Posted on 09/06/2005 5:57:41 PM PDT by Lorianne
AlterNet is blocked, which I think is stupid (know thine enemy), but then it's not my site....
Anyhow, I think it's important to acknowledge that even the left knows who's to blame for the failure in Katrina. Sure, they blame Bush, Fema, etc. but most of the article is detailing the staggering lack of planning on the part of state and local officials.
I'm confused. Isn't self-reliance a strong American trait? Or, should I say, self-reliance was a strong American trait? Instead of waiting for Big Brother to come and whisk folks to safety, perhaps the able-bodied could have walked out of NO in the two to three days in which they knew a hurricane was coming. Not today, I guess...
WTF?
Leaving THAT much transportation sitting unused, no one can ignore.
Yeah, you can find fault up the ladder, but the bottom line is that none of this crap would be 100th as bad if the folks had been evac'd.
Think there'll be any buyers?
In other words, all that idiot Mayor had to do was ensure that those w/o transportation got to Red Cross shelters outside New Orleans, using the hundreds of available (until they got flooded out in the parking lot) buses? That man belongs in JAIL!
Maybe they can bury the dead in them.
"even the left knows who's to blame for the failure in Katrina."
Of course they do. That's why they're screaming so loudly, and getting Hitlery on point.
Damage control, without Sandy Berger to shred the documents.
I think someone could do a brisk business in Nagin's Navy and Blaco's 24--hour decision. Blanco's veinticuatro. (promounce the v with a soft b........)
Pretty remarkable post. Thanks.
Sweet!
There is plenty of "paper trail" for the failure of New Orleans to implement whatever emergency plans they did have.
Less clear of what role state resources and agencies may have had, which failed.
Obviously once the feds started to roll in, things got better quickly.
Politically, it could be the right Republicans could get elected in New Orleans and Louisiana---if they wanted the jobs.
Put a bullet hole and excrement stain on it and it might sell.
From another thread.
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers News Release Release No. PA-09-01 For Immediate Release:
September 3, 2005
Contact: Connie Gillette: 202-761-1809 Constance.S.Gillette@hq02.usace.army.mil
U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Hurricane Relief Support and Levee Repair Background Information.
The breaches that have occurred on the levees surrounding New Orleans are located on the 17th Street Canal Levee and London Avenue Canal Levee. The 17th Street Canal Levees and London Avenue Canal Levees are completed segments of the Lake Ponchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection Project. Although other portions of the Lake Ponchartrain project are pending, these two segments were complete, and no modifications or improvements to these segments were pending, proposed, or remain unfunded.
Actually, most people have networks of friends and relatives that they use to conduct their normal business. Also, a Rush caller today said wait until the water receedds and reveals lots of cars. We have been sold a bill of goods on this.One of the things I find most shocking is the failure to evacuate hospitals, because it became to very difficult.
See for yourself:
Old Will Bunch nearly had a home run here. But he conveniently left out the part where folks were told to bring food, medicine, water and supplies to last THREE DAYS.
There's that magical numeber again.
Even they knew prior to the hurricane how long it would probably take to get rescued.
I with everyone who recognizes that there were appalling failures of local and state government to recognize and properly deal with the implications of the mostly immobile 130,000 or whatever the exact number was. BUT, I also know that IF there had been a serious attempt to mass evac the poor, elderly, and infirm in public buses AND if the storm had passed further away like many had in the past, then the recriminations would have been INTENSE: the Mayor would have been viciously accused of wasting lots of money and resources on a huge hassle program to drag a lot of good folks out of their homes and their city. Plus, one can be sure there would have been all sorts of SNAFUS with the transportation, shelters, etc.
Don't get me wrong, I'm fervently of the belief that the Mayor and other public officials needed to say "we will use every possible publicly available vehicle to carry out this evacuation" (and they should have brought in hundreds more from other towns within a 2-3 hour radius). Still, it is worth recognizing that the Mayor and other officials would have been mercilessly slandered by all the Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson types that exist all over our country if a mass bus evac had been carried out and then the storm veered farther away to east or west.....
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