Leonard Marcus Invited by FEMA to Study
Leadership Response

--from advance online issue of Harvard Public Health NOW

	Clearview Parkway in New Orleans now looks like it descends into an ocean. [photo by Leonard Marcus] Click here for photos of New Orleans by Leonard Marcus.

"The experience was extraordinarily tense and moving," said Marcus, who returned to Boston on September 9. "In the process, I picked up a whole new perspective on what has been happening, many stories, and an invigorated perspective on the leadership work."

Marcus is the associate director of the HSPH-Center for Public Health Preparedness and co-director of the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative, a joint effort by HSPH and KSG geared toward senior government officials. He was personally invited to conduct the leadership study by then-FEMA Director Michael Brown, who has since resigned his post. While in Louisiana, Marcus also met with Department of Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff and with Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen, who was named special deputy for hurricane recovery efforts.

After his briefings, Marcus was flown via helicopter to New Orleans, hovering above sites of some of the worst devastation, such as Jefferson Parish and the Superdome, and back to Louisiana’s capital.

"It was disturbing beyond words," said Marcus. "In addition to the terrible sights, the stench that made its way even up to our high perch was sickening. The view of the whole city without people and in ruins is devastating."

Marcus is disturbed by media coverage and by perceived political play that seek to assign blame for failures and delays.

"The failures in Louisiana and New Orleans are a function of a complex interplay of the many government agencies and community leaders responsible for decision-making and action," said Marcus. "The problem cannot in its entirety be attached to one organization or one leader. Just as our colleagues working on patient safety--Lucian Leape admirably chief among them–assert that to improve the quality of health care, we must transcend beyond personal blame toward a careful assessment of systems issues, so too must we look at the systems problems surrounding this disaster."

While he works on a more formal report, Marcus has shared his immediate impressions with Harvard Public Health NOW:

• MASSIVE DESTRUCTION. The scope of Hurricane Katrina exceeded the capacity of the emergency response system, said Marcus. "This is concerning because the terrorist scenarios for which we are preparing exceed the dimensions of Katrina," he said. In addition, there was a weakness in situational awareness. "Officials simply had a hard time getting their minds around a disaster of these proportions," he said.

• COMMUNICATION BREAK DOWN. Coordination of decision-making between federal, state, and city leadership disintegrated.

• CULTURAL DIFFERENCES. Katrina battered not only Florida–which has become all too familiar with hurricanes–but also Mississippi and Louisiana, all states with different cultures. Even New Orleans, a city within Louisiana, maintained a distinct culture of toughing it out, helping to explain in part why thousands of people chose to stay in the city.

• DESCENT INTO ANARCHY. Once the Superdome filled with people far outnumbering expectations, there were too few officials to maintain control there or in the city at large. "Tragically, the few officials on the scene became terrified by the hordes of desperate people who confronted them," said Marcus. Systems failed, from electricity and water, to law enforcement and transportation. "This was outside the experience of decision makers, who became overwhelmed further by the size and scope of the growing disaster and the seeming impossibility of regaining control," said Marcus. "So, like a computer that stops working, the system froze, unable to accomplish the most basic of humanitarian efforts."

Marcus thinks the break down might have been curbed if the following were done more quickly, with an early emphasis on

• restoring and maintaining law and order

• delivering basic supplies of water, food, medicine, shelter, and sanitation

• mobilizing the evacuation once the dimensions of the hurricane and levee breaks were known

"It took a few days to align the decisions, systems, assets, and efforts to make this all happen," said Marcus. "In the mean time, people were suffering and dying."

Marcus hopes that the National Preparedness Leadership Initiative at HSPH and KSG can become a coordinating platform for the documentation, analysis, and recommendations related to leadership challenges in response to Hurricane Katrina.

"The people whom I met were moved that Harvard would dispatch someone to the scene and would recognize that what happened constitutes matters of serious historic significance for the country," said Marcus. "They are eager to engage with us to learn and change from the experience."

--September 13, 2005