WASHINGTON DC, United States – How I wish the words Katrina and Ketsana would evoke happier memories, such as perhaps an old romantic comedy flick, a favorite television show or a play about a couple’s complicated love.

Unfortunately, they represent two of the most horrific natural disasters in the United States and the Philippines. Add Pepeng to the equation and it becomes three words associated with catastrophe and suffering.

Hurricane Katrina

On August 28, 2005, Hurricane Katrina hit the southern coast of the United States. Hard hit was the state of Louisiana, specifically its key city, New Orleans. The hurricane broke levies and inundated the popular city with such ferocity unseen in recent decades. It was reported that over 1,800 people lost their lives, many lost their livelihood, and resulted to more than $80 billion dollars in damages. The catastrophe was so overwhelming that citizens had to stay at the football stadium for weeks on end. It was one of the five deadliest hurricanes in U.S. history.

Hurricane Katrina uncovered a government unprepared to handle such a grave emergency. It revealed weak levies that can only sustain a limited amount of pressure. More importantly, it unearthed a U.S. president who didn’t know what to do and who stayed in the comfort of Air Force One at the height of the hurricane instead of leading. There was a lack of preparedness and coordination, failure of government agencies, failure of national leadership, and a people seething with disgust and anger.

Four years after Katrina, I visited New Orleans. My initial reaction upon reaching this beautiful and tranquil city was to see whether there were remnants of a water line. Seeing on television, YouTube and news reports the city’s tragic flooding, I thought that there would be some permanent mark left by the ravaging waters.

I didn’t see any watermark on any of the buildings and structures. What I saw was a city trying its best to recapture its lost magic, a people trying to woe back its tourists, and some still-devastated areas as evidence of Katrina.

Now, four years on, with a change of U.S. leaders and a pumped up New Orleans populace, the city has not regained its pre-Katrina levels in terms of tourism. There is still a substantial amount of abandoned homes and buildings.

Home renovation shows on HDTV and elsewhere still highlight Katrina’s fury. It’s not that people purposely avoid visiting New Orleans. But the havoc caused by the hurricane have somewhat dampened what the city stood for.

This doesn’t mean there are no developments. In fact, the recovery efforts in New Orleans are amazing and something to be in awe at. People there are simply relentless. There are still a lot to be done but it appears the city is getting there.

Who would have known that a few months after this New Orleans visit a Katrina-esque calamity would engulf the very city in Southeast Asia I called home for 30 years.

I was there in the center of New Orleans, at Bourbon Street, wondering how sad and dreadful the city would have been in the days and months following Katrina. Recently, through friends, Facebook, YouTube and the news, I’m witnessing the pain of a struggling Filipino people after Ketsana (Ondoy), the fiercest storm in 50 years. With Pepeng rampaging Northern Luzon, the pain is insurmountable.

Tropical Storm Ketsana (Ondoy)

The Philippines is no stranger to tropical depressions, vicious storms and other deadly calamities. That’s the price to pay as the country is archipelagic in contour. There are picturesque beaches, but very year like clockwork, there would be floods and several typhoons. But nothing prepared anyone for something like Ketsana (Ondoy).

On September 26, 2009, the gloomy skies unleashed unceasing torrential rains that, in addition to perennially clogged sewers, paved the way for floods several stories high. The amount of rain dumped in a few hours’ time equaled a month’s quota. The floods did not choose which house or tenement to enter, it did not discriminate between rich and poor communities, nor did it spare the religious and punished the bad. It did not distinguish between Muslim and Christian. It just went on its punishing way.

The government was quick to point out that this was something beyond anyone’s expectation. That we can agree on. But the officials added a caveat – that the amount of rainfall Ketsana dropped on Metro Manila was far greater than the inches of rain that befell New Orleans. Their logic is that if the U.S. government had a very difficult time helping its people with that kind of rainfall, then one cannot fault the Philippine government for its efforts when it had to deal with more rainfall. The logic is flawed and the argument is non-sequitur.

If there is anything comparable between Katrina and Ketsana is that both calamities were rare, severe, and beyond the normal expectations of people.

The main reason why Katrina’s water flooded New Orleans and areas around it was because the levies surrounding the Mississippi River broke, releasing millions of cubic feet of water. Ketsana, in contrast, had an extremely heavy rainfall in a concentrated period of time. Coupled with Manila’s clogged and primitive drainage system, the metropolis served as a surreal basin.

Thus, the government’s comparison that Ketsana/Ondoy dumped 455 millimeters of rainfall in 24 hours’ time while Katrina only pummeled 250 millimeters is inaccurate, misleading, and intended to deceive the people that government has attained its relief effort benchmark.

The truth is that it has not. It has miserably failed. Katrina cannot be downgraded in any way; it was a Category 5 hurricane with maximum sustained winds nearing 175 mph (283.5 kph).

How can a government claim it has been doing its best when it lacked the pump boats to ferry villagers stranded on their rooftops to safety?

How can there be a sense of calm and faith in the leaders when social media sites such as Facebook are deluge with videos and slideshows illustrating a severely battered metropolis and a people desperate for assistance? There are still many who have not yet been helped and perhaps will never experience government aid.

The Katrina-Ketsana analogy cannot be used as a justification for inefficiency. They are not synonymous. Over 300 are dead to date, many missing, half a million are homeless, and almost two million people affected. In 2005, Katrina caused 1,800 Americans to lose their lives, many more their livelihood, with a higher amount for damages. But it’s not the higher number of deaths or who had more rainfall. The comparison starts and ends with both being severe natural catastrophes. But there may be one more common denominator: a misguided national leadership.

Blame the government?

There are some people whose instinctive reaction is to blame the Philippine government for its lack of preparedness and funding in addressing Ketsana (Ondoy). The same is true for Pepeng. The Philippine government was quick to toss those aside.

The sad thing about the present government is its automatic defensive posturing. In almost every issue or scandal, its programmed response is to shift the blame to some other group or to specific officials. It doesn’t accept blame, it is never accountable.

But the government is not the only party which erred. Most of the debris that floated around during the floods and which eventually settled into the streets were mud, waste and garbage.

There is a tendency, quite unfortunately, not to be conscious of environmental consequences of mundane tasks such as throwing garbage. It has been the practice for decades to use creeks, canals, rivers, manholes and other open areas of water as garbage depositories. The floods weren’t just caused by an ill-prepared government; they were also caused by people not mindful enough to care about the environment and proper waste disposal.

Katrina and Ketsana are cousins, not identical twins. They are both natural disasters which no human, president or government could have ever stopped. They are both one-of-a-kind, once-in-a-lifetime catastrophes. But the effects after the devastations could have both been mitigated.

There are many lessons to be learnt from Hurricane Katrina that are applicable to the Philippines. But applying these lessons needs capable leadership, unwavering resilience, and a disciplined people. These may be lacking these days, save for unwavering resilience. The government should be more capable and the people ought to be more disciplined. Lest another natural calamity (after Pepeng) coupled with man-made obstacles results to another sad event.

The author is a U.S.- and Japan-trained and educated lawyer with a Master of Laws degree from the University of Pennsylvania Law School and a Certificate of Business from Wharton. Send comments to carlo.osi@gmail.com or thru http://eastofturtleisland.blogspot.com/.