No. 6: Hurricane Katrina

Editor's note: This story is part of a series titled "Top 10 News Events of Our Lives," published in December 2008. The stories were chosen and written by Daily staff writers. Our editors have shared some of their anecdotes on each event. We encourage you to leave your own memories in the Discussion section of each story.

When Hurricane Katrina swept into the Gulf Coast in August 2005, the nation was struck by one of the most devastating natural disasters it has experienced.

After the wind and waves of Katrina settled, the nation grappled with grief, and many, as time went on, were angry and dissatisfied with the government’s response.

Hamilton Cravens, professor of history, said the Bush administration’s response to the disaster was slow and inadequate.

“There are still people living in FEMA trailers,” Cravens said.

He said it was “pretty clear” the Bush administration was very cold to the large black population of New Orleans, especially since the majority of them were in lower income brackets.

“I certainly will concede that there were things that couldn’t be fixed up right away — like the levies,” he said.

At the same time, he said, the emergency trailers provided to the residents of the affected areas were not sufficient.

“How would you feel if that were Des Moines or Ames and you didn’t have a place to live except for a trailer that’s not healthy, with asbestos in it?” Cravens said.

The Bush administration, Cravens said, has several “cronies” of President Bush in high-ranking positions, including the then-director of FEMA, Michael Brown.

Brown was one of several officials in the administration, Cravens said, chosen for his job because of his ties to the president, rather than his qualifications for the position.

Cravens said in his study of history, he has not found examples of bureaucratic neglect to the extent of the Katrina aftermath.

“This administration has had a number of unique disasters,” Cravens said. “It’s really sort of incredible. I mean, it’s rather unbelievable.”

He said the next administration could learn from these mistakes and prepare to respond rapidly to crises. One way Obama could do this, Cravens said, is by putting qualified people in office.

While government cannot solve all problems, he said, having competent people in responsible positions helps.

Mack Shelley, university professor of political science and statistics, said the U.S. government had not suffered something of the magnitude of Katrina in recent history, as far as natural disasters go.

“A whole city was under water, and people were evacuated,” Shelley said.

The political backdrop to Katrina was not helpful either, Shelley said. Since Sept. 11, 2001, the federal government was focused largely on national security and domestic needs were sometimes overlooked.

“I think that’s sort of what was happening around September of 2005, when they were trying to put the pieces back together in New Orleans,” Shelley said. “The fact that there would be this major natural disaster wasn’t something they were really prepared to deal with.”

He said the federal agencies did not coordinate well with each other.

The local feeling toward FEMA is still negative in New Orleans, Shelley said. He said he had visited New Orleans several times before the hurricane hit and once after, about a year and a half ago.

When he was last there, Shelley said he saw T-shirts with angry messages about FEMA.

“When you had people who were just very marginal, economically, to start with, a major disaster like Katrina would put them over the edge in total helplessness and despair,” Shelley said.

As effected residents struggled, the government was simply not equipped to deal with the vast nature of their problems, Shelley said.

He said there was a very clear sense that the Bush administration was not doing the best it could for the lower stratum of the population.

Shelley said he thinks the current FEMA director is better equipped to respond to natural disasters. When Hurricane Gustav hit, he said he thought the response was “much better, much quicker and more nimble.”

Landon Streit, senior in construction engineering, has visited Mississippi twice since the hurricane with the Associated General Contractors, an organization for construction engineering students, whose work includes community service.

“There has definitely been a lot of progress made,” Streit said. “But that area along the coastal Mississippi is such an impoverished area. Before the hurricane, a lot of people had a lot of problems. The hurricane just brought it to the forefront.”

There is still much to be done in the town of Waveland, Miss., where Streit and his group visited.

“As far as if it will ever fully recover, that’s kind of yet to be seen, I guess,” he said.

When Streit first went in 2007, he said his group began work on a house and only got as far as putting down a floor. When he returned a year later to the same spot, Streit said the house had not made any progress.

“It will be a long process,” Streit said.

Staff comments:

"Katrina changed the way that we think about natural disasters. It really showed that anything can happen to us even though we usually think that it can’t. Even a great city like New Orleans wasn’t immune to a natural disaster and was caught unprepared."

— Kyle Oppenhuizen, sports editor

"I think that Katrina showed us that there is still a lot of racism left in our country and a lot of classism as well. I think that when there are wildfires in California, everyone is really sympathetic of their decision to live there, but with Katrina the government demonized these people for where they lived."

— Dylan Boyle, news editor