Time to Help, not Blame: Painful Lessons from Katrina Will Serve Us for Years
Ventura Star, September 19, 2005
By Terry Paulson, PhD

In a world of microwave ovens, 24/7 cyberspace immediacy, and fast-food restaurants that never seem fast enough, America has grown to expect quick solutions. After all, this is America, and it's embarrassing to let the world see dead citizens piled in our emergency shelters and lawlessness reign on the streets of New Orleans. It's humiliating when the only super power left has to admit that it doesn't have all the answers. So in our frustration, when solutions were not immediately found and implemented, many searched for people to blame and guilty parties to fire or to sue!

Certainly, with Katrina, there is more than enough blame to go around. Much has been made of the failure of FEMA and other federal services to intervene on a timely or efficient basis. President Bush has admitted that mistakes were made and that they are unacceptable. The positioning of FEMA under Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, may have contributed to the problem and will have to be analyzed. The failure decades ago to provide federal funds to upgrade the New Orleans levees now seems an obvious error, but how does the federal government know which potential disasters to fund before they occur? Thankfully, inadequacies have been acknowledged, and people in the Gulf Coast are now being helped by agencies, the government and their fellow citizens.

Less has been made of the failure of the disaster planning and infrastructure put in place by New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco. The enormity of the disaster demolished the state and local infrastructure causing a cascading series of breakdowns. In most disasters, state and local plans bridge the period from event to federal intervention. With Katrina that did not occur! Even less has been made of the role of the media. Could it be that the media's consistent overselling of every hurricane as the "biggest disaster" might have contributed to fewer citizens leaving the Gulf? The media cries wolf to get eyeballs, but this time the wolf actually showed up! The media also reported that the worst of Katrina had veered to the east of New Orleans sparing the city from the worst of the storm. The media sounded the alarm, but they may have prematurely turned that alarm off contributing to the delay in response to the developing disaster.

Finally, we discount personal responsibility. People did not leave the city when they could have left. Many chose to weather it out without ample planning or supplies. Now, many of those same people want to blame others for their choices. As usual, there will be thousands of lawsuits filed in search of someone to pay for the problems Katrina has wrought. Lawyers will get richer, and the poor will get poorer.

There is no acceptable slow lane on today's never-ending road race to disaster response. There's no reverse to go back and make different choices. There's no off switch to allow leaders time to regroup. They have to fix all flat tires while moving. When you are racing to catch up, it's a distraction to waste time in the rearview mirror. There are too many important choices to make out the front window.

Hopefully, the current ultra-disaster in the Gulf Coast will teach us some humbling lessons about the power of nature to ruin even a super power's best laid plans. We are left with an unsettling reality that there are no perfect preparedness plans, no perfect people, and no perfect leaders. When Katrina impacted an area the size of the UK, our systems simply failed. At such times, we learn painful lessons-lessons that could serve us in years to come.

Capable analysts will reshape our disaster response systems in the months ahead, but I have three suggestions. First, with a command and control system failing and bureaucratic nightmares blocking help from getting to the people in need, much can be learned from former Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan who empowered people to act in the face of disaster: "During the earthquake emergency, city employees adopted what I call the Riordan axiom-it's much easier to get forgiveness than to get permission. Just do it! Give people the power to make decisions, make mistakes, and correct mistakes, and they will amaze you with what they can do." Instead of waiting for leaders to lead, people in the field need to be encouraged to do what they can, where they are with what they have. In short, lead, act or get out of the way!

Second, don't assume that an ultra-disaster couldn't happen here. In addition to the "big" earthquake that may be coming, terrorists would love to cause an ultra-disaster in LA. Such events could impact far more people than Katrina. Take responsibility to check your own disaster supplies and post-disaster communication plan on a regular basis.

Finally, let's get out of the rearview mirror and back into helping our fellow citizens who need our support. It's still a time for more serving and less blaming.

Dr. Terry Paulson is a psychologist, speaker and author of The Dinner: The Political Conversation Your Mother Told You Never to Have

—May we never forget how truly blessed we are!