Ex-governor’s legacy defined by hurricane crisis

Kathleen Blanco, the former governor of Louisiana whose career was ended by Hurricane Katrina, has died of cancer at the age of 76.

Ms Blanco called it an “honour and blessing” to lead the US state through the fury and destruction of Katrina even though perceived mismanagement of the disaster led to her political downfall.

And as she knew her end was near from an incurable melanoma, Ms Blanco talked of her final months as a “wonderful time for me”.

A pioneering woman in Louisiana politics, Ms Blanco died on Sunday in hospice care in Lafayette.

“She was a woman of grace, faith and hope. She has left an eternal mark on all who knew her, because she was generous and unconditional in her love, warm in her embrace and genuinely interested in the welfare of others,” Ms Blanco’s family said in a statement issued by Governor John Bel Edwards’ office.

A Democrat, Ms Blanco held Louisiana’s top elected job from 2004 to 2008, and served in state government offices for more than two decades.

But her legacy rests with Katrina, the devastating August 2005 hurricane that killed more than 1,400 people in Louisiana, displaced hundreds of thousands and inundated 80% of New Orleans.

Historians will continue to debate whether any governor could have been prepared for such a catastrophe, but Ms Blanco shouldered much of the blame after images of thousands stranded on rooftops and overpasses were broadcast to the world, and the government was slow to respond to the desperation.

Ms Blanco was criticised as unprepared, overwhelmed and indecisive.

While she successfully fought for billions in US federal aid, the recovery she guided moved ploddingly.

Ms Blanco said Louisiana’s miseries were worsened by a Republican-led White House desperate to blame someone else for its disaster response failures.

“I just thought I could shout more loudly than the noise around me, but in the end I couldn’t. There was just too much pain,” she once said.

Despite the criticism, Ms Blanco called it an “honour and blessing” to lead Louisiana through Katrina and the follow-up blow of Hurricane Rita, which wrecked southwest Louisiana a month later.

“Katrina certainly left its mark and Rita left her mark on Louisiana.

It made us tougher people though. It made us stronger,” the former governor said in July as she neared death.

Ms Blanco had a rare eye cancer that she battled successfully in 2011, but it later returned and spread to her liver. She announced in December 2017 that she was being treated for the incurable melanoma.

Mr Edwards, a Democrat mentored by Ms Blanco, ordered flags at state buildings around Louisiana flown at half-mast through Ms Blanco’s funeral, scheduled for Saturday.

A public service for the former governor will be held on Thursday at the Louisiana Capitol.

“She led Louisiana through one of our darkest hours, when hurricanes and the failure of the federal levee system devastated much of our state,” Mr Edwards said in a statement.

“I hope history will remember governor Blanco as a tireless advocate for Louisiana, who fought fiercely for our state to rebuild.”

Ms Blanco spent much of her early political career moving steadily and quietly through state politics, rarely creating waves.

A former high school business education teacher from the small Cajun village of Coteau, Ms Blanco launched into politics as a consultant with her husband Raymond on local redistricting issues before going on to serve 24 years in elective office.

Kathleen Blanco.