Posted on 06/05/2010 11:44:10 AM PDT by Welshman007
FEMA’s job (Until Katrina) was to FUND and aid the States’ Emergency Plans, not MAKE them. The states have to (or had to) ask for specifically what they wanted and needed, and FEMA’s job was to help them get it. What Katrina revealed was that Louisiana (yep, I live here) had NO PLAN. They didn’t know what they needed or where they needed it. Who in their right mind would expect a federal agency to know where people across Louisiana would be sheltered and what roads to use to get them out if needed....That was La’s and N.O.’s job and they failed miserably.
The federal government could not legally come in and take over anything without the state’s permission. Bush gave Blanco the out to let the Feds take over once it became clear what a disaster La and N.O.’s lack of planning was causing, but after ‘thinking about it’ for 24 hours(!), she refused his offer.
Now, thanks to the incompetence of Louisiana democrat ‘leadership’ FEMA has grown into another example of federal takeover of states’ duties. Great, since we all know how much more efficient the feds are at running local programs.
/rant
O2
I’ve never said that Blanco wasn’t inept. When did I ever defend Blanco or Nagin?
That doesn’t mean you let the guy at the top off of the hook.
Just because someone is of your party or shares your beliefs does not mean you blindly follow them like a kamikaze and refuse to criticize them if they do something wrong.
Bush’s handling of Katrina was not as bad as the media made it and the attempt by them to make it into some kind of race thing was dispicable. However, to say that how he handled the storm was great and that his example is to be followed would simply be dishonest and like it or not that hurricane played a large part in getting the disaster we have in the White House elected.
And not every victim of Katrina was some lifetime welfare recipient in New Orleans using government money for dope and rims. A lot of people who’ve never taken a dime of government money in their lives lost their homes and lives in that storm across the region.
I was speaking figuratively.
I’m with you Irrishlass. We’d be good neighbors!
Louisiana’s Governor, local mayors and the Parish leaders needed to look competent. The rest of us never saw anything except what the media wanted us to see. If we hadn’t remembered much earlier lessons about the Gulf, who would have even known Mississippi and other States were hit by Katrina?
Those twits in New Orleans were the worst: Dumping people into the SuperBowl, too late. (some of that might have been moderated if they’d made attempts to keep families and neighborhoods together and anyone had planned for the simple fact that first responders have families, too.) Letting the school buses flood rather than using them as they should have been used.
Under our Constitution, the President’s only recourse would have been equivalent to declaring Marshal Law.
The media made a circus and put George Bush in the center ring. However, it was not his job, as you describe in you post about Barbour and Riley.
Good job.
Thank you for your expertise in the FEMA area.
I understand.
Good post. This is what Jim Carville (may my fingers turn to stone for saying something nice about him) suggested in an MSNBC interview about a week ago that Fox News excerpted.
You are an idiot.
Yoy mean, you mean that you ACTUALY think that BamBam would make this a ‘vote getter’? You are right!!!!!
How was Bush to order that when he didn't have the federal authority to do so? For a full week ahead of time, a Cat-5 hurricane was predicted for New Orleans. The local and state governments of Louisiana were told to start the emergency procedures, yet they refused. Bush was personally calling for those procedures to be implemented, but Nagin and Blanco refused.
Regarding the charges against Bush that he waited too long to fly down there, the day before he came that storm was still classified as a hurricane. That was going to be a logistics/security nightmare to put him on the ground in New Orleans the day after landfall was made.
However, when Bush did finally travel down there and land, he had Blanco on Air Force One demanding that she cede powers to the Feds so that FEMA could get in there. She again refused. Blanco had a mental breakdown on that jet, and the joint statements for the press had to be delayed due to her makeup being smeared from the tears.
Blanco could have deployed the National Guard ahead of time, but she refused. That's another area the press/liberals blamed on Bush, yet would have called for impeachment hearings if he would have illegally ordered the Guard down there.
I am not saying the feds didn't do things perfectly, but they had their hands tied until Blanco and company gave them the permission to do anything.
Blanco and Nagin are fortunate that the hurricane missed New Orleans for the most part. Mississippi wasn't as fortunate.
“The truth is George Bush was incompetent and over his head and Katrina showed “
I did not and do not expect the President to act as my personal Red Cross. It’s not Constitutional or reasonable.
State disasters = state response.
Excellent response.
I never said Bush should have been in New Orleans on Monday. However, it would have helped if he had been in say Hattiesburg or Jackson as it came in.
New Orleans is not the end all be all of Katrina. New Orleans became a disaster solely because the levees broke.
I’m referring to the fact that this was the first storm in a long time that I can remember where they didn’t have aid stations up the day after.
Good one TC!
PSC, well put!! You are so right. Try the system, suck in their ego, get the damn oil from the water. I LIVE on the Ms Gulf coast, there was Katrina now BP oil spill. BP’s, ‘Barack’s Problem’, is going to be big time hits on our coast. SIL works at a casino, their business has been cut in half since the spill and lots of layoffs. Me, just a one each old man (74) weatching a wonderful coast(s) go to hell in a hand basket.
Toby
That is no lie right there.
Mississippi took the brunt of Katrina, yet none of that mess was going on down there. When Rita hit Texas and western Louisiana, none of that mess was going on.
I will never forget the loads of people who drove into Tyler ahead of the storm. This was a good 5-7 days before the storm hit. They were the nicest people around. My boss at the time was giving away free meals to them, and they all were thankful. However, when the busses started coming in the days after the storm, it was a different type of people. They came into our restaurant demanding free food, demanding free liquor, and calling us racists when we didn't comp the liquor. You'll notice that we still gave away free food. That wasn't enough for them. They wanted that free liquor.
My parents helped one family who was put in federal housing at a newly built apartment complex. They set this family up with furniture and all sorts of things. It was a single mom with her kids, and the boyfriend. One month later the apartment was destroyed inside.
The church I belonged to at the time used their camp facilities as a shelter. The buildings there were torn up inside.
I get so mad thinking about that mess. New Orleans was the greatest example of what a welfare state will do to people. They were so dependent upon the government that they went completely primal when the government shut down.
Hate to say this but New Orleans was a disaster long before the storm hit.
Toby
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