Let's Clear a Few Things Up

Redstate.org ^ | 09/03/2005 | Leon H

[coffee260]

We are getting a LOT of email and commentary from folks who are simply desperate to assign blame for this hurricane and the lackluster response somewhere. Frankly, the whole exercise sickens me. After 9/11 (and in my opinion, this disaster is clearly worse), at least we had the decency to wait a couple of years before we appointed a finger-pointing commission (which, we are learning, failed to notice the since most important and necessary target for finger-pointing, but I digress). However, given that folks are determined to finger-point right now, before the situation is even returned to normalcy, let us by all means examine a few pieces of relevant evidence, while they are "in the raw" and before they get dismissed as "irrelevant" by the inevitable official finger-pointing commission.

Sometime after the hurricane hit, when nobody knew what the heck was going on, we decided that it might be worthwhile to discover if there were, in fact, any official plans to deal with just the eventuality that the city of New Orleans is currently facing.

It turns out, there was an official plan on the books for the officials of the city of New Orleans - and the reason it is damning is that it reads like a laundry list of things that were not done in preparation for this hurricane. Take a look at the horror below the fold:

Sep 3rd, 2005: 11:22:36

One of the things we have been hearing is that many of the people who did not evacuate did not do so because the city had no means of getting an evacuation order to them, in that they did not have televisions in their homes. Well, the official city plan recognizes the need to be ready to evacuate at any time, the urgent need for having a warning system for those who cannot be reached by traditional media, and the most urgent need for timely notice to those individuals:

Evacuation planning and actual implementation has to be based upon certain assumptions. It must be understood that the need to evacuate elements of the population can occur at any time, events resulting in evacuations occur with various amounts of lead time and every evacuation will be unique and offer unexpected challenges to those conducting the evacuation. Evacuations in response to hazardous material spills or sudden severe weather are provided with little or no warning, and often have to be accomplished after the fact, and in a disaster response environment. Throughout the Parish persons with special needs, require special consideration regarding notification, transportation, and sheltering. Resources of equipment, facilities and personnel are more difficult to locate and coordinate when an evacuation is required during late night or early morning hours. If possible, advance warning should be given so an evacuation can be coordinated. Adequate provisions should be maintained at all times in order to conduct a warning or alert of an area. Certain hazards, such as a hurricane, provide some lead time for coordinating an evacuation. However, this can not be considered a certainty. Plus, the sheer size of an evacuation in response to an approaching hurricane creates the need for the use of community-wide warning resources, which cannot be limited to our City's geographical boundaries. Evacuation of major portions of our population, either in response to localized or citywide disasters, can only be accomplished if the citizens and visitors are kept informed of approaching threats on a timely schedule, and if they are notified of the need to evacuate in a timely and organized manner. If an evacuation order is issued without the mechanisms needed to disseminate the information to the affected persons, then we face the possibility of having large numbers of people either stranded and left to the mercy of a storm, or left in an area impacted by toxic materials.

Whoops.

The plan also lays out, with detailed explanations, the kind of notice a mandatory evacuation order requires to implement:

Using information developed as part of the Southeast Louisiana Hurricane Task Force and other research, the City of New Orleans has established a maximum acceptable hurricane evacuation time standard for a Category 3 storm event of 72 hours. This is based on clearance time or is the time required to clear all vehicles evacuating in response to a hurricane situation from area roadways. Clearance time begins when the first evacuating vehicle enters the road network and ends when the last evacuating vehicle reaches its destination. Clearance time also includes the time required by evacuees to secure their homes and prepare to leave (mobilization time); the time spent by evacuees traveling along the road network (travel time); and the time spent by evacuees waiting along the road network due to traffic congestion (delay time). Clearance time does not refer to the time a single vehicle spends traveling on the road network. Evacuation notices or orders will be issued during three stages prior to gale force winds making landfall.

Seventy-two hours. Not, you know, twenty-four hours. This is especially damning given that machiavel has already chronicled Nagin's stunning recalcitrance to issue a mandatory evacuation order.

But wait, there's more:

It must be understood that this Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan is an all-hazard response plan, and is applicable to events of all sizes, affecting even the smallest segments of the community. Evacuation procedures for small scale and localized evacuations are conducted per the SOPs of the New Orleans Fire Department and the New Orleans Police Department. However, due to the sheer size and number of persons to be evacuated, should a major tropical weather system or other catastrophic event threaten or impact the area, specifically directed long range planning and coordination of resources and responsibilities efforts must be undertaken. The clearance times facing Orleans Parish for a severe hurricane will necessitate proper traffic control and early evacuating decision making. The evacuation must be completed before the arrival of gale force winds. Evacuation should also start when school is not in session and when there is at least eight (8) hours of daylight included in the evacuation time allowed. Provisions must be made for the removal of disabled vehicles. Flooding of roadways due to rainfall before a hurricane arrives could close off critical evacuation routes rendering evacuation impossible. Want more?

The safe evacuation of threatened populations when endangered by a major catastrophic event is one of the principle reasons for developing a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. The thorough identification of at-risk populations, transportation and sheltering resources, evacuation routes and potential bottlenecks and choke points, and the establishment of the management team that will coordinate not only the evacuation but which will monitor and direct the sheltering and return of affected populations, are the primary tasks of evacuation planning. Due to the geography of New Orleans and the varying scales of potential disasters and their resulting emergency evacuations, different plans are in place for small-scale evacuations and for citywide relocations of whole populations. Authority to issue evacuations of elements of the population is vested in the Mayor. By Executive Order, the chief elected official, the Mayor of the City of New Orleans, has the authority to order the evacuation of residents threatened by an approaching hurricane.

