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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?
CLICK ABOVE LINK FOR THE REST
(Excerpt) Read more at newsday.com ...
I believed that it was possible to imagine the absolute bottom of competence.
I was wrong.
It's been almost a freakin' week fercryingoutloud!
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You are forgetting the lead up time to the disaster. The feds could have been ready to move out (out of harms way)and have already been deployed by now.
From what I'm seeing the storm occured Monday (with prior warning day before), it's now Thursday and federal response is just beggining to kick in that's far greater than 24 hours.
It was no secret and no surprise that this was going to one destructive storm (I'm sure they have cable news as well).
I don't think looking critically at the response window is a bad thing. To believe all was great and not question nothing may seriously affect how future diasters are handled.
Thank you Herr Reichmarshal
I'd bet you a dollar to a donut the vast majority of those involved in anarchy would identify themselves as DEMOCRATS. And what says even more, they'd probably do it proudly!
Nuff said.....
It cannot be denied, the New Orleans situation is a total embarrassment to our country.
For the first time ever we are faced with what many third world countries have faced for many decades - millions of displaced people. Will we have the courage to call them what they are? Refugees. And the richest country in the world was not prepared, regardless of the most sophisticated weather forcasting capability in the world that clearly spelled out a possible dissaster in advance of its occurance.
Dead bodies floating by and unattended? That happens in 'those other countries', not in ours. Food, water, shelter for thousands of wandering souls with lost looks on their faces? That's what happens when the U.N. or Red Cross trucks roll into refugee camps in some God-forsaken desert region of a far-away corner of the world. Not in our country, thank you very much.
No doubt there will be opinions, commissions, columns written, perhaps even books and inch-thick scholarly studies of this dissaster but one thing is for certain; never before has our country looked so pathetic and never before have we joined the ranks of the bumbling, inept incompetents that we have for so long turned our noses up when mentioning them because they're not in our country.
Is it Bush's fault. Of course not. It's the fault of the layers and layers of bureaucrats at all levels and from all political parties who have been too busy running for office to attend to some basic dissaster planning.
Osama B.L. must be having a good laugh....and re-framing his terror tactics, now that we have given him a fist-hand birds-eye view of what a really big dissaster does to one of our major cities, and the character of its citizens.
Wish I'd have thought of that...and the weedeater....
First of all we NEVER know for sure where one will hit or how severe the hit will be...
If we mustered all our forces everytime a Hurricane 'threatend' our coasts we'd go broke...and taxes would have to be raised..
Its up to each citizens to make preparations for his and her family...
It's up to communities to organize their own disaster plans
The feds can only respond afterward the damage is done..
Buy storage food, supplies, ammo, handheld communication
get together with relatives, friends, and neighbors make
contingency plans..
Churches make great places to organize ..you know people there you can trust..
imo
Federal response has been kicking in for a couple/three days already. How do you propose that FEMA get financial assistance to the residents of NO? They can't mail relief checks or even direct deposit them in accounts. The city and state government can't even account for their people yet.
This is purely a state issue and any assistance they receive from other states or the feds is gravy. I want federal assistance and other states to help, but this is not a federal requirement.
Historically, the federal assistance has been simply funding thru FEMA. Now, much more is needed. How do you get the largest beaurocratic organization in the world to work at maximum efficiency? The reality is that the Prsident is very limited in his authority to act in state's, until the state authorizes him to do so. The President did all that he could leading up to the storm.
What is very disturbing is that the plan in place is the same plan for a nuclear or chemical terrorist strike. Washington DC ran their "dry run" for evacuation on July 4th and it failed miserably (they didn't account for pedestrians or tourists!) Now we're seeing another plan that's not remotely working.
God save us!
Disasters of Biblical proportions have occured throughout the history of man...and I, for one, believe that we should respond positively and assess the shortfall "after" the rescue, clean-up, & restoration. American patriots never give in or give up!
I have been through many hurricanes in my life.....blame will NOT change a thing at this point....action will.
BTW....Order must be restored and looters should be shot on sight....
Yes. It is also assumed in the article that the Federal Gov't is solely responsible for Emergency Management and Planning. This is not true. Local gov'ts have a responsibility as do State gov'ts. Gov't and public service agencies usually coordinate in their disaster response planning and staging. What went wrong in N.O is that no one can truly plan for the human element. It is an individual's choice to refuse evacuation. It is an individual's choice to loot, create mayhem and threaten the safety of others. No way any amount of planning could have forseen that. If the mayor and governor of N.O had announced from the very beginning a zero tolerance for any looting and had a strong police presence. It might. I say might have helped. But bad people do bad things.
Yes. It is also assumed in the article that the Federal Gov't is solely responsible for Emergency Management and Planning. This is not true. Local gov'ts have a responsibility as do State gov'ts. Gov't and public service agencies usually coordinate in their disaster response planning and staging. What went wrong in N.O is that no one can truly plan for the human element. It is an individual's choice to refuse evacuation. It is an individual's choice to loot, create mayhem and threaten the safety of others. No way any amount of planning could have forseen that. If the mayor and governor of N.O had announced from the very beginning a zero tolerance for any looting and had a strong police presence. It might. I say might have helped. But bad people do bad things.
"The reality is that the Prsident is very limited in his authority to act in state's, until the state authorizes him to do so."
I agree this is a state issue, however we cannot, and should not lay the blame for the slow response directly at their door. While it may not be federal requirement for the feds to intervene, it is a moral obligation. I can keep repeating that this disaster came as no surprise to anyone but that grows tired. My point is that at both state and federal level we seemed unprepared for this (and after 9/11 that is shocking).
While you state, in all seriousness, that aid has been flowing for days, I doubt that the residents of NO would agree. Aid has seemed to be haphazard and could have been planned better, with the lead time there was.
Of course I'm armchair quaterbacking here, but lessons should be taken from this.
You want to know what really sickens me??? I have a close relative who is the emergency management director for my little area of the world. He's been telling stories about the millions and millions of dollars that's been thrown his way for Homeland Security, for this "little" area of the US. Now image NO with its' essential shipping ports and the possibly hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars that were sent there to ramp up and prepare for disaster planning and/or something like this. Just where the hell did all that money go? It certainly doesn't appear that there was ANY kind of disaster planning ever done. When I saw the Mayor of NO and the Gov on tv on Sunday, they were all just kind of frozen in shock as to what they should be doing. For cryin out loud it's not like they've never been threatened and hit with a hurricane before.
See post 56 for more information from another poster.
The way I understand it, troops from other states can't just march in; they have to be invited by the governor. A little concept know as Federalism.
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