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September 7, 2005
Local Lapses
Posted by Dave Blount at September 7, 2005 1:09 PM
In case you haven't already read it, Bob Williams — a former Washington State legislator who represented the district most impacted by the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980 — wrote an excellent editorial in yesterday's Wall Street Journal detailing how badly New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco failed their constituents in their reaction to Katrina. Readers will find it difficult not to reach the conclusion that the mainstream media's frenzied quest to funnel blame for this catastrophe toward President Bush is sheer partisan hackwork.
A few highlights:
The primary responsibility for dealing with emergencies does not belong to the federal government. It belongs to local and state officials who are charged by law with the management of the crucial first response to disasters.
The actions and inactions of Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin are a national disgrace due to their failure to implement the previously established evacuation plans of the state and city. ... If the plans had been implemented, thousands of lives would likely have been saved.
Mayor Nagin was responsible for giving the order for mandatory evacuation and supervising the actual evacuation ... Mayor Nagin had to be encouraged by the governor to contact the National Hurricane Center before he finally, belatedly, issued the order for mandatory evacuation. And sadly, it apparently took a personal call from the president to urge the governor to order the mandatory evacuation.
Instead of evacuating the people, the mayor ordered the refugees to the Superdome and Convention Center without adequate security and no provisions for food, water and sanitary conditions. As a result people died, and there was even rape committed, in these facilities. Mayor Nagin failed in his responsibility to provide public safety and to manage the orderly evacuation of the citizens of New Orleans.
The federal government does not have the authority to intervene in a state emergency without the request of a governor. President Bush declared an emergency prior to Katrina hitting New Orleans, so the only action needed for federal assistance was for Gov. Blanco to request the specific type of assistance she needed. She failed to send a timely request for specific aid.
It is likely that thousands of people died because of the failure of Gov. Blanco to implement the state plan, which mentions the possible need to evacuate up to one million people. ... It must be made clear that the governor and locally elected officials are in charge of the "first response."
When the MSM smells political blood in the water, the result is hysteria. Hopefully this will die down soon, and people will ask themselves if they really want to live in a country where the Federal Government is first responder in local crises.
There are reasons for our federal system. One of them is that — barring the gross incompetence we have witnessed among Democrats in Louisiana — local government can respond more efficiently to local situations. The heroic police and firefighters whose courage inspired us at the World Trade Center on 9/11 were not employed by Washington.
Another important reason for federalism is it protects our liberties. Do we really want Federal troops marching into town the moment a crisis strikes? Just as individuals need to take some responsibility in times of crisis, so do localities. It would be in no one's best interest for mother hen Washington to become fat enough to keep each and every one of us warm at all times.
