The View From Here . . .

One year ago this week, New Orleans was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, a storm that inflicted tremendous physical damage on the Gulf Coast states, but also produced, in both affected and unaffected areas, a lingering mood of futility and frustration.

Most of us listening the initial reports on the hurricane were relieved when it did not appear to hit New Orleans directly. Only later did accounts start to come in of levees overtopping and massive flooding of the entire city, with particular devastation in the poor Ninth Ward. One strongly suspects that this initial good news hindered the rescue effort by diluting the sense of urgency.

The next days were full of horrifying reports of people trapped in their homes, often on their roofs and unable to be rescued, of unavailable buses and of wretched conditions in the Superdome, where victims were housed. A number of the reports were demonstrably false (for example, murders and assaults were falsely reported in the Superdome, there were spurious reports of shootings at rescue helicopters and the overall New Orleans death toll was greatly exaggerated). Moreover, the negative coverage by the media downplayed the tremendous efforts of the Coast Guard and state and local personnel, who rescued an estimated 70,000 people.

Still, by any account the devastation was enormous and governmental response at all levels was inadequate. The city of New Orleans was unable to provide rescue buses and even police officers walked off the job. The governor of the state, Kathleen Blanco, was unwilling to transfer state national guard troops to federal control. For a time, it did not seem that refugees were getting even basic aid.

And, most famously, the federal response under the Federal Emergency Management Administration (FEMA), led by Michael Brown (initially nicknamed "Brownie" by President Bush before Mr. Brown was reassigned under fire) was slow and inadequate. At no time did it appear that the full resources of the world's only superpower were being used to alleviate the suffering.

Of course, the inadequate federal response, somewhat fairly and somewhat unfairly, has been a significant problem for President Bush ever since Katrina. Indeed, Democratic politicians are using it as a symbol of the Bush White House in the current midterm elections As a New York Times article this week noted, the image of the President peering down from an airplane to view the damage from thousands of feet above is in stark contrast to the more inspiring vision of Mr. Bush with the bullhorn at the World Trade Center site. Mr. Bush's administration has been taken to task both for its lack of compassion and lack of competence.

A year later, New Orleans is slowly rebuilding and the President, who is visiting New Orleans this week, is making a point both of the progress that has been made in the Gulf States and the determination of the federal government to help. Still, and despite substantial and underappreciated acts of individual heroism, Katrina was certainly not the finest hour of government at any level.