We must … come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age, economics, and the failure to utilize readily available resupply/evacuation routes played a deadly role in who survived and who did not.
The NASA orbital shots were released on 9/1, and have been widely shown on all the news networks. They are available to the public via Google Earth. They verify the time-stamp of the photo.
The information printed with the image comes from a poster on Free Republic. The information can be confirmed by looking at the same areas of the photos on Google Earth and zooming in enough to see the areas in question.
Well, supplies could have come in if the Louisiana state troopers hadn’t stopped the Red Cross (by the 31st, all the bridge inspections and road clearing had finished to the point they could use the highways).
We don’t know what kind of access to the outside world there was. It’s possible that roads leading from the dry areas in the photos to areas from which FEMA/NG would be coming were inaccessible. Not saying that they were, just speculating.
Well, supplies could have come in if the Louisiana state troopers hadn’t stopped the Red Cross (by the 31st, all the bridge inspections and road clearing had finished to the point they could use the highways).
And people could have gotten out too, if the buses weren’t up to their steering wheels in water.
C’mon sheeple. Like Chimpy McBu$Hitler and KKKarl Rove couldn’t just doctor the satellite photos and their timestamps! It’s really the only obvious explanation.
I don’t know if Azael is a guy or gal, but doesn’t it remind ya’ll of that Palestinian spokesbroad that people like Ted Koppel trot out to soil our airwaves?
BTW: i’ts head is exploding in that other thread. Lordy. Courage.
For the busses to make it to the GNO, they have to go under the overpass… I’d have to look closer (and I might later, it is almost 2 AM and I need to get up in 4 hours) but the base of the on ramps are very low.
I’ve lived there all my life and I seriously doubt they busses could make it to the on ramps. (maybe, but I doubt it) I know for a fact one of them floods all the time.
Paul, Even if the ramps were wet after the Levee broke, they were dry before. He could have used those buses in his mandatory evacuation plan to get those people out of N.O. before the storm.
We all should start pushing for Rudy G. to head up the ‘what went wrong’ commission that the dims are shouting about. He has the cred and mojo to get the truth out with minimal dim BS. Otherwise we’ll end up with Gorelick again.
MoveOn.org Political Action plans to unveil a TV ad on Monday that questions whether Roberts is sensitive enough to civil rights concerns to lead the Supreme Court. The ad suggests that the plight of the mostly African-American evacuees in New Orleans showed that poverty remains a serious problem among minorities, said Ben Brandzel, the group’s advocacy director. In a mix of judicial and racial politics, the ad then suggests that minorities could suffer if the Senate confirms Roberts.
It gets better (or worse, I should say). Their complaint? That Roberts was consistently opposed to discrimination on the basis of race!
Roberts advocated scaling back affirmative action and argued against a federal program the favored minorities who sought broadcast licenses. Roberts’ precise views today are unclear, however, because his role then was to reflect the policies of conservative administrations.
Contact: Trevor Fitzgibbon, Kawana Lloyd or Alex Howe, 202-822-5200, all for Moveon.Org Political Action
News Advisory:
— Katrina Evacuees to Tell President Bush His Administration Let Them Down
— Request Meeting with President to Demand Accountability
— Why Was Federal Funding Cut For Levee Maintenance?
Hurricane Katrina evacuees flew into the nation’s capital to tell President Bush to stop blaming local officials for his mistakes and acknowledge that budget cuts and indifference by his administration led to the disaster in New Orleans and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
They intend to ask him why he diverted over 40 percent of federal funding between 2001-2005 away from New Orleans. Hundreds are expected to rally in front of the White House at 1 p.m. EDT on Thursday.
“The President of the United States and his appointees let us down,” said Christine Mayfield, a New Orleans public school teacher and mother of three who was dislocated and now is staying in North Carolina.
The evacuees are also seeking a meeting with Rep. Henry Waxman, the ranking Democrat on the Government Oversight Committee.
According to Rep. Waxman, “the budget of the Corps of Engineers for construction projects in New Orleans district was cut by over 40 percent between 2001 and 2005, apparently to free up funds for the war in Iraq and homeland security projects. In 2004, for the first time in 37 years, the Corps halted all work on the New Orleans levee system.”
New Orleans native Michelle Augillard, one of the evacuees, was working toward her Masters degree at the University of New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina hit. Now, she is staying with a friend in Houston, trying to pick up the pieces of her life, along with her family. Both Michelle and Christine will appear at the rally.
“It is inhumane to have treated citizens of the United States like we were treated,” she said. “
Members of MoveOn.org Political Action are scheduled to hand- deliver thousands of petition signatures to the White House after the rally. The petition says, “President Bush should stop blaming the victims of Hurricane Katrina and get to work helping them.”
WHO: Katrina Evacuees and MoveOn members
WHAT: Protest outside the White House in support of Hurricane Victims
WHEN: Thursday, September 8th at 1 p.m.
WHERE: Pennsylvania Avenue NW. In front of the White House. (Metro: Red Line: Farragut North. Blue-Orange Line: Farragut West or McPherson Square)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Excellent Visuals—Signs reading “Shame” and “Help Hurricane Victims”
you know laguna, let em talk. actually, let em talk louder and louder. I just got over here from the daily howler, and he has a brilliant take on what the “progressives” are doing to themselves here. And I think the esteemed gov blanco is in a world of shit. did the mayor ask her to provide nat’l guard and state troopers to drive those busses? what the hell was his emergency management guy doing? if Nagin cans the emergency management guy (for the city, not talking about fema) i’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. is the governor stiffing NO because the mayor supported her opponent? are her advisors filling her (apparently) otherwise empty brain with exactly the wrong advice? her behavior is so inexplicable.
goody! a moveon protest! hopefully they will have some “bush lied” signs too! they seem to work so well for them. george soros is a brilliant political mastermind! with his help we can ban cloning for the next 50 years! to hell with the diabetics and paraplegics. let’s keep our eyes on the ball!
Seriously, I wonder how much money Mr. Soros has donated to hurricane relief? Kanye West? Jesse Jackson? show us the cancelled checks fellas.
Did an undermanned, overwhelmed NOPD force let loose the inmates of the City Jail? Or, did they evacuate them to another facility?
I have seen pictures of inmates being guarded by police on freeway overpass, waiting for evacuation.
There were wild rumors of prison/jail riots and breakouts right after the storm, but they seem to have been unsubstantiated – at least, the reports have gone away.
The NY Times is reporting that according to Chertoff, 7 trailers filled with water and MREs were delivered to the Superdome on August 29, and another 7 trailers were delivered there on August 30.
So the whole “starving babies” story was apparently another case of media hysteria.
Chertoff was criticized for “blunt” remarks in a briefing with Democratic congressmen. In other words, he didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear and then hang himself with his belt…
Gosh, why haven’t they fired this guy? Democratic politicians have never uttered a single blunt or intemperate word about anything through this entire crisis.
Chertoff even implied that the media coverage may have been sensationalized. For that alone, he should be fired, hanged, drawn and quartered. The unmitagated gall of that man!!!!
tw: ago; Not too long ago we had two legitimate parties.
