PaulKrugman and Hurricane Katrina
ByJohn Hinderaker
PowerLineBlog.com
September 6, 2005

The NewYork Times is in full hysteria mode, trying to turn the human tragedyassociated with Hurricane Katrina into political fodder for the Democrats. PaulKrugman is onecog in the Times' wheel; on cue, he chimed in with a strident

denunciation of the Bush administration'sresponse to the hurricane. It was, of course terrible. wysimore Krugman begins:

   "Each day since Katrina brings more evidence of the lethalineptitude of federal officials. I'm not letting state and local officialsoff the hook, but federal officials had access to resources that couldhave made all the difference, but were never mobilized."

Characteristically, Krugman avoids factswhenever possible. His columns consist almost entirely of invective; hegrudgingly throws in a fact only when it can't be helped. Yesterday's columnincluded exactly one fact, one instance of a "resource" that"could have made all the difference," but was "nevermobilized." Krugman's one such example was the U.S.S. Bataan:

   "Here's one of many examples: The Chicago Tribune reports thatthe U.S.S. Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundredsof hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons offresh water a day, has been sitting off the GulfCoast since last Monday-  without patients.

"Experts say that the first 72 hoursafter a natural disaster are the crucial window during which prompt action cansave many lives. Yet ction after Katrina was anything but prompt. Newsweekreports that  "strange paralysis" set in among Bushadministration officials, who debated lines of authority while thousandsdied."

So, according to Krugman, the Bataan,with its hospital and fresh water, constituted a resource that was "nevermobilized," apparently because of "paralysis" on the part of theadministration. In citing the Bataan as hisbest example of federal ineptitude, Krugman relied, as he so often does, on anurban legend that circulated on left-wing blogs: that the Bataan, which hadbeen cruising in the Caribbean when Katrinastruck, was ready and able to aid the hurricane's victims, but was prevented

from doing so because the DefenseDepartment never gave the order authorizing it to act. This rumor became sopersistent that one of the ship's officers, Lt. Commander Sean Kelly, wrote to oneof the left-wing sites to debunk the myth:

 "USNORTHCOM was prepositioned forresponse to the hurricane, but as per the National Response Plan, wesupport the lead federal agency in disaster relief ? in this case, FEMA.The simple description of the process is the state requests federalassistance from FEMA which in turn may request assistance from themilitary upon approval by the president or Secretary of Defense. Havingworked the hurricanes     from lastyear as well as Dennis this year, we knew that FEMA would make requests ofthe military, primarily in the areas of transportation, communications,logistics, and medicine. Thus we began staging such assets and waited forthe storm to hit.

"The biggest hurdles to respondingto the storm were the storm itself; couldn't begin really helping until itpassed; and damage assessment; figuring out which roads were passable,where  communications and power wereout, etc. Military helos began damage assessment and SAR on Tuesday. Thus we hadpermission to operate as

soon as it was possible. We even broughtin night SAR helos to continue the mission on Tuesday night.

"The President and Secretary ofDefense did authorize us to act rightaway and are not to blame on this end.Yes, we have to wait for authorization, but it was given in a timelymanner."

Poor Paul, always a day late and a dollarshort, apparently didn't get the memo.

Still, ifI were writing a column that I expected to be read by many thousands ofpeople--oh, wait, I do--and if I were going to rest my column on a single"example" on the basis of which I intended to charge governmentofficials with "lethal ineptitude," I would do a littlefact-checking. Sadly, however, research is something of which Paul Krugman issimply incapable.

Perhaps Krugman doesn't know that largenaval vessels like the U.S.S.Bataan all haveweb sites. Perhaps he doesn't know that there is a tool called"Google" that would enable him to find the Bataan'sweb site in less than ten seconds. Or perhaps he just didn't care enough to go here  and read up on the Bataan'scontributions

to hurricane relief efforts.

