Mandatory Evacuation Ordered for New Orleans as Storm Nears(Bush's Fault My Arse)

NY TIMES ^ | 082805 | CHRISTINE HAUSER

[antaresequity]

Keep in Mind This Article Was Published Before The Hurricane Hit Land

...snips from the attached article:

President Bush has already declared an emergency for Louisiana and Mississippi, which along with other parts of the northern Gulf coast states lie in the direction of the hurricane.

"That's why we are taking this unprecedented move," Mayor Ray Nagin said at a news conference that was broadcast live. "The storm surge most likely will topple our levee system."(Knowing the levees would fail Nagin did What?)

With a state of emergency declared, federal emergency assistance was being deployed and national guard troops were being prepared.

Preparations to protect life and property should be completed in the evening, it said."We are facing a storm that most of us have long feared," Mr. Nagin said in the news conference.

Many of Louisiana's national guard forces are currently deployed to Iraq(many = 3000 of 11000), but the general in charge of the Louisiana troops "has 1,500 troops ready to be deployed, with another couple of thousand that they can tap into pretty quickly," Mr. Nagin said in the CNN interview.

[Ruth C]

Well, Newt should know better. If the President just sent in the Military, the same people screaming now, once it was over would be screaming about abrogating the constitution and how dare he send Military into a state. It's not something to be done lightly, especially since there is a Gov in charge who only had to request help.

As to the LA National Guard in Iraq, that's the reason for the contracts between states in case their guard is on some other duty.... If they want to keep trying to make Iraq an issue and being spread 'thin' my response is going to be.... bring them back from Germany, Okinawa, S. Korea, etc.

[Bon mots]

I live in Europe for Chrissakes and heard about what was fixin' to happen down there.
1.) Category 5 storm
2.) 160 M.P.H. sustained winds
3.) New Orleans (a COASTAL CITY) below sea level
4.) Democrat governor and mayor
5.) MANDATORY EVACUATION ORDER
6.) PLENTY of warning

No excuse for blatant stupidity.

[Eagle Eye]

Cheap shot by Newt.

Scratch him and Scarborough off my list of those I'll even consider voting for ever again.

Since he's not contributing to the solution, he and those how admire his comments like this are part of the problem.

[andyandval]

Bush declares emergency in Louisiana (Hurricane Katrina)
AP ^ | Aug. 27, 2005 | Staff
 

Posted on 08/28/2005 1:23:07 AM EDT by Anti-Bubba182
 

CRAWFORD, Texas - President Bush declared a state of emergency in Louisiana on Saturday because of the approach of Hurricane Katrina and his spokesman urged residents along the coast to heed authorities' advice to evacuate.

Bush, vacationing at his ranch, was being regularly updated about the storm, which is expected to hit land early Monday, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said.

Officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency continue to coordinate with state authorities in Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, and have prepositioned supplies in areas expected to be affected, he said.

The president's emergency declaration authorizes the FEMA to coordinate all disaster relief efforts and to provide appropriate assistance in a number of Louisiana parishes, or counties.

Authorities told residents of low-lying coastal communities to head for higher ground. The storm was expected to strengthen as it crosses the Gulf of Mexico and could become a Category 4 hurricane with wind of at least 131 mph.

"We urge residents in the areas that could be impacted to follow the recommendations of local authorities," McClellan said.

[Nathan Zachary]

"We need to be evacuated, we're taking sniper fire, and nobody is in charge.
Who is in charge?

You mean, who was SUPPOSED to be in charge. Ask Nagin and that dim witt Blanco.

[uncbob]

To hell with the newt, why doesn't he list crawl back under a rock with his fellow Monday morning quarterbacking newts?

Newt is still under the delusion that he is some kind of political genius who was responsible for the GOP taking over Congress in 94

He forgets how he predicted a 25 seat pickup in the House in 96 and then resigned after the election

[uncbob]

Should be 98 not 96

[nicmarlo]

fyi ping.

[uncbob]

If the President just sent in the Military,

All the GOV had to do was ASK

You can be sure her Dem handlers did NOT want her having to ask Bush to come to the rescue especially after she was praised on the tube ( before the levee broke )

[Doug2464]

DHS Organization
How does the mission of the Department of Homeland Security differ from those of other agencies?

The new Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has three primary missions: Prevent terrorist attacks within the United States, reduce America's vulnerability to terrorism, and minimize the damage from potential attacks and natural disasters.

