David Vitter: Now that was the governor's call. In terms of the National Guard and getting National Guard troops in. Now, personally, I think that took too long.

Was it a federal failure?
But many independent experts say the greatest failures were at the federal level.

Jane Bullock, former FEMA senior official: I don’t believe this disaster is about failed evacuation. I think this disaster is about a failed system and failed leadership at the federal level.

Jane Bullock is a former senior official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency. She was a career civil servant, promoted to her senior position by the Clinton administration. She says the miscalculations began before Katrina made landfall and were made not just by the city and state. Though FEMA says it prepared for the storm, Jane Bullock says federal efforts fell short.

Bullock: My biggest surprise was the fact that they hadn’t pre-deployed more assets:  military assets, food, water, supplies, medical, before the hurricane struck.  Because they knew it was coming. And I think, if they had pre-deployed those assets; lives would’ve been saved.

Phillips: You ordered an evacuation, but what was mobilized? I mean were national guard troops in position. Were helicopters standing by? Were buses ready to take people away?

Nagin: No. None of that.

Phillips: None of that?

Nagin: None of that.

Phillips: None of that?

Nagin: None of that.

Phillips: Why is that?

Nagin: I dont know that is question for somebody else. All I can do is that I was dealing with it as a mayor -- how do I prepare my city for an incredibly powerful storm so immediately we tried to get as many people out as possible.

By declaring a state of emergency in Louisiana and Mississippi two days before the levees failed and flooding began, the president had given FEMA the green light to move in. 

Bullock: Once the President declares the disaster, FEMA is in charge, working in coordination with state and local governments.

The day before the storm hit FEMA director Mike Brown—whose lack of experience later came into question—promised that the federal government would be there to help.

On that day, Brown said, “FEMA is not going to hesitate at all in this storm. We are not going to sit back and make this a bureaucratic process. We’re gonna move fast, we’re gonna move quick and we’re gonna do whatever it takes to help these disaster victims.”

But we know now federal aid did not come quickly. Sometimes it didn’t come at all.

Bullock: Nobody pulled the trigger on the resources. The director of FEMA didn’t pull the trigger. The Department of Homeland Security didn’t pull the trigger. The resources simply didn’t get there.

And it wasn’t always clear whether it was the state or federal government that was to blame. Is it possible state officials bear some of the responsibility because they didn’t know how to get the help they needed?

Phillips: Governor Blanco’s office said we wanted troops and we wanted choppers and we wanted food and water. And FEMA wanted an organizational chart. Did this deteriorate into a turf battle?

Nagin: Yes — in my opinion absolutely. Who is responsible? Who has the ultimate call? How do things move quickly and at the end of the day - it may be a struggle over money. And I think it is a dog-gone shame because people suffered and they didn’t have to suffer. 

And maybe they didn’t have to die.

Jack Stephens, Sherriff of St. Bernard Parish: We’ve seen people die in front of our eyes because they didn’t have adequate water and adequate  medicine. It was like a scene from Exodus. No one can blame somebody else for an act of God.  But the federal response to this disaster cost people lives. Their  delinquency  in getting just the fundamental things that it takes to stay alive, just water and medicine, just a little bit of food down here, cost people their lives.

An unintended consequence of the war on terror also slowed the relief effort. Because of new anti-terror safeguards put in place after 9/11, volunteers from other states, who wanted to bring help and supplies into the gulf region, say they first had to be cleared into the hurricane zone by FEMA.

Sheriff Dennis Randle from Carroll county, Indiana says he had men ready to roll south, but they were told to wait.

Dennis Randle, sheriff from Carroll County Indiana: We had to fax off all the officers that were coming down here -- their names and what they did for the department. We had to get our paperwork through our state FEMA. Indiana hadn’t gotten the request for help yet. That’s what we were being told. Watching the news and watching the mayor, it was pretty clear that he needed help.

Even this Animal Rescue League worker was forced to get FEMA’s okay to come in and save stranded pets.

Nicholas Gilman: This is really frustrating. We’ve got the resources, we’ve got the people. And it is frustrating not to be able to get to work.

And there have been many reports that help was actually turned away by FEMA because the agency had not approved the delivery.

And then there was this story that we found equally hard to fathom — a medical assessment team capable of treating hundreds of patients a day— was sent by FEMA from Alabama to Mississippi and then on to Texas. Over 11 days, they say they ended up treating one person for a small cut. Yesterday, they were moved yet again.

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