Documentation of Louisiana Officials Blocking Aid to New Orleans

While cable news and the networks have concentrated their criticism on FEMA for the most part, I thought it would be helpful to concentrate our attention on the state and local actions during Hurrican Katrina and the subsequent flooding of New Orleans.

To that end, I have assembled a collection of links which document the lack of action by the state and local authorities, as well as some deliberate efforts to obstruct federal action.

This thread is meant to document the actions, and not to speculate on the motives of the State of Louisiana or the City of New Orleans. I intend for this thread to be useful as a resource for Freepers as they discuss the situation with those who have been fed the MSM spin and are not aware of the facts. Clogging the thread up with speculation will not be helpful.

I MAY start a speculation thread separate from this one. But until then, on this thread, let's stick to the facts.

Any additions of links or reports from the networks would be gratefully appreciated. Please attribute all sources and follow posting guidelines.

As detailed in these two articles, the governor was the person responsible for the few numbers of guardsmen deployed. She refused to sign the paperwork that would bring in guard units from other states until the Wednesday AFTER the storm.

In addition to the low numbers of National Guard troops activated, relief agencies were denied access to New Orleans by the Louisiana authorities. The following articles explain why we saw no Red Cross, Salvation Army, or other groups on the scene.

I can't document the data or info in the following but there is a link to where it was posted...... If the info can be proven then it offers a good insight into the beginning of this event.

This is a post from a fellow over in Merritt Is, FL, a reporter who's been researching what went on before the storm hit. His post is: CLICK
Politics over duty
I think all of Nagin's (NO's mayor) pomp and posturing is going to bite him hard in the near future as the lies and distortions of his interviews are coming to light.
On Friday night before the storm hit Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center took the unprecedented action of calling Nagin and Blanco personally to plead with them to begin MANDATORY evacuation of NO and they said they'd take it under consideration. This was after the NOAA buoy 240 miles south had recorded 68' waves before it was destroyed.
President Bush spent Friday afternoon and evening in meetings with his advisors and administrators drafting all of the paperwork required for a state to request federal assistance (and not be in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act or having to enact the Insurgency Act). Just before midnight Friday evening the President called Governor Blanco and pleaded with her to sign the request papers so the federal government and the military could legally begin mobilization and call up. He was told that they didn't think it necessary for the federal government to be involved yet. After the President's final call to the governor she held meetings with her staff to discuss the political ramifications of bringing federal forces. It was decided that if they allowed federal assistance it would make it look as if they had failed so it was agreed upon that the feds would not be invited in.
Saturday before the storm hit the President again called Blanco and Nagin requesting they please sign the papers requesting federal assistance, that they declare the state an emergency area, and begin mandatory evacuation. After a personal plea from the President Nagin agreed to order an evacuation, but it would not be a full mandatory evacuation, and the governor still refused to sign the papers requesting and authorizing federal action. In frustration the President declared the area a national disaster area before the state of Louisiana did so he could legally begin some advanced preparations. Rumor has it that the President's legal advisers were looking into the ramifications of using the insurgency act to bypass the Constitutional requirement that a state request federal aid before the federal government can move into state with troops - but that had not been done since 1906 and the Constitutionality of it was called into question to use before the disaster.
Throw in that over half the federal aid of the past decade to NO for levee construction, maintenance, and repair was diverted to fund a marina and support the gambling ships. Toss in the investigation that will look into why the emergency preparedness plan submitted to the federal government for funding and published on the city's website was never implemented and in fact may have been bogus for the purpose of gaining additional federal funding as we now learn that the organizations identified in the plan were never contacted or coordinating into any planning - though the document implies that they were.
The suffering people of NO need to be asking some hard questions as do we all, but they better start with why Blanco refused to even sign the multi-state mutual aid pack activation documents until Wednesday which further delayed the legal deployment of National Guard from adjoining states. Or maybe ask why Nagin keeps harping that the President should have commandeered 500 Greyhound busses to help him when according to his own emergency plan and documents he claimed to have over 500 busses at his disposal to use between the local school busses and the city transportation busses - but he never raised a finger to prepare them or activate them.
This is a sad time for all of us to see that a major city has all but been destroyed and thousands of people have died with hundreds of thousands more suffering, but it's certainly not a time for people to be pointing fingers and trying to find a bigger dog to blame for local corruption and incompetence. Pray to God for the survivors that they can start their lives anew as fast as possible and we learn from all the mistakes to avoid them in the future.

I don't know if you have this yet, but:

Despite Landrieu's complaints of budget cuts and paltry funding, the fact is that over the five years of the Bush administration, Louisiana has received more money — $1.9 billion — for Army Corps of Engineers civil works projects than any other state, and more than under any other administration over a similar period. California is a distant second with less than $1.4 billion despite a population more than seven times as large.

(snip)

The problem was at the local level. The ambitious plan fell apart when the state suspended the Levee Board's ability to refinance old bonds and issue new ones. As the Times-Picayune reported, Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle "repeatedly faulted the Levee Board for the way it awards contracts, spends money and ignores no-bid contract laws." Blocked by the state from raising local money, the federal matching funds went unspent. By 1998, Louisiana's state government had a $2 billion construction budget, but less than one-tenth of one percent, or $1.98 million, was dedicated to New Orleans levee improvements. By contrast, $22 million was spent that year to renovate a home for the Louisiana Supreme Court.

Investors Business Daily

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1481760/posts

This was from the Times-Picayune website. It's no longer there, but we captured it on FR.

The Broussard recovery planJefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard began laying out a recovery plan this morning for "the horrific tragedy" that Hurricane Katrina visited upon his jurisdiction.

It starts, he told WWL-AM radio, with "Operation Lockdown" using Louisiana State Police and military police to seal off Jefferson's borders until a target of Monday at 6 a.m. to reopen them.

"I will be looking to secure and lockdown this parish," he said.

"It is like a ghost town out there. That is the way we want it. If I can keep it a ghost town for the next five days, the looters will stand out and shine like a bright light."

Next, he said, is "Operation Snowplow," using National Guard bulldozers, cranes, trucks and other heavy equipment to clear the major east-west thoroughfares on both side of the Mississippi River. Concurrently, he will seek state help removing trees, traffic signals, signs and debris from north-south roads.

"We have to establish at least a functional grid," Broussard said.

Neighborhoods must wait.

"The residential streets are off my map right now," said Broussard, who gamely toured the parish Monday evening. "I almost didn't get back, and I have Expedition with a blue light on top. We could hardly find a route to get us back that wasn't flooded."

Broussard said he will seek a crackdown on looting, calling in more military police to work with sheriff's deputies and local police. Looters arrested in Jefferson Parish might have to be taken to jails elsewhere to ensure they are houses in sanitary and humane surroundings, he said.

Also important is raising water pressure, now so low in Broussard's view that toilets can't be flushed and firefighters can't douse flames.

"There was a business on the West Bank that burned to the ground yesterday," Broussard said.

Water pressure has plunged because Katrina uprooted old trees through Jefferson Parish, and in the process their roots ripped open buried water lines, Broussard said.

He said sewerage infrastructure seems to be in good shape but that wasterwater can't get to treatment plants because of lower water pressure in homes.

Other aspects of the recovery plan are:

-- Establishing traffic control once streets are clear, for many signals and signs have vanished.
-- Using parish government's website (www.jeffparish.net) to give evacuees information about their neighborhoods.
-- Bring all drainage pumping stations back online. Broussard said crews are working west to east on East Jefferson pumping stations -- from Kenner to New Orleans -- and in the opposition direction in West Jefferson.

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