Click on this link to hear the Mayor of New Orleans go nuts on the radio over the incompetence of the relief effort…Good stuff.
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Maybe Mr Mayor should have done a better job trying to evacuate the city when there was still time.
let’s start the Nagin for president campaign now
No comments needed.
Speaks for itself.
alot of people are blaming the federal gov. or Pres. Bush for the relief effort. (see the post “how new orleans was lost”). What I want to know is,
Where was this guy and the city leaders? What was their response time? How quick did they act to call for help? When they called for evacuations before the hurricane, where was their call for busses and transportation for the people who are now stuck? All I have heard from him in the mass media is hysterical “SOS” calls (i think this was the guy), and complaints about federal response.
Jim W,
did you actually listen to the radio interview? Judging by what you’ve written, I’d say that you didn’t.
Boris
I think the mayor did the best he could before the hurricane hit. Much of the population was able to get out before the storm. As for the folks that couldn’t get out (mostly due to the fact that they didn’t have the means to get out) the city moved those people to the Superdome to ride out the storm. That was the plan.
Many critics of the mayor have been circulating a photo of a parking lot full of buses (that they probably got from the Drudge Report) claiming that this was proof that the mayor didn’t do enough to evacuate the city.
But as you know the crisis regarding the buses began after the hurricane had already hit and the Superdome was no longer considered a safe place to stay anymore.
Now what the mayor has no control of is the lack of law enforcement from the national guard and other agencies that led to the looting and violence in that city. The local officials were kinda busy trying to save lives and not trying to catch thugs.
I’m speaking from possible ignorance, but it would seem to me that the Mayor is the last person to blame. Remember, his entire city is practically underwater. It’s not like only a section of the city is screwed up, EVERYTHING is screwed up. He dispatched the police and firemen he had, but it was a drop in the bucket.
I think who really dropped the ball was the Governor. Remember, a mayor can only utilize the resources of his own city, and his city was in the crapper. It was the Governor who could have authorized the rest of the state’s resources to help, but he sat on his ass.
The feds are guilty to a lesser extent. It took FOUR friggin’ days to get troops there. As I’m sure many of you have read, it took only TWO days to get troops to help on the tsunami.
Jim in answers to your questions:
the NO officals have been trying to upgrade the levees for years, but have had 50% of thier funding stripped for Iraq
They did call for buses et al – it was ignored
In regards to Jim W’s post
Now is not the time to point fingers and lay blame for who called who when or when the call to evacuate was issued. Even if buses had been called for would they have been able to get into the city with the mass of people fleeing?
From what I can see in the news(however biased most of the coverage is) there are a lot of people lined up offering aid. Canada is sending 4 ships with personell and supplies but will not leave for arrive for about a week. According to the reports the request did not come until today because no one could say how our aid could be best used. The American government knows that we would send what aid we could. Personally I think we should have said to hell with protocol and just loaded the ships with food, water, medical supplies and rescue teams and sailed on the morning tide. As it stands now it will take 3 days to load and 4 days sailing to get to the gulf. At least they would have been there earlier and at the ready to do what they could.
I think the politicos of every stripe everywhere could be held accountable. As the Mayor said, when the tsunami hit no one waited to be asked to help. As far as I can tell the only difference is that the US is a rich and powerful and the population density is a little lower.
Shooting a few looters, rapists and thugs beating people would certainly get the attention of a the rest of the low life miscreants.
The pictures and stories coming out of the region make my stomach churn. I can’t imagine what the people are going through. I live in south central Saskatchewan(6 miles north of Montana) and the worst things that happen here are blizzards, drought, some nasty hail and the odd tornado.
All we can do is hope that the situations comes under control soon. Save the blame and finger pointing for later.
A. The point of my statement was that many are already pointing fingers at the Federal and Presidential Level but overlooking the failures of the Local Level officials. I’m tired of hearing about blaming the idiots in washington for something the localgovernment should have done.
B. A mandatory evacuation means everybody. And the local government didn`t provide, or to my knowledge ask for, assistance for everybody to be evacuated. Esp. the poor who were left behind and now suffering for it.
BTW: its easy for us to complain (myself included) because we are not having to live through it.
We seem to be better and faster at sending aiding when it is another country.
1) The governor has to declare an emergency and request Federal assistance.
2) Governor operated in a vacuum did not send in a satellite comm team to find out what was needed.
3) Funding rejection for improving the levys by the Bush administration bogus. The section that broke away in the 17th street canal was not scheduled for improvement. (It was the latest and best)
4) The mayor revealed his acumen when he provided transportation for the tourists in his hotel to the Super Dome and put them at the head of the line over people suffering in line for four days.
5) The black leadership is now pulling the race card. (Are we surprised/)
6)Many of the mayors police and fire personnel were and are aol.
7)The mayor failed badly to get the word to the governor.
8)Whining on the only radio station and bad mouthing the hand that feeds you is really stupid.
9)A reasonably competant leader he ain’t!
This guy is a flippin’ idiot. I can’t say that I personally could have done better, but I don’t think I could have worse. (Keeping people in the middle of a city when he knew a hurricane was coming that could take down the levys – brilliant!)