Tony Snow had a couple of interesting guests on his radio show this morning. Col. Bill Cowan claimed that Blanco has issued a gag order to the LANG regarding discussion of the timeline for their mobilization. Also, he had a LA politician (first name Daniel, didn’t catch the last name) saying that, behind the scenes, there is a movement gathering for an impeachment effort against Blanco. Even some of her supporters have realized “the Blanco ship is sinking.” Words in quotes are his.
The news media didn’t have a problem getting to the Superdome, nor the Convention Center. Can’t imagine why naggin Nagin had a problem getting either his citizens out, or getting supplies to them.
Even if Nagin had not evacuated the people out of NO from the Dome, what the Fox reporters were saying is that the folks could have walked over the dry bridge we see in the photo to a place that was dry, had food and water and was more secure. They all said armed guards stopped them.
The Red Cross has stated unequivocally that they were barred, and still are barred, from entering NO because the officials don’t want to encourage people to stay.
I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain’t talking about—you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here.
I’m like, “You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans.”
Fuck all of you neo-con assholes. I’m going to start a site where everyone is invited to post pictures of themselves with signs saying they are sorry for what Bush did to New Orleans. Stuff like—“I’m sorry. President Kennedy would never have let those people drown.”
excuse me, but these pictures provide nothing….buses were used to get people to the Superdome and other shelters. After the storm moved in, the bus service was halted by the city. I think that there is a lot of blame to go around…maybe the Mayor should have told his police and fire fighters to drive the buses out of town but wait a minute, wasn’t traffic backed up for miles (according to a friend who was able to move has family to Memphis, TN)…so if he would have had these buses on the road and the storm hit, would all these individuals been swept away in the storm…hmm….I do agree that the Governor has a couple of loose screws….she needs to go…FEMA has some responsiblity in this matter, so please don’t tell me that they should be blameless in this catastrophe…..tell me something, what was FEMA’s respond last year when Florida had those hurricanes?…hmm…their response was much different than what occurred last week….I wonder was this because this was an election year…hmm…lets face it people, there are a lot of factors that came into play last week….when we are able to talk about all of the issues in a respectful matter(race, age, social economics, incompetence of leadership, lack of planning (state, federal, & local)), hopefully we will be able to be better prepare and prevent another event like this from occurring in the future. peace.
How was FEMA’s response different Quinnton? What did it being an election year have to do with it? Saying a thing doesn’t make it so. What is the evidence?
to corvan…why don’t you do some research to see what FEMA’s responds was to the hurricanes in Florida last year and then draw your own conclusion…hmm…like I said before, there is a lot of blame to go around but please don’t sit there and tell me that FEMA should be blameless in this matter…FEMA, along with the local and state government failed the people. period. So suck it up and deal with it.
Uh, no, Quinnton, that’s not how this game is played. You don’t sashay in here, drop a steaming load of horeshit allegations (election year = different FEMA response), intimate even more damning allegation (race, income = different FEMA response) and then, when asked for some, you know, evidence, tell people to do their own research.
How was FEMA’s response different Quinnton? What did it being an election year have to do with it? Saying a thing doesn’t make it so. What is the evidence?
Other than understandable (in view of the size of the problem, and the effort) friction and occasional bureaucratic SNAFU’s I have not seen evidence for any major screw-ups in response by the Feds. None.
And the more we learn, the more evident it is that in addition to doing everything the Feds were supposed to do, they had to scramble to fix the things the LA and NO managers didn’t do.
I’m not convinced there has to be a bad guy here. Katrina was gonna suck, no matter what happened. It is understandable that the local response was severely impaired. But if there is a bad guy, it sure doesn’t look like Uncle Sam.
The buses would have been swept away? Where are all the news stories of the folks in all that traffic being swept away? How did Quinnton’s friends make it to Memphis without being swept away?
The first bus to reach the Astrodome in Houston was driven by a 20-year-old who commandeered a bus. Charmaine Neville commandeered a bus. The buses were part of the City’s own written plan—but the City developed no logistics to implement it.
Not to mention that if Nagin had ordered the evacuation sooner (per Brendan Loy), there would have been less of a traffic problem in the first place. Plaquemines Parish, where there was a mandatory evacuation 48 hours before Katrina hit, has had few fatalities.
Not to mention that it is obviously easier to drive out of a city before a hurricane—even with traffic—than to have to try to enter it after streets have been flooded and bridges destroyed.
Other than those tiny flaws, Quinnton has a powerful argument.
Not to speak on corvan’s behalf, but mighty Quinnton – you made an assertion, therefore the burden of proof is on you. Not the people questioning your statement.
Besides that, you’re comparing apples to Carrot Top’s ass crack. The results of Katrina were very different from the results of the ‘04 canes that hit Florida. Of COURSE the response was different.
Now I know that because I’m not as smooth in working ellipses into my comments as you that You’ll probably disregard my statement…but….I just feel like…if you state something or make…a compar…ison, you should be able to defend it.
why don’t you do some research to see what FEMA’s responds was to the hurricanes in Florida last year and then draw your own conclusion.
I looked, and I came to the conclusion that South Florida was a hurricane, while New Orleans was a flood, with the city underwater for a week due to failure of flood control gates. Also, there were fewer roving gangs of armed thugs shooting at aid workers and helicopters in South Florida.
Think there might be a slight difference between the two situations? Besides the obvious election-year thing…
Sure FEMA did some things that may have resulted in unnecessary delays. Forcing rescue workers to attend sexual harassment classes before allowing them into the field is asinine. However, there is no evidence that I’ve seen, and commenters here should correct me if I’m wrong, that FEMA’s delays were due to anything other than following the rules. Those rules, by the way, that have been put in place by the very same illustrious elected officials* who actively search out TV cameras so they can begin bloviating about how the federal government’s response was so inadequate.
why don’t you do some research to see what FEMA’s responds was to the hurricanes in Florida last year and then draw your own conclusion
Having actually been there at the time, my conclusion is: FEMA was there to assist in the cleanup; the rest of the grunt work was done by the state. That said, there was nothing at all similar between the damage done in Florida and the damage done to southern LA.
So, apples and appendectomies. If you’ve got a specific point you’d like to make, please make it. If all you’ve got to say is what you said, on the other hand, you’re pointless.
Oh, and by “assist in the cleanup”, I’m talking about financial assistance. Just to be clear.
FEMA’s primary role in Florida consisted of a) ex post facto check-writing (sometimes to the wrong people in the wrong place, mind) to cover emergency repairs and generator purchases, and b) funding and coordination of efforts to provide temporary housing for those whose domiciles were rendered unliveable by the hurricanes.
Which, so far, aren’t abywhere on the top half of the N.O. to-do list.
yeah, talking to my mother in FL last night. she agreed that people seem to have no idea what it is FEMA does. the response to katrina has been no different to other hurricanes. they aren’t first responders, they typically show up with a checkbook afterwards to help with cleanup and housing.
