KATRINA - Some Lessons for Project Managers

Before I begin, allow me to extend my sympathies and share my grief to all who lost loved ones and livlihoods in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. If you haven't already, please consider making a donation to the Red Cross and Salvation Army. Further donor information at http://www.redcross.org and http://www.salvationarmyusa.org.

Katrina, or more specifically, the effects of her destruction of New Orleans and the Gulf Coast and the response to them, have the elements of a project as defined by the PMBOK: a beginning, an end, and an outcome. The coordinated governmental response to her wrath and havoc, or lack of it, and the failure to execute those plans properly and in a timely fashion, led to many deaths. Some PM-related examples:

'In Arkansas, state officials were first told to expect 300 evacuees. Nobody came. Then the state was told to prepare 4,000 meals for a fleet of buses. No buses arrived. Suddenly, in the wee hours of Sunday, more than 9,000 refugees showed up at a National Guard post. “It rained people on us,” said Gov. Mike Huckabee, a Republican.'

'In West Virginia, Gov. Joe Manchin dispatched several planes to the South to ferry refugees to his state. Most of the aircraft sat empty until he ordered them back home in frustration. “The waste that goes on because of a lack of coordination ... ,” he said. Too angry to finish that sentence, Manchin spit out a new one: “To bring five planes back empty is a crying shame.” '

'In New Mexico, Gov. Bill Richardson said he authorized National Guard troops to leave for New Orleans early last week, but paperwork delayed their departure for days. '

- All quotes from "Governors Appalled, Galvanized by Response" MSNBC.com, September 7, 2005.

I don't know about you or other PMs, but after-the-fact disasters such as this make me wince because these scenarios didn't have to play out the way that they did. In fact, I've done a lot of wincing watching the news over the last two weeks. As is stands at the moment, the bungling and inept responses to Katrina is not a politcal problem. It is not a Democrat or Republican problem, nor is it a liberal or conservative problem.

It is a governmental problem. A big one. A gravely serious one that caused thousands of needless deaths and untold suffering.

Government at all levels failed these folks. Miserably. Ineptly. The primary culprits? I can think of three strong possibilities that will become clearer as time passes and the truth (or what passes for it) comes out at myriad hearings and commission testimonials:

1. Turf-battles between governmental units, most likely along the lines of geography and level of government (local, state, and federal).
2. Bad execution process (bureaucratic, process-heavy, delayed for whatever reason).
3. Lack of strong leadership in government (not politicians, but bureaucrats and appointees)

If we learned anything from the horrors of 9/11, it was that a strong, coordinated response (as shown by New York City's fire and police departments) and leadership (as practiced by then-mayor Rudolph Guliani and President Bush), go a long way in resolving the effects of these disasters and bouying the nation in preparing for the next disaster or terrorist strike.

That didn't happen here. Not even close.

America, the great superpower, stumbled badly trying to rescue its own people from a horrific disaster on its own soil. There will be other Katrinas. How will we respond? How will we evacuate those who cannot leave? How will we rescue the injured and infirm? How will we feed and house these people until they can return (if they can return)?

The really sad part of this is, Homeland Security, FEMA, and the States have gloriously detailed plans - on paper. You would expect nothing less given their respective charters, laws, and the taxes we pay for the people who produce these plans and the material and resources to execute them. The underlying issue is that we could not, as a collective and united people, execute those plans successfully.

'A more visceral indictment came from closer to the calamity. Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson Parish near New Orleans, said the bureaucracy "has murdered people in the greater New Orleans area." "Take whatever idiot they have at the top of whatever agency and give me a better idiot," he told CBS. "Give me a caring idiot. Give me a sensitive idiot. Just don't give me the same idiot." '
- "FEMA Director Bears Brunt of Katrina Anger," MSNBC.com, September 7, 2005

Lots to think about for project managers here. Disasters and tragic events always give us much food for thought.