Four years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the Gulf Coast, here is a piece by M. Z. Hemingway about how nonprofit religious organizations made up for the disaster that was the government’s response to the hurricane. It was recently published in the Mercatus Center’s magazine Local Knowledge that looks at all aspects of the nonprofit organizations’s response to disasters. I think it nicely showcases the power of communities.

The response to Hurricane Katrina demonstrated a colossal failure of government at the local, state and federal levels. As the Washington Post put it two weeks after the storm hit, “The Steady Buildup to a City’s Chaos; Confusion Reigned at Every Level of Government.” And yet the aftermath of Katrina also showcased the nonprofit sector’s dramatic success in responding to the immediate and long-term needs of a populace ravaged by natural disaster.
“The failure of all levels of government in the Katrina response activated an unprecedented response by the [nonprofit community, which stepped in not only to support their own constituencies but to fill the void created by an incompetent government response,” writes former Federal Emergency Management Agency official George Haddow in the book Introduction to Emergency Management.
Among the nonprofit groups that rushed to the Gulf Coast to feed, clothe and house the victims, some of the most effective were Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Buddhist groups. “[R]eligious nonprofits are leading the charge,” a University of Pennsylvania team reported in “A Survey of Faith-Based Initiatives and Leadership in Post-Katrina New Orleans.”
So what made religious nonprofits so effective? Academics, local activists, and the faith-based volunteers credit motivation, decentralization, and flexibility.

Read the whole thing here.