Naomi Seligman Steiner

The FEMA Katrina Plan That Wasn’t

In the week following Hurricane Katrina, most of us were shocked by the failure of our government to protect its citizens.

It was one of those terrible times when almost everybody wanted to do something. At Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW), we knew there had to be information that could explain why our government failed Katrina's victims.

So, we did what CREW does. The week after Katrina hit, on September 7, 2005, CREW sent a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request [pdf] to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), where FEMA is housed. CREW asked for all records related to the federal government's long-term planning for a hurricane on the Gulf Coast as well as its immediate preparations for and response to Hurricane Katrina. In January 2006, CREW sued to force DHS to comply with the FOIA.

CREW documented its findings in a report released this week, The Best Laid Plans: The Story of How the Government Ignored Its Own Gulf Coast Hurricane Plans [pdf].

Best Laid Plans is based on the 7,500 records DHS provided in response. What we found is disturbing -- and dangerous.

Critically, CREW found that FEMA did have a plan for exactly what happened. The agency had created a "Southeast Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Plan" (SLCHP), which forecast a range of specific consequences. Many of the forecasts actually came to fruition, including the prediction that New Orleans would be flooded with 14-17 feet of water, the levee system inundated with at least 10 feet of water and the hurricane would move into Mississippi.

The SLCHP included plans to protect citizens through evacuations, providing power, water and ice to survivors; and providing both short-term shelter and longer-term housing.

Despite the comprehensive SLCHP, CREW found that the plan was never implemented. Top officials at FEMA never even received the plan.

On August 28, 2005, the day before Katrina hit, FEMA Deputy Director Patrick Rhode sent an email to Deputy Chief of Staff Brooks Altshuler and Michael Heath, Special Assistant to FEMA Director Michael Brown, with the subject line, "copy of New Orleans cat plan" stating, "I never got one – I think Brown got my copy – did you get one?"

Did you get one?

A plan only works if those in charge both know about the plan and know how to implement it. The Best Laid Plans catalogues our government's failure in responding to the most significant natural disaster ever faced by the United States.

When CREW released the report, Melanie Sloan, CREW's executive director, asked a question that should resonate with all of us, "The next national emergency -- whether another natural disaster or a terrorist attack -- undoubtedly will require both adequate preparation and competent execution; based on the findings in this report, what confidence can the American people have that our government will be ready to face those challenges?"

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Posted at 9:07 AM, Jun 29, 2007 in Hurricane Katrina
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