Subsidiarity and the New Orleans Tragedy

Subsidiarity and the New Orleans Tragedy
09/08/05

By Bishop Rene Henry Gracida

Other Articles by Bishop Rene Henry Gracida

Shortly after I was installed as Bishop of Corpus Christi on July 11, 1983, Monsignor Robert Freeman, Director of Catholic Charities, asked me for permission to accept an invitation from the Mayor of Corpus Christi to become a member of the Disaster Emergency Response Team of the City.


I gladly gave him permission. Subsequently he kept me informed every year of the work of the Team. The Team established a plan for a secure headquarters with electric generators, water, food and communications equipment. They devised a plan to organize all elements of the city’s infrastructure to be ready to meet any challenge posed by another hurricane like Celia, which had devastated the city in 1969 when the city did not have such a Team in place.

That Team went into action last Friday when Corpus Christi was informed that our city’s request to receive evacuees from New Orleans had been approved. Within hours the facilities to receive the evacuees were ready and the infrastructure was ready to serve them. Thirty hours later the evacuees were safely in the facilities planned for them.

I was born in New Orleans and spent the first seven years of my life there. I was a student in the General Pierre Gustave Touton Beauregard Elementary School. I still have fond memories of my childhood there. We lived in the Lakeview section of New Orleans and our home was just a few blocks from Lake Pontchartrain, the area most flooded. I have many relatives and friends among the now-scattered residents of New Orleans.

I watched in shocked disbelief as the horror of the flooding of New Orleans unfolded before the eyes of the nation and the world. I listened and watched the tragedy on all the major networks and cable channels. Not once did I hear any reporter mention a Disaster Emergency Response Team in the City of New Orleans. Not once did I see or hear any city official other than the mayor and he did not once describe what the City of New Orleans officials were doing. All he did was complain about the failure of the federal government of be in the city as soon as the levee broke. The police of New Orleans complained to television reporters that they were without any contact with their supervisors and had no food or water. There was total governmental and organizational chaos.

The principle of subsidiarity was evidently ignored by those holding responsibility for the government of the State of Louisiana and the City of New Orleans. This principle was first clearly defined by Pope John XXIII and then later by the Second Vatican Council. The principle is valid for both the secular as well as the ecclesiastical realm. The principle of subsidiarity is the principle by which those in authority recognize the rights of the different members of society. Those in higher authority respect the rights of those in lower authority. And of course, with rights go responsibilities.

It was the responsibility of the City of New Orleans government to provide all of the emergency response for the first 24 hours and to specify, request and coordinate the help expected from the State of Louisiana and the federal government. [Editor’s note: According to the city’s own plan: “The lead agency responsible for coordinating recovery operations following a natural or man made disaster is the Office of Emergency Preparedness.… The person responsible for recognition of hurricane-related preparation needs and for the issuance of an evacuation order is the Mayor of the City of New Orleans” who is to “[i]nitiate the evacuation” and “[r]etain overall control of all evacuation procedures via EOC operations.” Note also from the same source that “the City of New Orleans has established a maximum acceptable hurricane evacuation time standard for a Category 3 storm event of 72 hours. This is based on clearance time and is the time required to clear all vehicles evacuating in response to a hurricane situation from area roadways.”]

It was the responsibility of the Governor of Louisiana to provide immediately the first help through the deployment of the National Guard of Louisiana, which should have been activated and on standby duty ready to move into the coast of Louisiana to cope with the damage to be expected from Hurricane Katrina. The Governor of Louisiana was strangely invisible during the week following the break in the levee. [Editor’s note: The commander-in-chief of each state’s National Guard is the governor of the state, not the president, unless and until they are called by the Department of Defense to active duty. National Guard regulations provide for 72 hours notice for reporting to allow the troops to get their personal affairs in order before showing up. Some of the troops respond faster, but planning for use of the National Guard units has to allow for the full 72 hours before deployment. Also, Louisiana has its own disaster plan stating that the “primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating.” The most pertinent question is why the vehicles were never employed and sit now ruined under water.]

Texas Governor Rick Perry set an example of how the governor of Louisiana should have acted. Within a matter of hours after the levee broke, Governor Perry set in motion throughout Texas the Emergency Response plans of the major cities, and the rest, as they say, is history. The response of the people of Houston, Dallas, Beaumont, and Corpus Christi shows how effective good planning can be in meeting the challenge of natural disasters. God forbid that we should be subjected to another terrorist attack such as 9/11, but it is good to know that at least some cities are prepared.

It is shameful that the media of the Left and the Bush-haters in our society have chosen to put all of the blame for the tragic events of the past week in New Orleans on President Bush. [Editor’s note: On Friday, August 26, Katrina began to strengthen and head for the gulf coast. By Saturday morning, Katrina’s winds were at 115 mph and headed to New Orleans. Governor Blanco declared a state of emergency and requested the same from Bush. (Declaring a “state of emergency,” grants the governor extraordinary authority.) Bush immediately declared a federal state of emergency, initiating FEMA’s movement of supplies into the area. Later that day, Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco urged residents to “take the storm seriously,” but stopped short of ordering a mandatory evacuation. Mayor Nagin also announced that the Superdome would be a shelter of last resort and told residents to bring their own food and water, since the city had not equipped the Superdome. Finally, at 5PM he urged a “voluntary” evacuation. That evening, President Bush placed a personal call to the Mayor to implore him to make the evacuation mandatory, as did the National Hurricane Center Director that same night. It was not until Sunday morning, with Katrina at category 5, that Mayor Nagin finally issued the mandatory evacuation order.] The president responded quickly and in a proper way. The total governmental confusion in New Orleans was an obstacle with which all agencies outside of Louisiana had to cope and with which thousands of her hapless residents could not cope.

© Copyright 2005 Catholic Exchange


The Most Reverend Rene Henry Gracida, DD is Bishop Emeritus of Corpus Christi, Texas.

(Editor’s notes were supplied by Mary Kochan, Senior Editor for Catholic Exchange.)