Sure blame the local govt

[Finelly]

Re: Sure blame the local govt

Interesting facts:

- The reason the Astrodome in Houston is so organized is because they have always had a plan, and rehearsed it, and met about it several times a year, to evacuate all of Galveston in case of a hurricane. They simply used the Galveston plan to get organized in 8 hours for the people coming from Louisiana.

- Galveston residents are educated every year about what to do in the event of a hurricane. The Mayor, the City Council, schools, newspapers and television stations, as well as non-profit organizations, disseminate information and instructions. NOBODY doesn't know what to do and where to go. In contrast, New Orleans has had a rather laissez-faire attitude and hasn't spent much time educating residents about hurricane dangers other than the bare minimum "board up your windows" stuff. I can't even imagine what the smaller communities have done. Or not done.

[Iapetus999]

Re: Sure blame the local govt

The city's capabilities were completely overwhelmed.
They begged for Fed help and didn't receive it for days.
There was plenty of media coverage about this.

Remember also NO wasn't the only place hit...plenty of other communities had damage as well and the state couldn't divert every resource just to NO.

The only people in a position to help was the Feds and they failed. Miserably.

[Perry]

Re: Sure blame the local govt

I still haven't heard from my aunt/uncle - 30 miles NE of New Orleans. I'd like to see everyone accounted for first and then listen to discussions about who did/didn't do what later.

[Iapetus999]

Re: Sure blame the local govt

Sorry Perry...hope everyone's OK.

Here's an opinion from the Times-Picayne newspaper:

OUR OPINIONS: An open letter to the President

Dear Mr. President:

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we’re going to make it right."

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.

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.

We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.

Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don’t know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city’s death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.

It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."

Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You’re doing a heck of a job."

That’s unbelievable.

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.

We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We’re no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.

No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn’t be reached.

Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.

When you do, we will be the first to applaud.

[Finelly]

Re: Sure blame the local govt

The city's capabilities were completely overwhelmed.
They begged for Fed help and didn't receive it for days.
There was plenty of media coverage about this.

Yes, that is part of the story. But the full story is a web, a complex one, that demonstrates that our entire system of local, state and federal government agencies do not function well in situations like this.

An example: One reason that the National Guard didn't do much in the beginning is that there was a battle going on between Louisiana's governor and the President about it. The Gov didn't want to relinquish her police authority, and the White House insisted that it was necessary in order to deploy the National Guard. She refused. The President insisted. A long power-struggle evolved over the course of several days. In the meantime, the National Guard stood by waiting......waiting for instructions as to what to do.

[Laurenfra]

Re: Sure blame the local govt

Some of you know we (DH Kids and I) spent 9 weeks this summer traveling. We spent a full week deep in Terrebonne Parish. Deep south,Bayou up to your eyeballs. We saw many people who live is buildings we would call shacks. THey had no car or phone in some instances. I bet many poor people had no idea what hit them.
I dont think we need to worry about blame until all people are accounted for and rescued.

[cleochatra]

Re: Sure blame the local govt

I applaud everyone who has taken action to help the victims, both at ADBB and elsewhere in the nation!

If you have not already made a donation to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, please consider doing it.

If you cannot financially make the committment, please keep them in your prayers.

To everyone who is missing friends, who has loved ones in harm's way, or who has been hurt by this devastation, you have our love and support here at ADBB.

[Iapetus999]

Re: Sure blame the local govt

An example: One reason that the National Guard didn't do much in the beginning is that there was a battle going on between Louisiana's governor and the President about it. The Gov didn't want to relinquish her police authority, and the White House insisted that it was necessary in order to deploy the National Guard. She refused. The President insisted. A long power-struggle evolved over the course of several days. In the meantime, the National Guard stood by waiting......waiting for instructions as to what to do.

If you look at the original post on this thread I have a quote from msnbc.com about that and why...

[not2late]

Re: Sure blame the local govt

The city's capabilities were completely overwhelmed.
They begged for Fed help and didn't receive it for days.
There was plenty of media coverage about this.

Remember also NO wasn't the only place hit...plenty of other communities had damage as well and the state couldn't divert every resource just to NO.

The only people in a position to help was the Feds and they failed. Miserably.

If they begged the Feds for help to evacuate the city on August 28 or 29 then I can see your complaint. But they didn't. They asked for help after the hurricane---closing the gate after the horse has fled. After their ineptitude trapped at least 100,000 people in a flooding city. Moreover they weren't even communicating with the Federal government effectively, hence the fact that no one knew there were evacuees at the NO Convention Center for 3 days.