[Ursus arctos horribilis]

This is the way too many, in fact, WAAAAY TOOOO many, think it should have went like this.

Steven Spielberg has managed in less than two hours to move thousands of buses, trains and planes with 100,000 military personnel, 50 millions tons of food and water, air lifted 10 hospital ships and 200 field hospitals and 20,000 doctors and 200,000 nurses for the complete relief of New Orleans.

Each victim has two Nanny's and five care givers assigned to them. Also every victim is guaranteed that all of their wants and wishes will be provided by the federal government for life. (whoops, forgot, 99.9% already had this)

[Tall_Texan]

It has dawned on me that the same group of people who cannot see a link between the War on Terror and the War in Iraq cannot see a link between authorizing and freeing up resources *prior* to the hurricane striking and responding to the hurricane emergency.

Aid workers thought they were entering an American city, not Mogadishu. They weren't expecting to be shot at for trying to help. It took more time to get armament and large trucks to get into New Orleans than it would have taken to conduct an orderly evacuation that did not involve taking on enemy fire.

While the "waiting for the rushing waters to finish" is a theory I hadn't heard before and has some validity (what if they had rushed in only to have an even larger levee break and all perish in the rescue?), I contend the reason for waiting had more to do with the hostile fire that doctors and rescue personnel encountered.

[Robert357]

It is clear that the more we look at what really happened, the stranger the mayor of New Orleans begins to look. His recent statements about fearing he will be "taken out by the CIA" for speaking up and his statements about "not being on drugs" kind of make me think the guy is another Marion Berry-like elected official. This mayor of one of the more corrupt Democratic controlled cities in America might be the embodiment of the Peter Principal. He certainly sounds incompetent.

I think that Drudge in his question and photo of the school buses asking the Mayor why he didn't use the buses to evacuate people from town is a damn good question that more in the MSM should be asking.

When the dust settles, I think that the New Orleans City government and the State government are going to look pretty bad. This is not the story that the MSM will want to provide, but it will soon come out as more and more information reach the light of day.

[Nathan Zachary]

BTW, Newt, Do you know what the state emergency plan was in case of a Catagory 4-5 Hurricane? What was it? What were the procedures that were supposed to be followed? What should have been done in the years, and then when the threat was imminent, days leading up to the disaster? (and NAGIN had days to evacuate) Why weren't these things done? Why weren't food and medical supplies not piled up in the dome, and other safe houses? Why was NOTHING coordinated at all?

Why was NAGIN talking with lawyers, worrying about being sued by ACLU? Istead of packing people into all those buses, tossing in a pee bucket and shower certain, and getting people OUT? Where was Blanco during all of this? I see that she thanks Bush for being a leader, and that Bush had responded, giving her everything she asked for, But yet you fault Bush for her LACK of action and requests?

[Nathan Zachary]

I spent 23 years ias a medic emt going to other countries and trying to help people. I've seen bad things, horrible things.

The last thing I would expect is to be SHOT AT by my fellow citizens I was trying to help. Heck, I was rarely shot at in foreign countries, because they appreciated the help. It was only those (Islamic wacko's) who didn't want those people we were helping that shot at us.

[msnimje]

And the Governor was talking about what a Brave and Bold move it was on the President's part to do so.

[satchmodog9]

Saw this and laughed. I hate the left and their bias. There is truth out there and there is the media. I tell you what, the President better get the word out why things took the time they did and put all this spin and lying to rest once and for all. One fault I give the administration is their inability to communicate at certain times. They better set the country straight before the press spins this out of control. Already the lies have gotten more blatant and insidious. The Democrat mayors are out in unison crying about how the administration rebuffed their donations of aid. They know the feds turned them down to keep too many hands out of the pot and to keep control centralized, but the dems see political opportunity and pounce. Like I said, the administration better get the truth out there before the lies bury them.

[Ruth C]

I believe she was at home where someone from NOAA had to call to reach her on Saturday night....

I sure wish that Fox, since I know others won't, would add a kind of animation presentation to their coverage. Like the animations and relief maps when the Iraq war began. Give us a full account using that and an engineering specialist or whomever it would be, and show through it, how it went down from the beginning of the high winds through until the levee broke in NO, and include the whole coastal area and as far inland as it went in all those states, not just NO.

[Tall_Texan]

I don't think these were Islamic whackos. I think they were common street thugs upset that we were trying to take away hostages without their permission. They could have bartered these people for some food and other necessities. They didn't want to just give up such a bargaining chip.