Politics and Disaster

As I’ve written and commented there is plenty of blame to go around on Katrina. If that’s what you enjoy doing then take whatever shots you want at the Mayor, the Governor, the Head of FEMA and President Bush who, as Hog on Ice pointed out, personally slashed the tires of all those school buses to ensure the poor black folks all drowned.

Ultimately, survival in a a disaster is a combination of luck, preparation, planning and strong individual iniative. It is not a matter of sitting on a curb hoping help will show up and then complaining when it doesn’t. Like most people I hope that my city, province and country (as well as the international community if it is a world class disaster) will be rushing in to help me and my family and my neighbours.

But I don’t count on it.

With the best will in the world, perfect conditions and a tail wind, government can and will help as quickly as possible. However, do the math: even if my city has a million gallons of fresh water warehoused for an emergency, distributing that water in the wake of an earthquake or tsunami is going to take days. So why not have several water containers already filled and in the backyard? Dropping food to the survivors is a great idea and one which can work well. But a carton of beef stew in cans and few dozen powerbars, some trail mix and so on in a place which is accessible even if your house or appartment collapses make sense. A decent first aid kit, a tarp, a roll of 8m plastic, a bit of rope, a small stove and some blankets and you have improved your chances and your family’s chances of surviving until help can arrive.

That’s the start. Now what? Know your neighbours. Know who lives where and who will need help. But also know who has resources you don’t. Whether it is a chainsaw or a come-along or first aid skills or walkie talkies. In my neighbourhood there are a number of house which have been built on bedrock - they are likely to survive an earthquake where the houses built on fill will not. This makes a difference. There are houses heated with natural gas which are going to be a fire hazard and some which are not. There is an ongoing emergency preparedness process which anyone can become a part of.

In an emergency recovery and survival happens person by person, family by family, block by block: waiting for the government to organize all this is an invitation to tragedy.

Which brings us back to politics. The essential debate going on in the United States at the moment is about whether or not people are entitled to instant response from their government. Are they entitled to rely on government to save them, shelter them, feed them and provide security in the middle of the largest natural disaster to ever hit North America?

It appears that the Democratic interest believes it is absolutely the duty of government and, more particularily, the federal government, to swarm the scene pretty much instantly. The Republicans are maintaining states and municipalities have the primary responsibility while the feds lumber into action.

I believe both parties and their partisans are wrong: the primary responsibility lies where it always does - with the citizens directly effected.

Which will open me to accusations of “blaming the victims” and the like. Well, truth is that a good number of the “victims” refused to evacuate. They made no serious preparations to ride out the storm. They assumed that someone would take care of them. And yes, they were poor and black and all; so what? Simply filling half a dozen large pop bottles full of water the day before the hurricane hit would have avoided dehydration and cost nothing. Standing beside the highway with your thumb out the day before the hurricane hit would have cost nothing and might have ensured survival. (And, yes, I am aware that in the southern United States a lot of cars would have passed a poor black man before someone picked him up; but I suspect someone would have eventually.)

In the end the political issue brought to the forefront by Katrina is whether individuals should depend on the state as a first resort or whether they should be prepared to look after themselves. The problem, of course, is that several generations of a nanny state saps the self-reliance of its clients. That infantile dependency gives us the pitiful spectacle of Aaron Broussard telling the story of a co-worker who kept reassuring his elderly mother that help was on its way right up until she drowned. There the poor woman is in a building with a phone asking him why he didn’t come and get her…So why didn’t he? Or why didn’t Mr. Broussard?

The political lesson to be learned from Katrina is that waiting for the government can be fatal. The personal lesson is a renewed commitment to self sufficency. Water, food, shelter - assume no help for two weeks and get on with it.

Written by jay on September 7th, 2005 with 5 comments.
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Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Dr.Dawg
#1. September 7th, 2005, at 3:12 AM.

“That infantile dependency gives us the pitiful spectacle of Aaron Broussard telling the story of a co-worker who kept reassuring his elderly mother that help was on its way right up until she drowned. There the poor woman is in a building with a phone asking him why he didn’t come and get her…So why didn’t he?”

Come on, Jay, you’re blinded by your wish to pin this disaster on the victims themselves. There are a number of choice bits of tendentious speculation in your piece, like the “why didn’t they bring water to the Superdome” meme (What water? Their houses were underwater. That’s salt water, in case you were unaware) but none uglier than the one I quote above.

The man in question was in charge of emergency services. In charge. So you wonder aloud why he doesn’t run off to rescue a member of his own family. Had he done so, no doubt you and others would be blaming him for other deaths while he wasn’t manning his post. Besides, how the hell was he supposed to know that the fifth cavalry would be mounted on giant snails?

There seems to be no length to which the Right will not go to blame this disaster on the “nany state” and whatnot. What “nanny state,” for crying out loud? This is the USA. What “nanny state?”

