As Gustav Lands, There Are Lessons to Be Learned

(Compiler's note: Must read. rca)

By James Carafano, PhD

....Yet these initial impressions did much to shape public perceptions, leading Congress to push for proposals that did little to improve—and in some cases detracted from—the ability of the nation to prepare for large-scale catastrophes. If these mistakes are not to be repeated after Gustav, Washington will have to be more sober in assessing federal responsibilities for dealing with large-scale national disasters.

Dealing with Disasters

Regardless of how serious this storm turns out to be or the successes or failures of the response, the principles of responding to disasters probably will not change.

In “normal” disasters—whether terrorist strikes like 9/11 or a natural disaster such as a flood or snowstorm—a tiered response is employed. Local leaders turn to state resources when local resources are exhausted. In turn, states look to Washington when their means are exceeded. Both local and state leaders play a critical role in effectively communicating their requirements to federal officials and managing the response. In most disasters, local resources handle things in the first hours and days until national resources can be requested, marshaled, and rushed to the scene. That usually takes days. With the exception of a few federal assets such as the Coast Guard and Urban Search and Rescue, teams do not roll in until after the response is well under way.

....The federal government does have a unique and important role to play. Only the federal government can build a national response system to mobilize the resources of the nation in the face of a catastrophic disaster. In virtually every instance, however, state and local leaders will remain in charge, and national assets—whether they come from other states, the private sector, or the federal government—will be in support of their efforts. One lesson that should not be learned from the disaster of Hurricane Katrina is that all the answers to addressing the needs of America in the face of a catastrophic disaster are to be found in Washington. ....

Lessons Not to Be Learned

What Washington should not do in the wake of Gustav is follow the lead of Congress after Katrina and attempt to make national disaster response more “Washington-centric.” Centralized preparedness and response will never be timely and flexible enough to meet local needs in a large-scale disaster. In addition, such approaches undermine the Constitutional principle of federalism. Congress should reject efforts to make Americans more dependent on Washington. In particular, Congress and the Administration should:

• Stop doling out billions in homeland security grants. Rather than build up local capabilities, many communities use these funds to simply supplant their own emergency preparedness spending. The 9/11 Commission warned that grants were in danger of becoming “pork barrel” legislation. The Commission was right. Grants have made state and local governments more dependent on Washington but have done a poor job improving national capacity for responding to large-scale disasters.

• Stop over-federalizing disaster responses. The number of declared “federal disasters” has skyrocketed since the 1990s. Declarations and deployments, while “politically” popular, distract time and resources from preparing for truly catastrophic disasters such as Katrina, and they create the unrealistic expectation that in the event of a crisis, Washington will solve all the problems.

• Stop expanding federal disaster insurance coverage. Congress is considering disaster insurance legislation that represents a bigger danger to the American economy than a catastrophic hurricane season. Congress continues to forget one of the best lessons from Hurricane Katrina: Despite the fact that Katrina was the most expensive disaster in U.S. history ($133.8 billion), the insurance market survived due to the reinsurance market. In fact, in some cases, the insurance companies were reporting sizable profits within one year.

Disasters from Disasters

Katrina was used as an excuse to try to make more federal spending and more federal control the answer for responding to disasters. Regardless of the outcome of Gustav and the sufficiency of the national response, some pundits and politicians will likely push for making national disaster preparedness and response more Washington-centric. Congress should reject such solutions. ....