Posted on 09/07/2005 9:34:29 PM PDT by Libloather
FEMA director arrives in BR
Monday, August 29, 2005
FEMA Director Mike Brown arrived at the state Office of Emergency Preparedness in Baton Rouge shortly before 11 a.m. and joined a conference call with Gov. Kathleen Blanco and other federal and state officials.
Brown will hold a press briefing with Blanco at 3:30 p.m., although state officials could also provide more information after a noon conference call with local officials who are tracking the storm damage.
Researchers watching the storm from Baton Rouge have gotten reports of 6 feet of water at Jackson Barracks in the Lower 9th Ward, as well as flooding along the Industrial Canal.
But Kevin Robbins, director of the Southern Regional Climate Center at LSU, said that water should begin receding around the Industrial Canal area. Robbins said he hasn't had any reports of flooding in the Uptown area.
During the height of the storm, 12 feet of water was pushed up the Mississippi River in New Orleans, Robbins said. There was also a 3-foot surge in the river at Baton Rouge, but in both cases the water was contained by the levees and did not go over the top.
But those kind of surges "could cause havoc with boats," he said.
Many of the stations that record water surges in lakes and rivers went out during the storm, so researchers do not currently have much information about the worst surges, Robbins said.
"We are working in a data poor environment," he said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Rescue in East N.O. and St. Bernard
Monday, 4:45 p.m.
Twelve boats have been deployed from Jackson Barracks to search for people stranded on the upper levels of their homes in eastern New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish, state officials said at a 3:30 pm briefing.
The teams are responding to people who have made calls asking for help, while also looking for people who haven’t been able to reach emergency officials, said Major General Bennett Landreneau. A few people have already been reached and taken to the Superdome, while a couple others were taken to Jackson Barracks, he said.
Speaking at a press conference at the state Office of Emergency Preparedness, state and federal officials said the top priority remains rescuing people who are still in physical danger. There are reports of widespread flooding in St. Bernard and Plaquemines Parishes, as well as in Slidell and the Lower 9th Ward.
“First and foremost, we need to save lives and protect property,” said Mike Brown, the director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
As well as looking for the people who need to be rescued from flooded homes, the state is beginning to send medical teams into the areas hit by the storm, said Gov. Kathleen Blanco.
Fred Cerise, head of the state Department of Health and Hospitals and a medical doctor, is heading to Charity to help formulate a plan on how to get patients out of the hospital, which has power problems and five floors of broken windows, she said. Many patients are expected to be sent to the Superdome, which has been serving as an emergency shelter, and then sent by plane to hospitals in north Louisiana.
Federal medical teams will be helping out. Brown said personnel from his agency had been trying to help out with medical assessments at the Superdome, but had been having trouble getting to the area because of the continued hurricane-force winds. FEMA will be sending its own urban search and rescue teams into New Orleans to help look for people who need assistance.
Brown said he plans to do an aerial search of the area in the morning.
FEMA has water, ice and military meals-ready-to-eat that are ready to be shipped into any areas that need them, Brown said. He said he has “supply lines backed up” to Fort Worth and Atlanta.
Blanco also has deployed teams from the state Department of Transportation and Development to clear access clear critical roads.
The governor re-iterated her request that people from the areas struck by the storm should not try to return. The roads leading back to Orleans, St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson and St. Tammany will be blocked, Blanco said.
"Katrina is by no means over," Blanco said. "Where ever you live, it is still too dangerous to return home."
And to think it was Blanco and Nagin that blocked all of this aid from entering LA...
This Mike Brown has got to go. Now. He most definitely should have been IN New Orleans when the hurricane hit.
< /s >
I assume this will all be evidence when the commission is formed? Or will it be shoved under the rug? Someone should send to major Garret.
Nancy Pelosi needs to go....that's who....what a BAG!!!
And she can take her buddy B Boxer with her....
Pretty amazing considering FEMA is NOT a first repsonder organization.
I was looking for info on Brown to discuss with someone, and I clicked on your link. Instead of the story, surprisingly, I came across older articles from the Saturday before Katrina hit. And they are saying things like, "Nagin calls for first ever mandatory evacuation." They're giving advice to people on evacuation.
So, what really happened? Were the evacuation plans simply not followed? I know a fleet of buses weren't used...
bttt
This can't be right. I've read post after post on FR saying FEMA dropped the ball, and that Mike Brown is a drooling idiot chimp who should be fired.
BUMP!
The democrat party and their official communication bureau -the MSM - are together in this trying to blame the President and FEMA because the failures were entirely those of the Governor of LA (a democrat), the Mayor of NO (a black democrat - double whammy there), the NO City government (black and democrat) and the NOPD. This is bare-knuckle politics at its most vile, and we here need to do all we can to communicate this to the country.
I was in NO on the Saturday before Katrina hit, watched the television coverage at length, and got out by late Saturday morning, knowing what was to happen. It was evident to me that neither the mayor or governor had the "necessities" to get the job done, and that NO was in big trouble. In my opinion, rebuilding NO must include rebuilding the political structure, meaning ousting the mayor, the City Council, the Chief of the NOPD, the NOPD itself, the givernor, the US senators, and all democrat-controlled organizations in the state. The democrats are not up to running things well, it's time to let the adults take over. This is a golden opportunity to take a Red state back.
They weren't air conditioned. Nagin said he needed the "Greyhounds" from across the country, and he needed them NOW!
..of course, stranded people waiting for Red Cross food held up by the Gov might have chosen the school buses over the Superdome.
George Bush discontinued the instantaneous bus transport program that President Clinton instituted under the urging and supervision of co-president Hillary Rodham.
The article over on that link says that they were bussing people out (probably on Greyhounds, while the school buses sat ;-) I guess it's perfectly acceptable for students to ride those buses everyday, but not anyone during a mandatory evacuation).
But I've been placing the full blame on local officials, and now I'm wondering if this is just another story like the Titanic... plenty of buses leaving half-empty as no one took the threat seriously enough.
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