So, how would one respond to those who argue that the magnitude of the disaster should have been recognized by the Federal Government and they should have acted immediately, without waiting to be asked for help by the Local and State Government of Louisiana?
I'm having trouble with that one question, as I am also the type that believes in jumping in to help people, even if it's not my job to do so.
Thoughts?
There are good answers to this. However, there's no way anybody can extricate FEMA from this when the MSM was playing clip after clip of Brown with his daily confession last week that he/FEMA was "surprised" by this and "surprised" by that. To try and go be FEMA's apologist just doesn't make any sense. And if Brown didn't have any disaster preparedness experience prior to taking on that role, then FEMA has left itself wide open for critique.
But, beyond legitimate and illegitimate pin-the-blame on the tail of FEMA game going on: Any community that was overwhelmed by the winds & storm surge, that was the natural disaster impact. The flooding in New Orleans the day after the hurricane due to a 40-year+ unmanaged weak levy system, that's a human tragedy but not a natural disaster. In other words, Biloxi was not humanly pre-emptable; New Orleans, for the most part, was.
Let's face it, had the Feds been amassed by the tens of thousands, in Baton Rouge on Sunday (which was not part of any preparedness plan), ready to "attack" New Orleans on Monday, all that would have accomplished was to put more victims in the pathway of the floods. So what exactly do people mean when the feds should "have acted immediately?" Does that mean pre-hurricane weekend and Monday?
And why would they be storming into Louisiana on Monday when Shep Smith and other media counselors were telling us Monday night from dry Bourbon Street that NOLA had "dodged the bullet"? Wouldn't it have looked foolish for the levies to have held while the feds amassed in Baton Rouge when MS residents needed them more? Why would LA residents need to be "babied" more by Uncle Sugardaddy Sam than MS residents?
The question is, "Do MS residents believe the government has acted quickly enough?" I don't believe that the feds have acted any slower in LA than they did in MS.
Finally, this critique assumes that
(a) the feds did nothing in the wake of the storm;
(b) that it was their lead role to be the new "god" of southern Louisiana when all of the disaster plans didn't even have the feds as the lead response agency;
and (c) that private citizens can't jump in and be neighborly -- it all depends upon govt. hands. I like the fact that it was a local who commandeered a bus, loaded 70 folks on to it and was the first bus to reach the Astrodome (upon being directed there by authorities).
What? Were there no private citizens going up and down NO in boats? Were they all government-directed? Are we that dependent upon the government? God help us for substituting government in the place of neighborly compassion and the true God of the Gulf Coast.