Lawsuit alleges feds failed Katrina victims

Howard Manly

In one of the first legal and political blasts targeting the poor federal response to Hurricane Katrina, a national civil rights organization filed a petition and class-action law suit last month, charging the federal government with failing to meet its obligation to care for victims of natural disasters.

Equal Justice Society President Eva Paterson said the goal of both actions is very clear: “to take action to rectify the injustices that have resulted from our government’s willful disregard for human suffering and ensure that such injustices will never again occur.”

At the heart of the petition is the question of race and whether it played a factor in the government’s dismal handling of the catastrophe.

John Bonifaz, a noted civil rights and constitutional lawyer, said during a recent news conference that the federal government failed in a “colossal way” to carry out its obligations.

“What we saw in New Orleans in terms of who was left behind was a clear picture of people who are locked out of our political process, who lack any real meaningful political voice,” Bonifaz said. “And it is no wonder that they were disproportionately poor, disproportionately people of color. And they are kept out of the halls of power in Washington, and because of that they were wholly and willfully ignored.”

The petition contrasts the treatment afforded Florida residents during the aftermath of its 2004 hurricane season—and presidential campaign — with those affected by Katrina.

A 2005 Department of Homeland Security audit found that FEMA wrongly distributed to Miami-Dade residents: $8.2 million in rental assistance to 4,308 applicants who “did not indicate a need for shelter” when they registered for help; $17,424 in rental assistance to 24 people who reported that their homes were not damaged; and $97,500 for 15 automobiles with a combined total “blue book” value of $56,140.

Those numbers are peanuts in comparison to the short- and long-term needs of the Gulf region. So far, Congress has approved $62 billion in disaster relief aid for victims of Katrina, which hit Aug. 29, and Rita, which followed on Sept. 24. But nearly all of that money was directed to FEMA and about half of that money has gone directly to the immediate victim’s needs — housing, food and clothing — instead of long-term rebuilding projects.

Louisiana officials have estimated that those long-term projects could cost an estimated $200 billion, or roughly ten times the $20 billion amount that President Bush pledged to rebuild New York after Sept. 11.

Making matters worse in New Orleans, according to the petition, is that the federal government knew that a flood could devastate the Gulf region in general and New Orleans in particular, and failed to adequately prepare for such a disaster.

“In 2001 FEMA issued a report stating that a hurricane striking new Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City,” the petition argues. Still, despite FEMA’s own four-year advance warning, despite widespread knowledge that levees would be breached and floods would ravage the New Orleans community and despite a national weather service warning predicting “a most powerful hurricane with unprecedented strength” that would leave the area “uninhabitable for weeks” and “result in water shortages (that) will make human suffering incredible by modern standards,” FEMA did little to prepare for Hurricane Katrina. Medical supplies were not stocked; food and water supplies were inadequate.

FEMA’s lack of preparation was underscored by the fact that the agency only had one employee working in the Superdome to assist 26,000 people who took refuge there, the petition states.

The Equal Justice Society puts the blame squarely on President Bush and his budget cuts that left FEMA and the Army Corps of Engineers unable to spend the necessary money to prevent a disaster.

In 2001, for instance, the Corps spent $147 million on construction projects. By 2004, that amount was down to $82 million—a 44 percent reduction. Projects in New Orleans were particularly hard hit—despite repeated warnings of a potential disaster.

Although the Army Corps needed $20 million to complete one project in New Orleans, President Bush’s 2005 budget only allotted for $3.9 million. In its 2006 budget, the Bush Administration proposed spending an estimated $10.4 million for the Lake Pontchartrain project, a mere sixth of the amount local officials said was needed.

“It has become clear,” Paterson said during the news conference, “that this disaster is less about rain and wind than it is about race and class.”

The petition was delivered to the White House, Congressional leadership, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security and the acting director of FEMA. The petition was also presented to several United Nations agencies including the Commission on Human Rights and the office of three Special Rapporteurs on Racism, Internal Displaced Persons and the Right to Adequate Housing.

The lawsuit was filed Nov. 10 in federal court in Louisiana on behalf of 13 individuals who have yet to receive federal assistance. Federal law requires FEMA to provide assistance to disaster victims with, among other things, financial assistance to rent housing, or by supplying them with a trailer or mobile home.

The assistance is guaranteed by the Stafford Act, which defines the scope of federal assistance in the event of a declared disaster.

According to the suit, more than two months after the hurricanes, “thousands of disaster victims” still have not received assistance. “There is no excuse for these failures by FEMA,” the suit charges. “It was able, virtually overnight, to send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims halfway around the world. No less should be extended to its own people, on their home soil, in the wake of a national disaster.”

(Associated Press contributed to this story)