Why Oh Why....
Quickie post before going to bed.
I heard on the radio this afternoon about how Amtrack offered to help with the evacuation but the mayor of N.O. said nay-nay. They were warned 5 days BEFORE the hurricane hit to evacuate but once again, the mayor said nay-nay. I also had heard that there were several school buses still sitting in the school bus ( Read more... )
I've been combing through all the news media, ALL, and can find no corraboration for your statement. I've been watching news feed on all major stations, c-span, right and left wing news agencies, and not even the far right news agencies have stated Nagin, after the Hurricane, refused red cross relief efforts. If you could cite a legitimate source for your statement? Thanks.
In the same circumstances I doubt you would have, without foreknowledge of exactly how bad it was going to get, before the actual hurricane actually hit, taken it upon yourself to grab civilians and gotten them to, without orders or authorization, stormed over to the school buses and moved them.
You say you'd do that, now, knowing what you know from hindsite, but if you didn't know people were going to pile up in the superdome, if you didn't know that there was going to be ZERO rescue efforts from the state or federal levels, I would say it's a fair guess you wouldn't have gone outside official lines to such a degree.
There was an entire city there, and not one did what you think you would have done, not one. Yet you think you'd have done exactly the right thing that out of several thousand people there, not one of them managed to do.
"I don't *know* you all that well - but I'd be willing to wager that you would not stand by and allow people to be in harm's way just because you were concerned about the paperwork or red tape."
Without foreknowledge of the flooding, and mistakenly believing that the *state and federal resources* would pitch in after the emergency to evacuate, I wouldn't have known it was an absolute matter of life and death to have those buses moved by unauthorised persons. Remember, at this time FEMA was supposed to working with state and local authorities to mount evacuation and rescue efforts.
This was posted on the WHITE HOUSE website on August 27
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050827-1.html
For Immediate Release
Office of the Press Secretary
August 27, 2005
Statement on Federal Emergency Assistance for Louisiana
The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of Louisiana and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts in the parishes located in the path of Hurricane Katrina beginning on August 26, 2005, and continuing.
The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the parishes of Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Caldwell, Claiborne, Catahoula, Concordia, De Soto, East Baton Rouge, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Franklin, Grant, Jackson, LaSalle, Lincoln, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Pointe Coupee, Ouachita, Rapides, Red River, Richland, Sabine, St. Helena, St. Landry, Tensas, Union, Vernon, Webster, West Carroll, West Feliciana, and Winn.
Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding.
Representing FEMA, Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary for Emergency Preparedness and Response, Department of Homeland Security, named William Lokey as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected area.
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: FEMA (202) 646-4600.
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As a Private Citizen, after it became clear no one was going to help, I'd have done my part to find a vehicle/s and gotten me and as many as we could handle out one way or another, but success in such an endeavor would be iffy. Nagin and Blanco didn't have plans in place to deal with the crisis they were faced with. Bad on them. FEMA, which is supposed to be the safety net of the nation when things go wrong and is solely aimed at handling emergencies and disasters simply sat there instead of checking to see how they could help, or indeed doing anything to help. Bad on them. The President was oblivious to how f'd up everything was for DAYS, even though this is stuff every average citizen was aware of just from normal news coverage. Our Commander and Chief had no clue what was going on and none of his staff was keeping him up to date. Very, very, VERY bad on them. Lots of failures on the lower levels, but ultimately, the guy leading of our entire nation is supposed to be AWARE of what is going on in his own country. The ball was dropped on every level of government. City, State, and Federal. But the most telling is FEMA, because "Federal Emergency Management Agency" is specifically supposed to do that, manage federal emergency. Bush was responsible for Brown becoming FEMA's head, a very very important position with great responsibility to keeping our citizens safe in the face of catastrophic national disasters. Did Bush make sure it was someone qualified? No. Did Bush do anything on his end to see things were going the way they should? No. Did Bush even realize what the heck was going on till nearly a week later? No.
Maybe this is why Bush has offered a public apology and has officially made a statement that he is finally accepting blame for the fiasco it turned into. Even he thinks he cocked it up.
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That's what I've been saying. I have said before that I didn't believe that _anyone_ with the authority to do something reacted properly and swiftly. I cannot even say that President Bush did his job in those first few days. I'm mainly saying that I'm sick and tired of him catching ALL the flack for the screw ups. It's the hard left democraps that are riding on their bandwagons and trying to turn everything into a political platform for themselves and attempt to raise money for their own campaigns. That is what is making me want to puke.
"Bush has offered a public apology and has officially made a statement that he is finally accepting blame for the fiasco it turned into."
Gotta' give him credit for apologizing and accepting responsibility. I haven't heard any apologies from the mayor or governor.
Also, compare the reaction time and actions between N.O. and Mississippi/Alabama. Their governors and mayors knew what to do and did it. Granted, the population was not much as in New Orleans - but it's not like the N.O. mayor didn't know how many people were in his city and should have had some type of evacuation plan already figured out. The devistation was just as great in the other states as it was in N.O.
You've made some good points and it's not that I've totally disagreed with everything that you said. :) I'm just tired of President taking all the heat for other people's mistakes and not a single word being said against them too.
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