WASHINGTON, 5 September 2005 — Thousands of refugees were bused and airlifted to safety over the weekend, leaving much of New Orleans and the surrounding area to the dead and dying — as the elderly and sick remained stranded after days without food, water or medical care.
Hurricane Katrina’s deadly assault exposed a fatal weakness in a federal disaster response system revamped to handle such catastrophes after the 9/11 terrorist attacks four years ago.
Despite billions of dollars spent to prepare the nation for the worst, the federal government was not ready when Katrina struck, according to interviews with current and former senior officials and experts.
They cite a failure to properly assess the storm before it hit and an ineffective response by the highest level of the federal government; a refusal of aid from the military, states and cities; and, most importantly, an unfinished new plan meant to help coordinate disaster response.
Estimates of the dead remain unclear, but bodies are now being reported to be everywhere: In attics, where people had climbed to the highest level of the house for safety; floating in the ruined city; collapsed on wheelchairs; abandoned on highways.
Most of those were too sick or weak to survive, but not all. Three babies also died at the Convention Center from heat exhaustion, said Mark Kyle, a medical-relief coordinator.
One New Orleans man told AP he saw one man beaten to death and another commit suicide at the Superdome. He said he was receiving treatment at a triage center because he was attacked with a pipe at the Superdome. “One guy jumped off a balcony. I saw him do it. He was talking to a lady about it. He said it reminded him of the war, and he couldn’t leave.”
The New Orleans Police Department also reported that at least two of their officers had committed suicide. They would not identify the officers who took their lives, but said one had been a police officer, and the other — an aide to Edwin Compass, the New Orleans police chief — had lost his home in the hurricane and had been unable to find his family.
At least 200 New Orleans police officers have walked off their jobs; some said they were leaving, others worked a few days during the crisis and then disappeared, and others never made it in after the storm.
The absenteeism highlights the extraordinary stress the New Orleans police force has had to endure: Most of its officers have had to work around the clock trying to manage the flooding, help the crush of refugees, and cope with the looters and occasional snipers. Some had lost family members; their homes were destroyed or simply didn’t know where to locate their families, and spouses.
Compass told reporters it was understandable that many of his men were frustrated. He said morale was “not very good” after nearly a week of deprivation and hunger.
“Our vehicles can’t get any gas. The water in the street is contaminated. My officers are walking around in wet shoes,” he said.
The sniper and violence phenomenon in New Orleans caused world reaction.
“Third World America,” declared a headline in the weekend Daily Mail of London. “Law and order is gone, gunmen roam at will, raping and looting, and as people die of heat and thirst, bodies lie rotting in the street. Until now, such a hellish vista could only be imagined in a Third World disaster zone. But this is America…”
The Times of India quoted a Sri Lankan, where 30,000 were killed in last December’s tsunami. “It’s disgusting. Not a single tourist caught in the tsunami was mugged. We can easily see where the civilized part of the world population is.”
Meanwhile, tens of thousands of people were evacuated in the city while search-and-rescue operations continued in flooded areas of the city, where people are still trapped in their homes or on rooftops.
Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced by the flooding — which is said to have affected an area equal in size to the state of Kansas, about 82,000 square miles.
250,000 have been absorbed by Texas over the past six days with Houston becoming the “Ground Zero” of the exodus. With the Astrodome and convention center full of refugees, hotels, large shelters, church shelters and even some private homes have taken in many of the refugees.
Throughout the US, Americans continue to cope with rising petrol prices. According to a recent Washington Post-ABC News poll, an overwhelming majority of Americans believe oil and gas companies are gouging consumers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, and offered mixed reviews of President Bush and the government’s initial response to the deadly storm.
The survey conducted Friday night found that 72 percent of the respondents say oil companies and gas suppliers have taken advantage of the storm emergency by raising gasoline prices, which spiked virtually overnight last week to $3 a gallon or more in many areas. Eight in 10 say the federal government’s handling of surging gas prices was “not so good” or “poor,” the survey found.
