What one thing can make President Bush break his month long vacation?
No, it isn’t to give yet another speech in support of his failed Iraq policy – although he has done that a couple of times this month.
What forced Bush to go back to DC before Labor Day was Hurricane Katrina that devastated Louisiana and Mississippi with a brutal punch of wind and water.
One way people judge our political leaders is how they respond to natural disasters. A perceived slip up can hurt you at the next ballot box if it is close enough. Some pointed to the mess that was the response to Hurricane Andrew in 1992 for President Bush Sr. losing to President Clinton in the Florida region.
The problems with that response led to changes in how the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) operated and interacted with local authorities and agencies. Before Andrew, FEMA had to wait for a disaster declaration before they could even gather their crew together. The wait back in 1992 was more than a week. Tensions flared and several riots broke out over what supplies were available.
In contrast, for Katrina, FEMA gathered their crew and supplies together in the days leading up to the storm’s land fall on Monday so they could get right to work. Also, unlike after Andrew, the Federal Government didn’t have to wait for an invite before they sent in military supplies and assets like food and tents.
So if any political leader is seen as not working to help people, they will get bad marks from the people. Bush Jr.’s already low poll numbers don’t need more negative feedback.
I watched the wall to wall coverage of the storm on Sunday night and Monday morning and one political leader put her foot firmly in her mouth as the hurricane was moving past New Orleans.
Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-Louisiana, was asked her thoughts, on CNN, on the report that part of the roof of the Superdome had ripped off in the wind. Thousands of residents and stranded tourists were using the dome as their “refuge of last resort”. She talked about all the people who “ignored the evacuation order” and stayed in the city and that “Authorities cannot fix the problem in the middle of the storm.”
Setting aside the fact that a US Senator is not a storm expert and was just used because CNN had time to fill and she was there, but the tone of her comments came across as if the people in Superdome had planned to be there.
What was ignored was than a majority were there because they had no means to leave even if they wanted to. They didn’t ignore the evacuation order, they couldn’t comply.
In times of natural disasters those with the least to lose, lose the most. During the coverage tonight on CNN it appears that news is getting out as the disaster is finally being seen for the monster that it is. Even Landrieu has changed her tune.
“What I saw today is equivalent to what I saw flying over the tsunami in Indonesia. There are places that are no longer there,” she said.
