Posted on 09/04/2005 10:42:57 AM PDT by wm_tate
MSNBC military analyst Dan Goure: "It takes time to move thousands of tons of supplies and tens of thousands of people. It is remarkable that we have done so well in such a short period of time...let me tell you where the responsibility for the failure rests.
Unfortunately, I hate to say this; it rests first with the government of the City of New Orleans and secondly with the government of the State of Louisiana that failed in their emergency plans...
if you want to criticize what's going on the Guard and responses may be 24 hours behind optimum schedule, the best you can hope for but they're moving enormously quickly for a disaster that spanned 90,000 square miles. "
(Excerpt) Read more at msnbc.msn.com ...
The democrats have never forgotten how important it is to have a President who can put his hand to his chest and mournfully bite his lip.
"But it is up to each state to prepare for this kind of thing, not the feds."
Your point is well taken. Otherwise, bureaucracies in localities and the states are, in a word, pointless.
My memory of Andrew is a bit fuzzy. Wasn't a good deal of that 'delay' due to the time it took Governor Chiles to ask for federal assistance?
Seems to me that FEMA tries to follow a pre planned script too hard. When things don't go according to plan FEMA and the other federal agencies seem to struggle.
bookmark
The drive thru/microwave society.
You're right, it would have been chaotic no matter what. That's the nature of a disaster.
It didn't have to be such a human disaster, though, if the mayor had made better arrangements to get those people out. Earlier studies had predicted that about 20% of the city's population, mostly the very poorest, would stay behind in the event of an evacuation, and there needed to be a plan for dealing with them, particularly with respect to transportation. In addition, if the Governor had made it clear that disorder and mayhem would not be tolerated - something she did not do by bursting into tears off and on and refusing to ask for the help she could have gotten - it would never have gotten such traction at the start.
After which some members of the House of Represenatatives would have ordered a bill of Impeachment for abuse of power.
The mayor is a disgrace. BTW when my sister in law visited NO, they were told not to go outside the French Quarter because the city had a lot of violent criminals, drugs, thugs and corruption.
"The pre-planned script is a plan of action, which the local governments are aware of well in advance, and are supposed to follow."
That makes sense and it most certainly played a part in NO.
States are separate because they have individual governments. If the left does not want to rely on the states to handle these kinds of situations, then they need to be arguing for the abolition of ALL states, so we can just be one big dysfunctional bureaucracy.
But I think the issue is immediate relief in disasters such as Andrew, or Katrina or any other predicted disaster, is the responsibility of the states.
That is why they have disaster plans. That is why they tell people to have 3-5 days worth of food and water, so that they can survive until the feds get there.
I don't think four days is outside of the norm. It takes time to organize massive relief.
Which is why Red Cross and FEMA staff and supplies are positioned in safe zones. Then they have to clear paths through the debris to GET to the disaster areas.
Kudos to the hundreds of volunteers who brought their chainsaws and cleared the roads ahead of the Guard and the relief crews. Otherwise, it would have taken much longer to get their supplies to the victims.
It's called Hollywood, and the leftist media pushing some kind of utopia.
I agree completely. The federal efforts don't start, except under the most unusual circumstances, until aid is requesrted by the state. That's the way the system is designed, the way the laws are written, and, IMHO, exactly the way it should be. Local and state governments have primary responsibility for initial disaster response.
What the critical media are failing to mention is that they were also tardy on the disaster. I remember clearly Ted Kopple announcing that New Orleans had dodged the bullet, the worst of the storm. And for 24 hours the lamestream media was reporting it that way.
Now they come along and say the government should have know sooner.
Wow, never heard that story...
It really is beyond me how people can be that stupid.
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