CNN.com – Editorial blasts federal response – Sep 4, 2005 — This is a good one to read.
Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It’s accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.
How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.
Despite the city’s multiple points of entry, our nation’s bureaucrats spent days after last week’s hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city’s stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.
Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.
Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a “Today” show story Friday morning.
Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.
it goes on and on..read it here.
found by Ima Fish
Ok, so here comes the conspiracy theory…
The reason it’s taken so long to get aid to New Orleans is that they had to arrange with their contracting company.
Contracting Company!?! you say…
Well, of course… Halliburton. Check Google news for a lot more info.
Canadian, my dad listens to those “art bell” type late night radio shows. He heard on one that the Navy knew the disaster was going to occur, it was only a matter of time, and that Halliburton had the contract to clean up and rebuild the city well BEFORE Katrina even existed!
I wish I could find some verification of this.
The problem the federal government faced is that Governor Blanco didn’t turn over control to the federal government which is bound by law to support state government. It also seems funny that so many on the left wanted Bush to act as if he were a dictator and seize control from local governments and in the past the left has accused him of trying to be a dictator with all the comparisions to Hitler.
There will be plenty of blame to go around, and Bush certainly deserves his share, but the spotlight of shame should also be pointed at local govt. Did the governor activate the LA National Guard immediately? Did she call neighboring states to request immediate help and therefore authorize their Guard troops to enter LA and help? Maybe she did — I don’t know.
Deborah Orin writes in the New York Post:
The New Orleans disaster plan says: “The person responsible for recognition of hurricane-related preparation needs and for the issuance of an evacuation order is the mayor of the city of New Orleans.”
A widely circulated photo shows hundreds of New Orleans school buses parked useless and now ruined by floodwaters. Nagin (Mayor of New Orleans) and Blanco (governor of Louisana) were yelling for more buses from elsewhere — but didn’t even try to use what they had on hand.
The USS Bataan was on the scene almost immediately (sailing behind the hurricane) with 9 million MREs (meals ready to eat) and a tonne of water.
However, the Commander-in-Chief of the military (George Bush) did not give the orders for them to deploy aid until all hell broke loose.
All this was disclosed in an interview with a US military guy on the BBC.
Reference: http://tinyurl.com/drtps
So, the cavalry was there. Bush just didn’t act quickly enough.
Interestingly the same thing happend on Sept 11. Recall that it took forever before he made his famous speech? Everybody was wondering where the hell he was. This seems to be the pattern with him.
It’s also interesting contrast to how quick the response was when Florida was hit during hurricane season, just before the election. Of course, the President’s brother Jeb is the governor of Florida. NOLA residents might want to consider electing a member of the Bush clan next time.
USS Bataan Myth.
Pentagon spokesman for Northern Command (NorthCom) Lt. Commander Sean Kelly responded to the false assertion by Krugman, et. al. that the Bataan was “never mobilized.”
Kelly stated “Northcom started planning before the storm even hit….We had the USS Bataan sailing almost behind the hurricane so once the hurricane made landfall, its search and rescue helicopters could be available almost immediately So, we had things ready.
The only caveat is: we have to wait until the president authorizes us to do so. The laws of the United States say that the military can’t just act in this fashion; we have to wait for the president to give us permission.
The biggest hurdles to responding to the storm were the storm itself — couldn’t begin really helping until it passed — and damage assessment — figuring out which roads were passable, where communications and power were out, etc. Military helos began damage assessment and SAR on Tuesday. Thus we had permission to operate as soon as it was possible. We even brought in night SAR helos to continue the mission on Tuesday night.
The President and Secretary of Defense did authorize us to act right away and are not to blame on this end. Yes, we have to wait for authorization, but it was given in a timely manner.
To date, the two squadrons have transported 1,613 displaced people and delivered more than 100,000 pounds of cargo. Bataan also provided 8,000 gallons of fresh drinking water to the ravished Gulfport , Mississippi area. Sailors filled eight 500-gallon water bladders with the ship’s potable water and HM 15’s MH-53 helicopters transported them from the flight deck of Bataan to land.”
Look at the USS BATTAN website for facts not leftist hysteria.
What VOICE FROM ABOVE fails to comment on is Governor Blanco’s refusal of the federal authorities’ request for unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor.
Look at article in Washington Post about Blanco’s decisions
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680.html
As a former Florida resident , Hurricanes are a common recurring theme and local and state officials (regardless of party affiliation) are continuously working and improving emergency plans and response. We had the same responsiveness from governors in both parties.
N.O. Mayor Nagin couldn’t organize a fleet of school buses to evacuate hospitals and nursing homes.
BTW, here is the link to the New Orleans evacuation plan http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26 where you can read the responsibilities of the mayor’s office during a hurricane.
In order to solve many of the problems that occurred we are going to need facts not “spin stories.” All we are doing is feeding into the negativity in our country — pitting one against the other. Each of us feel we are right in our own way. It is important that we all elicit as much factual information as possible rather than follow a partially written summation for PR purposes. Thanks to those who have given sites to help clarify their position on what really happened. Without factual information it will be difficult for our country to resolve the issues at hand. We probably all need to be taking our pent up emotional energy and using it in a constructive manner rather than denigrating those who have at least tried to do something, even if they have faltered.
Wow, Karl Rove now has power over the New Orleans city website and the Washington Post according to VOICE FROM ABOVE. This is like the revelation from the left that George Bush has become God like since he has the power to control hurricances. I simply pointed out the reaction to an emergency by Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin who really could use some leadership training from Rudy Guiliani since their lack of leadership resulted in the deaths of innocents. I’m sure VFA being a Canadian gets such unbiased and independent news from the valuable Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (good thing Fox news and the blogs are becoming widely available in Canada to report things like the spreading corruption scandal of Prime Minister Paul Martin’s ruling Liberal party ).
I really feel sorry for your country.
If View from the Right is representative of the awareness and knowledge of the average American on the street, you are in *sad* shape. I never understood how you could elect someone as dumb as GWB. I now understand.
BTW, this NOLA incident is the least of your problems. You are in debt upto your eyeballs, to China (!) no less, the biggest Comunist country in the world. Some Cold Warriors you turned out to be. When they eventually decide to exert their influence on you, you are fished.
You guys had the world by the tail, and you screwed it up.
So sad…