Ask and ye shall receive.
Posted on 12/14/2005 8:06:17 PM PST by ncountylee
Under scrutiny from a congressional committee, Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin defended their Hurricane Katrina evacuation decisions — as Republican lawmakers questioned Wednesday why thousands of people were left stranded in New Orleans without transportation as the storm barreled toward Louisiana.
Blanco, in often tense exchanges with committee members, said the mass movement of citizens was one of the most successful evacuations in Louisiana's history, saving more than a million people from harm and Katrina's devastating flooding.
The Democratic governor told a U.S. House committee investigating the government's response to the hurricane that mandatory evacuations were issued over two days before the hurricane struck so people in the lowest-lying parishes would avoid gridlock that could trap them in the path of the hurricane.
"We're not concerned about people who can drive themselves away from danger. They did so, and we're grateful," said U.S. Rep. Harold Rogers, R-Ky.
Rogers and other committee members questioned whether the mandatory evacuation order for New Orleans — issued the day before Katrina struck Aug. 29 — gave the poor and elderly enough time to leave and whether the city and state provided enough means for them to evacuate.
U.S. Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., said Blanco's description of a successful evacuation was "a story that's not acceptable," and he compared the deaths caused by Katrina to the U.S. deaths in Iraq, saying the nearly 1,100 Louisiana residents who died was half the number of people who have died in the war.
"You lost that many in one day," Miller said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
"You lost that many in one day," Miller said.
One of the few sharp exchanges.
"Blanco said the mass movement of citizens was one of the most successful evacuations in Louisiana's history."
Who you gonna believe -Blanco or your own eyes?
Quote "Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin defended their Hurricane Katrina evacuation decisions"
SNORT SNORT..SNICKER....SNICKER....HABABAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAH....ROFL....OMG....SNORT SNORT
I repeat...
SNORT SNORT....ROFL...OMG...LOL...BAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHA....SNORT SNORT
You are kidding me right?
Cue the pics of the buses underwater...
Don't worry, I haven't and won't hear much of this on the news, because people actually confronted that dope Blanco on her culpability.
Did anyone ask her why she was getting "disaster relief" advice from Mike KcCurry and other national dems, which consisted of telling her how to blame all this on President Bush? Democrats are very immoral people. She let her own citizens die for politics.
Yeah please post the bus photo
hehe
No one can accuse LA of not having a pair. They even have a name for theirs-Blanco and Nagin. Now that's a pair of nuts.
The Dems are adept in re-writing history. Learning from the master, Clintonius...
Ask and ye shall receive.
Nagin skated around the school bus issue. It's bad enough he didn't just take charge of them, instead of saying"oh, those are the school board's buses". So what, just commandeer them--you're the mayor.
And he didn't even mention the 400 city transit buses that he was in charge of--that got flooded and rendered useless.
These two clowns should have been hammered on how they left the elderly and the poorand the hospitalized to fend for themselves, being the "caring Democrats" they make themselves out to be.
A better meetng outcome would be to have sliced and diced Blank-o's arguments and her leaving the meeting while heaving in loud sobs.
And no, the rest of us aren't paying for sections of New Orleans to be rebuilt ubderwater. We now KNOW where the flood plain limits are, so DON'T BUILD THERE.
Jabbar Gibson for Mayor !
At least he knows what a bus is for.
Which is one thing more than Nagin knows.
..that took all of 42 seconds
Doogle
And there were some idiots here that wanted him thrown in jail.
Absolutely. I believe those buses were left abandoned by direct order.
BTW: Didn't I read a few days ago that Ol' (young) Jabbar, our ersatz bus driver/hero is in the slammer for dealing crack (or some such equally interesting hobby)?
Smack I think.
These two incompetent morons are proof that Lousiana should be completely depopulated. If this is the government that LA has, then it is truly doomed.
Argh...
