Posted on 09/04/2005 5:37:35 PM PDT by SmithL
Baton Rouge, La. -- James Lee Witt, the former Federal Emergency Management Agency director hired to advise Louisiana's governor, described the crisis Sunday in the hurricane-ravaged state as "our worst nightmare."
He couldn't estimate how long the recovery would take.
In New Orleans alone, the levees will have to be fixed and the water pumped out. After that, crews will have to get in to assess the damage and determine which structures are too unstable to remain. Utilities are down in several areas. There's also historic preservation to think about, he said Sunday on MSNBC.
"This was our worst nightmare," Witt said. "You could point the finger at anybody and everybody. ... I don't think they turned a blind eye. I don't think the state did. I don't think the mayor did. I think they worked as fast as they could do whatever they could."
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
Whatever they're paying this guy, it's WAY too much.
He's started!
yeah, except the very people who screwed up.
translation: we're gonna ride your &sses until we get all the money out of you that we can.
Sure has a lot of credibility now!
A *ping* for your vast notebook
He's there for one reason: CYA:
IEM Team to Develop Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans & SE Louisiana
IEM press release ^ | June 3, 2004 | IEM
Posted on 09/04/2005 1:56:42 AM EDT by XHogPilot
IEM Team to Develop Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans & Southeast Louisiana June 3, 2004
IEM, Inc., the Baton Rouge-based emergency management and homeland security consultant, will lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast Louisiana and the City of New Orleans under a more than half a million dollar contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).
In making the announcement today on behalf of teaming partners Dewberry, URS Corporation and James Lee Witt Associates, IEM Director of Homeland Security Wayne Thomas explained that the development of a base catastrophic hurricane disaster plan has urgency due to the recent start of the annual hurricane season which runs through November. National weather experts are predicting an above normal Atlantic hurricane season with six to eight hurricanes, of which three could be categorized as major.
The IEM team will complete a functional exercise on a catastrophic hurricane strike in Southeast Louisiana and use results to develop a response and recovery plan. A catastrophic event is one that can overwhelm State, local and private capabilities so quickly that communities could be devastated without Federal assistance and multi-agency planning and preparedness.
No.
Our worst nightmare is "President Hillary Clinton"
I'm here and so is gpapa!
well,
that was Bush's fault, too.
Clinton appointee from Arkansas governorship time. No wonder an agenda seems to be lurking.
Based on what I've seen of his earlier statements and the different role(s) he's played in the past, this guy is going to need some excuses of his own.
Send that to the boys at Powerline and to Captain's Quarters.
Link?
When Witt was talking to Rita Crosby a couple hours ago, he made sure she knew that 5,000 LA Guardsmen are in Iraq. I could almost hear Blanco whispering in Witt's ear, "Be sure to say, over and over again . . . "
I'll get you them...
Here is an excerpt from GOVERNOR BLANCO STATEMENT on JLWA's web site -
I want to introduce you to James Lee Witt. Mr. Witt ran the Federal Emergency Management Agency for eight years from 1993 to 2001. He has more than 25 years of disaster management experience.I have asked Mr. Witt to advise and assist me and Gen. Landreneau on the recovery effort.
As FEMA director, Mr. Witt turned was credited with turning that agency around. His leadership is proven, his experience is extensive and he is an asset to this recovery effort.
She did NOT mention HIS PLAN!
Money talks.
rotfl...nice to have a laugh
And, explaining why his PLAN didn't get implemented.
Witt is the Gorelick of "The Katrina Inquiry", being joined by that perfumed prince of an Clinton a$$hole General Clark.....
The rats are calling out the snakes to cover their asses on this one......EXACTLY like they did with the 9/11 Ommission hearings.
Semper Fi
Top right hand corner see CONTACT US...click on it.
Well, now isn't that interesting.
I can't find his plan!
MAYOR NAGIN: I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here.
I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."
That's -- they're thinking small, man. And this is a major, major, major deal. And I can't emphasize it enough, man. This is crazy.
