The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What We Can Do About Them)

by Lucy Jones

The emergency planning for hurricanes was close to useless. Hurricane Pam offered a remarkably accurate picture of what was to come, but the city planned for much less. Army Lieutenant General Russel Honoré, who arrived in New Orleans on Wednesday, August 31, to lead the military’s support operations, described the situation at the Superdome as “a classic example of officials thinking about the worst-case scenario but providing only enough resources for the best-case scenario.” Supplies were inadequate. There was no emergency operations center. The city didn’t know how the national incident command system worked. Where Mississippi began evacuations fifty-six hours before landfall, Governor Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana and Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans delayed evacuations. Problems with communicating these orders weren’t taken into account. Search-and-rescue teams weren’t supplied with boats. The list is endless.