Two major news outlets went to public policy and administration expert Donald F. Kettl for an assessment of post-Katrina and Rita government response to Gustav, the latest hurricane to hit the Gulf Coast region.
Yesterday, the Associated Press quoted Kettl in a story on the debate over restoring New Orleans.
"If you walk away, you are condemning the city to tremendous
suffering," Kettl said. "As serious as the suffering was the last time,
it didn't completely destroy the city. The real challenge is deciding
what kind of city you want."
In today's TimesOnline, Kettl remarked on efforts to evacuate the city in hopes of avoiding the horrors that stunned the U.S. three years ago.
“Officials certainly didn’t overreact,” said Don Kettl, a University of
Pennsylvania public policy professor and co-editor of On Risk and
Disaster: Lessons from Hurricane Katrina. “As the photos of the waves
lapping over the top of the Industrial Canal made clear, the city came
within an eyelash of a bigger storm surge that would have pushed far more
water — and far greater problems — into the city.”
