Flooded by criticism - Financial Times Editorial

Flooded by criticism - Financial Times Editorial
Published: February 14 2006 02:00 | Last updated: February 14 2006 02:00. Copyright by the Financial Times

Hurricane Katrina was a US national disaster in every sense of the word. More than the ferocity of the winds and waves that ravaged New Orleans, it was the anarchy that followed that amazed the world and shook America with a new vision of its vulnerability. The measure of any response to the calamity is that it reflects the enormity of what happened. The leaked report by Republican members of the House of Representatives does. The Bush administration's reform proposals set out yesterday do not.

The House report, which is due to be published tomorrow, declares "Katrina was a national failure, an abdication of the most solemn obligation to provide for the common welfare". This epic language is not misplaced. The hapless response to the hurricane was a violation of the fundamental contract between citizen and government. What is remarkable and praiseworthy is that these words come from members of President George W. Bush's own party.

As the House report says, there is plenty of blame to go round. In contrast to September 11 2001, when Rudi Giuliani provided exemplary local leadership, Kathleen Blanco, the governor of Louisiana and Ray Nagin, mayor of New Orleans, were out of their depth. However, the report shows very clearly that failure was not restricted to state and local authorities, or to the Federal Emergency Management Agency and its incompetent erstwhile head, Michael Brown. Fema's parent department, the Department for Homeland Security, and its secretary, Michael Chertoff, were slow to respond to initial reports that the levees were breached. The White House homeland security team failed to provide a prompt and accurate synthesis of early information on the unfolding disaster.

The parallel investigation by the Senate seems to be pointing to similar conclusions. Mr Brown's testimony last week, though self-serving, highlighted the institutional weakness of Fema, subsumed in a department focused on the more glamorous task of fighting terrorism. This was not the failure of a man. It was the failure of a system and an administration which, proud of its anti-government ethos, sets little store by competent public management.

Set against the magnitude of the disaster, and the extent of the shortcomings revealed by both House and Senate investigations, the administration's response looks inadequate. The reforms proposed yesterday by Mr Chertoff as part of a broader review of homeland security include some sensible steps, notably making the new head of Fema report directly to him. But this is no more than bureaucratic tinkering.

There is still no sign that the administration has grasped the significance of Katrina, still less formulated an organisational and cultural response to it. Until it does, to use the phrase of the House panel, the administration will continue to resemble the little pigs of the fable who built houses of straw.