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HURRICANE KATRINA Previous Volume 353:1547-1549 October 13, 2005 Number 15 Next

	Since this article has no abstract, we have provided an extract of the first 100 words of the full text and any section headings.

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The terms "malfeasance" and "negligence" have been bandied about by many who are frustrated by the official response to Hurricane Katrina. Beginning with the evacuation orders before the hurricane's landfall, some public officials appeared to be trying hard to take the right steps. It appeared to us, however, that without any experience with crises of similar severity, and lacking guidelines and preparation for dealing with large displaced populations, such officials did not know what those right steps might be. For them, the experience must have been the uncomfortable public-policy equivalent of suddenly having to care for a critically ill patient . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Source Information

Dr. Nieburg is an associate professor in the Department of Public Health Sciences, University of Virginia, Charlottesville. Dr. Waldman is a professor of clinical population and family health in the Program on Forced Migration, Mailman School of Public Health of Columbia University, New York. Mr. Krumm is retired from the U.S. Department of State.

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