Rep Jeff Miller is MY congressman and he ROCKS! He's an awesome conservative from FL panhandle and he "takes no prisoners". He replaced Joe Scarborough and is doing a much better job, IMO.
Thank you, Jeff, for not taking any crap from Blank-Oh.
Blanco said the mass movement of citizens was one of the most successful evacuations in Louisiana's history
From the living colume to the dead colume
Isn't that the perfect commentary on NOLA - a drug dealer managed Hurricane evacuation better than Blanco/Nagin?
LOL..Let them eat cake.
According to thedeadpelican.com:
"The Washington Times will report tomorrow that Gov. Blanco says she is insulted her administration must repay a small percentage of the $62 billion in emergency aid (aka, taxpayer dollars), asked Congress to remove spending restrictions, then asked for another $60 billion!
Blanco blamed the devastation on the federal government and balked at criticism for not ordering a mandated evacuation.
"We're not going to sit here and be accused of not doing everything in our power!" she said..."
Blanco kept out the Salvation Army and Red Cross who could have had trucks of relief at the Super Dome before the levee's even broke.
You can't make people leave if they want to stay behind and ride out the storm. What are you going to do? Go house to house, break the doors down and arrest people?
"Blanco and Nagin defend hurricane preparations in Washington"
They made preparations? Since when? I never saw anything like that!
"Blanco said the mass movement of citizens was one of the most successful evacuations in Louisiana's history."
Actually this is a very true statement. Millions left the area. Only a couple hundred thousand chose to stay behind. It really was the largest evacuation ever seen for that area.
There's a blog of Blanco's comments at http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWL121405blancoblog.b90aa1e.html. Here's but just a few:
Blanco: What we experience in Katrina was not a failure to communicate, but an inability to communicate. Four years after 9-11, we should have been able to do better.
Blanco: Thank you for putting up $62 million to help us after Katrina, but due to the Stafford Act, much of it sits idle. Our hands and the law limit our ability.
Blanco: The word mandatory doesn't mean any more than us saying you have to go and we did that.
Probably the only evacuation from there in recent history. Blanco is spinning (Nagin ,too) to avoid responsibility for taking no action to evacuate those who had no transport. For her to characterize this evacuation in those terms is beyond comprehension.
"These two clowns should have been hammered on how they left the elderly and the poorand the hospitalized to fend for themselves, being the "caring Democrats" they make themselves out to be."
The special needs people are required to register with the EOC so that they can be evacuated. Everyone who was a registered special needs patient was evacuated before the storm. It was the people who failed to register or who ignored the registration notice who paid the price of being left behind or dead.
It is not the government's responsibility to babysit people!!! Shame on you for even implying that the government needs to be our nanny and butt into our personal lives even more. You're talking like a liberal! This was mostly a breakdown in personal responsibility by those who ignored all the warnings to leave.
Isn't Jabbar in jail for attempted murder or selling drugs or some such thing? That is your hero?
Better to have this young felon in office than Nagin.
"Blanco kept out the Salvation Army and Red Cross who could have had trucks of relief at the Super Dome before the levee's even broke."
Totally untrue. Please don't spread such nonsense.
I was being partly sarcastic. I didn't know the young man had a rap sheet until I looked him up on post #23 in this thread.
Sorry, but I couldn't help but post one more quote from today:
Question to Blanco: Knowing what we know now, what would you have done differently on evacuations.
Blanco: We're doing a review. We'll figure out how to help the city and other parishes whose citizens need help getting out. We'll figure out where the buses can be staged, those buses you had so many nice pictures of.
A mandatory evacuation was declared and millions left in plenty of time. Everyone could have left but the ones left behind didn't want to leave. There is way too much rewriting of history going on at FR. The truth is bad enough, why make up stories that aren't true?
This was pointed out at the hearing.
Why not read the transcript for facts before you make statements?
I saw it on Fox News and the Salvation Army website after the flooding. Maybe it wasn't 'before the levee's broke'.
Just ignore him.
=o)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.