WASHINGTON – Reinforced armies of federal search teams, medics and National Guard troops began fanning out into wind-whipped and waterlogged southwestern Louisiana and coastal Texas on Saturday, racing to prove that the government had learned from its disastrous missteps earlier this month on the Gulf Coast.
And while Saturday’s early assessments were positive – with few reports of unanswered calls for help or broad communication breakdowns that crippled the response to Hurricane Katrina – officials acknowledged that Hurricane Rita did not present the test for which they had prepared.
Hurricane Katrina “was so much more massive. Most people still don’t understand that,” said Michael Lowder, deputy director of response operations at the Federal Emergency Management Agency headquarters in Washington, D.C.
In New Orleans, the levees failed, “then you had the civil unrest piece of it. That was something that was not planned for, not anticipated. … That affects the whole response.”
Although floodwaters were still rising Saturday in some low-lying towns, and the wind restricted damage assessment flights, state and federal authorities cautiously projected confidence in their ability to respond to the storm in coming days, at least partly because it was far less damaging.
President Bush, who visited the Texas emergency command center in Austin, praised government agencies as “well-organized and well-prepared to deal with Rita.”
Officials also attributed their success to the sometimes chaotic evacuation of 3 million people from Houston and other cities, an exodus that was left incomplete in New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina hit Aug. 29.
Texas and Louisiana leaders said Saturday’s relative calm reflected greater preparation and cooperation at all levels.
“We learned a great deal from Katrina that was put in place in Texas,” Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas, said in Austin at a news conference with Gov. Rick Perry.
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