When First Responders Are Victims: Rethinking Emergency Response

by Elaine C. Kamarck

By now most Americans are familiar with the federal government’s hapless response to Hurricane Katrina. A sample of what went wrong in the aftermath of one of the worst natural disasters to hit the United States shows a system trapped in a dangerous bureaucratic gridlock. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the agency responsible for the federal response, would not let doctors practice medicine on the hurricane victims because they were not licensed in Louisiana; denied local officials’ requests for rubber rafts needed to rescue the victims;1 issued a press release telling ªrst responders in neighboring states not to respond to the hurricane without being requested and lawfully dispatched by state and local authorities;2 turned away trucks ªlled with water and refused to accept much needed generators; did not allow food to be delivered to New Orleans by the Red Cross; and left 20,000 trailers that were needed to shelter the homeless sitting in Atlanta. Then there were the 91,000 tons of ice cubes that were hauled back and forth across the nation but never reached New Orleans, where they were needed to cool food, medicines, and victims sweltering in the 100 degree heat.3 No wonder Senator Fritz Hollings once called FEMA’s administrators “[t]he sorriest bunch of bureaucratic jackasses I’ve ever known.” No wonder tourist shops in New Orleans sell T-shirts that say “FEMA—Federal Employees Missing in Action.”

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