September 22, 2005
Houston v New Orleans
If you’ve been hitting the conservative blogs today (i.e. Below the Beltway, which directed me to Michelle Malkin), you’d think that the Mayors of Houston and Galveston were the smartest, most prepared people alive, in sharp contrast to the bumbling fool in New Orleans, Ray Nagin. Now, let this not be a defense of Ray Nagin, who is indeed a bumbling fool. But can we evaluate the behavior of the leadership in Galveston and Houston on the same level as what mistakes were made in New Orleans?
The fact that the city of Houston is evacuating with buses doesn’t mean those folks are great elected officials. Let’s face it. Humans have a tendency to learn from others mistakes, at least in the short term. They tend to forget those mistakes as time passes, and repeat them in the long term, of course. Humans have a second tendency, the belief that “it won’t happen to me”. Three weeks ago, we got a big, big lesson in the latter. The preparations for Rita are an example of the former.
When your neighbor burns down his kitchen in a grease fire, all because he doesn’t keep a fire extinguisher, what’s the first thing you do after the smoke clears? You buy a fire extinguisher. Before the fire, you both knew you should have a fire extinguisher, but neither of you owned one. After the fire hits him, you buy one, and you might be ready in case it happens to you next week, but does that make you a smarter, more responsible homeowner than your neighbor? Nope, you just learned from his mistake.
Before either Hurricane, New Orleans had a plan to evacuate by bus. For whatever reason, Ray Nagin didn’t implement the plan, to his detriment, and putting many thousands of people in peril. Had the mayors of Galveston and Houston been the first ones to be hit by the Cat 5 hurricane, they very well may have performed better than Ray Nagin. After all, the leadership in New Orleans and Louisiana seems to have been uniformly atrocious. But to act like their actions NOW should be evaluated as if we hadn’t learned some very important lessons three weeks ago is just disingenuous. Frankly, after Katrina, if the mayors of Houston and Galveston didn’t over-prepare for Rita, we’d be holding their feet to the fire.
Below The Beltway linked with Katrina vs. Rita: A Study In Contrasts Part II
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I don’t disagree with your comments, but it seems to me that at least some of the mistakes that were made in New Orleans in advance of Katrina were so fundamental that it at least borders on incompetence.
I agree that lessons have been learned from Katrina, but the lessons really aren’t all that different from the lessons that should have been learned from Andrew and other previous hurricanes. The fact of the matter is that when the time came to give the evacuation order, the authorities in Baton Rouge and New Orleans hesitated —- and that hesitation may very well have cost lives.
Katrina vs. Rita: A Study In Contrasts Part II
Over at The Unrepentant Individual, Brad Warbiany takes issue with those comparing the elected officials in Texas to those in Louisiana in their reactions to impending natural disaster. I commented on this issue a few days ago.
Brad, Lessons were learned from Katrina and hopefully lessons will be learned from Rita. We as individuals, not just elected officals, have learned more on how to keep our families safe. The best laid plans can only be tested by actual experiences. Mayor White in Houston and the lady mayor in Galveston took precautions and evacuated necessary areas for the giant storm. Yes, it veered to the east and virtually spared our cities major damage, but if it had come here with her full force it would have devestated our area and many could have been killed. I am already hearing people say that they overreacted. I would rather that the officals overact than under react.
As for Ray Nagin, I still think he cares more for money than the safety of his citizens. He wanted to hurry his citizens back to “rebuild” in the areas that generate his economy. FEMA advised that he wait a bit. Then here comes Hurricane Rita and he still wanted his people to come back. Then as the storm got closer he decided that maybe he should not let people back in to the city. As it turns out, New Orleans got hurt again. Sorry Kiddo, I don’t like the man.
When Gilbert was threatening the Tx coast, Houston and surrounding area elected leaders requested that people closer to the coast evacuate days before we even knew where he would strike in the hopes of avoiding gridlock. So Houston has history of at least trying to be prepared ahead of time as far back as 1988, well before being able to learn from Nagin’s mistakes.
PS: I can barely read your text because the contrast isnt’ strong enough. I had to turn off all styles to can read it.