Who's to Blame for Delayed Response to Katrina?

ABC news ^ | ABC News' Dan Harris

[mtrott]

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 6, 2005 — In New Orleans, those in peril and those in power have pointed the finger squarely at the federal government for the delayed relief effort.

But experts say when natural disasters strike, it is the primary responsibility of state and local governments — not the federal government — to respond.

[mtrott]

Seems to take the MSM over a week to start to let some of the facts come out. Really sad they can't do better than that.

[mlc9852]

But I guess better late than never.

[OldFriend]

The TRUTH finally emerging from the flood waters.

[Only1choice____Freedom]

Every disaster needs a contingency plan.



Here is New Orlean's plan Had they followed it, may lives would have been saved.

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:4CGCqv6EbJAJ:www.new-orleans.la.us/cnoweb/cpc/transportation/Chapter3_3to3_6.pdf&hl=en



This is Galveston's plan for a hurricane Use school buses! What a novel idea!


http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:dAuxFU4g9GAJ:www.khou.com/news/local/galveston/stories/khou050802_gj_hurricaneseason.35de5241.html+buses+used+to+evacuate+hurricane&hl=en&start=12



"Nagin was quoted in that local radio interview -- replayed on CNN and other networks -- that there had been a proposal to use school buses. "School buses!" he ranted with disdain, "School buses! Where are the Greyhounds? Why isn't every bus company coming here to rescue these people."


He expects greyhounds to come from all over to rescue his people when he could have had his own busses and people saved?


This is what New Oleans did with their buses:

http://news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/050901/480/flpc21109012015

More on buses

http://www.blindmanphoto.com/images/Stop-Blaming-FEMA.jpg

http://home.mchsi.com/%7Eidkfa/bus2.jpg

http://home.mchsi.com/%7Eidkfa/bus1.jpg

http://www.rc4systems.net/albums/album04/DomeBuses.sized.jpg

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1477943/replies?c=11

An 18 year hero had to steal a bus to save others.

http://www.local6.com/news/4929516/detail.html

"President Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana, authorizing federal emergency management officials to release federal aid and coordinate disaster relief efforts. By mid-afternoon, officials in Plaquemines, St. Bernard, St. Charles, Lafourche, Terrebonne and Jefferson parishes had called for voluntary or mandatory evacuations. New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin followed at 5 p.m., issuing a voluntary evacuation.


Nagin said late Saturday that he's having his legal staff look into whether he can order a mandatory evacuation of the city, a step he's been hesitant to do because of potential liability on the part of the city for closing hotels and other businesses. "Come the first break of light in the morning, you may have the first mandatory evacuation of New Orleans," Nagin told WWL-TV.



How come he didn't know what he could do BEFORE the storm hit instead of the day of the storm?



http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/library-88/1125213019249320.xml?nola


How come he STILL doesn't know?


Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said that President Bush had called and urged the state to order the evacuation.

It wasn't even her idea!

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:RGrwXIfpv8UJ:www.cnn.com/rssclick/2005/WEATHER/08/28/hurricane.katrina/%3Fsection%3Dcnn_topstories+president+bush+called+blanco+mandatory+evacuation+new+orleans&hl=en


Then the state stopped the Red Cross from helping

http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7000060641

Or was it FEMA?

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05246/565143.stm

But the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security, Garrett said, "told them they could not go."

"The Red Cross tells me that state agency in Louisiana said, 'Look, we do not want to create a magnet for more people to come to the Superdome or Convention Center, we want to get them out,'" he explained.

"So at the same time local officials were screaming where is the food, where is the water? The Red Cross was standing by ready [and] the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security said you can't go.


http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/7/235423.shtml

(I know it says Newsmax, but the story ran on FOX.)

Plan? what plan? No emergency plan, so Nalin needs Fed. gov to step in where he had no plan.

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/nagin.transcript/


How could this happen in America?


"Mayor Nagin should have assessed the crisis, taken the bully pulpit, offered words of calm and encouragement, and then called upon the governor and the president to provide the tools to deliver his city from this horrible crisis. Instead, Mr. Nagin choose to hide – and when he finally emerged, it was with a very predictable indictment on everyone other than the one who is truly responsibility. You see Mr. Nagin, the buck stops with you. Ask Rudy."



http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46151


It also doesn't help if you don't tell anybody


Mr. Chertoff said neither he nor Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown was told of the deteriorating situation in New Orleans until Thursday night.
http://www.washingtontimes.com/national/20050905-120743-9482r.htm


Levys were only designed for Cat 3 storm in good condition.

http://www.enr.com/news/environment/archives/050901c.asp

and

Shea Penland, director of the Pontchartrain Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of New Orleans, said that was particularly surprising because the break was "along a section that was just upgraded."

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/01/national/nationalspecial/01levee.html

A cat 5 hurricane and it's problems should have come as no surprise - a 5 part series from 2002:

http://www.nola.com/hurricane/?/washingaway/

So why no levee construction? No money budgeted?

They never spent the money they got on the levee.

What? no money for the levee?


Who's fault is the levee money missing? Why did they fight an audit?

