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Murphy Martin Commentary
September 8, 2005

 "Blame Game"

It has been a little over a week since Katrina, the most wicked weather lady of modern times, unleashed her fury along the coast from Louisiana through Alabama. They have not begun to reach all the bodies still submerged in the floodwaters Katrina left behind, but while 60-thousand military troops and countless hundreds of volunteers and law enforcement officers look for the victims predicted to number in the thousands, the art of finger-pointing is reaching new highs as the
BLAME GAME rages out of control.

A lifelong friend of mine, Al Vinson, with whom I worked in my early days in radio, sent me his Top Ten BLAME GAME list.

#10--Poor communications;
#9--Self-seeking leadership that has time for press conferences
to explain why their agencies need more time to perform;
#8--Media's failure to check sources for facts that eliminate
rumors;
#7--Politicians who use disaster as a platform for their personal
aggrandizement;
#6--High profile celebrities who use every opportunity for self-
promotion;
#5---Panic provoking journalists seeking awards while dramatically
inciting crowds at disaster scenes;
#4--Lower echelon political leaders who preach and direct attention
away from their offices;
#3--The nation's nitpicking press that use their positions to further
question confidence in government authority;
#2-Departments of Transportation that build highways that flood
with every passing storm;
#1-American Architects that put emergency rooms and government
records storage on the first floor or basement of buildings.

Probably everyone watching and reading and listening to the coverage of Katrina has, or could quickly come up with, their own Top Ten in the BLAME GAME. It would not be surprising how few of such lists would read the same.

Everyone from President Bush to New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin thinks response to the needs of the stricken areas was far too slow in coming. Most questions are aimed at FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, and it's Director, Michael Brown, who formerly was a horse show judge.

Mayor Nagin apparently suffered from poor communication early on during the storm. His profanity- laced accusations aimed at President BUsh and all federal agencies we learned originated from the 8th-floor of a downtown New Orleans building that had little or no contact with what the real story was at the time. When President Bush made his first tour of the devastated area on Friday, there was Mayor Nagin, all-smiles, shoulder to shoulder with the president's every step.

Governor Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat, reportedly at first declined the offer of troops coming into the area, fearing an appearance of "marshal law". But when Mayor Nagin's police force could not handle the search and rescue AND the looting that had already begun, the Governor relented after the Bush visit and said yes we need more help.

As the BLAME GAME intensifies, maybe we should look at some specifics.
We have learned it was HOURS after Katrina struck the coast before FEMA asked Homeland Security to send one-thousand employees into the stricken areas. Michael Brown waited five-hours to make his request to Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff. Brown wanted a thousand Homeland staff people be sent within 48-hours and two-thousand within seven-days.

Mayor Nagin, while vilifying President Bush and chastising the lack of federal help, never explained why some members of his New Orleans police force were seen on network television making little or no effort to stop the looting we were seeing, nor arrest any of those doing the looting.

And, although thousands of those trapped in the city lacked funds for transportation or travel, it was still THEIR decision to stay behind and not heed the warnings that came in advance.

And, why were the hundreds of school busses, now partly submerged in the floodwaters, not used to move people out of harm's way?

This mind-boggling horrendous tragedy that has brought so much pain, so many deaths, so many re-locations, so many heartaches--it has caused Americans to open their hearts and pocket-books as only Americans can. In addition to cash and goods and services and volunteers, states like Texas have opened their doors with help. More than 250-thousand of the flood victims are in Texas and the number is climbing.

Katrina was not surprising or unexpected to some. In August 2004,
National Geographic Magazine under the by-line of Joel K. Bourne,Jr.,
ran these words:
It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico.
Nothing surprising there. Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in the town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.

But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200-thousand remained, however--the careless, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those die-hard New Orleanians who look for any reason to throw a party.

The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80% of New Orleans lies below sea level---more than eight-feet below in places--so the water poured in.

Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated
by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood waters, perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50-thousand were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

Since the 1930s some 1900 square miles of coastal wetlands---nearly the size of Delaware--have vanished beneath the Gulf of Mexico. Despite nearly half a billion dollars spent over the past decade to stem the tide, the state continues to lose about 25-square miles of land each year.

The chance of such a storm as mentioned here hitting New Orleans in any given year is growing. Climatologists predict that such storms may occur more frequently this century, while rising sea level from global warming is putting low-lying coasts at greater risks. "It's not IF it will happen." says University of New Orleans geologist Shea Penland. "It's when"?

Katrina made this story written in August 2004, reality in August of 2005.

Americans seem to come together more quickly in time of national need. They put aside differences--political, personal or otherwise--and join together to help their fellow Americans. The healing from Katrina may take a while---but it WILL happen. It's the American way!

Murphy Martin

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e-mail   murphy@murphymartin.com

Previous commentaries:
"Senior Thoughts For the Young"
"Role Model Challenge"
August 18 - "Network News Anchors"
August 11 - "Now All Three Are Gone"
August 4 - "Trust in the Media"
July 28 - "Television Then and Now"
July 21 -  "The Mick"
July 14 - "Forty Years and Counting"