It's been known for years that New Orleans was city in danger of a catastrophic flood. Hurricane Betsy in the 1965 was a category 3 hurricane and it flooded New Orleans. Everyone knew--federal/state and local government---that a category 4 or higher had the potential to destroy the city.

I hope that in the future cities and states will learn a lesson from this and try to be more competent and develop better evacuation plans. I also hope that people will take evacuation orders more seriously.

The local and state government has just as much responsibility if not more to their citizens as the Feds. But if the people of this country continue to elect incompetent politicians at the local and state level, they get what they vote for at the local and state levels: incompetence and ineptitude.

By the way, I'm not a Democrat or a Republican. I'm an Independent, so I don't owe allegiance to one party or the other.

Now I will concede that the Feds have dropped the ball in the years since Hurricane Betsy about the maintenance of the levees. But since there has been 2 political parties with a strangle-hold on Washington in those 40 years, it's no surprize to me that the Feds dropped the ball on levee maintenance---because each administration since the Kennedy-Johnson administration has spent their time in DC kissing the butts of their special interest groups. Which is why, as an Independent, I see no redeeming factors in either party nor do I see either party making any real changes because it's in their collective best interests to keep everything a mess in order to retain power. That's why there is a breakdown in the local and state governments and the federal government: if they truly fixed everything, there wouldn't be a need for them.

Don't rely on the government. Rely on yourself and you'll be a much happier and much more successful person.

[cleochatra]

Re: Sure blame the local govt

I believe the feds should buy out the residents of New Orleans, give them cheap land elsewhere and let the whole town go underwater and become a federal nature preserve. That's what the Army Corp of Engineers did with Alder Lake and the now-sunken bits of Alder, Washington.

[Barbde]

Re: Sure blame the local govt

Well, I have been staying out of this, but.....
Last year we were staring at a category 4 storm bearing down on us. We have a home and we have a business. We took care of our belongings and planned to leave. However, we got caught up taking care of friends and neighbors, besides our own worries. We had planned to evacauate. I gave away all our food to neighbors that were going to stick it out. I had the van loaded with all our important papers, the pictures off our walls. Whatever I thought was important. But by the time DH and DS finished helping neighbors prepare, they were exhausted. i had not slept in days in doing preparation. They came home and needed sleep as did I, as terrified as I was and as bad as I wanted out of here. Believe me I cried. OMG I cried. We decided to sleep for a couple hours, got up and the storm had subsided. The only thing that saved us, because a 45 minute drive on the interstate had turned into 5 hours. Had we left at that point we would have been on the interstate in the middle of a hurricane.
Until you are in the situation you should not judge others that are there. you don't know what you would do if it were you. i have a better idea what I will do next time, but I will never judge someone for being in a situation and needing help. And had I been in the situation I could have been in, I would surely hope that the USA would be looking to help me out of it.

[Barbde]

Re: Sure blame the local govt

I believe the feds should buy out the residents of New Orleans, give them cheap land elsewhere and let the whole town go underwater and become a federal nature preserve. That's what the Army Corp of Engineers did with Alder Lake and the now-sunken bits of Alder, Washington.

Give them cheap land elsewhere? Where??
And that area is/was a great tax generator. I don't see that happening.

[cleochatra]

Re: Sure blame the local govt

Barbde-- if the area is prone to catastrophe/flooding/etc, then it will happen again. I can't imagine ANY insurance company who will EVER insure ANYONE living in that area again. New Orleans should be left to the swamps, with these people given better places to live than that. This was going to happen and was predicted for some time. Again, not to be cavalier, but I don't want government funds going to rebuilkd in a place where the same thing is just going to happen again. Get those people to higher ground, flood the city, and make a New New Orleans. JMO.

[Democat]

Re: Sure blame the local govt

They asked for help after the hurricane---closing the gate after the horse has fled.

No, they asked for help on SUNDAY-BEFORE the hurricane. Here is a link to the letter/email where she requests aid:

http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20...%20Request.pdf

Don't rely on the government. Rely on yourself and you'll be a much happier and much more successful person.

I agree with you, but that really doesn't cut it during natural disasters of this magnitude. I don't think the frail and the elderly had any choice but to rely on the government.

It's amazing how quickly the Limbaughs and Hannitys got out the Rove talking points. However, all roads lead back to federal mismanagement and the White House.

[MotherOfGizmo]

Re: Sure blame the local govt

I disagree. I want them to rebuild the city. I love New Orlean's. There was so much culture there. I'm glad at least that I have hundreds of pictures from my many visits there. I hope they rebuild it and keep it just like it was. Except of course, the damns and levees should be doubled in size and strength!