It has been said civilization is a race between education and catastrophe. With [Hurricane] Katrina, we have had the catastrophe, and we are racing inexorably toward the next.
Americans want to know: What have we learned? ...
It has become increasingly clear that local, state and federal government agencies failed to meet the need of the residents of Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama.
It has been our job to figure out why, and to make sure we are better prepared for the future. ...
Our investigation revealed that Katrina was a national failure, an abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare.
At every level'individual, corporate, philanthropic and governmental'we failed to meet the challenge that was Katrina. In this cautionary tale, all the little pigs built houses of straw. ...
A national response plan is not enough. What's needed is a national action plan. Not a plan that says Washington will do everything, but one that says, when all else fails, the federal government must do something, whether it's formally requested or not. ...
But faith in federalism alone cannot sanctify a dysfunctional system in which the Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Emergency Management Agency simply wait for requests for aid that state and local officials may be unable or unwilling to convey.
In this instance, blinding lack of situational awareness and disjointed decision-making needlessly compounded and prolonged Katrina's horror. ...
Too often, there were too many cooks in the kitchen, and because of that the response to Katrina was at times overdone, at times underdone.
Too often, because everybody was in charge, nobody was in charge. ...
It remains difficult to understand how government could respond so ineffectively to a disaster that was anticipated for years, and for which specific dire warnings had been issued for days.
This crisis was not only predictable, it was predicted.
If this is what happens when we have advance warning, we shudder to imagine the consequences when we do not. Four and a half years after Sept. 11, 2001, America is still not ready for prime time.
This is particularly distressing because we know we remain at risk for terrorist attacks, and because the 2006 hurricane season is right around the corner. ...
Government failed because it did not learn from past experiences, or because lessons thought to be learned were somehow not implemented.
If 9/11 was a failure of imagination, then Katrina was a failure of initiative. It was a failure of leadership.
www.tomdavis.house.gov.
