Posted on 09/03/2005 4:36:14 PM PDT by johnmecainrino
Firefighting gear stockpile unused WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Nine stockpiles of fire-and-rescue equipment strategically placed around the country to be used in the event of a catastrophe still have not been pressed into service in New Orleans, five days after Hurricane Katrina, CNN has learned. Responding to a CNN inquiry, Department of Homeland Security spokesman Marc Short said Friday the gear has not been moved because none of the governors in the hurricane-ravaged area has requested it. A federal official said the department's Office for Domestic Preparedness reminded the Louisiana and Mississippi governors' offices about the stockpiles on Wednesday and Thursday, but neither governor had requested it.
(Excerpt) Read more at cnn.com ...
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It wouldn't have helped anyway. The only water pressure available is from fire BOATS, which draw water from the floodwaters or rivers. New Orleans has plenty of fire gear, but they can't use it.
OT, but what happened with the firefighters who were being held hostage yesterday? Never saw it on the news.
Did you watch Chertoffs press conference earlier today? He was excellent, particularly in terms of pointing out the consitutional divisions necessary to be upheld, and why the federal role has always been supportive instead of leading. The reporters were not able to phrase their questions misleadingly...and Chertoff was stone cold sober in his answers.
It has become obvious that a National Governors' Conference must be convened by the Dept. of Homeland Security with attendance mandatory upon threat of withdrawl of all Federal disaster funding. It appears there are too many idiots who don't know the basic duties of their offices. I hope some Repub. politician sees this post and moves to throw the resposibility squarely back where it belongs.
Not so, most fire engines can draft from any source of water, Pool, lake.
They use a stiffened hose and a trash screen on the pump inlet and have at it.
There are some local governments, NYC for example, that are geared to handle almost anything. N.O. doesn't seem geared to handle anything past a Mardi Gras crowd and even that takes a lot of outside LEOs. For example ,the Mayor didn't know enough to utilize his school buses, but yesterday was asking about spraying aircraft to spray for mosquitos. Another example is all the communications problems. The N.O. Police don't have any comms and I'm sure FEMA has a metric tonne of IRIDIUM sat phones charged up and ready to rock.
I know how you feel, but it's gonna get horrifically expensive and be incredibly wasteful if Uncle Sam has to second guess every dang governor in the country every time there's a disaster or the risk of one. If that's what you want Uncle Sam to do, well, then all right I guess. But I'd rather have voters electing people with brains. Maybe more will now.
Good point.
It should be as simple as, I the Governor of the State of _____, request all services available through the Federal Gov.
In Blanco's case, I the Governor of Louisiana surrender all my duties to the Federal Government because I know not what I do.
Bottom line_ its sad when a lot of this could have been avoided.
Fox News had the Chertoff interview/press conference.
I heard that too.
He was very articulate, calm and they were clearly outmatched. It was a pleasure to hear.
Wish I'd seen that press conference. Were the questions along the lines of, "Well, why haven't you forced federal help on them?" I picture a phone call from the President, "Governor, take our aid or we'll kill you."
When is CNN going to learn that THE GOVERNORS are the heads of the individual states, not the Federal Government??
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