Posted on 09/08/2005 10:23:12 AM PDT by rightinthemiddle
Homeland Security won't let Red Cross deliver food
Saturday, September 03, 2005 By Ann Rodgers, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
As the National Guard delivered food to the New Orleans convention center yesterday, American Red Cross officials said that federal emergency management authorities would not allow them to do the same.
Other relief agencies say the area is so damaged and dangerous that they doubted they could conduct mass feeding there now.
"The Homeland Security Department has requested and continues to request that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans," said Renita Hosler, spokeswoman for the Red Cross.
"Right now access is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities. We have been at the table every single day [asking for access]. We cannot get into New Orleans against their orders."
Calls to the Department of Homeland Security and its subagency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, were not returned yesterday.
(Excerpt) Read more at post-gazette.com ...
Here's her response:
Due to e-mails such as yours I called the Red Cross again to make sure I had not misunderstood them in our conversations about Homeland Security and FEMA. (The F stands for Federal). They said my story was not in error. As when I was working on the story last week, the media offices of Homeland Security and FEMA have not returned my phone calls. This is the case even though I explained today that I was calling because I was concerned that I might have printed something about them that was erroneous. The Louisiana Department of Homeland Security and and Emergency Preparedness is currently impossible to reach because whatever phone lines are working down there are overwhelmed. If the story is in error I will be more than happy to write a correction, but the Red Cross stands by what it originally told me. Sincerely, Ann
Democrats needed desparate people in front of the cameras so they can blame Bush.
#####
True, and I hope that we can get an accurate count someday of how many babies and elderly died because relief could not get in - to the designated refuge! Add that to the people who died in hospitals because the police did not have control of the city. If someone died in their attic because of the flood, I categorize their death in the column of Katrina-caused.
If they died in the Superdome, their deaths are Blanco-caused.
"They'll print their retraction, on page C-24."
The problem with that is section C is only 23 pages...la
As a general rule, the media understands NOTHING at all. They "make it up," when it comes to how the official/public/government aspects of our society are organized.
They think National Guard is a federal agency; that FEMA is a federal only department; tha tthe feds tell the states how to conduct rescue; etc. Some probably thing Federal Express is a branch of the military.
Well below the fold. 2 sentences, tops.
CA....
This is SERIES too. Tom Daschle is deeply saddened.
Funny, the Red Cross website is very clear...who has it right?
They are independent, for the most part, but the local folks are obliged to develop plans in such a form that if the federal influx of desk jockies is ever called on, they will be brought up to speed most wuickly, so they can implement the state's relief and recovery plan.
And it was the Germans who bombed Pearl Harbor, eh Ann?
I just got the exact same email reply from her
I'd like to know who "they" is at the American Red Cross. Let's see if she runs a follow up story.
Oh, to be back in my glory days as editor of my campus newspaper...run anything, clean up the mess later.
If the story is in error I will be more than happy to write a correction, but the Red Cross stands by what it originally told me.She's an idiot. I say let her erroneous story hang out there for a LONG time - shout it from the rooftops, "Ann says that the Feds denied access, and stands by her story."
The bigger they are, the harder they fall, and she's got one whopper of a lie hanging out there.
My favorite part of the letter is when she told me that the F in FEMA is for Federal. Can she be any more condescending? I also liked her title: Religion Reporter. Well she's sure got a lot of faith in herself.
NO
Bad reporting!
I just sent her an Email too and I gave her the Foxnews and the Red Cross web site as well and asked for a retraction.
We shall see.
Probably an auto-responder by now. But telling that she is defending her version as accurate, when the PResident of the Red Cross has been on Larry King saying otherwise, on O'Reilly saying otherwise, and her top officials say other wise to Major Garrett of FoxNews.
The story is wrong, and now she is going to blame the Red Cross for mis informing her. Ann can do no wrong, you see. She is perfect.
I think she heard what she wanted to hear and reported it.
On the bottom of the article:
(Ann Rodgers can be reached at arodgers@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1416.)
I e-mailed both links to her...I'm sure I'll get the condescending canned response.
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