“7)The mayor failed badly to get the word to the governor.”
Come on Brian, are you saying that the GOVERNOR doesn’t read the fucking newspaper?! EVERY fucking person in the US knew it was a disaster, what exactly was the mayor supposed to tell the governmor that hadn’t already be said to death?
Many critics of the mayor have been circulating a photo of a parking lot full of buses (that they probably got from the Drudge Report) claiming that this was proof that the mayor didn’t do enough to evacuate the city.
But as you know the crisis regarding the buses began after the hurricane had already hit and the Superdome was no longer considered a safe place to stay anymore.
No, it the “crisis regarding the buses” began BEFORE the hurricane because the idiots in the N.O. government DIDN’T USE THEM TO EVACUATE people BEFORE the hurricane. Also, what is your point about the alleged source of the photo? Either prove the picture was somehow falsified, or SD&SU.
Now what the mayor has no control of is the lack of law enforcement from the national guard and other agencies that led to the looting and violence in that city. The local officials were kinda busy trying to save lives and not trying to catch thugs.
Are you saying that once a disaster hits, all responsibility for law enforcement belongs to the feds? The “thugs” are citizens of New Orleans, not just something that washed in from the river. The first responsibility to get this under control belonged to the local government. The federal government can’t just come in like the Lone Ranger and rescue every incompetent local government from its own (in)action.
My Thoughts – even though I don’t know as much as I should
1: My earlier post was a positive one toward the mayor, upon rereading it, I see that it could be construed as negative or sarcastic. I appreciated his outpouring, whether by design or in frustration, as mirroring what I am feeling up here in Michigan.
2: While it was clearly evident in watching the track of Katrina last week that it was growing and was going to strike SOMEWHERE on the gulf coast, it was not evident exactly where. At a local level, WHEN do you evacuate the 480,000 people? And what happens if the track turns? At a STATE level – it was clearly more evident that there were going to be resources needed, in place, as soon as possible. At a FEDERAL level, it is, to me, totally inexcusable that there were not resources being readied last week to get to the southern states as fast as possible. Were there any meetings to say, “Well, if it DOES hit New Orleans, what do we need to do?” If the dang thing had targeted Crawford, there sure would have been different results There should have been an IMMEDIATE surge of AID to the south
3: Well, FEMA’s report of early 2001 has gotten two out of three. Terorist attack in New York – Check. Hurricane in New orleans – Check. About time to move out of California before number three comes true.
4: Hopefully, the shoes Condeleeza Rice were buyingg were to kick some ass with.
5: Brown’s of FEMA’s remarks as reported by CNN at
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/katrina.response/index.html
are so out of touch with reality as to be unbelievable
There is only so much local law enforcement officials can do. To blame them for wondering where the National Guard help is because they couldn’t handle all the police work and rescue efforts themselves is kinda sad. Even the National Guard leadership is saying that there were not enough local police officials to do the job before they got there
It is the Federal Government’s job to come and take over and cordinate all aspects of the relief and rescue effort. Thats why its called the Federal Emergency Management Agency. The Department of Homeland Security lists “Natural Disasters” as one of its main responsibilties along side other concerns like Terrorism on its website.
Some people have used Bush’s comments saying that nobody could’ve forcasted the disaster being this big to defend the federal response yet at the same time those same people are attacking the local leaders in New Orleans for not preparing this type of diaster. You can’t have it both ways.
http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf
25 ideas to help:
http://www.workingpodcast.com/index2.html
There is a lot of blame to go around. At the local level, the police invited anarchy by ignoring the looting. The excuse that they had no place to lock them up is lame. Cable news showed two police officers pushing a shopping cart through Wal Mart, making sure they got their share. Yes, they sure set the proper tone for what followed. And who is in charge of the police? The Mayor.
The plight at the Superdome fell on the Governor’s shoulders. She(?) is responsible for coordinating the emergency response. She had the resources to get supplies to the Superdome and to start evacuating the refugees. Why didn’t she? I never heard any reports of refugee camps being set up in northern Louisiana. Why not? Any fool could see the Superdome needed to be evacuated after the levee broke. Why did she waste three days?
And Homeland Security is a total failure. A great and powerful bureaucratic machine that grinds into mincemeat anyone with an ounce of initiative. I knew it was a mistake to create this agency — the cure to an inept bureaucracy is to create another layer of bureaucrats? — but I’m sorry to see it failed even my low expectations. I expect the inevitable Congressional investigation will find that all Homeland Security’s oversight contributed was to degrade the performance of other agencies’ relief efforts.
In the radio interview you can HEAR EMOTION in the mayor’s voice. You can hear the frustration, you can hear him choke up with tears. I can’t find fault with a man who’s come to terms with the horrors, frustration, and the hoplessness of a situation, and to admit it publically. To react like a person…not some airbrushed, coifed, polite automatron.
Now….have you heard anything that even RESEMBLES emotion from our President? It’s like he is either over prozac-ed up, has some undisclosed illness, or he has been isolated so long, and so well from people that he cannot even react.
Something is wrong….. he smirks at the wrong moment, repeats himself, and isn’t very quick to respond?