The USA spends billions and billions on foreign wars. Their military are by now masters of supply chain logistics. Yeah, I’d expect help. I’d expect support. I wouldn’t expect a bunch of comfy folks on high ground smugly telling me that I deserve my fate, that I should have looked after myself better–but then, I’m an optimist. Probably would have got me killed down there, while you
and your friends celebrate another victory over socialism.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com jay
#2. September 7th, 2005, at 3:37 AM.

Dr. Dawg,

The houses were not underwater the day before the storm hit when the people could easily have filled a few jugs of water.

Broussard was the President of the Parrish and was not speaking about himself rather a chap who ran one of their buildings. and there was no reason why picking up mum would have conflicted with the guy’s duty as she was in a place where there were other elderly people.

By all means expect help; but recognize that it is going to take a while to arrive and that you are going to be on your own. Whether you survive for the five or six days before the supply train logistics kick in will depend on whether you are prepared to take responsibility for your survival. ‘Cause if you leave it to the government you are risking your life on the ability of a bureaucracy to respond quickly and efficiently - not a bet I think many of us, left or right, would be willing to make.

Parenthetically, this is hardly a victory over socialism; rather it is one more instantiation of the fact socialism rarely works as intended.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Dr.Dawg
#3. September 7th, 2005, at 5:02 AM.

I had missed your timeline about grabbing up drinking water. You are imputing to the plain folks of New Orleans the potential to predict the future, in this case, to know that the levees were going to break. (By the time the breakage occurred, of course, there was quickly no fresh water to be had.) So effectively you’re blaming the “nanny-state,” or the “entitlement mentality,” or whatever buzz-phrase you want to use to get Bush off the moral hook and target the victims instead, for the inability to activate precognitive powers.

I’m well aware that Broussard wasn’t the man he was talking about. I’ve referenced the video clip on my own site. The latter was in charge of emergency services in a (large) building. I repeat: had he left his post, you folks would have prattled on about “no sense of responsibility,” and so on if anyone had come to grief because of it. You have, admit it, now, no knowledge whatsoever of what he was doing throughout the disaster. And he had, in any case, every right to expect that relief was on its way. Just check out the FEMA preparations for Florida. Too bad Jeb wasn’t visiting the Big Easy at the time Katrina hit.

The suggestion that Broussard himself should have abandoned his duties as President of Jefferson Parish to go to rescue one individual who had come to his attention is a ludicrous attempt to shift blame. I’m sure, on reflection, that you wish you hadn’t made such a fatuous comment. At least none of us leftists insisted that Bush should get into a power boat and start pulling people out of attics.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com jay
#4. September 7th, 2005, at 8:39 AM.

Plain folks knew there was a mandatory evacuation. They knew there was a possibility of a break in the levees - as did everyone in the City.

I am not trying to get Bush off the hook because, in my view, he is not on a hook. But my point is that individuals rather than the state are ultimately responsible for their own survival. My suggestion is that it is a bad bet to assume the government will somehow miraculously ensure nothing bad happens and, if it does, be there within 24 hours to save you.

Broussard’s guy had, apparently, four days to organize the rescue of his mother. Now it may have been a big building but as there was no power, no water and no communications - except, amazingly with this one elderly woman - there was not much by way of emergency service which could be provided. Frankly, he undoubtedly had the few hours needed to rescue Mum and any other older people stranded with her.

Frankly, on reflection, I am not entirely convinced Broussard isn’t making the entire story up. I mean with communications knocked out all over the state how did she manage to phone in her plight daily.

As for Bush getting into a power boat - I would not be entirely opposed to that as long as it was not the one Sean Penn used.

Get your own gravatar by visiting gravatar.com Sean
#5. September 7th, 2005, at 12:28 PM.

“I had missed your timeline about grabbing up drinking water. You are imputing to the plain folks of New Orleans the potential to predict the future, in this case, to know that the levees were going to break.”

Oh, for crying out loud. Whenever the power went out in Edmonton the first thing we would do was fill up the bathtub with water and fill a bunch of pots as well. This is in addition to the 10 large blue bottles of water we kept in the basement next to the three month supply of non-perishable food items and our hand-cranked AM/FM radio.

Did we know how long the power would be out? No. Did we know how extensive the power outage was? No. Did we know if we’d have water in the taps in a couple of hours if the power didn’t return? No. So we put some water aside. It’s just common sense.

All services fail at some point, sometimes for the most mundane of reasons. Those with an iota of common sense plan for this.

One thing I’ll tell you flat out, if a similar disaster befell Provo, Utah, you’d be lucky to see 100 dead people. Why? ‘Cuz Utah is crawling with Mormons. Mormons stockpile food. The stockpile water. Fuel. Batteries. And they’re some of the best when it comes to helping their neighbors, even the non church members, so you can bet these resources would be shared in a time of need.

It’s not an issue of colour, but one of culture. In New Orleans we’ve seen what comes of participating in a culture of dependency. It ain’t pretty.

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