I don’t know if Nagin et al were ‘callous’. Maybe they were, but maybe they were just over their heads. Deers in the headlights. In denial. All kinds of reasons for failure. But: The buck may stop on the President’s desk (a la Truman), but it STARTS at Nagin’s. If government screws up at that level, then all complaints after that are just blame-shifting.
I have done my research. To this point FEMA looks as though it did the best it could in an impossible situation. What evidence do you have to the contrary? I’m willing to listen. I’m even willing to be convinced, but I won’t be herded with assertions. Give me a fact or two. I would say the same thing to Bobby Jindal, who I’m beginning to fear opened his mouth for political purposes when the media went insane.
Have there been bureacratic screw ups, of course, the Hurricane rap song comes to mind, but I haven’t seen that FEMA has abandoned its job or committed any sort of criminal negligence, or for that matter been late with the aid it was supposed to deliver. If you can prove different, or if Mr. Jindal can prove different, I’m listening.
Perhpas you can make a case that the entire concept of FEMA is silly in that it is just another layer of bureacracy. But you’re not doing that. You’re throwing pig slop on people who appear to have been doing their best.
Yes, Maggie. FEMA put in their biggest appearance in Florida by paying for hurricane damage in Miami…where the winds never exceeded 40 mph, IIRC. So, judging by their performance in Florida, I’d expect them to be writing the entire state of Kentucky a multibillion-dollar check. Ok, maybe Indiana.
Also, not to dump on congressman Jindal, but it seems his frustration is with the fact that FEMA is a bureacratic agency. Well, when congress stops building bureacratic agencies we won’t have any more bureacratic agencies.
He is complaing about an agency that is exactly what his colleagues in the congress designed it to be. His is outraged because the people that were running FEMA were following the rules congress gives them to work under.
He is also quite oblivious to the fact that the locals were supposed to be at least marginally prepared for the storm as well. In fact, their own plans expicitly anticipated that this would be their show for three to five days before any assistance arrived. What they should have been asking FEMA for was money, not flashlights and school buses.
So Congressman Jindal’s solution? Another Federal bureacrat, except this one will be in charge, gosh darn it. But the question is what will he be in charge of? Will he be in charge of the state where the disaster strikes? If so, what do we need with state and local governments?
The more I look at this the more I see a state government that was woefully unprepared to do its job, and that is now desperately looking for a way to shift blame about. I’m not interested in helping them do that.
Ironically, had the local officials, and folk like Mr. Jindal just said, “Y’know sometimes awful stuff happens, everybody is doing the best we can. We’ll look at the problems when this is over and straighten them out.” No one would care much about the state and local governments one way or the other. But I’m not willing to let them sling mud everywhere then excuse their own problems with, “there is plenty of blame to go around.”
The failures on the state and local level were colossal, and there was no way they could be overcome. That is no reason to burn Mike Brown at the stake, and the left wouldn’t be interested in doing it if he didn’t work for GW Bush.
The reason why I said do your own research (which some people have) is because if I told you what I have read some of you would have said…but that is the liberal press, etc….some people lay out some good responses though…may me think a little..thanks…let me leave U with this last thought: Obviously disaster response at the federal level should be re-evaluated. I fear, though, that the administration is already laying the building blocks for avoiding this by saying this was an “ultra disaster” and “completely unforeseen” and thereby dismissing it as a once in a lifetime event (which I hope it is). And as much as I hate to think this might be the case, one can’t help but wonder how much race and class have played in the response both prior to and after the hurricane. Would airlifts of supplies been provided more quickly if those affected were white and middle-class? What if it were middle class white children dying of heat exhaustion in the Superdome? My white friend in Austin is telling me that people are worry about safety in Austin because “these people” are just druggies and welfare recipients and they’ve been given handouts all their lives and they’re just going to scam FEMA, etc. If such things come out of the mouths of “supposedly” educated people, then did the response officials think the same thing? just food for thought…we all don’t have to agree but we should be respectful with our communiciation….
hi Quinnton. you share my son’s name, so I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt. I’m gonna give FEMA the benefit of the doubt here too. One huge difference between FL and LA responses is that FL has had huge storms in the last few years. Sadly, with humans, practice does make, if not perfect, then better. So FL was much more ready and able to do their part, which is the part that sets the foundation for the response, than LA. As everyone knows, a solid foundation is the most important part of any construct. At least one other difference can be ascribed to human nature, and that is the fact that people in the region of the gulf have ridden out many hurricanes for the past 30 years without having an Andrew experience. I have a friend who only survived Andrew because he and his dog fled to an interior closet of his big, fancy house. When they came out, the rest of the house was gone. He has post-traumatic syndrome still. I was just talking with a gal whose fam. rode out Katrina in MS because they had been fine thru Camille. Bad mistake. One guy only made it by tying himself to a phone pole, and was buck naked by the time he could climb down; storm tore clothes off his body. Next time an evac order comes, those folks are gonna bug out. Blanco and NO’s emergency management guy are the only two who must, must go, in my opinion. And please read the stuff written by the folks above. FEMA is a check-writing and final sweep-up organization, not a group of first responders.
Let’s cut to the chase. FEMA performed as designed, and per their goals and structure.
Bottom line – failures occurred at all levels to some degree or another. To believe there was massive federal failure is to simply misunderstand FEMA’s role in national disaster planning. Now there may be some redesign, and heads may roll, but it neither caused the bulk of the preventable problems here nor will it contribute to prevention at the next.
Unless you want to just eliminate the state and local roles in all of this and make it all federal, in which case we’ll all die.
The problem seems to me to be one of unrealistic expectations. Between the liberal posters and the media, everyone seems to be of the impression that FEMA is some kind of disaster DELTA Force; they aren’t, unless the DELTA’s latest weapon is tents and checkbooks.
FEMA stages relief, RELIEF, materials and medical teams for people displaced by natural disasters. That’s their job. They did it. In fact, they did it before the storm him land, including 18 medical teams and two mobile hospitals with surgical facilities.
The military musters rescue, security, and additional medical resources and puts them at the disposal of the Governor. Most Gov’s understand that they are the comander in chief of their state’s National Guard, and of any other military assets put at their disposal by the President. The military did their job BEFORE the storm hit, and staged their resources just North of the coastal cities. Ready and waiting for the Governor to give the order to rescue people, provide security, etc. Just waiting.
The President is an ombudsman in this kind of an emergency, clearing obstacles and ordering federal resources to be put at the disposal of the states affected. The President also consults with the Governors and offers advice and assistance. The President called the Governor and the Mayor of NO BEFORE the Hurricane hit to recomend that they execute their emergeny plan for a Hurricane over cat 3, for which the city did not have protection.
The Governor is responsible for designating emergencies and disasters within their state boundaries, and for requesting the assistance of the federal agencies that were standing around waiting for her orders. The Governor sat on her hands and waited until NO was under water and instead of issuing the necesssary orders to prevent the loss of life and save the survivors, began blaming the feds for not doing her job for her.