I’m no big fan of the man, but even I can see that something is lacking. Is he on the verge of a mental meltdown?
Let’s face it…a man who’s had THAT many failures in his life (business failures) will always have that nagging at him. I’ve never met a “former drunk” who didn’t have some major growing up to do, and accepting responsibility for past actions. Religion doesn’t cover it, it’s just another crutch if one hasn’t grown some spine and balls. The man made mistakes….too bad he was always rescued. Parents don’t do their kids any favors by not letting them struggle.
Better to face his opposers and fess up to the truth, or he’ll crack (or has he?). The worst thing part is that he’s been shielded…the “protest free zones” (or whatever they’re called), the “town meetings” with everyone pre-approved based on some adminstration guideline, his advisors allowing him to avoid speaking with Sheehan….all this will weaken any man, but certainly one who has such a sad history. You can’t get stronger, you can’t grow unless you are challenged by resistance. He had the potential to be a good president….but now he’s just pathetic. His responses are stilted, his sincerity seems to be a rote reponse. I don’t hear, or see any real emotion in him.
A lingering question remains: Who is manipulating HIM?
This reminds me of what happened in August of 1992 in South Florida. Kate Hale had to get on National Television and plea for aid from the FEMA.
It appears that FEMA has not gone full circle again.
I have been associated with city government administration for 30 plus years, my lively hood depends on it.
The New Orleans city government was absolutely responsible for timely evacuation of its citizens. The city had buses, why weren’t they initially used to “round people up” and why weren’t the buses kept on higher ground in a safe place, as I understand it city buses were left to be destroyed in the flood. The mayor was lagging, he should have declared the evacuation days earlier. Emergency buses with a special bus schedule and local neighborhood pick up locations, should have early on been driven through needy neighborhoods picking people up along the way. Police cars with speakers should have been driven about town announcing the evacuation and special bus schedules. The first in line in a city is the city government, the city manager, fire chief, police chief, public works director, every department head of the city should be put into action if needed, and of course the mayor should have been very active,especially in communicating with the citizens of New Orleans regarding the urgent need for rapid evacuation. Second in line of auction is the State of Louisiana (governor) Thirdly the national Government is called in by the state….these people should (and do) know how it works….instead, the Governor was in tears and the mayor was cursing….
People in New Orleans should have been educated regarding the dangers of a cat. 4 or 5 hurricane and the danger to the city if any levees were breached. The city knew this was eventually going to happen, they should have been ready, should have had basic needs such as water, m.r.e.’s, blankets and some type of bathroom facilities
ready to go. Of course the mayor is pointing fingers now….trying to deflect blame from himself…..Shame on Mayor Nagin.
shelley nielsen sanchez
First and foremost, I do not think I have ever heard of any other hurricane requiring FEMA where there was not some kind of complaints about where are you, we needed you yesterday. If you have watched the aftermath of many of those previous disasters, many of the citizens in those areas have always said the agency was slow in reaching out to them. Secondly, it has been a known fact since Hurricane Betsy in the 60’s that the levy’s needed to be upgraded — there have been other presidents and politicians who have taken the pork barrel money and used it for other projects in their own states. Thirdly, we build in areas that are known to have potential natural disasters, but we do it anyway and then act as if it were something out of the ordinary when it finally happens. That being said, I am wondering why people were put into a building without supplies or security? I am wondering why a great mass of people who were able to ambulate effectively were not sufficiently mobilized in some way by the local officials so that the state’s national guard could come in and save citizens who were old and ill, as well as those hospitalized and on life saving equipment. This lack of planning took away from some precious lives for those who were still able to be seen, heard, and given our attention first from an emotional basis. Any leader who is unable to inspire others under their direction is by no means a good or great leader. Even under the most difficult situations we have seen leaders do just that. Remember the previous mayor from New York. I have yet to hear anything of verbal substance from the New Orleans mayor. It is nice his team is being offered to stay in Las Vegas to recoup, but I find the timing of the mayor’s request out of sync with reality. I think we all need to face reality and realize that it is up to many, many people in emergencies to take on leadership roles. True leaders do not tell how great they are…..they are too busy doing. Depending on one great force means that some will have to be sacrificed to save the more vocal masses. Also, they keep saying communication was out and this was why the city officials were not able to do their job. Is there not some kind of back-up planned for this in an age when we have so much technology?
What authority does he(Nagin) need. I watched CNN as only the outbound lanes of the freeways were being driven. Opening all the lanes in one direction would have been a partial answer.
What is the Mayor’s role if not to take charge at the right time. He did NOTHING. From this interview I hear Nagin’s true ability. “I don’t know what’s going on.”
It doesn’t take a genus to see how vulnerable New Orleans is to devastating hurricanes . Why is there not designated shelters that should be stocked with food, water, and first aid for this type of emergency for the people who cannot leave, to go to and be safe there? I think the state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans should give this top priority ! They have known for years and years that this situation could very well happen. You know the quote” If you play with fire ,sooner or later you are going to get burned”. Unfortunately it has happened . To the state of La. and the city of New Orleans I say, ” have a plan and make it work”. God Bless These People!