Poor Planning, National Guard Commitments, Leave New Orleans Vulnerable

"Occurring only 18 months after Hurricane Katrina, the devastating tornadoes in Greensburg, KS this month again prompted the question of whether our government can adequately respond to another Katrina-like storm...To prepare for another Katrina, the federal government needs to develop an adequate response system, including the rejuvenation of a shattered emergency response network in New Orleans. Unfortunately, the government has failed to provide this system, leaving the residents of New Orleans again woefully unprepared for the active hurricane season on the horizon.

AILING PUBLIC SERVICES: Nearly two years after Katrina, much of New Orleans's public infrastructure is under reconstruction and stretched dangerously thin. General infrastructure repairs, "which by law are to be funded by federal sources, continue to be mired in red tape." As of April, 298 "essential public buildings" remain unusable, as "bureaucratic hurdles impede the dispersal of allocated federal funds."

IRAQ LIMITS EMERGENCY RESPONSE: "To put it bluntly, the members of the Guard cannot protect us here if they are fighting over there," said Center for American Progress Senior Fellow Lawrence Korb this week. "Countless lives were lost" waiting for help when Katrina struck in 2005, as "the combat brigades of Louisiana and Mississippi and their equipment were in Iraq and Afghanistan." While most of the state's National Guard will remain at home for this hurricane season, Iraq has absorbed vehicles and equipment necessary for hurricane response in New Orleans. Come storm season, "the Louisiana National Guard still lacks hundreds of military troop trucks that can forge high water. ... [T]he 256th Infantry Brigade's yearlong combat tour in Iraq in 2004 and 2005 gets the blame for the vehicle shortage."

STILL UNREADY TO HANDLE THE STORM: According to a recent investigation from National Geographic, "flaws in New Orleans' repaired levee system could leave the region vulnerable to another disastrous breach." Even a less powerful storm than Katrina "could breach the levees if it hit this season."