Atlanta Area Relief Officials Cite Lessons Learned AfterKatrina

(TNS) - When Hurricane Katrina battered the Gulf Coast, Georgia threw open its doors, exposing thestates character as it improvised to help tens of thousands of needy evacuees. But the storm alsoexposed weaknesses and gaps in the states emergency operations, with lines that stretched as longas football fields and confusion about who was in charge of what.

Government and non-profit groups here say they have tackled shortcomings that hobbled theirresponse to the huge storm a decade ago. But some systemic challenges remain that could hamperthe states ability to handle a future disaster, according to a review by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution of public records and interviews with state, local officials and non-governmentalleaders.

The early response to Katrina in Georgia was plagued by communication missteps and turf battles.In particular, the regions balkanized government made it tough to coordinate a response. The sameproblems, according to experts, became apparent during the 2014 ice storm that paralyzed theregion.

Retired Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, who oversaw the New Orleans relief efforts for Hurricane Katrinavictims, said he had warned the Atlanta area that it was ill-prepared to handle severe weather andother disasters before last years ice storm nicknamed Snowpocalypse.

The Atlanta areas biggest problem, he said, is its lack of centralized decision-making, where oneperson would have the final say for the whole region. Instead, the Atlanta area is home to dozens ofcities and counties with their own political leaders.

Georgia officials insist they have learned from past mistakes and that after Katrina and the ice stormthey have made adjustments.

We are vastly better prepared for weather events than in the past, said Jim Butterworth, director ofthe Georgia Emergency Management Agency.

He said the agency started planning days ago for the possible impact of a storm off the coast ofFlorida, making arrangements such as contacting emergency officials across the state, ensuringchainsaw teams were available and examining potential traffic choke points on highways.

But some experts question whether those lessons would be quickly implemented in the heat of anemerging crisis.

John Travis Marshall, an assistant professor of lawat Georgia State University, said Georgia needs totake seriously the lessons it learned.

The snowstorms showed how vulnerable the cityis, and how easily basic things can be taken down,said Travis, who worked with the New OrleansRedevelopment Authority after Katrina struck. Youhave to do resilience planning before disasterstrikes. Recovery delayed is recovery denied.

Many of Georgias difficulties dealing with Katrina are highlighted in a report authored by a group ofAtlanta lawyers. Released nearly after a year after the storm struck, it praised the states responseabsorbing some 100,000 evacuates. But it also pulled the curtain back on disarray behind thescenes. Local officials blasted the response of charities. State leaders, in turn, fought with the feds.

The evacuation to Atlanta exposed significant strains between local governments and nonprofitorganizations that should be addressed, the report said.

It added, These strains could hobble Atlantas ability to respond in the event of a significant man-made or natural disaster that hits closer to home.

Uncertainty remains about the proper roles for government agencies and nonprofit organizations inresponding to natural disasters in Atlanta, read a report assess sing Georgias response.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the American Red Cross came in for some of thesharpest criticism.

Red Cross workers lacked proper training. They seemed to have not arranged medical care for theevacuees, and they resisted when Emory University doctors stepped in to fill that gap, the reportfound.

Moreover, the Red Cross closed a relief center with little notice, sewing anxiety among theevacuees. And they alienated smaller relief organizations by making them feel ignored, the reportsaid.

The nonprofits relationship with local government officials deteriorated so much that the Red Crosswas kicked out of DeKalb Countys one-stop help center less than a month after Katrina sweptashore. Then-DeKalb Chief Executive Officer Vernon Jones criticized the nonprofits performance,writing in a letter that year: It was never our intention to be the uncompensated crowd control andde facto management support system to the unwieldy and chaotic operations of the Red Cross.

John Watson, Gov. Sonny Perdues chief of staff at the time, said the charity was paralyzed by thevolume of people that were essentially crossing Georgias borders.

They did not know the right things to even ask of us from state government.

Eric Corliss, regional disaster officer for the American Red Cross of Georgia, said the charity helped43,000 families in Georgia when Katrina hit, feeding, housing and clothing evacuees. In contrast, it

helped 4,000 families in Georgia during the entire fiscal year that just ended in June.

We did more than 10 years worth of activity in a compressed time frame, he said.

And they did adjust. When it became clear the evacuees were not going home anytime soon, the RedCross and other groups shifted their strategy from finding shelter space to finding hotel rooms forthe evacuees. After seeing people bounce from government center to health facility to charity officefor services, the Red Cross led the effort to open mega-centers that combined many of these reliefefforts under one roof.

Since the storm, Corliss said The Red Cross has been focusing on how it works with other nonprofitgroups and public health agencies. Partnerships have been built between the Red Cross and localand national organizations, including the Georgia Emergency Management Agency and the SalvationArmy.

FEMA - which footed the bill for evacuees housing - also came in for a bruising review in the report.

The provision of FEMA housing benefits was fraught with difficulty in Atlanta, the report said.

There was confusion on policy, delays accommodating the evacuees, and trouble convincing localgovernments to assist FEMA and GEMA. Many local officials were afraid they would have to shellout their own money and not be reimbursed. A year after the storm, some hadnt, the report noted.

FEMA was unprepared, sluggish and difficult to deal with, recalled former Atlanta Mayor ShirleyFranklin.

I didnt think they were prepared and I still dont think they were prepared, she said. Once the stormhit, their preparedness lagged. They were slow.

But some charity leaders have argued the state should not escape its share of blame. Theycomplained to the AJC that when the initial crisis subsided and the emergency shelters closed, thegovernor and GEMA were too quick to hand off responsibility as evacuees struggled with longer-term needs such as housing, furniture and jobs. The states lack of clear leadership at that pointslowed efforts to move evacuees out of hotels, and forced the United Way and others to call theirown Katrina conferences and coordinate relief efforts, they said.

The governors office and the stategovernment were not providing an activeleadership role, Khurram Ko Hassan said atthe time. Hassan was then the coordinatorof Katrina relief efforts for the United Wayof Metropolitan Atlanta.

After the first month and a half, we felt wewere kind of left on our own to figure outFEMAs policies and deadlines, and how tocontinue to assist evacuees on a local levelin large numbers, he said.

On its own initiative, the United Way of Greater Atlanta raised more than $10 million to helpevacuees in the area.

Protip Biswas, who served as the United Ways point person for Katrina relief efforts in the Atlantaregion, said that model works best.

We are much quicker if we can get the community to support us with funds and use that money forthe first response rather than wait for the government, he said. Whenever we waited for an answer(from the state), it was slow.

Georgias state government agencies say theyve learned from past missteps. Theyve identified pointpeople to focus on helping the most vulnerable during disasters. Databases have been improved sothey can better track the people they serve amid emergencies. They say those databases helpedduring last years ice storm when the state was able to make sure adults under their watch were OK.

Sometimes we operate in a vacuum, said Jonna West, the Georgia Emergency Management Agencyshomeland security division director. After Katrina, because of what we saw, we invited other peopleto the table.

Butterworth said that hurricane planning begins in the Spring and that GEMA recently participatedin an emergency exercise in Savannah that included several jurisdictions.

Communication and partnerships go hand-in-hand, he said. We communicate early and often.

Still Honore, a former Atlanta resident who now gives talks on disaster preparedness after his workin New Orleans, said the Atlanta regions very makeup creates hurdles.

Atlanta still wants to be Peanutville and operate like New York City, he said. And it is never going tobe there until they get rid of some of these itty-bitty governments they have got around Atlanta.

2015 The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (Atlanta, Ga.)

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