Letters

More heartbreak and outrage over the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. Plus: Readers respond to "Christopher Hitchens' Last Battle," by Juan Cole.

Sep 8, 2005 | [Read Salon's full coverage of Hurricane Katrina. Previous letters can be read here.]

Since last Monday (Aug. 29), I have read and listened to the official talk about not laying blame; they've said that the criticisms are partisan and ask, "Who could have known?" What I haven't heard is someone mention the word "accountability." When you are given a job, in the general course of affairs, you are expected to do it. If you don't, you are responsible and accountable for your actions. Why didn't Michael Chertoff know that people were in the Convention Center? CNN knew, MSNBC knew, even Fox News knew. Don't they have televisions at FEMA? Not one "I'm sorry, I made a mistake"; not one "heads will roll." We have become a country that moves from one disaster to another because we keep the same people around who created the problem in the first place. Where is the accountability?

-- Denise Alexander

Bad as Katrina was, the bigger disaster is the flooding. What if al-Qaida had blasted the floodwalls? Instead of a natural disaster, where people had days of warning to flee, you would have had an entire city underwater due to terrorism. Why didn't Homeland Security, of which FEMA is part, have a plan? In four years, Homeland Security has taken away countless nail clippers from airline travelers, but it still has failed New Orleans.

-- David Romm

Bush supporters have made the claim that the real problem with disaster response rests with state and local officials. But the Department of Homeland Security's National Response Plan (NRP), released in January 2005, gives the president full authority over disaster response -- if he wants it.

The NRP acknowledges that response to disasters will typically occur at the lowest level possible, state, tribal and local. But it also distinguishes between smaller incidents and "Incidents of National Significance." These include "high-impact, low-probability incidents, including natural disasters and terrorist attacks that result in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the population, infrastructure, environment, economy, national morale, and/or government functions."

In the event of an incident of national significance, the president can authorize the head of Homeland Security to "assume incident management responsibilities."

The plan specifically says, "If the president determines that an emergency exists where the primary responsibility for response rests with the Government of the United States ... the president may unilaterally direct the provision of assistance under the act, and will, if practicable, consult with the governor of the state."

So it doesn't make any sense for Bush apologists to say that the real problem was with the state and local response. At any time Bush could have authorized DHS to take over command of the response. But he didn't. With a massive storm threatening to virtually wipe a major American city off the map, he remained on vacation. If losing New Orleans and 200 miles of Gulf Coast is not an "incident of national significance," then what would be?

-- Jim Holman

Like most Americans, I watched in horror. I also felt helpless, guilty and ashamed at what I saw. By Wednesday, I knew - and didn't the president know? -- that this was the worst disaster in American history. I also knew that every possible resource should be summoned immediately, if not sooner.

I wanted to help. My first call was to SORT (Special Operations Response Team), because it is primarily a medical team based in my hometown of Winston-Salem, N.C. I was told that the SORT team had already been deployed and I could not help, that I would need six months of special training. I argued, "But I am a surgeon, and those people need all the help they can get now." They suggested I call the Red Cross.

I called the Red Cross and told them that I would do anything that would help. They said 50 Winston-Salem volunteers had already been sent and that at least another 50 had already expressed a desire to go. Their response was totally unbelievable -- they told me the next training wasn't until Sept. 7. I said that issues of credentialing and red tape have to be thrown out in this case, that those people need our help and they need it now. I argued and pleaded with officials; I had travel arrangements made! When I was finally able to reach the regional director of the Red Cross in Raleigh, I was informed that the Red Cross is not involved in medical care and that I should call FEMA. I never got through to FEMA, though I tried a hundred times through a variety of numbers. I spent two days on the phone.

Finally I called the office of my senator, Sen. Richard Burr, R-N.C. I asked if his office could find out where I could be of help and how I would go about it. I was given a telephone number for an emergency response group in Washington. I never got through to them. And I never heard back from FEMA.

I am very ashamed that Americans could suffer and die on American soil while physicians trying to get to them were told to stay home. Along with many of my colleagues in the medical profession across the nation, I was told over and over again to stay home. At a time of national disaster, with so many lives at stake, how is it possible that medical professionals were rebuffed due to credentialing issues, red tape, and poor communication issues from several different emergency response groups? I am amazed, I am angry, and I am sad.

The red-tape response the medical community received should make all of us ask for answers. How many people have died because they would not let us go? Yes, we need to fix the levees and rebuild New Orleans. But more importantly we need to look each other in the eye and ask, "Where did we go wrong?"

-- Jamie Koufman

Next Page: "One friend of mine actually said that the Gulf Coast folks deserved the treatment they've gotten, since they voted for Bush"

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