Louisiana disaster plan, pg 13, para 5 , dated 01/00
'The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating'...
they're thinking small, man!
they're thinking small, man!
they're thinking small, man!
they're thinking small, man!
they're thinking small, man!
they're thinking small, man!
they're thinking small, man!
they're thinking small, man!
small thinking man! small thinking man!
Anti-Witt Sarcasm Torpedo ARMED. FIRE!!
And God knows the Democrats in LA are a disaster...
...as was the Clinton Administration.
Blanko putting this pinhead in charge of the "recovery" shows how seriously she is taking this crisis. She screwed the pooch with this guy last time and she's wanting to do it again. This is like putting Jamie GoreLick on the 9-11 Commission. CYA!!!
Hey AP & Blank0, take your shadow government kabuki and stick it where the sun don't shine.
NEW ORLEANS - More than 1.2 million people in metropolitan New Orleans were warned to get out Tuesday as 140-mph Hurricane Ivan churned toward the Gulf Coast, threatening to submerge the below-sea-level city during what could be the most disastrous storm to hit in nearly 40 years.
Residents streamed inland in bumper-to-bumper traffic in an agonizingly slow exodus amid dire warnings that Ivan could overwhelm New Orleans with up to 20 feet of filthy, chemical-polluted water. About three-quarters of a million more people along the coast in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama also were told to evacuate.
Walter Maestri, an emergency manager in New Orleans, America's most vulnerable metropolitan area, has 10,000 body bags ready in case a major hurricane hits. As Hurricane Ivan's expected path shifted uncomfortably close to the low-lying urban soup bowl, Maestri said Tuesday he might need a lot more.
If a strong Category 4 storm such as Ivan made a direct hit, he warned, 50,000 people could drown, and the city could cease to exist.
"This could be The One," Maestri said. "You're talking about the potential loss of a major metropolitan area."
Forecasters said Ivan, blamed for at least 68 deaths in the Caribbean, could reach 160 mph and strengthen to Category 5, the highest level, by the time it blows ashore as early as Thursday somewhere along the Gulf Coast.
"Hopefully the house will still be here when we get back," said Tara Chandra, a doctor at Tulane University in New Orleans who packed up his car, moved plants indoors and tried to book a Houston hotel room. Chandra said he wanted to ride out the storm, but his wife wanted to evacuate: "All the news reports are kind of freaking her out."
Houston-area emergency officials were keeping an eye on Ivan's path and have made preliminary plans should the hurricane continue to turn west.
Galveston County emergency management officials Tuesday discussed the potential for landfall there.
High tides are always a concern for Galveston County residents, and more so for those living in low-lying areas such as on the Bolivar Peninsula and West Galveston Island, the emergency management office said Tuesday. The county will continue to watch the storm and the potential for higher than normal tides to decide whether to evacuate those areas.
With hurricane-force winds extending 105 miles from its center, Ivan could cause significant damage no matter where it strikes. Officials ordered or strongly urged an estimated 1.9 million people in four states to flee to higher ground.
"I beg people on the coast: Do not ride this storm out," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said, urging people in other parts of the state to open their homes to relatives, friends and co-workers.
Late Tuesday, Ivan was centered about 325 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and moving north-northwest at 10 mph.
The National Hurricane Center in Miami posted a hurricane warning for a 300-mile swath from Apalachicola in the Florida Panhandle to New Orleans and Grand Isle in Louisiana. Forecasters said Ivan could bring a coastal storm surge of 10 to 16 feet.
About an hour away from New Orleans in Baton Rouge, I-10 West was filled with bumper-to-bumper traffic. Highway rest stops, convenience stores and gas stations were filled with people fleeing the storm. Some evacuees were worried about their homes being flooded and what they would find when they returned.
New Orleans, the nation's largest city below sea level, is particularly vulnerable to flooding, and Mayor Ray Nagin was among the first to urge residents to get out while they can. The city's Louis Armstrong Airport was closed Tuesday night.
Meanwhile, off western Mexico, forecasters were watching Hurricane Javier, a Category 4 storm on a northwest course out to sea. Forecasters said it was possible the storm could make a sharp turn toward the southern Baja California peninsula.