The Mayor is reponsible for executing the emergency preparedness plan for his city. The plan called for issuing a mandatory evacuation order 72 or 48 hours before a hurricane hit land, and using all available busses in the city to haul the people who didn’t have their own cars out of the flood prone areas to safety. The plan also stipulated that the superdome and the convention center were not acceptable areas for shelter because of the lack of facilities and food and water. Instead of issuing the evacuation order and ordering the busses in, the Mayor sat on his hands until the last minute and then told people to go to the exact spot that the planners said they shouldn’t go.
The police’s job is to supervise the evacuation and ensure the security of peoples lives and property in a disaster. Instead of doing their job, the Police took the opportunity to do some last minute “shopping” at Walmart and then disapeared.
The citizen’s job is to listen to and follow the advice of disaster planners and stock up on 3 days of supplies and to obey evacuation orders and not shoot at rescuers or loot stores and homes after their neighbors leave. 80% of them chose to do so. The rest have chosen to blame their governent sugardaddies for not doing it for them.
The media’s job is to report news without bias and not hype disasters for partisan gain. I don’t think anyone ever expected them to do this in the first place, but I have a question for the media. Why are the 10,000 or so people who refused to leave NO constantly shown in the media while I haven’t seen a single image that hints that there are 70,000 or so uniformed military and probably twice that number of civil servants and volunteers taking care of the ones who do leave?
I agreed with amyc and Scot….Blanco does have to go and the Emergency Management Manager…my verdict is still out on the mayor even though he made major blunders (telling people to go to the Superdome, not issuing the warning until Sunday morning instead of Saturday…people who watch the news knew it was going to be a catogory 5 hurricane on Friday night/Saturday morning….maybe he was thinking that it was going to turn from NO like all the other hurricanes did in the past……btw, did U all know he was a Republican before he switch parties to run as a democrat for mayor…I know why he did that though…)and with Michael Brown of FEMA (yeah, he had resources waiting outside of the city and those resources got in but he wasn’t aware that there were individuals at other locations who needed assistance (Convention Center)…maybe city officials forgot to tell him…it was embarrassing he found out this information from the media of all places)…also, I don’t know if I can deal with another commission…Scot, I saw that their were some police doing some last minute shopping but that wasn’t all of the force…everything else I pretty much agree with to a certain extend…good discussion…
for two EMS techs’ inside look. They were tourists at a convention. Sheriff’s deputies firing over their heads PREVENTED them from walking out!!! Then a deputy later stole their food.
.btw, did U all know he was a Republican before he switch parties to run as a democrat for mayor..
Yep, and nobody cares.
Quinnton,
Go back and read the blog entries here for the last several days. Jeff and his commentors have done an incredible amount of research. Law, chain of command, statuates..you name it, they’ve hunted it down and provided links to all supporting official documents in full context. Everytime something new comes up, they research and verify – they take nothing at face value no matter what “side” it comes from.
tink, I have read some of their other blog entries…thank U…that is one reason why I was intrigue by this blog…..I don’t take everything at face value though and I have done my own research too….
Quinnton, your “research” is pretty amusing since you seem to not know that Louisiana state officials were blocking supplies into New Orleans.
By the way, the convention center was a war zone – the Louisiana National Guard commander would not send his troops there for several days until he had built up a force of thousands of guardsman.
When you have done enough research to actually know what happened, then come back.
Yes,really…..and I’d like to thank Jeff and all the other contributers here!! I’m new to this blog stuff,and have been intrigued by the “leftist hate agenda”….thank you all for informing me and mine
At the risk of further flogging the decomposing equine, there’s also the famous FEMA funerals. If you simply die near the time a hurricane hits, FEMA will pay to plant you.
[Pelosi] D’oh! Why did I click that?! Damn you, Goldstein, you piqued my curiosity!! [/Pelosi]
Where’s the fucking freak out emotion? No emotion? Then the photos prove nothing!.
/Miss Alli
How long before Azael shows up with Governor Blanco’s letter in tow.
a taco stand in east Caracas, Venenzuela
tourist from New Orleans: “Ray? Mayor Ray Nagin? Is that you? Is that you Ray? Under that long-ass beard?”
man who suspiciously resembles former Mayor Ray Nagin: No habla englais amigo…tome su cuadro? ¿usted tienen gusto de un taco?
I just left asked Michael about the source and how to verify the date. I want to make sure. So this post is still “provisional”.
We must … come to terms with the ugly truth that skin color, age, economics, and the failure to utilize readily available resupply/evacuation routes played a deadly role in who survived and who did not.
:::jaw drop:::
I agree it should be authenticated Jeff, because it is like a freaking smoking gun…..For Blanco and Nagins sake I hope it isn’t true..
I’mm off to the bar, don’t wanna think about this for a while..
These pictures also appear on Junkyard Blog, and he has links to Google earth where you can zoom in.
In fact, Google “Mayor Ray Nagin Memorial Motor Pool,” and you might find more.
How could you possibly fit actual people into those little buses? They’re not even a quarter inch long!
The NASA orbital shots were released on 9/1, and have been widely shown on all the news networks. They are available to the public via Google Earth. They verify the time-stamp of the photo.
The information printed with the image comes from a poster on Free Republic. The information can be confirmed by looking at the same areas of the photos on Google Earth and zooming in enough to see the areas in question.
now, i may be confused, but if there was an escape route, couldn’t supplies also come in? like FEMA and NG?
and what’s up with the verified link? did you mean to link to your own post?
maggie katzen:
Well, supplies could have come in if the Louisiana state troopers hadn’t stopped the Red Cross (by the 31st, all the bridge inspections and road clearing had finished to the point they could use the highways).
TW: white. As in: The black and white story here has nothing to do with race.
Maggie, that verification link goes to Michael’s comment, above.
maggie,
We don’t know what kind of access to the outside world there was. It’s possible that roads leading from the dry areas in the photos to areas from which FEMA/NG would be coming were inaccessible. Not saying that they were, just speculating.
yeah, jeff, it finally worked, when i didn’t open it in a new window. sorry.
tw: wrong, i’m so wrong for asking stupid questions. (on purpose)
And people could have gotten out too, if the buses weren’t up to their steering wheels in water.
Well that’s just fuckin’ great.
More on disaster politics here. Jeff, hope you don’t mind my piggybacking on your magnificent traffic. Your Kung Fu mysticism lights up my life.
A candidate for one of Jeff’s existential conversations:
President Bush, Governor Blanco and Mayor Nagin, Friday September 1:
Bush: WTF?!
Blanco: [sobs]
Bush:
Blanco: [sobs]
Bush: OK, we’re gonna clean this mess up, starting right now. Sign here.
Blanco:
Nagin: WTF?!
Bush: [sobs]
I see the Hwy is clear, but I’m not sure that there is access to the Dome itself..it looks like a lot of water surrounding it on Google maps.
Click the Katrina button and start zooming
Then again, maybe I’m just in denial that human beings could be that f’ing callous.
I really don’t have anything to add. I just had to get away from Azael for a second.
