It may have been inevitable, but the wildfires that continue to ravage California and the corresponding government response have spawned untenable comparisons to Hurricane Katrina and what was largely considered an inadequate and mismanaged relief effort by the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
These wildfires and the resulting loss of human life and property are indeed tragic and we sympathize with those who have been affected by the disaster, no matter how big or small the damage suffered.
Actions taken by firefighters, local government, and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger were swift, efficient and responsible. State officials and workers have made an active effort to avoid the missteps that plagued the government in responding to Hurricane Katrina and we commend all that has been accomplished thus far.
However, comparisons to the disaster in New Orleans are overblown.
Hurricane Katrina hit the center of a much more densely populated metropolitan area and took the lives of over a thousand people. Most of the affected residents were poor and had no means of transportation with which they could evacuate the city. The shelter established in New Orleans’ Superdome football stadium was not immune to the storm’s destructive forces and was threatened by structural damage and rising waters, which made it difficult for aid workers to get supplies and other help to the victims.
The affected areas in Southern California are not as densely populated as New Orleans and these neighborhoods tend to skew affluent. More people have access to personal transportation and are not stranded by a breakdown in infrastructure. San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium itself is not threatened by the fires and so government agencies have easy access to stage relief efforts and to transport supplies.
The analogy has taken two major forms: comparing the scale and impact of each disaster and comparing the efficacy of FEMA’s response in each case, some lauding the agency for overcoming its previously highly publicized flops and blunders.
Not only was Katrina a bigger blow to its respective region, but it posed many logistical problems that made it much more difficult for responders to provide sufficient aid.
The California wildfires are undoubtedly vast in scope and have unfortunately taken several lives and destroyed countless homes and charred hundreds of thousands of acres. But it is short-sighted to suggest that the disaster here is somehow on the same level as the consequences of Hurricane Katrina.
Because of the disparity in the circumstances of these disasters, the wildfires cannot be a metric for FEMA’s progress since Katrina, regardless of its success this time around.
This is especially so when considering that California’s state and local agencies have shouldered more than their fair share of the burden, lightening the load on the federal government by taking such quick and aggressive action to mitigate the effects of the fires.
Even President George W. Bush, a major target of criticism for FEMA’s mismanagement of Hurricane Katrina relief efforts, has dismissed the recent comparisons. And he would’ve stood to gain more than anyone else by validating the suggestion that the federal agency’s deficiencies had been overcome.
While the comparison is not completely accurate, the scrutiny has yielded at least some positive results.