When a crisis hits you find out what kind of leadership you have. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour passed the leadership test. In contrast, Louisiana’s leadership failed and were not up to the task.

With Jackson in a water crisis its citizens are finding out that like Louisiana’s leaders after Katrina, Jackson Mayor Harvey Johnson is not up to the task. There are literally out-houses on Capital Street (see picture) and throughout Jackson as businesses try to stay open without plumbing. But most restaurants, all schools and many other businesses must stay closed.

Meanwhile, Mayor Harvey Johnson continues to refuse to hire private contractors to help:

Johnson said the city has taken quotes from private contractors, but so far the city has elected to go with its own crews and the help supplied by other governments. The mayor repeated his analogy comparing the crisis to other natural disasters.

“If we had ice on the ground, people would be much more understanding,” he said. “We have a disaster. It’s just not one you can see.”

Johnson said citizens need to understand the damage to the water system requires a great deal of resources from the city, “one of which is time.”

Yesterday Jackson had only four crews making repairs. With the help from other cities the number climbed to ten. That’s nowhere near enough, particularly since there are private crews ready to step in.

Johnson’s analogy to an ice storm is half right. People would understand, but they would also see power company crews from all over the nation in the city fixing the problem. People would know that Entergy was doing everything possible to fix the problem. Here, Harvey Johnson is telling us that he is not doing everything possible. People are mad not because they can’t see the problem, people are mad because they can see that not enough is being done to fix the problem. Johnson just doesn’t get it on multiple levels.

Closed businesses means a loss of sales tax revenue for Jackson. Not hiring private contractors does not save Jackson money. It costs Jackson money. Even worse, it causes people to not trust Mayor Johnson:

Try telling [Johnson’s B.S.] to west Jackson retiree Chrestene James, 66, who was one of many to see the last drop of water trickle away Monday morning, leaving her household of five dry.

“This is a mess. This is a mess,” she said. “We can’t even take a deep freeze. I’m disgusted.”

We can’t take a deep freeze and we can’t do what it takes to fix a disaster. Pitiful leadership. Just pitiful.