Posted on 09/02/2005 5:40:24 AM PDT by Dog
President to speak at 9am ...
The hurricane didn't hit until Monday morning and the levees didn't begin failing until Tuesday.
It's now Friday morning and a lot of folks here seem to think that everything should have been solved by now. A million residents of the New Orleans area should all be in some instant city we assembled from some warehouses conveniently located in a nice dry spot.
Piss off. If there's anything I've done since Monday, it's to defend law enforcement, FEMA and the administration.
That's gotten increasingly hard to do and in case you didn't get the memo, the president is not happy with the relief efforts and admits they've fallen short. So maybe he's failed to understand the scope too.
Found it:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1473615/posts?page=5241#5241
Chertoff press conference...
DHS has taken over control of operations for relief using some new law - first time law has been used - something like "Incidence of National Significance".
5,241 posted on 08/31/2005 1:45:27 PM EDT by Pete
It's about damned time!
The La Purchase included many other areas of the country...:)
You are absolutely right...
I was watching the weather Channel almost continuously, and I recall differently.
There were nearly five day days during which the projected path included NO. During this time the intensity picked up continuously. During this time the Weather Channel spent hours discussing the danger to NO. During this time the Weather Channel spent hours describing the effects of previous hurricanes in the area.
The storm turned Cat 3 nearly three days before it hit. Remember Cat three? That's the one that city was just barely prepared for.
But recall, the path was known, and the tendency of the storm to intensify was known. Any city and state officials who weren't on the job 24/7 were criminal.
Posts 590 and 603
Hmmmm...Buchannon/Tancredo-ites and '04 election trolls, maybe?
Obviously it was erroneous.
Peach......just one word. This disaster is so enormous, that I think we have to take a step back before we conclude that FEMA has 'failed.'
Obviously, they have not fully succeeded, but thousands have been rescued and fed and sheltered, and bused. The lack of communication even between first responders has been a serious problem, and there has been an inability to get from place to place because of the water.
When a NG rescuer gets his leg shot by someone he's attempting to rescue, the problem becomes far more complex than a typical disaster scenario.
I'm guessing that the President is going to oversee a whole lot of 'fixing' of this obviously inadequate plan. But I'm not sure he could have known it was inadequate until it was tested.
The federal government HAS to be involved in these kinds of things because of the nature of the threats to this country.
A positive word.............hospitals nationwide (including the one my husband works in) have been mobilized to send volunteer medical staff to the afflicted area............something that would never have happened previously.
We need to be thankful that we have this very capable administrator in the Oval Office right now to get things straightened out.
God made no mistake in putting George W. Bush in office for these eight years (a point I know you fully agree with).
Nobody's saying that. But people shouldn't be dying of dehydration, and looters shouldn't be running loose in the streets.
It appears that the cavalry has arrived. Things are turning up, and today should be the tipping point forward.
Thanks, I'm going to check it out.
Good point.
The success of the programs removing people from welfare dependency, and the general good economy we have experienced over the past few years, have helped a lot more people to get away from total dependency. So the poor souls remaining are a distillation of incompetence, or further sinking to the bottom, whichever metaphor works. Now we are watching what a critical mass of incompetents looks like in misery.
Petty question: re the people out on the road in view of TV cameras. They are standing in piles of trash. I think the discarded paper used to be wrapped around food. What do you think?
I knew somebody would come back with that. I don't have time to teach you, but game theory is about more than just games. For one thing, it's where you find out when, why, and how often "Nice guys finish last."
We all realize he's trying to take action. There is now something else at stake besides the suffering populace hit by Katrina. The President's political capital is being looted by the Democrats; his agenda, his effectiveness, and the future of the party after the Bush administration, are all at stake. And on those delicate things hinge the fate of all.
Thank you for this reasoned statement.
Who would guess that the Louisiana governor would react by doing nothing, basically falling apart? Who would guess they had NO plans to implement to take care of the needs of their citizens? Who would believe in a million years that their police would participate in looting rather than stop it, and that their communications system would be completely inadequate?
The President relied on the very people who turned out to be inept at providing the information he needed to make fast decisions and get them help, and he is doing all he can now. He's clearly signaled that FEMA's director had better step up immediately, too.
Yesterday, there was an excellent post regarding the "politics" of the NO area, noting that each one of the levees has its own bureaucracy and the total lack of coordination between those elements and state and local government. If someone could direct me the right way (to retrieve it), such would be appreciated.
Is there any estimate how many people are still in N.O.?
Thank you for posting the good news.
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