Our view: Lessons from 2005
After 100 died fleeing Rita, officials made the right call this time on mass evacuations After Katrina struck Gulf, President Bush showed how not to handle a natural disaster
Four days after Houston-area officials argued against mandatory evacuations as Hurricane Harvey bore down on the region, more than 2,000 people had to be rescued from rising waters and 30,000 will need shelter. Some residents in low-lying areas, including along the Brazos and Trinity rivers, were told Monday to evacuate.
The catastrophic flooding raised the question of whether Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and others were right in telling people last week to shelter in place. They, after all, were partly contradicted by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, who recommended that some people consider leaving even if no mandatory order was in place.
The short answer to the question is: Yes, the local officials were correct to not order a mass evacuation.
Evacuation orders typically involve coastal communities of tens of thousands of people. The Houston metro area, the nation’s fourth largest, has 6.6 million. Its roads and rails simply aren’t equipped to handle such a large exodus.
Even if people could get out of town, where would they go? It would be all but impossible to find housing for millions of people, particularly for long periods.
What’s more, the act of evacuation itself can be hazardous. This was the lesson from Hurricane Rita in 2005. In that instance, an estimated 2.5 million people took to the highways heeding an evacuation order. The ensuing gridlock was so severe that waits in traffic of 20 hours or longer were not uncommon.
Fights broke out as panicked would-be evacuees vented their fears and frustrations on others they saw as being in their way. And the typically high temperatures of Houston in summer led to numerous cases of heat stroke. More than 100 people died trying to flee Houston, including 24 from a nursing home whose bus caught on fire.
Rita turned out to be not as bad as feared in Houston, and the mandatory evacuation led to some avoidable casualties.
Local officials took these lessons to heart with Harvey. As the storm strengthened rapidly late last week, perhaps they could have ordered people in certain low-lying and flood-prone areas to get out. But it is not always possible to determine in advance which areas will be hardest hit.
Harvey is a devastating storm that will likely rival Hurricane Katrina in lasting and expansive property damage. It should prompt communities everywhere to re-evaluate their flood-control plans and systems. What it shouldn’t do is generate secondguessing about whether millions of people should have been ordered to pick up stakes.
Everything President Trump needs to know about how not to handle Hurricane Harvey’s devastation in Texas, he can learn from President George W. Bush’s handling of Katrina.
Key lessons: No flyovers. No amateurs running the Federal Emergency Management Agency. No premature compliments for disaster relief efforts. And definitely nothing like “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.”
President Bush made all of those mistakes before and after Katrina devastated New Orleans 12 years ago.
Returning from a vacation in Texas that Aug. 31, two days after Katrina hit, Bush chose not to visit the stricken region. Instead, he made a low flyover in Air Force One, where he was photographed peering out the window and looking, as he later acknowledged, “detached and uncaring.”
On Sept. 2, Bush flew to the region, and during a photo-op in Mobile., Ala., turned to his FEMA Director Mike Brown with the “heck of a job” compliment. “Brownie” was doing everything but. In the midst of the storm, Brown joked about his “lovely FEMA attire,” and his staff worried about his dinner plans. Before joining the administration, Brown had been commissioner of the tony International Arabian Horse Association. Not exactly the résumé to handle the nation’s costliest natural disaster.
Trump has a FEMA director with experience. Brock Long, confirmed in June, was at the agency as regional hurricane program manager early in his career. In 2008, he became director of Alabama’s Emergency Management Agency, where he handled 14 major disasters. He then worked at a consulting firm that handles preparedness issues. The Texas catastrophe, however, will be his biggest test yet.
Trump is scheduled to go to Texas today. When to visit the site of a disaster is a tricky choice for a president. Too soon, and the visit can add to the logistical nightmare unfolding in the region. Too late, and the commander in chief looks apathetic.
Trump’s response over the weekend mixed appropriate praise for responders and residents with discordant notes. Trump pardoned one controversial sheriff and recommended a book by another. He seemed oddly fascinated by the life-threatening storm: “Wow,” he tweeted. On Monday, he was already effusively praising his FEMA chief: “So outstanding in so many ways.”
Critical days are ahead for residents of flood-ravaged Texas areas. The death count is rising. The rain keeps pounding. Trump will ultimately be judged by his leadership, his empathy and the strength of his administration’s efforts to support state, local and private relief efforts.