C’mon sheeple. Like Chimpy McBu$Hitler and KKKarl Rove couldn’t just doctor the satellite photos and their timestamps! It’s really the only obvious explanation.
I don’t know if Azael is a guy or gal, but doesn’t it remind ya’ll of that Palestinian spokesbroad that people like Ted Koppel trot out to soil our airwaves?
BTW: i’ts head is exploding in that other thread. Lordy. Courage.
Tink:
I could throw a baseball from the highway to the dry areas next to the Superdome, and I haven’t got a pitching arm worth spit.
People were wading back and forth all the time.
Jim,
All I know is that with enemies like Azael GW Bush doesn’t need friends.
Hanan Ashrawi, that’s who I was thinking of. What a piece of work.
Dude, it’s like the Warren Commission, but from space.
Not so fast Jeff…
For the busses to make it to the GNO, they have to go under the overpass… I’d have to look closer (and I might later, it is almost 2 AM and I need to get up in 4 hours) but the base of the on ramps are very low.
I’ve lived there all my life and I seriously doubt they busses could make it to the on ramps. (maybe, but I doubt it) I know for a fact one of them floods all the time.
Somebody should get out the zoom tool though.
“Hanan Ashrawi”, oddly enough, translates to “Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author Tom Friedman” in English.
That’s got to mean something, right?
Paul —
You might be right. Let me know if you find anything conclusive. I’m not familiar with the area.
Paul, Even if the ramps were wet after the Levee broke, they were dry before. He could have used those buses in his mandatory evacuation plan to get those people out of N.O. before the storm.
not neccesarily betty. some places just flood for a while after a heavy downpour. and katrina would have provided much more rain than usual.
i should go to bed, sorry i missed the “before the storm” part of your comment betty.
Look folks, I am here to tell you there is a reason the New Orleans Saints are the all-time losingest team in the NFL. Paul, they broke my heart.
TW: response—as in “the city’s response to Katrina was as expected.”
We all should start pushing for Rudy G. to head up the ‘what went wrong’ commission that the dims are shouting about. He has the cred and mojo to get the truth out with minimal dim BS. Otherwise we’ll end up with Gorelick again.
The moral giants at MoveOn.org are rolling out a new TV ad, calling for John Roberts’ nomination to be defeated because of … wait for it … Hurricane Katrina:
It gets better (or worse, I should say). Their complaint? That Roberts was consistently opposed to discrimination on the basis of race!
To: Assignment Desk, Daybook Editor
Contact: Trevor Fitzgibbon, Kawana Lloyd or Alex Howe, 202-822-5200, all for Moveon.Org Political Action
News Advisory:
— Katrina Evacuees to Tell President Bush His Administration Let Them Down
— Request Meeting with President to Demand Accountability
— Why Was Federal Funding Cut For Levee Maintenance?
Hurricane Katrina evacuees flew into the nation’s capital to tell President Bush to stop blaming local officials for his mistakes and acknowledge that budget cuts and indifference by his administration led to the disaster in New Orleans and along the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
They intend to ask him why he diverted over 40 percent of federal funding between 2001-2005 away from New Orleans. Hundreds are expected to rally in front of the White House at 1 p.m. EDT on Thursday.
“The President of the United States and his appointees let us down,” said Christine Mayfield, a New Orleans public school teacher and mother of three who was dislocated and now is staying in North Carolina.
The evacuees are also seeking a meeting with Rep. Henry Waxman, the ranking Democrat on the Government Oversight Committee.
According to Rep. Waxman, “the budget of the Corps of Engineers for construction projects in New Orleans district was cut by over 40 percent between 2001 and 2005, apparently to free up funds for the war in Iraq and homeland security projects. In 2004, for the first time in 37 years, the Corps halted all work on the New Orleans levee system.”
New Orleans native Michelle Augillard, one of the evacuees, was working toward her Masters degree at the University of New Orleans before Hurricane Katrina hit. Now, she is staying with a friend in Houston, trying to pick up the pieces of her life, along with her family. Both Michelle and Christine will appear at the rally.
“It is inhumane to have treated citizens of the United States like we were treated,” she said. “
Members of MoveOn.org Political Action are scheduled to hand- deliver thousands of petition signatures to the White House after the rally. The petition says, “President Bush should stop blaming the victims of Hurricane Katrina and get to work helping them.”
WHO: Katrina Evacuees and MoveOn members
WHAT: Protest outside the White House in support of Hurricane Victims
WHEN: Thursday, September 8th at 1 p.m.
WHERE: Pennsylvania Avenue NW. In front of the White House. (Metro: Red Line: Farragut North. Blue-Orange Line: Farragut West or McPherson Square)
EDITOR’S NOTE: Excellent Visuals—Signs reading “Shame” and “Help Hurricane Victims”
you know laguna, let em talk. actually, let em talk louder and louder. I just got over here from the daily howler, and he has a brilliant take on what the “progressives” are doing to themselves here. And I think the esteemed gov blanco is in a world of shit. did the mayor ask her to provide nat’l guard and state troopers to drive those busses? what the hell was his emergency management guy doing? if Nagin cans the emergency management guy (for the city, not talking about fema) i’ll give him the benefit of the doubt. is the governor stiffing NO because the mayor supported her opponent? are her advisors filling her (apparently) otherwise empty brain with exactly the wrong advice? her behavior is so inexplicable.
I agree totally. I wrote the same thing even before I heard about the busses – http://thielen.typepad.com/politics/2005/09/was_anyone_doin.html
goody! a moveon protest! hopefully they will have some “bush lied” signs too! they seem to work so well for them. george soros is a brilliant political mastermind! with his help we can ban cloning for the next 50 years! to hell with the diabetics and paraplegics. let’s keep our eyes on the ball!
Seriously, I wonder how much money Mr. Soros has donated to hurricane relief? Kanye West? Jesse Jackson? show us the cancelled checks fellas.
holy shit
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/07/AR2005090702462.html
if I were a nicer person, I’d send that article to moveon.org and recommend that they read it before their little “protest.”
Here is the link to the MOVEON press release above:
http://releases.usnewswire.com/GetRelease.asp?id=52836
**** WARNING ****
Karl Rove mind control rays have been detected. Please activate protective headgear now (see examples of proper headgear and usage here).
THIS IS NOT A DRILL.
MONEY SHOT from the link above:
EDITOR’S NOTE: Excellent Visualsâ€â€Signs reading “Shame†and “Help Hurricane Victimsâ€Â
More illustrations of proper headgear available here.
Remember, KRMCR exposure can injure, kill, or in extreme cases even cause the afflicted to vote Republican.
Maybe if the Red Cross had been allowed go in and leave a trail of 1 litre bottles from the outskirts of the Superdome to relative safety ……..
Moveon.org? Aren’t they misnamed? Shouldn’t it be “Can’t seem to move on?”
TW: best, as in “It’s best if you don’t peddle that bullshit around here, son.”
Query. Did an undermanned, overwhelmed NOPD force let loose the inmates of the City Jail? Or, did they evacuate them to another facility?
If they did release said prisoners, are these the same guys that are being rounded up now? That are shooting at contractors and police?
