Commentary: Bush can't see failure of Katrina response ("No Bias, No Bull" full of Bull)

cnn ^ | 1/13/2009 | Campbell Brown

[Wonder Warthog]

"I really wish people in this country would learn the difference between having a FEDERAL government and a NATIONAL government."

THAT hasn't been true since the Civil War. It was still CALLED "federal", but the reality was otherwise.

[texmexis best]

Katrina took out 90,000 square miles. Nola was only a small part of it.

As usual, the press stayed in the city area and wrote their stories from the bar at the local hotel.

Ignorance was profound.

[jersey117]

The mayor and the governor didn’t do their jobs despite having the benefit of a week’s warning. End of story.

[Wonder Warthog]

"As some one who watched Hurricane Katrina unfold from the comfort of a large overstuffed chair at my favorite cigar store let me say I am taken aback that you are taken aback."

Correct. I'm originally from South Louisiana born (though now in the Puget Sound area). I've been through a number of hurricanes, and watched the Katrina story "in real time" on national TV. The revisionism involved in "blaming Bush" is simply mind-boggling. The blame lies directly with Nagin and Blanco, who were stupendously incompetent.

[devistate one four]

Iowa had it worse than Katrina and I heard no one bellyache about the government...the citizens did what they had to do and that was that.
The feds had to wait three days b4 they could go in uninvited in La. Else the state had to invite them in.

[Islander7]

This was clearly President Bush's fault.

[RJS1950]

The procedures in place for the FEMA response were the ones in place during the Clinton era.

The POS governor of LA refused the entry of Federal troops who were already on the way to provide assistance before the levees broke.

The hurricane did not destroy NO; the governor and the press were hailing the fact that NO had dodged the bullet.

The poorly maintained levees that were the responsibility of the state could not take the surge of water but probably would have survived had the local corrupt politicians not siphoned off all of the federal money designated for the levees over the years.

The mayor of NO left the buses to flood and instead herded his ignorant masses into a stadium.

The federal government did everything it was supposed to do and the democrats along with the worthless repubs echoing the “Bush abandoned New Orleans” crap can ESAD.

Bush screwed up and screwed us on a lot of things but not this one. His mistake on Katrina was in rolling over and letting them get away with the lies they tell about it.

[Charles Martel]

They were never told to evacuate, that is the problem.

Who wasn't told to evacuate?

Friday, August 26, 2005

National Hurricane Center officially shifts the possible track of Katrina from the Florida Panhandle to the Mississippi/Louisiana coast. Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco declared a state of emergency for the state of Louisiana. The declaration included activation of the state of Louisiana's emergency response and recovery program under the command of the director of the state office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness to supply emergency support services.

Saturday, August 27

At 10:00 AM EDT, officials in St. Charles, St. Tammany and Plaquemines Parishes ordered a mandatory evacuation of all of their residents. Jefferson and St. Bernard Parishes ordered voluntary evacuations, recommending that all residents evacuate, particularly those living in lower areas. Jefferson Parish officials did declare a mandatory evacuation for the coastal areas of Grand Isle, Crown Point, Lafitte, and Barataria.

At 5:00 PM EDT, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin announced a state of emergency and a called for a voluntary evacuation. He added that he would stick with the state's evacuation plan and not order a mandatory evacuation until 30 hours before the expected landfall. This would allow those residents in low-lying surrounding parishes to leave first and avoid gridlocked escape routes. However, he did recommend that residents of low-lying areas of the city, such as Algiers and the 9th Ward, get a head start. Nagin said the city would open the Superdome as a shelter of last resort for evacuees with special needs.

Governor Blanco sends a letter to President George W. Bush asking him to declare a major disaster for the State of Louisiana, in order to release federal assistance.

In response to Governor Blanco's request, President Bush declared a federal state of emergency in Louisiana under the authority of the Stafford Act...

Sunday, August 28, 2005

In a press conference at roughly 10:00 a.m., Nagin declared that "a mandatory evacuation order is hereby called for all of the parish of Orleans."

**************

I was in Jefferson Parish at the time, an area under a voluntary evacuation order, and was planning to evacuate early on Sunday morning (8/28/05). However, I saw the 5:00 p.m. broadcast on Saturday (8/27/05) in which Nagin called for a voluntary evacuation of the city proper. The various timelines found online fail to note that during that broadcast, Nagin also said that unless the storm's forecast track shifted overnight, he'd be issuing a MANDATORY evacuation order early the next morning (which he did do, though the press conference was delayed several times as Nagin consulted with city lawyers on the "legalities" involved in a mandatory evacuation and the requirements that certain key personnel be required to stay).

The car was already packed, so my wife and I decided to Get the Hell out of Dodge before the dregs of Orleans Parish hit the roads. We drove out at around 10:00 p.m., Saturday night.

[Western Phil]

Bush’s problem here and with the financial debacle has been his failure to “point fingers”. No one else has any such reticence.

[weezel]

Bush failed because he COULDNT do with ten feet of water on the ground, what the dim-0s in charge of the official state of Louisiana evacuation plan, REFUSED to do while the streets were still dry.

[upcountryhorseman]

The Mayor of New Orleans and the then Governor of Louisiana
Were to blame but of course they were in the democrat party.

[astounded]

I know what you are saying. I was in Bradenton and Orlando for 3 of the 4 in 2004, and in NOLA in 2005 the day before Katrina made landfall (what luck...). The utter criminal ineptness of Ray Nagin and Kathleen Blanco were directly responsible for what happened in NOLA after the levees failed. The Feds and GWB were prepared, but CNN and the so-called MSM chose to lie, exaggerate, and obfuscate the facts for poiltical reasons. Despicable.

[okie01]

The Feds and GWB were prepared, but CNN and the so-called MSM chose to lie, exaggerate, and obfuscate the facts for political reasons. Despicable.

As I remember it, it was reported that Blanco spent the first few days of Katrina in close touch with the DNC. Very close touch -- one line in the governor's office and a cell phone carried by an aide were dedicated to that specific purpose.

You've got to ask "Why?" What political advice would she be needing at this point?

I've often wondered if a group within the Democrat party was coordinating the state's response with the networks for maximum political benefit.

[Smokin' Joe]

I talked with a nurse who had been working in NOLA when the SHTF. She told me the last regular busses (not the one the kid took and loaded with people) and train to leave were pretty much empty, not because people could not get there, but because they chose to stay. Some chose to stay to defend their stuff and their homes, others for the express purpose of looting the stuff others left. What must have seemed like the perfect opportunity to rip off others likely did not seem as good when the storm hit.

One wonders how many of the victims were only victims of their own felonious greed.