Posted on 09/02/2005 9:50:04 PM PDT by LincolnLover
http://www.tampatrib.com/News/MGBLRHDPWXD.html
Posted without comment...but, please, feel free to chime in with your own.
As emergency crews and National Guard troops swooped in to help residents across the state, the start of the cleanup on Saturday brought a public relations effort apparently designed to show that history would not be repeated.
President Bush, brother Jeb Bush - Florida's governor and the president's state campaign chairman - and other state Republicans showered Floridians with promises, assurances and lists of toll-free numbers they could call for help."
Maestri’s staff has been working almost around the clock since Katrina approached the Louisiana coastline on Sunday. Today, the staff is expected to finally switch to a 12 hours on/12 hours off schedule, he said, adding that they’re both tired and demoralized by the lack of assistance from federal officials.
“We had been told we would be on our own for 48 hours,” Maestri said. “Prepare to survive and in 48 hours the cavalry would arrive.
“Well, where are they?” he said.
Maestri said the agreement was signed by officials with the Southeastern Louisiana Emergency Preparedness Officials Association, the state and the Federal Emergency Management Agency as part of this year’s Hurricane Pam tabletop exercise. That exercise began the process of writing a series of manuals explaining how to respond to a catastrophic disaster. Financed by FEMA, it included a variety of federal, state and local officials.
A FEMA spokesman late Friday said they couldn’t confirm or deny that the agency signed the agreement Maestri referred to.
FEMA Director Michael Brown also raised Maestri’s ire when he said in a television interview Friday that he waited so long to respond because he didn’t want to interfere with local aid attempts, and that local officials hadn’t asked FEMA to come in.
“My response is very simple,” Maestri said in an interview on a cell phone after repeated attempts to reach his office. “We didn’t have any communications. We still don’t have outside communications.”
He said FEMA officials have now informed him the first members of a liaison team might arrive at the Emergency Operations Center this morning or Sunday."
Comments from the decidely non-African American (and, since he's from Jefferson Parish, assumedly Republican) Ron Maestri.
..."and afterall, I am irrelevant."
Kerry:"I had to eat a Wendy's burger during the campaign, wasn't that bad enough? Now, I'm supposed to hug and touch people who haven't bathed or anything to show my feelings?"
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