If Krugmanhad taken the trouble, he would have found that on August 30, the same day onwhich New Orleans'levees burst, precipitating the crisis, men and women from the Bataanwere already in action, and by the following day they were busy saving lives:

"The crews flew off Tuesday nighttowards New Orleansand were tasked by the on-scene rescue coordinators. 'Our first mission was toprovide food and water and to take some people to a safer haven and to helpwith the levee by providing sandbags," said AS2(AW/NAC) Johnny Ramirez,MH-53 Aircrewman for HM-15. 'We weren't able tocomplete our assigned missionTuesday night because it got too darkand it was too risky to land anywhere withall of the water andpower lines. Instead, we just flew Tuesday night to surveythe area.'

"On Wednesday, a crew from HM-15assisted with lifting numerousstranded citizens in a very short period of time.'My crew and I airlifted nearly 100 people from the roof of a building and ontoafield where ambulances and busses were waiting for them,' said LCDRDavidHopper, detachment Officer in Charge of HM-15. 'Ten of thosewho we rescuedcouldn't even walk; my crewmen had to carry them.'

"One of the missions of the MH-60aircraft is search and rescue. HSC-28 personnel have rescued 71 people in theirfirst two days of operation, seven in the first 30 minutes. HSC-28 has threecrews and two aircraft and is alternating flight and crew rest time."

Here is a summary of the Bataan's effortsas of yesterday, when Krugman's column implied that the ship was a"resource" that was "never mobilized":

"We've been extremely busy this pastweek with more tasks than thereare hours in a day," said Cmdr. JeffreyBocchicchio, Bataan 's AirBoss. "The shortest day the department has hadwas 16 hours long,but they understand that everything we do is critical to themission."

"'All of the divisions and CombatCargo working together allows the ship to have a 24-hour flight deck with themanning for 10-hourdays,' said Bocchicchio. 'Military units are the nation'sbiggest assets and what better use for them than to save our own people.'"

   To date, the two squadrons have transported 1,613 displacedpeople and delivered more than 100,000 pounds of cargo. Bataan alsoprovided 8,000 gallons of fresh drinking water to the ravished Gulfport,Mississippi area. Sailors filled eight 500-gallon water bladders with theship's potable water and HM 15's MH-53 helicopters transported them from theflight deck of Bataan to land.

How about the unused operating rooms andempty hospital beds? It seems not to have occurred to Krugman that the mostefficient way to getmedical treatment to hurricane survivors is not tohelicopter them, individually or in small groups, to a ship at sea. Instead,what happened was that medical personnel were assembled and equipped on boardthe Bataan, then flown to shore where they could treat the sick and wounded:

   Two medical fly-away teams from the Navy's Casualty Receiving and

   Treatment Ship Team (CRTS) 8, based at Naval Hospital Jacksonville,

   Fla., left the multipurpose amphibious assault ship USS Bataan (LHD

   5) on Sunday, Sept. 4, 2005 , to provide medical support to

   Hurricane Katrina survivors at the New Orleans International Airport

   and a high school in Biloxi , Mississippi .

   A 26-member primary care treatment team consisting of a

   pediatrician, family practice physician, an obstetrician along with

   seven nurses and 16 hospital corpsman departed early Sunday morning

   for New Orleans International Airport . They expect to return to the

   ship on Monday.

   The second flyaway team, which consisted of an internal medicine

   physician, two nurses, a respiratory therapy technician and two

   general hospital corpsman, flew to Biloxi High School to take care

   of patients with respiratory illnesses. The team's main mission is

   to provide treatment for those who have respiratory problems. They

   are expected to return to the ship in two or three days.

   The diversity of CRTS 8's composition allows the flexibility of

   establishing multiple mission-specific medical teams within a short

   time period. ?The CRTS 8 team is glad to be onboard Bataan

   participating in the relief efforts,? said Cmdr. Michael Illovsky,

   MC, USN, Director of Medical Services for CRTS 8. 'We are ready and

   willing to help out in any way possible. We are enthused about the

   opportunity to send groups into the affected areas where they are

   needed most.'

   The 24-member medical team who left Saturday for the New Orleans

   Convention Center returned to Bataan Sunday afternoon.

This all happened during the three daysprior to the appearance of

Krugman's column describing the"hospital beds" "without patients"

aboard the Bataan.

We never go after Maureen Dowd anymore,because there isn't any sport in

it. Poor Paul Krugman is rapidly gettinginto the same category.

John Hinderaker for Powerline