Inquiring minds want to know.
I have seen pictures of inmates being guarded by police on freeway overpass, waiting for evacuation.
There were wild rumors of prison/jail riots and breakouts right after the storm, but they seem to have been unsubstantiated – at least, the reports have gone away.
The NY Times is reporting that according to Chertoff, 7 trailers filled with water and MREs were delivered to the Superdome on August 29, and another 7 trailers were delivered there on August 30.
So the whole “starving babies” story was apparently another case of media hysteria.
Chertoff was criticized for “blunt” remarks in a briefing with Democratic congressmen. In other words, he didn’t tell them what they wanted to hear and then hang himself with his belt…
Gosh, why haven’t they fired this guy? Democratic politicians have never uttered a single blunt or intemperate word about anything through this entire crisis.
The melt-down continues…
Chertoff even implied that the media coverage may have been sensationalized. For that alone, he should be fired, hanged, drawn and quartered. The unmitagated gall of that man!!!!
tw: ago; Not too long ago we had two legitimate parties.
Tony Snow had a couple of interesting guests on his radio show this morning. Col. Bill Cowan claimed that Blanco has issued a gag order to the LANG regarding discussion of the timeline for their mobilization. Also, he had a LA politician (first name Daniel, didn’t catch the last name) saying that, behind the scenes, there is a movement gathering for an impeachment effort against Blanco. Even some of her supporters have realized “the Blanco ship is sinking.” Words in quotes are his.
The news media didn’t have a problem getting to the Superdome, nor the Convention Center. Can’t imagine why naggin Nagin had a problem getting either his citizens out, or getting supplies to them.
Even if Nagin had not evacuated the people out of NO from the Dome, what the Fox reporters were saying is that the folks could have walked over the dry bridge we see in the photo to a place that was dry, had food and water and was more secure. They all said armed guards stopped them.
The Red Cross has stated unequivocally that they were barred, and still are barred, from entering NO because the officials don’t want to encourage people to stay.
Nagin didn’t want drivers for buses in town.
<a href=”http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/nagin.transcript/”></a>
Nagin (to CNN):
I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain’t talking about—you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here.
I’m like, “You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans.”
Fuck all of you neo-con assholes. I’m going to start a site where everyone is invited to post pictures of themselves with signs saying they are sorry for what Bush did to New Orleans. Stuff like—“I’m sorry. President Kennedy would never have let those people drown.”
Damn racist buses
excuse me, but these pictures provide nothing….buses were used to get people to the Superdome and other shelters. After the storm moved in, the bus service was halted by the city. I think that there is a lot of blame to go around…maybe the Mayor should have told his police and fire fighters to drive the buses out of town but wait a minute, wasn’t traffic backed up for miles (according to a friend who was able to move has family to Memphis, TN)…so if he would have had these buses on the road and the storm hit, would all these individuals been swept away in the storm…hmm….I do agree that the Governor has a couple of loose screws….she needs to go…FEMA has some responsiblity in this matter, so please don’t tell me that they should be blameless in this catastrophe…..tell me something, what was FEMA’s respond last year when Florida had those hurricanes?…hmm…their response was much different than what occurred last week….I wonder was this because this was an election year…hmm…lets face it people, there are a lot of factors that came into play last week….when we are able to talk about all of the issues in a respectful matter(race, age, social economics, incompetence of leadership, lack of planning (state, federal, & local)), hopefully we will be able to be better prepare and prevent another event like this from occurring in the future. peace.
Damn you, Chimpy! DAMN YOU!! –
WASHINGTON (AP) – A large solar flare was reported Wednesday and
forecasters warned of potential electrical and communications disruptions.
The flare was reported by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric
Administration’s Space Environment Center in Boulder, Colo.
Significant solar eruptions are possible in the coming days and there
could be disruptions in spacecraft operations, electric power systems,
high frequency communications and low-frequency navigation systems,
the agency said.
“This flare, the fourth largest in the last 15 years, erupted just as
the … sunspot cluster was rotating onto the visible disk of the
sun,” said Larry Combs, solar forecaster at the center.
The flare has affected some high-frequency communications on the
sunlit side of Earth, NOAA reported.
SB: turn
The Turtles
How was FEMA’s response different Quinnton? What did it being an election year have to do with it? Saying a thing doesn’t make it so. What is the evidence?
to corvan…why don’t you do some research to see what FEMA’s responds was to the hurricanes in Florida last year and then draw your own conclusion…hmm…like I said before, there is a lot of blame to go around but please don’t sit there and tell me that FEMA should be blameless in this matter…FEMA, along with the local and state government failed the people. period. So suck it up and deal with it.
Uh, no, Quinnton, that’s not how this game is played. You don’t sashay in here, drop a steaming load of horeshit allegations (election year = different FEMA response), intimate even more damning allegation (race, income = different FEMA response) and then, when asked for some, you know, evidence, tell people to do their own research.
Nope. No sale.
Other than understandable (in view of the size of the problem, and the effort) friction and occasional bureaucratic SNAFU’s I have not seen evidence for any major screw-ups in response by the Feds. None.
And the more we learn, the more evident it is that in addition to doing everything the Feds were supposed to do, they had to scramble to fix the things the LA and NO managers didn’t do.
I’m not convinced there has to be a bad guy here. Katrina was gonna suck, no matter what happened. It is understandable that the local response was severely impaired. But if there is a bad guy, it sure doesn’t look like Uncle Sam.
The buses would have been swept away? Where are all the news stories of the folks in all that traffic being swept away? How did Quinnton’s friends make it to Memphis without being swept away?
The first bus to reach the Astrodome in Houston was driven by a 20-year-old who commandeered a bus. Charmaine Neville commandeered a bus. The buses were part of the City’s own written plan—but the City developed no logistics to implement it.
Not to mention that if Nagin had ordered the evacuation sooner (per Brendan Loy), there would have been less of a traffic problem in the first place. Plaquemines Parish, where there was a mandatory evacuation 48 hours before Katrina hit, has had few fatalities.
Not to mention that it is obviously easier to drive out of a city before a hurricane—even with traffic—than to have to try to enter it after streets have been flooded and bridges destroyed.
Other than those tiny flaws, Quinnton has a powerful argument.
Not to speak on corvan’s behalf, but mighty Quinnton – you made an assertion, therefore the burden of proof is on you. Not the people questioning your statement.
Besides that, you’re comparing apples to Carrot Top’s ass crack. The results of Katrina were very different from the results of the ‘04 canes that hit Florida. Of COURSE the response was different.
Now I know that because I’m not as smooth in working ellipses into my comments as you that You’ll probably disregard my statement…but….I just feel like…if you state something or make…a compar…ison, you should be able to defend it.
I looked, and I came to the conclusion that South Florida was a hurricane, while New Orleans was a flood, with the city underwater for a week due to failure of flood control gates. Also, there were fewer roving gangs of armed thugs shooting at aid workers and helicopters in South Florida.
