FEMA's Got Class

Newsday's Lou Dolinar on Real Clear Politics:

Largely invisible to the media's radar, a broad-based rescue effort by federal, state and local first responders pulled 25,000 to 50,000 people from harm's way in floodwaters in the city. Ironically, FEMA's role, for good or ill, was essentially non-existent, as was the Governor's and the Mayor's. An ad-hoc distributed network responded on its own. Big Government didn't work. Odds and ends of little government did.

The critical period was the immediate aftermath of the levy breaks on Monday, August 29 until the flooding crested on Sept. 2. If people were going to be trapped in attics, drowned in their cars, or washed off roofs, this is when it would have happened. Once the flooding crested, while thousands still needed to be removed from their homes, fed, and relocated, at least the immediate threat of drowning was over.

During the critical period beginning Monday, rescue helicopters were already reeling in at least 2000 people a day. These independent units comprised dozens of Coast Guard, Air Force, Air National Guard and Army choppers. Various boat-rescue operations by New Orleans first responders saved thousands more-even as the media's attention was focused on the Superdome, snipers and scenes of looting. The response to the real threat of Katrina, other words, was immediate and massive -it just wasn't the response the media wanted, expected or was spoon-fed at a press conference.

It's amazing so many survived, given the confusion described in today's WaPo:

A third of those who stayed said they never heard the mandatory order to evacuate issued by the mayor the day before the storm hit. Somewhat fewer -- 28 percent -- said they heard the order but did not understand what they were to do. Thirty-six percent acknowledged they heard the order, understood it but did not leave. In hindsight, 56 percent said they could have evacuated.

Dolinar also cites Peter Urban's piece in the Connecticut Post detailing what went right:

The Federal Emergency Management Administration said that 6,500 survivors were rescued by air. Another 2,500 were rescued by boat.

The National Guard evacuated more than 2,000 sick and injured people from New Orleans and flew around 300 missions a day along the Mississippi coast delivering supplies.

Major Tim Doherty, commander of the Georgia National Guard's 148th Air Ambulance, said his unit was flying nonstop from sunup to sundown to evacuate people.

"In the beginning we were easily pulling out 100 a day just with my three aircraft," said Doherty, who pilots a Huey helicopter. "We would hoist our medic down and then hoist the person up."

The majority of evacuees were simply relieved to be rescued from their rooftop perches, he said.

Texas National Guard Black Hawks were dropping 7,500-pound sandbags into a 200-foot gap in the 17th Street Canal levee that burst in the aftermath of the storm and swamped 80 percent of New Orleans.

The Coast Guard rescued about 5,500 people in New Orleans and along the Gulf, using crews from as far away as Hawaii.

Rich Lowry says Katrina's lethal effects were magnified by Corps of Engineers poor judgment and over-funding:

[T]he flooding didn't result from old levees desperately needing more funding. In fact, the section of 17th Street canal where a major breach occurred had just been upgraded, and the New York Times writes "received more attention and shoring up than many other spots in the region." Even if Bush had larded more money on New Orleans — according to a broad-brush comparison in The Washington Post, he spent more in his first five years in office than Bill Clinton did in his last five — it wouldn't have stop such a breach.

In a key respect, too much government funding was the problem. A hurricane researcher at Louisiana State University has long warned that the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet — built in 1965 as a shortcut from the Gulf of Mexico to the Port of New Orleans — would serve as a "hurricane highway," magnifying storm surges and delivering them into the city. It appears that this is what happened.

The Washington Post reports that only 3 percent of the port's cargo comes through the canal, at a price to taxpayers of an estimated $12,000 per vessel. Still, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers spent $13 million dredging the canal last year. Even though there were warnings about the dangers of MRGO, even though it was commercially marginal, the Corps wanted to spend up to $38 million on keeping it going. A former employee with the Corps' New Orleans district told the Post: "The general feeling was: 'There's no way we're closing that.' They wanted all the business they could get."

With Democrats secretly praying for a Katrina recession -- for which they would blame Bush -- Donald Luskin thinks Katrina will have little effect on the over-all economy:

Damage from the San Francisco quake and fire is estimated at $400 million, not adjusting for inflation. That represented 1.4 percent of America’s gross domestic product at the time. To exceed that fraction of present-day GDP, damage from Katrina would have to reach $170 billion. Given the current frenzy in Washington, that much money may end up getting thrown at New Orleans over the coming years. But it well exceeds even the wildest estimates of actual damages. . .

The lesson, both then as now, is that it is very difficult for people and institutions to respond effectively to sudden catastrophes of great scope. Mistakes will be made, and sins will be committed — and even the most ideal response will likely be inadequate.

While the catastrophe in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast is tragic, it is not unique or unprecedented in any way. There has been worse. For those who did their best and put themselves in harm’s way in order to respond, let there be praise for their efforts and criticisms for their shortcomings. But they deserve no unique or unprecedented blame.

Unfortunately, through the liberal looking glass, the sky is always falling, as shown in today's blog post by blovator-in-chief Michael Moore (emphasis mine):

It is a Christ-like principal to feed the hungry, clothe the naked, and shelter the homeless. That's what is happening in Algiers and other places in Louisiana…but by the people of America, not the so-called "Christians" in charge. If George Bush truly listened to God and read the words of the Christ, Iraq and the devastation in New Orleans would have never happened.

I don't care if a human being is black, brown, white, yellow or pink. I don't care if a human being is Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, or pagan. I don't care what flag a person salutes: if a human being is hungry, then it is up to another human being to feed him/her. George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq, and excuse his self from power. The only way America will become more secure is if we have a new administration that cares about Americans even if they don't fall into the top two percent of the wealthiest.

With forward-looking policies a distant memory, and victimhood virus rates near 100 percent, Democrats transformed to a one note joke (or scream): George Bush tramples the needy to enrich his cronies. And, with their play-book reduced to a single song, the Democrat melody is Variations on a Theme of Class Warfare, in D minor, repeated endlessly. Pass the earplugs.

More:

From the CEI thinktank:

Groups including American Rivers and the Sierra Club sued in federal court in 1996 to prevent the Army Corps of Engineers from proceeding with a planned upgrade to 303 miles of levees in Louisiana, Mississippi and Arkansas. An Army Corps spokesman observed at the time that a failure of the levees in question “could wreak catastrophic consequences on Louisiana and Mississippi which the states would be decades in overcoming.” The lawsuit succeeded in delaying the project for two years while further environmental impact studies were completed.

Still More:

FrauBudgie:

The point is, New Orleans has fallen before .... and will suffer hurricane and flood damage again. But, this is the first time that the American people have expected the federal government to do the lion's share of rebuilding.

So, now we're going to be funneling billions of dollars to the same genius brilliant officials that failed to use them properly before.

And, then there's the precedent of sending federal troops immediately to a disaster area, in order to manage it. Thanks, but no thanks.

More x 3:

RightWingSparkle:

The same people who think gummint screwed up on Katrina are the same people who want to put gummint in charge of health care.

(via Free Thoughts, LGF, NIF and Hatless in Hattiesburg)