Story of the Hurricane.

• Author: Tuccille, J.D.
• Position: Follow-Up

In the January 1993 issue of reason, Miami-based writer Glenn Garvin described the aftermath of Hurricane Andrew in terms that might seem familiar to New Yorkers and other victims of another storm, Sandy, which hit this fall: "Within minutes of Andrew's final howl, the screen of my television overflowed with the bovine faces of politicians taking credit and assigning blame, promising, and demanding swag." Garvin also described some officials who should have gone into hiding: After five years on the job, Kate Hale, the head of Miami-Dade County's Emergency Management Office, "had only a single copy of a proposed draft of a recovery plan, stowed away somewhere in a cardboard box."

After Andrew, private efforts picked up the slack: Locals cut fallen trees with chainsaws, ran extension cords to neighbors' houses, and directed traffic, while strangers hundreds of miles away sent assistance convoys. Government officials shown up by amateurs, wrote Garvin, "began broadcasting appeals for everyone to stay away from the hurricane zone; disorganization, rather than hunger or thirst or illness or misery, became Public Enemy No. 1."

By the time Hurricane Katrina rolled though New Orleans in 2005, little had changed. The Federal Emergency Management Agency apparently learned that thousands of people were waiting for rescue at the convention...