Posted on 09/01/2005 8:38:21 AM PDT by SirLinksalot
Good point. Where did the money go? My guess post recovery we are gonna see a major investigation into corruption of N.O. gov't. It would be interesting to see who was awarded contracts for infrastructure work such as levee repair, road maintenance etc. I imagine mob ties will certainly surface.
Looting always takes place after a disaster. That's not the govt's fault.
What an idiot. On August 24th, Katrina was just a tropical storm in the Atlantic. We can't forecast either the strength or landfall for several days afterwards.
Texas was able to mobilize a place for refugees to stay and transport in 48 hours. Why? Because they
Bush's fault! Impeach Bush!
BTW....Order must be restored and looters should be shot on sight....
I couldn't agree more. I lost my home and had only the clothes on my back in the big fire in the S.F. area a dozen years ago. Within 24 hours the ugliest side of people was in my face. You don't quickly forget this experience and I know personally what lies ahead for these people - a long, slow, climb back to a life - and the psychological toll is enormous.
As you remember, south Florida was hit hard by a series of hurricanes last year. After the storms, homeowners had to protect what was left of their property from looters at gunpoint. At the time, had a property owner shot a looter, he would have been arrested.
One aftermath of the hurricanes is that Jeb Bush signed a law a couple of months ago that gives Floridians the right to protect their property using force.
I agree that most of the failures seem to be state and city level. But, 9/11 was 4 years ago. Homeland Security Agency has been touted as being there not only to prevent security breaches but also to handle disasters. The Feds and each state have Homeland Security agencies. The storm was headed on its way to New Orleans area for at least 3 days before it hit. New Orleans is the largest (in terms of tonnage) port in the US, it has immense strategic signifcance...it is closed now. There was no viable plan of disaster mangement for New Orleans in place before the storm. In short, the authorities cannot handle major disasters no matter what they say to build, falsely, public confidence. The money spent on homeland security agencies is a total waste.
And .. since I have not seen one person bring it up .. I will!
Louisiana is governed by a liberal (those who never plan for anything and expect the govt to do everything FOR them.
Texas is governed by conservatives who had a contingency plan already in place in Houston - so they were ready and prepared to help those people in New Orleans.
O'Reilly was almost beside himself interviewing Gov. Perry from TX - praising and speaking in glowing terms of the FACT that Perry had done his homework and was prepared for a disaster - but Bill never mentioned that the Gov of LA was not prepared and had no such plan in place.
ONCE AGAIN THE REPUBLICANS AND CONSERVATIVES TRIUMPH!!
The analogy to New Orleans is Washington, DC on 9/11. Local authorities had no disaster plan and no clue about what to do. Land and cell phone lines went down immediately. The city had 16 satellite phones but nobody knew where they were. The mayor could not communicate with the Feds, and did not even know the Capitol and White House were being evacuated until he saw it on TV. The cops did not know what was going on or where to send the evacuees. The subways stayed open, the bridges across the Potomac stayed open - it was total chaos. OTOH, Arlington County's response to the Pentagon was swift, organized, and magnificent, probably saving many lives - again, the County had a plan and had drilled it many times.
It is beyond my comprehension that the City of New Orleans had no plan for a sudden breach of the levees. What if a breach had happened in the middle of a business day, due to a bomb or simply a natural failure, with nobody evacuated in advance and thousands of suburbanites in their offices? There could have been 100,000 or more dead. And if the city had planned before to move people into the Superdome during a hurricane, why did they not plan for the aftermath? It seems that they did not even know where the high ground would be in a total flood, nor did anyone think to put provisions in the Convention Center before bringing people there, etc. This is criminal incompetence IMO. The City of New Orleans had better be ready for about a billion dollars worth of lawsuits, because they will come and they will succeed.
I suppose it is easy for you to say that but I am sure the thousands of people who were waiting up state for the storm to hit would disagree. Saying it is a total waste makes no sense.
Having stores of food and water and supplies and doctors ahead of time increases the chance of survival for thousands of people. I am sure if it were your family in harm's way you would appreciate every little bit that could be done for them at a time like this.
It is not the job of government to plan. It is the job of government to tax, spend, and ingratiate itself toward those who want something for nothing. They're gonna have a tough time in LA.
Scott Harrington just reported on Fox news that there are NO rescue boats operating in New Orleans.
What are you talking about when you say that supplies and medical personnel were mobilized ahead of time? It seems that that is simply untrue.
From what anyone can tell, New Orleans had no viable disaster plan. Recall this is a strategic sea port (most tonnage in the USA and huge volume of oil and gas) and it is closed down. Clearly, "Homeland Security" is an oxymoron.
I know the chiefs of police and fire in my city. We are a strategic target (why?--I shouldn't say on the net). How much resources or money has Homeland Security provided? Not one dime.
We ignored the great lessons of NYC's official city-and region-level planning and reaction to 9/11, the lessons of the many private citizens and organizations who mobilized on the spot, yet with great self-order on 9/11 (for example the flotillas of boats that evacuated NYC), the lessons of the private citizen heroes of Flight 93, the historic lessons of the power of free citizen action throughout history and especially in the United States. All of those -- including NYC's official planning -- were places done on tight or no budgets. It wasn't money being thrown at a problem -- it was the intellectual and personal resources of free individuals.
No grand "somebody else" who magically handles all problems -- such as a FEMA, such as Homeland Security, such as the Red Cross, such as the Federal Government. Rather free individuals individually and in associations of various kinds and scales. The power of WE.
New York had been prepared for a terrorist attack and had rehearsed for such for years. Most governments have regular preparedness drills, but how many places expect to have to take action? New Yorkers were expectant. How many of the folks from New Orleans who were actually trained for evacuations stayed behind? How many of the thousands who stayed had a clue about what to do if the city flooded?
So much of what has happened in these last few days could have been prevented with a little education. But you have to have willing students for that to work.
And yet we (govt. bureaucracy) still throw the money into Homeland Security agencies. Quo bono?
My question is why did this "better" plan call for evacuations at a LATER time before the storm hit? It appears to me that Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin drug their feet for two reasons: (1)They didn't want to be criticized in the event the storm didn't make that northward turn towards New Orleans and (2) There really wasn't a new and improved plan.
If federal authorities had not forced them to make the call, who knows how many more people would have been caught in that hell hole that has become New Orleans now?
Exactly! That is why I truly believe that these government officials didn't do all they could to save people before the storm hit. They were chastised for over-blowing Ivan and they didn't want the heat if Katrina turned out the same.
The hypocrisy is astounding as I listen to a media asking what's taking the federal government so long to move refugees under the worst of conditions...when these same people haven't even asked why the mayor and governor didn't even attempt to do the same...with a Cat-5 hurricane bearing down on a coastal city.
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