Posted on 09/01/2005 8:38:21 AM PDT by SirLinksalot
Government is to blame for the chaos
New Orleans damage, looting might have been less severe if there were better disaster planning
James P. Pinkerton
As we see the devastation from Hurricane Katrina - caused first by nature and now by looters, shooters and carjackers - it's time to state the obvious. We need a larger vision of homeland security, as well as a better focus on the American homeland.
Politicians of both parties have sounded warnings for some time, but true leadership on readying for disaster has been lacking. And so the images from New Orleans this week have recalled not only the panic of 9/11 in New York City but the chaos of April 2003 in Baghdad after the United States ousted Saddam Hussein - and the looters took charge.
There was warning from on high but not much doing. On July 16, Gov. Mike Huckabee, Republican of Arkansas and new chairman of the National Governors Association, took note of heavy deployments of state National Guard units to Iraq. "If we had a major natural disaster, we would be stretched thin," he warned. "All governors right now are worried about the long-term impact of long deployment."
But it doesn't appear that governors did much about these concerns beyond griping to the press. The Louisiana Guard, for example, has about 11,000 members, of whom 3,000 are in Iraq. And yet, of the remaining 8,000 in the Pelican State, fewer than half were on duty the day Katrina struck. Does that look like good leadership from Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco?
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(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
Egggsackly. One may start by typing New Orleans Levee Board on search engine. In about 30 minutes of reading and related searches, one will be amazed at the incompetence and corruption of the state and local officials.
Mr. Vomer, I like the way you post! Keep up the good work!
Your comment is so pity and to the point, it should be repeated again and again and again. .
I've been pretty silent up until now but federal response has been poor and it does not look good.
They knew this was going to be a bad one and they seem unprepared.
Question is: Is this Bush's fault? simple answer NO. This is a beaureaucratic screw up that should teach us that our level of preparedness is far from where it should be.
If (god forbid) multiple major cities were ever hit by terrorists, we cannot forget the lessons learned from this disaster.
So far however, federal response has to be given an F IMHO.
Sure. Lets have the government set up to handle 1/1000 years disaster in any city, any time, anywhere. That will be cheap and easy to maintain.
"So, you're saying that making sure a prisoners "right" to a sex change should take a backseat to keeping up with infrastructure?"
Uh ...no. I was simply pointing out that New Orleans had longstanding problems that needed to be dealt with decades ago. However given the plummeting IQs around here I would have to say that the schools are in dire need of some kind of help.
8-06-05
Your time would be better spent talking to your own, Governor Blanco.
See ya.
Perfect. Just PERFECT
Poor planning at the local level, city and state.. and the blame game should stop there.
What makes some of the problems in New Orleans so inexcusable is that this is a major city that has received millions of dollars and resources (like others) from the federal government (under Homeland Security) to handle most emergency situations. Were was this states contigency plans for what is not unsimilar to a terrorist attack? If some reports are true that 300,000 people remained "after" the mandatory evacuations were ordered on Saturday, than someone screwed up...and I know who.
During Blanco's press conference on Sunday morning, she was praising the federal government for their response, indicating that Bush called her the day before to issue a State of Emergency for her state. This, alone is interesting since most governors make their own requests to the Feds before the president intervenes. From what I gather, the Governor hadn't done it until that time. I also noticed during that press conference that it was again the Governor who said it was Bush who wanted the "mandatory" evacuations issued, which also came the day before (Saturday).
I thought it suspicious that the Governor was involving Bush so much in this state's decisions, but then I realized why. After Hurricane Ivan last year, the public officials took a lot of heat for instilling fear and inconvenience when Ivan turned out to be a dud for New Orleans. In other words, these people were apprehensive about doing the same thing again, so it appears that some were waiting for others to make these decisions for them. This would politically insulate them if Katrina didn't hit. It looks as if some of these people played politics with the lives of others.
And I can only assume this is true, since even after the mandatory evacuations were ordered, no efforts were made to clear the city. I don't know how things run in New Orleans, but when a hurricane approaches Florida, mandatory evacuations mean that cops start moving people out...and those who can't move on their own, have access to busses, shuttles and taxis. Heck, the fact that I'm seeing hundreds of submerged cars indicates that many people had the resources to leave, but instead chose to stay despite the warning. Were was the Chief of Police and the PD before this crisis hit?
The responisibilty for all of this clearly falls on the shoulders of both the Governer and the Mayor of NO, who not only failed to evacuate the city, but had know contingency plan in place for this emergency after the hurricane hit. Until the president steps in, that states National Guard is still under the direction of the Governor. Where in the hell was she and and her people until the levies broke the "following" day? Oh, that's right, I was listening to the Mayor and Blanco's Attorney General justifying the looting for those in need, even though this chaos broke-out hours after the hurricane passed. I watched as not only did city officials not stop the looting, but help participate in it.
The fact that the "state" diddled for almost a day before the levies broke indicates how incompetent these people are. Instead, I watched state officials exhale, claiming to have been thankful for not getting hit worse. I find it interesting how many are now blaming Bush for his slow response, when the very people responsible for asking for that help were celebrating this near miss...and excusing the looting as a natural reaction. These state officials screwed up from the start.
"Does that look like good leadership from Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco?"
Looks like the Gov's fax machine is finally working.
"I've been pretty silent up until now but federal response has been poor and it does not look good."
How much more do the feds need to do? The President practically begged for the Gov. of LA to evacuate residents. The Feds declared the area a federal disastor before the hurricane hit to cut down response time. The Feds are responding and supporting within 24 hours.
The only thing they could do quicker is to have moved their assets into the eye of the storm to be destroyed along with the rest of the area. Is that what you would have preferred?
The Feds can't just take over at State
For years the New Orleans ADMIN has had Corruption and the money never went to the LEVEE's.
All of them were DEMS. Isn't that strange ???
The problem is that too many people are ignorant of what a democratic republic kind of government we have in the USA. Most people look to the federal government for all their handouts because the liberals have taught them so well. Each state has its own government to take care of state needs. I agree with a letter to the editor I saw in my morning newspaper that said we should not expend billions on rebuilding NO because it will always suffer destuction from natural causes being that it is below sea level. We should turn it into a PETA animal rescue habitate for the whole nation. Then maybe PETA would get off our collective environmental backs.
**Poor Government Planning To Blame For Chaos After Katrina**
Absolutely!
The people of New Orleans need to un-elect a mayor.
And the people of Louisiana need to un-elect a governor!
When is the last time N.O. had a GOP mayor btw?? Seems like decades of Demo leadership has failed the people there.
If only President Kerry were in office now! This whole nightmare could have been avoided. (nasty sarcasm)
Dem Gov, Dem Mayor, Dem Parrish Officials, And Dem Police.
Democrat demonstrated performance.
"Question is: Is this Bush's fault? simple answer NO. This is a beaureaucratic screw up that should teach us that our level of preparedness is far from where it should be."
EXACTLY. What will happen if there were a massive tsunami to hit one of our coasts? Obviously we can't stop a tsunami but we can come up with plans to get people away from the coast ASAP but I don't see any planning being done. New Orleans has been a disaster waiting to happen but the levees haven't been improved since the 1930s and apparently there was no plan for getting everyone out of the city.
You just can't lay blame on any one person for something like this.
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