Indictment
Bob Williams on the local and state screwups leading to the disaster:
The federal government does not have the authority to intervene in a state emergency without the request of a governor. President Bush declared an emergency prior to Katrina hitting New Orleans, so the only action needed for federal assistance was for Gov. Blanco to request the specific type of assistance she needed. She failed to send a timely request for specific aid.
And Ray Nagin - the one that some of the left's
leading lights have tried to canonize?
Mayor Nagin was responsible for giving the order for mandatory evacuation and supervising the actual evacuation: His Office of Emergency Preparedness (not the federal government) must coordinate with the state on elements of evacuation and assist in directing the transportation of evacuees to staging areas. Mayor Nagin had to be encouraged by the governor to contact the National Hurricane Center before he finally, belatedly, issued the order for mandatory evacuation. And sadly, it apparently took a personal call from the president to urge the governor to order the mandatory evacuation.
The city's evacuation plan states: "The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas." But even though the city has enough school and transit buses to evacuate 12,000 citizens per fleet run, the mayor did not use them. To compound the problem, the buses were not moved to high ground and were flooded. The plan also states that "special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific lifesaving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedures as needed." This was not done.
The evacuation plan warned that "if an evacuation order is issued without the mechanisms needed to disseminate the information to the affected persons, then we face the possibility of having large numbers of people either stranded and left to the mercy of a storm, or left in an area impacted by toxic materials." That is precisely what happened because of the mayor's failure.
[ Atrios on ] So why does the media hate the truth? [ Atrios off ]
Posted by Mitch at
September 7, 2005 09:30 AM
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Sorry for the cut and paste, but this is important. Take note of the date that the order was issued. It looks to me that the Feds were on top of things, but something tragically fell apart down the line.http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050827-1.html
Posted by: Teena at September 7, 2005 10:55 AMI'm not sure what 'specific' assistance Blanco would have had to request, but she did request Federal Disaster Relief on August 28.
http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf
Posted by: Andy at September 7, 2005 12:03 PMMy greatest fear of what may happen in the aftermath in this catastrophe is that people will come to expect that Federal government is responsible for evacuating their cities in a crisis, and thus ignore the wrokings of their local and state governments even more than they do now.
Posted by: Will Allen at September 7, 2005 04:21 PMHow many times will you wing nuts keep saying the gov didn't make a disaster declaration? Until you think it will become the truth? You can teel the administration knows it's wrong because they just keep lying.
Posted by: slumpyb at September 7, 2005 06:09 PM"How many times will you wing nuts keep saying the gov didn't make a disaster declaration?"
Doesn't matter - Blanco didn't follow up her empty declaration with the appropriate action.
Strike one.
"Until you think it will become the truth?"
Irrelevant. Words are cheap; actions are what were needed and, it seems, lacking.
Strike two.
"You can teel the administration knows it's wrong because they just keep lying."
Clairvoyance is now evidence?
I think not.
You're out.
Hit the showers.
Posted by: Blackie at September 7, 2005 07:37 PMToday Nagin declares that it's a mandatory evacuation and apparently the word "mandatory" has regained it's original meaning because he's decided that Everyone Really Must Go!
Followed by a clip of Governor Blanco:
"The mayor certainly has ordered that, but the governor, and that would be me, will have to enforce it or implement it," Gov. Blanco told the Fox News Channel.
The Louisiana Democrat said she wanted more time to determine "whether or not there's an absolute justification for that," saying she feared any forced evacuation could put people at risk for disease.**
http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/7/230054.shtml
Let's see, 8 days after the disaster and they still can't agree on what the *%$*# they're doing? Absolutely stunning.
Posted by: Sandy at September 8, 2005 12:46 AMSo...now it was an empty declaration?
That's a new one. And another lie.
Have you read the declaration?
Here's a good one...
"I am specifically requesting emergency protective measures, direct Federal Assistance, Individual and Household Program (IHP) assistance, Special Needs Program assistance, and debris removal."
That is empty...or at least the response was.
Funny you should talk about lack of action...
I'll hot the showers when I'm ready pal.
face it, your boy W screwed this one up and people died. FEMA TURNED away help...boats, fireman, water, trains...and you can't explain that away.
Good luck in your world of denial
Posted by: slumpyb at September 8, 2005 09:13 AMTo reiterate the wisdom of Thorley Winston, please do not feed the trolls.
Posted by: Eracus at September 8, 2005 11:24 AM