Could it be that no money went to the levee?

These guys have been indicted for obstructing a probe.

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/law/news/wdl20041129.html



Army cops of Engineers wanted better protection but Envios put a stop to it.

"In other words, this plan would have saved thousands of lives and kept one of the nation’s greatest cities from lying in ruins for a decade.

At a minimum, such a plan would have staved off a significant portion of the disaster that’s unfolded before our eyes."

http://www.frontpagemag.com/Articles/ReadArticle.asp?ID=19418



Flaws in "system" already known but nothing done:

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/091904ccktWWLIvanFlaws.132602486.html



The word "system" implies they have done it the same way at least twice.

There was no system. Just a CF.



Where were the police?

Looting like everybody else

http://www.columbiatribune.com/2005/Aug/20050831News017.asp

see for yourself!

http://www.zippyvideos.com/8911023771013466/countdown-looting-in-walmart/


"The loss of 300 officers when the city needed them most, severely affected rescue and law enforcement efforts as New Orleans descended into lawlessness in the days after Katrina unleashed her wrath on August 29."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050908/ts_alt_afp/usweatherpolice_050908072622


Where are they now?

escaping to Houston during the aftermath.

http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/05/katrina/3342864

or lounging in Atlanta now

http://www.firstcoastnews.com/news/georgia/news-article.aspx?storyid=43726

Power struggle with gov and Bush

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680.html

Bush requested a federal takeover of the operations, Blanko balked.

http://jurist.law.pitt.edu/paperchase/2005/09/federal-government-tried-legal.php


ABC finally notices NO had a plan it didn't follow

http://www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/005392.php


Patients died because of their inactions

http://www.kron4.com/Global/story.asp?S=3816529&nav=5D7lBwNh

Can't blame Bush for this one.


Back in July, as this link shows, the city was readying to tell everyone "You're on your own"

http://www.nola.com/search/index.ssf?/base/news-10/1122184560198030.xml?nola


Who's really in charge?

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,168644,00.html


That's the question we have been asking since BEFORE the storm hit?


Who is in charge?

Who is supposed to be in charge?



"The main responsibility and authority for operational aspects of evacuation in Orleans Parish lies with the Office of Emergency Preparedness (OEP) within the Chief Administrative Office of the City. The authority to make the final decisions related to an evacuation rests with the Mayor of New Orleans."

http://66.102.7.104/search?q=cache:4CGCqv6EbJAJ:www.new-orleans.la.us/cnoweb/cpc/transportation/Chapter3_3to3_6.pdf&hl=en

[rhombus]

Seems to take the MSM over a week to start to let some of the facts come out. Really sad they can't do better than that.

They can only plead one of two choices. Either they were and are complicit in the ongoing Blame Bush Conspiracy (BBC) or they are just useful idiots who were duped.

[TitanicMan2003]

Dang. That's going to take me some time to go through.

MGY

[ncountylee]

I plan on sending a toy school bus to each Senator if I can find enough.

[sweet_diane]

""If the city and the state are stumbling or in over their head, then it's FEMA's [Federal Emergency Management Agency's] responsibility to show some leadership," said Jerry Hauer, director of public health preparedness at the Department of Health and Human Services. "

So who at FEMA is to decide that a state is stumbling or is in over its head?

[uncitizen]

THey tried to suppress the truth, but since Fox came out with the true story, and since the poll numbers didn't show that American's were blaming Bush, they had no choice but to come out and tell the truth.

[Lekker 1]

In the Times-Picayune, "The primary message is that each person is primarily responsible for themselves, for their own family and friends," Truehill said.

I think most of those inner-city people had never heard such words before.

[FlipWilson]

No, the MSM is stepping back from the precipice. They took their shot at Bush and now realize it didn't play. . at all. Too bad for the MSM it is too late to recover their credibility. The viewers saw the President roll up his sleeves and get to work helping the victims. They saw the MSM try to blame Bush and profiteer (ratings wise) off of the victims. They saw the democrat party hold press conferences calling for investigations while doing squat to help the victims. They also saw what an incompetent piece of shyt the governor of Louisiana is. They also saw the democrat party pull their usual race baiting, class warfare shyt while doing squat to help the victims.

[frogjerk]

[inquest]

"If the city and the state are stumbling or in over their head, then it's FEMA's [Federal Emergency Management Agency's] responsibility to show some leadership," said Jerry Hauer, director of public health preparedness at the Department of Health and Human Services.

Uh, no. There are legitimate criticisms to be made of FEMA in this, but it is most definitely not its job to crouch down and hold the hands of bumbling state and local officials. The primary responsibility for handling disasters is on those officials, not the feds. The feds are just there as a backup, only at the explicit request of the locals. In fact, it's not even in their charter (i.e., the Constitution) to get involved in these types of matters at all.

[Cicero]

As I understand it, Brit Hume helped get the true story out. The rest of the Fox talking heads were as bad as CNN, according to reports regularly posted here.

