Posted on 09/11/2005 7:01:56 AM PDT by Williams
The governor of Louisiana was "blistering mad." It was the third night after Hurricane Katrina drowned New Orleans, and Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco needed buses to rescue thousands of people from the fetid Superdome and convention center. But only a fraction of the 500 vehicles promised by federal authorities had arrived.
Ms. Blanco burst into the state's emergency center in Baton Rouge. "Does anybody in this building know anything about buses?" she recalled crying out.
They were an obvious linchpin for evacuating a city where nearly 100,000 people had no cars. Yet the federal, state and local officials who had failed to round up buses in advance were now in a frantic hunt. It would be two more days before they found enough to empty the shelters.
The official autopsies of the flawed response to the catastrophic storm have already begun in Washington, and may offer lessons for dealing with a terrorist attack or even another hurricane this season. But an initial examination of Hurricane Katrina's aftermath demonstrates the extent to which the federal government failed to fulfill the pledge it made after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks to face domestic threats as a unified, seamless force.
Instead, the crisis in New Orleans deepened because of a virtual standoff between hesitant federal officials and besieged authorities in Louisiana, interviews with dozens of officials show.
Federal Emergency Management Agency officials expected the state and city to direct their own efforts and ask for help as needed. Leaders in Louisiana and New Orleans, though, were so overwhelmed by the scale of the storm that they were not only unable to manage the crisis, but they were not always exactly sure what they needed. read more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/11/national/nationalspecial/11response.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Did Blanco not know that prior to the levee break there were plenty of school busses available and that Mayor Nagin had said, that he wanted Greyhounds sent to New Orleans, school busses weren't good enough for him?
Uh, Kathleen----you should have asked NAGIN that question. Once again, Blanco proves herself to be an incompetent fool.
"They were an obvious linchpin for evacuating a city where nearly 100,000 people had no cars. Yet the federal, state and local officials who had failed to round up buses in advance were now in a frantic hunt.
Yup--they were SUCH an "obvious linchpin" that the source of buses to be used was explicitly spelled out in the official New Orleans hurricane emergency plan. Too bad nobody in the city government bothered to read/follow that plan.
And they refused to turn over control to the feds...
No doubt she and Nagin knew everything about them on Nov. 2, 2004.
Must be a really big ball to take four writers to hide.
^5 You are so right. But, of course it's still Predident Bush's fault. I can't believe there are so many conservatives out there, [in here] screaming that mantra, "Bush should accept responsiblity" implying he should have abrogated his oath of office and sent in active military against the orders of Gov. Blanco. ::shaking head::
Yes, replied one junior political staffer from Baton Rouge. "It's Bush's fault".
Perhaps if Madam Governor had still been in New Orleans someone might have pointed and said, "You mean those several hundred school buses over there?"
The real culprits are the poor inner city blacks. They reaped what they sow. The projects in NO are so bad that cops reluctantly venture in there. NO had a plan to evacuate the poor with school buses, but from my grapevine, most of the school bus drivers were female. Many refused to report to duty when they heard that they would be ordered into the bad neighborhoods without police protection (it is like asking to be assaulted and raped). That is one of the reasons why the bus plan fell apart. Finally, many of the poor from the projects were suppose to bring several days of water, food, hygiene and baby food/diapers/etc. Many of these families waited to the last minute to scrounge for supplies, and since the neighborhoods they live in are so crime ridden, there is no stores for them. Many relied on the city bus lines to take them to stores in safer areas for shopping. Since these families waited to the last minute, many of the bus lines were down as the storm approached. All these tragic circumstances are the seeds of their own community behavior. Sure there is an issue of race, but the reason is not about skin color, but the criminal behavior associated with the community that happens to be predominant black.
This article is a total lie. A complete lie. Blanco was responsible for getting those people out. At that moment she had not requested federal help and was still in charge of the LA national guard.
Interesting point...
you tell a doctor your sick, he asks where does it hurt it is up to the patient to tell the dr what hurts. Dr prescribes medication and blah,blah...
Now when a local goverment asks the federal goverment for help, it is the responsibilty of the state/local to tell them what help they need.
asking for help doesn't mean the feds know to send two buses or 400 buses. Maybe they see no need to send buses, when there is hundreds of buses alreay in New Orleans.
Way to pass the buck blanco.
I have never read such an obviously biased story intentionally designed to cover the LA. Governor's arse.
NYT is a such a worthless screed. Even my parrot won't ... well, you know. Sheesh!
That's ok, Susan Collins (RINO) is on Face The Nation right now saying the same things.
The press that demanded Rumsfeld's resignation as a total incompetent, is now saying Bush should have used his right hand man Rumsefeld to take over Louisiana with the regular army. No context is provided - that this extraordinary step had to be considered because the governor was refusing even to authorize Bush to send in the National Guard under federal control.
I have to stop reading this stuff. I think I'm going to get an ulcer or damage my keyboard or something.....
susie
Prediction: If we have a democrat president, a disaster will occur and the federal response will be the same or slower. The media will immediately hail how the democrats "fixed" the problems. What else will be different? Republican leaders will applaud the president and not even consider committing the savagery they saw the democrats unleash against Bush.
There goes goes the "Two Disaster" RAT talking point.
And where was the LA National Guard? The Red Cross and Salvation Army>
What people fail to remember is that the worst part of the Hurricane missed NO. After the Hurricane and before the levee broke the MS Gulf coast sustained much greater Hurricane damage.
As to the levee break the Emergency Director of NO said something to the effect that 'the water is rising but the break will be fixed in several hours'. Now if that was what he told FEMA and the LA officials it is no wonder that the seriousness of the flooding was not recognized for several hours.
Political correctness getting in the way of saving lives.
Ok..is this 3 days after a narly, but more windy then wet Katrina moved thru the area..or just as the levee breach was making itself known? For us, day 1 of Katrina was Monday..she was huge so is day 1 for LA on Sunday?
After seeing that kodak gallery sequence of pics from NOLA, the timetable is confusing for me.
All of these questions and situations should have been discussed by the local Emergency Management Agencies long before this happened. It seems every few months it is announced on the news that local EMAs will be running drills. Whether weather related (coast) or terrorist related (Port of Mobile), I feel our community is prepared to take on whatever comes our way. I was a State employee (clerk/typist II then III) at a local Public Health Dept and knew what my job would be... go to a shelter and register people.
It just seems to me that a city the size of New Orleans and its major Port..well, why didn't everyone know their jobs? Wasn't federal money allocated for this stuff???
A city that size? Did you read the NY Times article? The US is the wealthiest country in the world, and how could "We" expect "Them" in their "tiny" town of only 500,000 to do anything to help themselves. As if the federal government should be ready in about 15 minutes to replace every local cop on the beat in every city in America.
"Does anybody in this building know anything about buses?"
Our man Jabbar had already left the building--er, um, city. ;>
If Bush would have taken control over the situtation due to Governor Blanco's ineptness and indecision, he would have been called a Hitler. Now that I see the response to Katrina, its really not been that bad at all.
The reason NO went to the Feds for buses is because the school bus drivers were mainly female. They were told to go into very bad neighborhoods without police protection. Many refused to show up at the depots. The mayor did not know that his plans were not being executed till the last minute when he dumped it on the governor and FEMA.
makes total sense.
If bullets are flying and Im a bus driver, Red Cross, etc, I would not go in till it was safe.
With the lawlessness surronding New Orleans, it was unsafe for many lay persons to go in. As a Fed/Local/State official it would be hard to demand someone in that capacity to go in to render aid.
Imagine what would be said if any of those bus drivers had been shot.
Nothing would be said if the driver is killed by minority group protected by PC.
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