More Katrina Analysis

(Hat tip: John Ray.)

Why was the response to Katrina as poor as it was? Rather than any special lack of competence on the part of government, it may have just been that, as Harry Browne noted, government doesn't work. (Why Government Doesn't Work)

Yet, for all of the public angst over the federal government's — and especially FEMA's — post-disaster response, most observers have missed what is painfully obvious: the government's response was perfectly in character to how people in government act in such situations. To say this in an alternative way, government was being government the same way that a dog is a dog.

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As anyone knows, dogs are territorial animals, and governments are territorial entities. The first rule that a government agent follows when confronted with an "emergency" is to "secure the area." For example, when two young men were merrily going on a murder and mayhem spree at Columbine High School in 1999, the vaunted police "SWAT" team stayed outside and encircled the complex because someone said that the area had to be "secured" before police actually could try to save anyone. (Of course, we found out later that not only did police fail to save people, but at least one person bled to death because police refused to get help until the man had died. This was not incompetence; it was the normal workings of the "I am in charge and don't you forget it" mentality that permeates government at all levels.)

Immediately after the hurricane had stopped in New Orleans, for example, a Wal-Mart had brought a truckload of bottled water; FEMA officials turned the truck away, declaring that it was "not needed." Before we dismiss this incident as yet another example of incompetent government, we should realize that the official's actions were completely within the character of government.

Government responds to a different incentive structure than private charity and private enterprise do. Government is under pressure to be seen caring for its people, far more than to actually do good. (And as I've noted, one of the complaints about the performance of George W. Bush is that he didn't act like he cared. He could have had a FEMA official personally spoon feeding emergency rations to every person in Louisiana five minutes after the hurricane had passed, and he'd still get no credit because he wasn't on camera weeping over the tragedy.)

When private relief efforts were turned away by FEMA (and local National Guard inits, too), it was in response to this incentive.

The FEMA official who waved off the Wal-Mart truck was correct; FEMA did not "need" Wal-Mart to help. In fact, people from FEMA did not want Wal-Mart to help, as the company would have been able to steal some of the thunder that "rightfully" should belong to FEMA and other government agencies.

(And I read a story about the fires in the Bay area a few years back. Some citizens had carried a child out of the fire area, across broken country. They were met by a fireman who "took charge" of the child, and carried her the rest of the way – ten yards to where the TV cameras were waiting.)

It's far more important to be seen as helping than to actually help.

Government agencies also have tools not (legally) available to private entities. These include the power to arrest, and the power to use deadly force to back up their wishes.

The guardsmen who waved off the Wal-Mart truck had the power to enforce their instructions at gun point.

Two emergency medical workers attending a New Orleans conference when the disaster struck give an account of living under such dictatorial rule:

...we pooled our money and came up with $25,000 to have ten buses come and take us out of the City...The buses never arrived. We later learned that the minute they arrived to the City limits, they were commandeered by the military.

Again, commandeered at gun point.

We organized ourselves and the 200 of us set off for the (Greater New Orleans) bridge (that crosses the Mississippi River) with great excitement and hope...As we approached the bridge, armed Gretna sheriffs formed a line across the foot of the bridge. Before we were close enough to speak, they began firing their weapons over our heads. This sent the crowd fleeing in various directions....We questioned why we couldn't cross the bridge anyway, especially as there was little traffic on the 6-lane highway. They responded that the West Bank was not going to become New Orleans and there would be no Superdomes in their City.

They later attempted to build a small camp on the abandoned freeway, only to be attacked by police and forced to move, so they were forced to survive in other ways:

In the pandemonium of having our camp raided and destroyed, we scattered once again...We were hiding from possible criminal elements but equally and definitely, we were hiding from the police and sheriffs with their martial law, curfew and shoot-to-kill policies.

And when they finally made it to the airport, there were the final acts of official degradation:

We arrived at the airport on the day a massive airlift had begun. The airport had become another Superdome.

Most of us had not eaten all day because our C-rations had been confiscated at the airport because the rations set off the metal detectors. Yet, no food had been provided to the men, women, children, elderly, disabled as they sat for hours waiting to be "medically screened" to make sure we were not carrying any communicable diseases.

This official treatment was in sharp contrast to the warm, heart-felt reception given to us by the ordinary Texans. We saw one airline worker give her shoes to someone who was barefoot. Strangers on the street offered us money and toiletries with words of welcome. Throughout, the official relief effort was callous, inept, and racist.

(N.B., for those who insist on focusing on the federal response, note that sheriffs are local government.)

If not the government, then who?

Writes Laurie Holloway in the Tennessean after her visit to crisis areas in Mississippi:

I'm telling you, without the churches, this disaster would be even worse, as hard as it is to believe that's possible. Donate if you will to the Red Cross or the Salvation Army, but know that the bureaucracy behind the big organizations is simply staggering. Without the people setting up the "renegade" food, clothing and supplies distribution centers, usually at churches, there would be many, many more deaths. Supplies are pouring into this area from all across the nation, huge truckloads of canned goods, water, medical stuff. They're being collected at these churches, and they're very organized about getting the supplies out to folks. I'm very impressed.

That is not the message the government wants you to hear. Remember, the "official" word on such private, mini-relief activities has been that they are "not helpful." But, remember that many of the most "helpful" people are those who have not carried weapons, but rather a strong commitment in their hearts to do whatever is necessary.

Remember the comment I made above, about the firemen who "took charge" of a rescued child just in time to carry her in front of the TV cameras?

We also suspect the media will have been inundated with "hero" images of the National Guard, the troops and the police struggling to help the "victims" of the Hurricane.