I don't watch TV news, so I'm taking Freepers' words for it. But it fits in with the sense I have that, regretably, Fox has been moving to the left since the months leading up to the last election, when they helped spread Kerry's slanders against Bush and helped diss the Swiftboat veterans who tried to tell the truth about Kerry's wartime crimes.

[OESY]

The Times Lied, Thousands Died


From the paper of record:




Tuesday, August 30, 2005

Katrina Misses New Orleans,
Heavily Damages Mississippi

By Joseph B. Treaster and Kate Zernike

NEW ORLEANS

Hurricane Katrina pounded the Gulf Coast with devastating force at daybreak Monday, sparing New Orleans the catastrophic hit that had been feared but inundating parts of the city and heaping damage on neighboring Mississippi where it tossed boats, ripped away scores of roof tops and left many of the major coastal roadways impassable.



In fact, the Washington Post, CBS News, NBC, NPR and many others in the omniscient establishment press also reported New Orleans had been spared.


Check out Google:
"New Orleans + spared"



-- http://www.sweetness-light.com/archive/but-it-was-in-the-times/

[PigRigger]

or they raced to embrace something they wanted to beleive....Irresponsible Journalism at its best...

[OESY]

Tom Ridge’s Duct Tape


Do you remember when the last Homeland Security Secretary, Tom Ridge, told us that to be prepared for emergencies, we should put together a readiness kit? I do. The kit layout is suggested at Ready.Gov. The portion of the kit for dealing with attacks and natural disasters should have, ideally, “at least a three-day supply of non-perishable food” and a corresponding amount of water - a gallon per day per person.

Yet when he announced the suggested measures that we all take to prepare for potential terror attacks or natural disasters, he was met with nothing but mockery. So much so, that his name is synonymous with duct tape - since that’s the only thing anybody in the MSM (or for that matter the lefty blogosphere) cared to discuss.

Thanks for undercutting it, my patriotic left wing friends, and calling it partisan scare mongering. What kind of a warped mind, can spin basic common sense as partisan bickering.

So answer me this, how many of the displaced persons in New Orleans secured a ready kit? If none, then why not? They can’t all be that poor - three days food and water is pretty cheap, especially if you’re buying the non-perishable staples (e.g. beans & stuff) recommended.

Do you remember what the left said about Ridge, that it was just foolish alarmism for political gain? The only thing the left could focus on, was duct tape. I would argue that the partisan sniping from the left, in the form of ongoing and repeated rants about about duct tape, caused people to really dismiss the message Secretary Ridge was trying to put out. The message was simple: The Feds can’t prepare for everything. You have to be ready to survive for 72 hours. After that, FedGov can get enough stuff in place to help.

Before you, my patriotic left wing friends, blast away accusing me of blind, fact-free partisan sniping, reflexive Bush defense, or whatever else crosses your wee minds, I would hope that you check out the juicy links enclosed below.

I’ve gone to the trouble of looking at what the left said about Ridge’s politically motivated scare mongering - how they described it way back then. Yes, I remember what the left said back then, and through the miracle of the innerdsnet, I can bring it to you. Read it and weep. Literally. And ask yourself, if the left and the MSM hadn’t worked so hard to discount Homeland Security readiness efforts, whether the people in New Orleans would have been better prepared.

Here’s what Duncan Black, AKA Atrios, AKA choagy boy for Media Matters, said about it. I bet he doesn’t want you to remember what Ridge said about preparedness, or how ol’ Atrios himself worked to undercut the message.

Here’s Kos going on about it. And again with another.

And Pandagon with another.

Here’s the American Prospect and Matt Yglesias with some mockery of Ridge’s readiness plan.

Here’s what another Dem said about Ridge’s lunatic idea, about keeping food & water on hand.

Here’s what another one said.

Here’s another one, mocking Ridge’s “duct tape and bottled water dreams.”

Here’s another mocking Ridge and duct tape.

Here’s one about Ridge’s readiness list as “fear based mind control.”

Here’s one that says Ridge’s list was the result of White House fear mongering.

Here’s another, talking about “Big Head” Tom Ridge “securing the Homeland with duct tape and fear mongering.”

Here’s another

And another.

And another.

You know, it never occurred to any of our leftist friends in the blogosphere or the MSM, that maybe Secretary Ridge went to the trouble of preparing a readiness web site with emergency kit lists, in the public interest. It never occurred to them that it could be anything other than partisan fear mongering.

Well, shame on them. Do you think anybody might have taken Ridge’s pronouncements and urging to be prepared, had his every comment not been met with mockery, allegations of political dirty tricks, and the relentless cry of “duct tape duct tape”?

Matter of fact, here’s some icing on the cake. Here’s a spectacularly ill-informed lefty mocking out DHS for not taking seriously it’s duty to tell people to prepare for disasters. You’re shitting me, right? When a cabinet secretary puts out a 12 page list of simple things to do to prep for disasters, and you spend two years mocking it as a fear mongering, politically motivated directive to buy duct tape, it seems to me you have few grounds to accuse others of having not taken the threats seriously.

-- http://coldfury.com/index.php/?p=5742

[fhlh]

anyone heard this report on the 'evening news' or will this 'revelation' by ABC remain hidden on the web???