First, mosquitoes feed on living. They must have a blood meal for reproduction, so a dead body in which the blood has coagulated is not what they feed on.
There will be mosquito-born infectuous agents, West Nile being the most likely, but others also.
I don't bring these things up to address anything other that my concern that Nagan is either not getting good information from infectuous diseases experts, or he is getting the information confused. Nagan is not an entomologist nor a physician, but he should be more careful promulgating these types of ideas to the general public. It will exaccerbate the anxiety in the populus.
1)Delay evacuation until last minute.
2)Park all school buses in one place at lowest ground in the city.
3)Mayor and other top officials evacuate city government to Baton Rouge before anyone else in the city.
4)Order National Guard to mill around and await further orders at a safe distance.
5)Issue orders for all citizens to loot Wal-Mart and take guns and ammo.
6)Order police to the front of the looting line.
7)Order the poor, sick and elderly to go to the Superdome and wait for something to happen.
8)Put armed warlords in charge at Superdome to supervise rapes, thefts and murders.
9)Withdraw police to a safe distance from the anarchy.
10)Mayor and Governor to be booked on network TV news shows to cry, cuss and blame Bush and his administration.
11)Play race card.
Yeah - "get a ride with your friends" was his plan. Heck, I'll make a plan like that for half a million bucks.
Another bit of chutzpah on Witt's part is the assertion today that he and the state didn't anticipate this degree of damage in the event of a levee breach, yet his outfit modeled the damage in order to prepare a response plan. Bald-faced liar.
He's babbling, like he has done since he realized that only a complete coverup/diversion will save his ass. He can't lead, he won't follow, and he doesn't know when to shut up.
Can anyone point me to an article - or give some evidence - that the Governor of LA mishandled the rescue operation. I've searched through the archives but haven't found one that indicates exactly what she did wrong.
(By the way, I blame Bush for my inability to find the right article.)
It's even worse, since the 9/11 commission happened after the event. Here the incompetent Witt has been called to implement a recovery. It's as if we called on Gorelick herself to prevent XYZ terrorist attack - she can't. All she can do is hypothecize and naval gaze.
FWIW, I think by now most of the affected populus sees Nagin as a jester, not as an authority.
LOL.
The media and the Dims are noticing that the feds are starting to get a handle on the relief efforts, so now they're going to go all out to delay and obstruct and disrupt and turn people against FEMA and the Bush administration. They tried to do this in Florida last year - every single day down here last year during the hurricane clean-up efforts was nothing but doom and gloom and pissing and moaning and "Bush is doing a miserable job" from all of the media down here.
But, the only thing miserable was the failure of the media's propaganda campaign to sour us on Jeb Bush's efforts. The plans made by him and by all of the emergency coordinators down here in Florida were so well conceived and executed that people looked at what was going on in their neighborhoods and read the hysteria and Bush hatred in the media and just scratched their heads.
The last thing the democrats and the media want is for the relief efforts to start flowing smoothly - they want things to remain chaotic and disorganized so they can continue to milk the "Bush is incompetent" and "Bush hates blacks" stories for everything they're worth. That's the reason they're going all out screaming for hearings and firings and reorganizations of the relief agencies and FEMA NOW. They're hoping to tie up the administration with endless committee hearings and demands for unnecessary information and screaming and grandstanding.
Of course, this means that hurricane victims on the Gulf Coast will not receive essential aid and services, and some will die as a result. But as far as the Dims are concerned, the only thing that matters is getting their power back and utterly destroying George Bush, and making an omelet requires breaking some eggs.
Enough already. Let's get to it!
It's the pictures that will kill them all.
Even public school people what can't read will see the pictures of those buses and ...
They can't ever explain it away.
Witt's company was the one that created their plan.
Blanco's handlers are playing this one real well. Have few images of her on tv and little to no soundbites from her on radio reassuring her citizens, bad mouth the federal government through mouthpieces and maybe everyone will really think it's Bush's fault.
It'll be interesting if any reporterbot has the brain cells to ask him if they followed it.
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