I could go on, but at this point, it feels like I am beating a dead and decomposing horse. Sorry, Mayor Nagin, you screwed the pooch on this one. These people should never have been left in your city - they still ARE in your city because of your recalcitrance and lack of planning (you didn't follow your own stupid plan!) and now you are coming unglued at the seams over the people that are still in our city because no one knows they're there? And you have the audacity to suggest that the reason this is happening is everyone's fault but your own?

I can only hope that this is Mayor Nagin's way of manifesting his shame - since that is the only emotion he is justified in feeling right now.

[baiamonte]

You're right. New Orleans is one-step out of New Dehli in the rainy season. It's a dirty, corrupt hell hole full of drug attics, prostitute's and criminals. It should be left under water.

[Jaysun]

The Dems are going to mount a lights out, no-holds-barred effort to blame this on racism.

And try to ride it to victory in 2006. They're shameless.

[IMRight]

Tagged for future reference

Thanks!

[Rockingham]

The old tune "blame Whitey" has worked so well for the Democrats that they have no reason not to play it again at top volume. I am distressed to again see Bush caught flatfooted, as if he is uncomprehending that his job requires practical paranoia based on a recognition that the Left is implacable and unprincipled. That is the eternal nature of politics.

When caught in a jam or a crisis, Bush often seems to speak as if he is the federal bureaucrat-in-chief instead of the public representative and whip against the sloth and failures of government. As the first pictures came in of people stranded, my brother, with experience as a small city mayor, immediately said that Bush was going to get hammered because he was not expressing public concern and recognizing that criticism would attach to him if no one else was marked for blame. Unfortunately, by bringing Mayor Ray Nagin to his side, Bush has politically rescued the most culpable figure, rather like the way that he rescued CIA director George Tennet after 9/11.

Again, we Bush defenders are in the weak position of urging that "now is not the time for finger pointing." Like Hell it isn't. There is no such thing as a closed season on the mistakes and failures of government.

[TNdandelion]

ping

[joonbug]

Already a thread going on this article.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1476485/posts

[rosalita]

Thanks to both of you for very interesting and informative posts. I appreciate the good read!

[rosalita]

Thanks to both of you for very interesting and informative posts. I appreciate the good read!

[ExSES]

The Dems are going to mount a lights out, no-holds-barred effort to blame this on racism.

And..., your point is???

Unfortunately, we live in an age where the "Guv'mint" is wholly responsible for everything from providing tissue when we sneeze to handling an "Extinction Event" such as all out nuclear war or an asteroid hit!

The fact of the matter is..., since we lived in trees/caves..., our security and that of our "immediate tribe" has rested with us AND ALWAYS WILL!

I have had several vanity posts concerning the current state of affairs which were "pulled" (rightfully under the "rules") due to my failure to attribute the information's source (which I certainly would not do...). However, I intend to start a thread, in the near future, to analyze disaster preparedness and managemnent. I hope that those having some experience in this area will join in... (in a civil manner), without venturing into the "blame game"...

[cowdog77]

Right on Hillbilly! All the folks who had any sense whatsoever packed up and left before or shortly afterwards in their vehicles they paid for with money they made from their real jobs. Many went to stay with relatives (who don't live in the same house with the other 15 of them).The huge bulk of those left were low- life folks living from welfare check to welfare check to handout, who couldn't afford a bus ticket, much less a car. Of course, their lack of initiative is Bush's fault too!

[Coop]

We are getting a LOT of email and commentary from folks who are simply desperate to assign blame for this hurricane and the lackluster response somewhere. Frankly, the whole exercise sickens me. After 9/11 (and in my opinion, this disaster is clearly worse), at least we had the decency to wait a couple of years before we appointed a finger-pointing commission

I wholeheartedly agree!!

The Dems are going to mount a lights out, no-holds-barred effort to blame this on racism.

But it's not just the Dems. I've also been disgusted by the scrambling around here to pin blame on anybody and everybody.

[freema]

You can take that to the bank. We need to be ready.
Perhaps Jim R can be appointed to be Bush's PR man?

[Deb]

The only reason the 9/11 Commission happened when it did was to be as close to the 2004 election as possible so GW could be damaged. All the finger-pointing about Katrina is happening now to save time.

[coffee260]

Just listen to this
You won't regret it
click here: http://www.uncg.edu/%7Ewhanthon/audio/the-americans-byron-macgregor.wav

[freema]

They're going to climb as high as they can on dead bodies caused by RATS but blamed on Bush.

[coffee260]

Just listen to this
You won't regret it
click here: http://www.uncg.edu/%7Ewhanthon/audio/the-americans-byron-macgregor.wav

[zlala]

I'm in need of some help!! My rino friend just emailed me an article by Molly Ivins that says in the 2nd paragraph: "To use a fine Southern word, it's tacky to start playing the blame game before the dead are even counted. It is not too soon, however, to make a point that needs to be hammered home again and again, and that is that government policies have real consequences in people's lives."

Then she goes on to say further in the article: Just plain political bad luck that, in June, Bush took his little ax and chopped $71.2 million from the budget of the New Orleans Corps of Engineers, a 44 percent reduction. As was reported in New Orleans CityBusiness at the time, that meant "major hurricane and flood projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now."

I've seen posted here on FR some references to the fact that Bill Clinton also axed funds to shore up the levies in NO. Can anyone here help me out with either the actual information or direct me to where I can find it.

Thanks so much!

[freema]

Rehema Ellis, NBC
Report on the disaster and race 6:30 National News 9/3/05
"causing the country to take a closer look and see what really matters."
and showed another clip of
Conya Whathisface saying Bush hates blacks.

This is nothing more than blaming Bush, yet again, but this time it's for what the NEW IS REPORTING.

[joonbug]

Great! Thanks for the link.