The Hindu Business Line : Disastrous management

IT IS not going to be easy for the US federal administration, in general, and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), in particular, to live down the opprobrium for the manifest mishandling of the trail of destruction left by hurricane Katrina in the Gulf Coast.

To the incredulous horror of the people within the US and round the world, for five full days after the killer storm had struck, rendering thousands dead and homeless, New Orleans seemed another version of hell. Hundreds of thousands were miserably huddled in the Superdome, the Convention Centre, and other makeshift shelters in squalor and stench, amid human waste and corpses, without food or water, and with no rescue or relief in sight.

One finds it simply impossible to associate this picture with a country priding itself on its technological and managerial prowess.

The federal and state agencies seemed totally unable to cope with Katrina's ravages; in fact, what the world was witness to was a state of virtual collapse of administration on all fronts. Even the minimum alertness needed to anticipate and provide for all such contingencies was absent. It was known for years that the levees on the lake adjoining New Orleans were fragile and their giving way would drown the city, but nothing was done to buttress them. For days, there were warnings about the severity of the hurricane, but they were ignored. Worse, there was no effort at even keeping information on what was happening where after the storm hit. For instance, the refugees were milling around uncared for in the city's Convention Centre for two days before the federal officials on the spot became aware of the fact and attended to their needs.

In short, the DHS, set up soon after the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, precisely with such situations in mind, is widely seen to have failed its first test. Americans will not rest content until the reasons are fully investigated and a thoroughgoing overhaul of the Department is undertaken to guarantee its effectiveness in guarding against dangers and disasters in future. It may be a good idea to revive the old Federal Emergency Management Agency (since absorbed in the DHS) which had a creditable record of managing natural disasters, and leave the DHS to focus on terrorism.

B. S. Raghavan

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