Things could have gone better with CNN's Jack Cafferty in his segment on The Situation Room. Jack's question "What do you think about the federal goverment's response to the hurricane?" turned into an on-air tirade against Bush and the response of authorities to Hurricane Katrina. Brent Baker at NewsBusters reportes:
Cafferty soon launched a rant: “I have never, ever seen anything as badly bungled and poorly handled as this situation in New Orleans. Where the hell is the water for these people? Why can't sandwiches be dropped to those people that are in that Superdome down there?"
Drop sandwiches? Do you know anyone who can make sandwiches for 25,000 people with no electricity, refrigeration, or food? If anyone had the resources to make 25,000 sandwiches in New Orleans, do you think we would be in this mess?
Why it's the President's fault when anything goes wrong, anywhere, even in the sovereign state of Louisiana, is beyond me. Radioblogger (thanks also to Mr. Atos at MySandmen) posted an .mp3 of the Cafferty monologue and responds to it on his website. Do I think thing could have been handled better in response to the hurricane, Yes. Sure I do, NOW.
Now, when I see the extent of the damage, understand the difficulty with transportation and the flooding, understand that the flood water is a public health emergency, see the numbers of people involved, see the difficulties of situation compounded by the lack of communication, I'm sure I could do a better job. I see all this NOW, it's all so clear to me NOW. I do wish that the planners had done a better job of preparing for the hurricane and executing the after hurricane disaster plan (if we are talking about wishing, I wish it never happened but it did). All this is clear to me NOW but it wasn't so clear then.
I mean this with all the love and compassion in my heart when I say this. All those people should have been gone. They were repeatedly asked to leave when the strength, timing and location of landfall of Katrina was clear. This is a disaster and for those who forget what a disaster is, let me offer a definition from Webster's Dictionary:
"a sudden calamitous event bringing great damage, loss, or destruction; broadly : a sudden or great misfortune or failure"
Hurricane Katrina was a "calamitous event bringing great damage, loss, or destruction." Reports on the ground speak to the total confusion and devastation all over the city. The main problem with rescue efforts is the lack of organization due to the lack of communications, scope of the devastation and a dual rescue and recovery effort hobbled together with local, private, state and now, federal authorities. Sam at WaveFlux agrees that it is not important for Bush to be on the ground in New Orleans.
"For all kinds of reasons, ranging from the safety of the president to the probable chaos that would result from such a visit, this is a remarkably unserious idea and a needless partisan shot."
Would the arrival of President Bush have made any of the rescue and evacuation efforts any easier? How many residents of New Orleans could have heard or seen his address? Would the presence of the President and the army of advance planners and security be beneficial to those on the ground in need of help? Would it have been a help or a hindrance. The rest of the nation would have thought it cool (a great political move) but would it have been helpful to the situation overall? Absolutely not.
Additionally, it seems that when the talking heads on TV start to criticize the handling of a situation like this, they always start with the Federal government. Why is it always the Federal the first target? To be honest, most of the blame should be laid on the local and state authorities. They are the ones most responsible for their own city. Is it a Federal issue that the New Orleans authorities did not have a good disaster relief plan? Is the President at fault for that?
In truth, we will not hold the locals feet to the fire because it's too soon and such criticism at this time is counter-productive. But the locals are the ones who are able to make the most difference for they know the city, they have ownership of their city, they are directly accountable to the residents of the city, and finally because they are closer-already there and on the scene. The Federal government is big and bureaucratic, a thousand pound gorilla that has near unlimited resources but takes a while to get going and is very sensitive to public perception.
I partly understand the frustration Cafferty feels but recognize that it is misplaced. I am frustrated by the scope of devastation and wish that something could be done quicker or more effective. Things could be done quicker, sure, it so easy to see that NOW, in hindsight. I have the benefit of seeing how bad things have worked out so far and think that "if I were there I would have done things different."
But I am not there, I'm here at home. Home where it is dry and my TV works and the drink that sits next to my running PC is cold from the refrigerator and the lines of communication are all up and running. I am not in a rat and bacteria and cholera and possibly plague or malaria infested area looking over my entire city under water knowing it will be months before it will even be dry, much less hospitable. I am not responsible for hundreds of thousands of residents who look to me for a solution to a problem I cannot imagine even while seeing it with my own eyes. No ones mere existence depends on me finding a way out of the living hell that surrounds New Orleans and Mississippi.
Some of the criticism I see of the hurricane relief efforts sound very much like that offered in response to the war. Here is one reason why: wars, like natural disasters, are very messy. They are dirty and confusing and differ greatly in perspective from the ground to the broadcast studio or living room. Pointed criticism matched with helpful suggestions are what the media should be hi-lighting now, not pointing fingers and politicizing the destruction. The people in peril in New Orleans do not need bureaucratic finger pointing and political back-slapping congratulations (read: less press conferences and interviews and more real work). They need effective and immediate help. Help now, bitch and complain later.
