Guest column: Katrina lesson: Government can hurt as well as help
FEMA chief David Paulison didn't actually use the words, "I'm from the government and I'm here to help," when he arrived in Des Moines recently to survey the damage caused by the rising rivers.
But if recent experience is anything to go by, rampaging floodwaters will be replaced by a flood of federal dollars - and an agonizingly slow recovery.
On its face, federal disaster response seems to have improved since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast 34 months ago. Federal resources are now being brought to bear more quickly, and officials appear better equipped to organize a strong response.
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But has Washington learned anything substantive from Katrina that will help residents quickly rebuild?
Unfortunately, no.
The lesson of Katrina that matters the most is that the promise of federal assistance that will likely never materialize can be as destructive as the initial disaster.
If that seems counterintuitive, consider what communities look like after a disaster. Homes and often entire neighborhoods lie in ruins. Residents are wondering whether they should return. And essential services such as police, fire and rescue are often overwhelmed.
What residents need in this maw of confusion is certainty. They need to know which roads will be rebuilt, and when the power and water will come back online. They need to know that the rule of law will be enforced. In short, they need to know what economists call the "rules of the game" for rebuilding.
These rules are critical to the myriad private-sector decisions that follow and signal whether and how a community will rebuild. Decisions about insurance coverage, when and where grocery stores, banks and numerous other businesses will reopen, and where children will play are vital private-sector decisions that require clear, credible commitments from the public sector to be made efficiently.
Beware of over-promising
What residents of disaster-stricken areas don't need are vague promises from officials that add to the confusion and force residents to delay the millions of decisions, small and large, they need to make to re-create a viable community. And they don't need government leaders to make promises that are unlikely to be kept.
The dirty secret of government disaster response is that what's promised immediately after a disaster seldom comes to fruition. Just ask the 75,000 Louisiana homeowners who are still waiting for their Road Home rebuilding checks, or the Floridians living in FEMA trailers 15 years after Hurricane Andrew.
Over the past two years, the Mercatus Center has carried out more than 400 hours of interviews with community leaders, entrepreneurs and residents in New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities who were affected by the storm and are working hard to rebuild. And we've carefully studied what is working in rebuilding and what policymakers can learn from this.
One thing we've learned: Officials can play either a constructive or counterproductive role in setting the tone for rebuilding. A strong commitment that the rules of normal society will be respected, including freedom of contract and property rights, facilitates the re-establishment of normalcy. Blocking the progress of communities, businesses and civil-society groups coming back can quickly cripple rebuilding efforts.
Set clear redevelopment rules
The swift return of businesses and organizations that make the routine of daily life possible are critical to a robust recovery. Grocery stores moving back into a community after a disaster provide not just necessary supplies, but a signal that people will be able to swiftly return to their normal lives. Facilities for children show that, no matter how hard the struggle to rebuild, it will be a family affair.
Our research in Louisiana and Mississippi shows that these seemingly mundane fixtures of daily life carry enormous weight for the families and communities putting their lives back together. The "FEMA economy," as one Louisianan dubbed the government-dominated Gulf Coast economy after Katrina, is not a long-term solution.
Louisiana's Road Home Program has in many ways served to make the road home rockier and less certain. Homeowners have delayed making decisions on whether to tear down existing homes and start anew or whether to repair damaged homes. What tens of thousands are waiting for is word on how much they will receive from the government. And waiting on them are a host of business owners, who need to know settlement patterns before opening their doors.
Government has a critical but constrained role to play in rebuilding, beginning with quickly setting and enforcing clear rules for redevelopment. That means that government-paid compensation should emphasize speed and simplicity. Don't do means-testing for disaster relief. Don't subtract out insurance payments that homeowners receive for their damaged home. And, by all means, don't use disaster-relief programs to conduct social engineering or "replanning."
Officials need to focus on the fundamentals. Allow communities to fix sewer lines, restore electricity, resume trash collection and make sure emergency services are able to handle the workload confronting them. Announce which infrastructure projects will be undertaken first and establish timelines for completion. And by all means, make these commitments credible and realistic. Revelations of sloppy work or promises made in haste only to be reneged upon do immense damage to rebuilding.
Let civil society flourish
Above all, officials must recognize that non- and for-profit groups play important roles in recovery. Economic and social recovery - not to mention resiliency to future disasters - rests on the foundation these organizations create.
This is not to say that the government should just funnel money to charities; the Red Cross' bungling after Katrina demonstrates that with government shekels come government shackles. But policymakers should understand that communities and the institutions of civil society have far more resiliency than we frequently credit them with, and their re-emergence is critical to enabling a real recovery.
Unfortunately, the scale of major disasters leads many people to conclude that only governments have the resources to deal with the aftermath. This could not be further from the truth. What makes sustainable rebound possible is the rebuilding of communities and the organizations that support them: businesses, civic groups, religious communities and nonprofits. Governments that can't even write checks to those whose homes were destroyed can't be trusted to re-establish day-care centers, religious services or grocery stores.
Iowa is blessed with a well-deserved reputation for honest, effective state and local governments, strong community ties and healthy local economies. But federal recovery policy still stresses top-down solutions that ignore the incredible community resiliency and knowledge that we've seen in the Gulf Coast.
And that does not augur well for Iowans.
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