Why Ray Nagin, Flaws and All, Was The Man New Orleans Needed To Combat Hurricane Katrina

It’s been 20 years since Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and there is plenty of blame to go around about what happened. Poverty is partly why over 1,000 people died. And Kanye West was right to say, “George Bush doesn’t care about Black people” on national television because whether he did care about us, President Bush was the face of the American response to the crisis.

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But we need to talk about Ray Nagin, the man who was the mayor of New Orleans in 2005. He made mistakes in the lead up to the storm (and many more after), but we should never forget that he was heroic in the face of the destruction that storm wrought.

First, we need to be honest about Nagin’s mistakes. He delayed his emergency evacuation order until less than a day before the storm made landfall. Meteorologists were sounding the alarm about the approach hurricane for days, so waiting as long as he did to order people to evacuate the city was a serious error.

He also told residents of the city that the Superdome was a shelter last resort. But he did so without providing adequate amounts of food and water for the people who were there. Now, to be honest, this was an emergency, so it would have been nearly impossible to provide as much as was needed in such a short amount of time. But still.

So Nagin deserves some blame. No doubt. Plus there is the fact that that he was found guilty on 20 federal corruption charges related to bribery, money laundering, and tax violations in 2014. These charges are probably why people forget what Nagin did after Katrina hit the city. But the man still deserves some flowers.

Almost immediately aft the storm hit the city, Nagin used his bully pulpit as mayor of New Orleans to say (with his whole chest) that the state of Louisiana and the federal government were slow and uncoordinated in the aftermath of the hurricane. He said that FEMA was lethargic, communication with the federal government was nonexistent, and that resources were not going to the people who needed them most.  

Ray Nagin became a household name after that. His comments got him reelection in 2006, and he guided the city through a planning process to address the vast need for resources in the wake of Katrina. He showed real leadership during that term in office.

Almost immediately, there were construction projects underway as the city tried to rebuild what the storm destroyed. And he tried to address poverty in New Orleans by pushing for more jobs which led to a significant decrease in the city’s unemployment rate.

It’s a shame that he ruined his legacy with corruption. Ray Nagin could have been remembered as one of the greatest mayors in American history. He was the man New Orleans needed in 2005.