Think there might be a slight difference between the two situations? Besides the obvious election-year thing…
Quinnton,
Sure FEMA did some things that may have resulted in unnecessary delays. Forcing rescue workers to attend sexual harassment classes before allowing them into the field is asinine. However, there is no evidence that I’ve seen, and commenters here should correct me if I’m wrong, that FEMA’s delays were due to anything other than following the rules. Those rules, by the way, that have been put in place by the very same illustrious elected officials* who actively search out TV cameras so they can begin bloviating about how the federal government’s response was so inadequate.
tw: upon; *a pox, their houses
Having actually been there at the time, my conclusion is: FEMA was there to assist in the cleanup; the rest of the grunt work was done by the state. That said, there was nothing at all similar between the damage done in Florida and the damage done to southern LA.
So, apples and appendectomies. If you’ve got a specific point you’d like to make, please make it. If all you’ve got to say is what you said, on the other hand, you’re pointless.
Deadly Bureaucracy. The headline says it all.
tw: body
Oh, and by “assist in the cleanup”, I’m talking about financial assistance. Just to be clear.
FEMA’s primary role in Florida consisted of a) ex post facto check-writing (sometimes to the wrong people in the wrong place, mind) to cover emergency repairs and generator purchases, and b) funding and coordination of efforts to provide temporary housing for those whose domiciles were rendered unliveable by the hurricanes.
Which, so far, aren’t abywhere on the top half of the N.O. to-do list.
So, in other words, big difference.
yeah, talking to my mother in FL last night. she agreed that people seem to have no idea what it is FEMA does. the response to katrina has been no different to other hurricanes. they aren’t first responders, they typically show up with a checkbook afterwards to help with cleanup and housing.
I don’t know if Nagin et al were ‘callous’. Maybe they were, but maybe they were just over their heads. Deers in the headlights. In denial. All kinds of reasons for failure. But: The buck may stop on the President’s desk (a la Truman), but it STARTS at Nagin’s. If government screws up at that level, then all complaints after that are just blame-shifting.
(ooo… the password is ‘love’ how nice)
Quinnton,
I have done my research. To this point FEMA looks as though it did the best it could in an impossible situation. What evidence do you have to the contrary? I’m willing to listen. I’m even willing to be convinced, but I won’t be herded with assertions. Give me a fact or two. I would say the same thing to Bobby Jindal, who I’m beginning to fear opened his mouth for political purposes when the media went insane.
Have there been bureacratic screw ups, of course, the Hurricane rap song comes to mind, but I haven’t seen that FEMA has abandoned its job or committed any sort of criminal negligence, or for that matter been late with the aid it was supposed to deliver. If you can prove different, or if Mr. Jindal can prove different, I’m listening.
Perhpas you can make a case that the entire concept of FEMA is silly in that it is just another layer of bureacracy. But you’re not doing that. You’re throwing pig slop on people who appear to have been doing their best.
Yes, Maggie. FEMA put in their biggest appearance in Florida by paying for hurricane damage in Miami…where the winds never exceeded 40 mph, IIRC. So, judging by their performance in Florida, I’d expect them to be writing the entire state of Kentucky a multibillion-dollar check. Ok, maybe Indiana.
Which, if that’s what Quinnton’s really after…
Also, not to dump on congressman Jindal, but it seems his frustration is with the fact that FEMA is a bureacratic agency. Well, when congress stops building bureacratic agencies we won’t have any more bureacratic agencies.
He is complaing about an agency that is exactly what his colleagues in the congress designed it to be. His is outraged because the people that were running FEMA were following the rules congress gives them to work under.
He is also quite oblivious to the fact that the locals were supposed to be at least marginally prepared for the storm as well. In fact, their own plans expicitly anticipated that this would be their show for three to five days before any assistance arrived. What they should have been asking FEMA for was money, not flashlights and school buses.
So Congressman Jindal’s solution? Another Federal bureacrat, except this one will be in charge, gosh darn it. But the question is what will he be in charge of? Will he be in charge of the state where the disaster strikes? If so, what do we need with state and local governments?
The more I look at this the more I see a state government that was woefully unprepared to do its job, and that is now desperately looking for a way to shift blame about. I’m not interested in helping them do that.
Ironically, had the local officials, and folk like Mr. Jindal just said, “Y’know sometimes awful stuff happens, everybody is doing the best we can. We’ll look at the problems when this is over and straighten them out.” No one would care much about the state and local governments one way or the other. But I’m not willing to let them sling mud everywhere then excuse their own problems with, “there is plenty of blame to go around.”
The failures on the state and local level were colossal, and there was no way they could be overcome. That is no reason to burn Mike Brown at the stake, and the left wouldn’t be interested in doing it if he didn’t work for GW Bush.
The reason why I said do your own research (which some people have) is because if I told you what I have read some of you would have said…but that is the liberal press, etc….some people lay out some good responses though…may me think a little..thanks…let me leave U with this last thought: Obviously disaster response at the federal level should be re-evaluated. I fear, though, that the administration is already laying the building blocks for avoiding this by saying this was an “ultra disaster” and “completely unforeseen” and thereby dismissing it as a once in a lifetime event (which I hope it is). And as much as I hate to think this might be the case, one can’t help but wonder how much race and class have played in the response both prior to and after the hurricane. Would airlifts of supplies been provided more quickly if those affected were white and middle-class? What if it were middle class white children dying of heat exhaustion in the Superdome? My white friend in Austin is telling me that people are worry about safety in Austin because “these people” are just druggies and welfare recipients and they’ve been given handouts all their lives and they’re just going to scam FEMA, etc. If such things come out of the mouths of “supposedly” educated people, then did the response officials think the same thing? just food for thought…we all don’t have to agree but we should be respectful with our communiciation….
The Photo’s do not show what was on the ground.
Fox news reported the POLICE were stopping folks from crossing the bridges, with gun fire. So those were blocked exits.
See the following blogs for more info:
New Orleans Blogger Story
This is a must read for those who think the local police were on the right side of the law.
Hey, has anyone seen Mary?
Mary?
Where’d she go?
hi Quinnton. you share my son’s name, so I’m gonna give you the benefit of the doubt. I’m gonna give FEMA the benefit of the doubt here too. One huge difference between FL and LA responses is that FL has had huge storms in the last few years. Sadly, with humans, practice does make, if not perfect, then better. So FL was much more ready and able to do their part, which is the part that sets the foundation for the response, than LA. As everyone knows, a solid foundation is the most important part of any construct. At least one other difference can be ascribed to human nature, and that is the fact that people in the region of the gulf have ridden out many hurricanes for the past 30 years without having an Andrew experience. I have a friend who only survived Andrew because he and his dog fled to an interior closet of his big, fancy house. When they came out, the rest of the house was gone. He has post-traumatic syndrome still. I was just talking with a gal whose fam. rode out Katrina in MS because they had been fine thru Camille. Bad mistake. One guy only made it by tying himself to a phone pole, and was buck naked by the time he could climb down; storm tore clothes off his body. Next time an evac order comes, those folks are gonna bug out. Blanco and NO’s emergency management guy are the only two who must, must go, in my opinion. And please read the stuff written by the folks above. FEMA is a check-writing and final sweep-up organization, not a group of first responders.
Quinnton,
Let’s cut to the chase. FEMA performed as designed, and per their goals and structure.
Bottom line – failures occurred at all levels to some degree or another. To believe there was massive federal failure is to simply misunderstand FEMA’s role in national disaster planning. Now there may be some redesign, and heads may roll, but it neither caused the bulk of the preventable problems here nor will it contribute to prevention at the next.
Unless you want to just eliminate the state and local roles in all of this and make it all federal, in which case we’ll all die.
TW half; full
The problem seems to me to be one of unrealistic expectations. Between the liberal posters and the media, everyone seems to be of the impression that FEMA is some kind of disaster DELTA Force; they aren’t, unless the DELTA’s latest weapon is tents and checkbooks.
FEMA stages relief, RELIEF, materials and medical teams for people displaced by natural disasters. That’s their job. They did it. In fact, they did it before the storm him land, including 18 medical teams and two mobile hospitals with surgical facilities.
The military musters rescue, security, and additional medical resources and puts them at the disposal of the Governor. Most Gov’s understand that they are the comander in chief of their state’s National Guard, and of any other military assets put at their disposal by the President. The military did their job BEFORE the storm hit, and staged their resources just North of the coastal cities. Ready and waiting for the Governor to give the order to rescue people, provide security, etc. Just waiting.
The President is an ombudsman in this kind of an emergency, clearing obstacles and ordering federal resources to be put at the disposal of the states affected. The President also consults with the Governors and offers advice and assistance. The President called the Governor and the Mayor of NO BEFORE the Hurricane hit to recomend that they execute their emergeny plan for a Hurricane over cat 3, for which the city did not have protection.
The Governor is responsible for designating emergencies and disasters within their state boundaries, and for requesting the assistance of the federal agencies that were standing around waiting for her orders. The Governor sat on her hands and waited until NO was under water and instead of issuing the necesssary orders to prevent the loss of life and save the survivors, began blaming the feds for not doing her job for her.
The Mayor is reponsible for executing the emergency preparedness plan for his city. The plan called for issuing a mandatory evacuation order 72 or 48 hours before a hurricane hit land, and using all available busses in the city to haul the people who didn’t have their own cars out of the flood prone areas to safety. The plan also stipulated that the superdome and the convention center were not acceptable areas for shelter because of the lack of facilities and food and water. Instead of issuing the evacuation order and ordering the busses in, the Mayor sat on his hands until the last minute and then told people to go to the exact spot that the planners said they shouldn’t go.
The police’s job is to supervise the evacuation and ensure the security of peoples lives and property in a disaster. Instead of doing their job, the Police took the opportunity to do some last minute “shopping” at Walmart and then disapeared.
The citizen’s job is to listen to and follow the advice of disaster planners and stock up on 3 days of supplies and to obey evacuation orders and not shoot at rescuers or loot stores and homes after their neighbors leave. 80% of them chose to do so. The rest have chosen to blame their governent sugardaddies for not doing it for them.
The media’s job is to report news without bias and not hype disasters for partisan gain. I don’t think anyone ever expected them to do this in the first place, but I have a question for the media. Why are the 10,000 or so people who refused to leave NO constantly shown in the media while I haven’t seen a single image that hints that there are 70,000 or so uniformed military and probably twice that number of civil servants and volunteers taking care of the ones who do leave?
I’m just askin.
I agreed with amyc and Scot….Blanco does have to go and the Emergency Management Manager…my verdict is still out on the mayor even though he made major blunders (telling people to go to the Superdome, not issuing the warning until Sunday morning instead of Saturday…people who watch the news knew it was going to be a catogory 5 hurricane on Friday night/Saturday morning….maybe he was thinking that it was going to turn from NO like all the other hurricanes did in the past……btw, did U all know he was a Republican before he switch parties to run as a democrat for mayor…I know why he did that though…)and with Michael Brown of FEMA (yeah, he had resources waiting outside of the city and those resources got in but he wasn’t aware that there were individuals at other locations who needed assistance (Convention Center)…maybe city officials forgot to tell him…it was embarrassing he found out this information from the media of all places)…also, I don’t know if I can deal with another commission…Scot, I saw that their were some police doing some last minute shopping but that wasn’t all of the force…everything else I pretty much agree with to a certain extend…good discussion…
Check out http://www.emsnetwork.org/artman/publish/article_18337.shtmlout
for two EMS techs’ inside look. They were tourists at a convention. Sheriff’s deputies firing over their heads PREVENTED them from walking out!!! Then a deputy later stole their food.
Hunter, I just read “A Katrina Story” on that blog and all I have to say is wow….thanks for sharing…hopefully others will read it too…
Yep, and nobody cares.
Quinnton,
Go back and read the blog entries here for the last several days. Jeff and his commentors have done an incredible amount of research. Law, chain of command, statuates..you name it, they’ve hunted it down and provided links to all supporting official documents in full context. Everytime something new comes up, they research and verify – they take nothing at face value no matter what “side” it comes from.
Good reading, I’ve learned a lot.
tink, I have read some of their other blog entries…thank U…that is one reason why I was intrigue by this blog…..I don’t take everything at face value though and I have done my own research too….
I was thinking maybe “Keep fallin’ back in it.”
Quinnton, your “research” is pretty amusing since you seem to not know that Louisiana state officials were blocking supplies into New Orleans.
By the way, the convention center was a war zone – the Louisiana National Guard commander would not send his troops there for several days until he had built up a force of thousands of guardsman.
When you have done enough research to actually know what happened, then come back.
Good reading, I’ve learned a lot.
Yes,really…..and I’d like to thank Jeff and all the other contributers here!! I’m new to this blog stuff,and have been intrigued by the “leftist hate agenda”….thank you all for informing me and mine
to Robin Roberts…not sure if U R a woman or man but why don’t U check out http://www.nola.com…,http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/09/07/fema/print.html, yeah, I did my reading/research sir/maam……..now U read up…….still taking the high road….
we weren’t talking specifically about Katrina. it’s true for any hurricane that’s hit there.
Quinnton—that link is broken.
Howsabout you just excerpt what you want us to see, and we’ll respond.
Actually, maggie, I was referring to last year’s round-robin of hurricanes. Frances, I believe it was.
TW: required reading.
oh, yeah, forgot about that.
At the risk of further flogging the decomposing equine, there’s also the famous FEMA funerals. If you simply die near the time a hurricane hits, FEMA will pay to plant you.
Quinton,
Taking the high road?
You are one racist mo fo to suggest that Federal Relief was delayed because the folks in NO were black.
I say this as a person who once was a Democrat and who specifically became a Democrat to combat racism.
The Democrats have becomea party of race hustlers. Having gone down that line you are starting to believe your own propaganda.
It is disgusting. To the Max.
The secret word: “had”. As in I wish as many Democrats had voted for the Civil Rights Act of ‘64 as Republicans.