Posted on 09/03/2005 9:02:07 PM PDT by wildwood
Who’s Responsible For New Orleans?
by D.C. Thornton @ 11:58 pm. Filed under Commentary, Blogosphere
If critics of the Hurricane Katrina disaster are going to play the blame game, they should at least play according to Hoyle.
A comment to a Blogs for Bush posting sums up my thoughts on the issue clearly. I’m reposting it here in its entirety:
In case you aren’t familiar with how our government is SUPPOSED to work:
The chain of responsiblity for the protection of the citizens in New Orleans is:
1. The Mayor
2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security (a political appointee of the Governor who reports to the Governor)
3. The Governor
4. The Head of Homeland Security
5. The President
What did each do?
1. The mayor, with 5 days advance, waited until 2 days before he announced a mandatory evacuation (at the behest of the President). The he failed to provide transportation for those without transport even though he had hundreds of buses at his disposal.
2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security failed to have any plan for a contingency that has been talked about for 50 years. Then he blames the Feds for not doing what he should have done. (So much for political appointees)
3. The Governor, despite a declaration of disaster by the President 2 DAYS BEFORE the storm hit, failed to take advantage of the offer of Federal troops and aid. Until 2 DAYS AFTER the storm hit.
4. The Director of Homeland Security positioned assets in the area to be ready when the Governor called for them
5. The President urged a mandatory evacuation, and even declared a disaster State of Emergency, freeing up millions of dollars of federal assistance, should the Governor decide to use it.
Oh and by the way, the levees that broke were the responsibility of the local landowners and the local levee board to maintain, NOT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
The disaster in New Orleans is what you get after decades of corrupt (democrat) government going all the way back to Huey Long.
Funds for disaster protection and relief have been flowing into this city for decades, and where has it gone, but into the pockets of the politicos and their friends.
Decades of socialist government in New Orleans has sapped all self reliance from the community, and made them dependent upon government for every little thing.
Political correctness and a lack of will to fight crime have created the single most corrupt police force in the country, and has permitted gang violence to flourish.
The sad thing is that there are many poor folks who have suffered and died needlessly because those that they voted into office failed them. For those who missed item 5 (where the President’s level of accountability is discussed), it is made more clear in a New Orleans Times-Picayune article dated August 28:
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — In the face of a catastrophic Hurricane Katrina, a mandatory evacuation was ordered Sunday for New Orleans by Mayor Ray Nagin.
Acknowledging that large numbers of people, many of them stranded tourists, would be unable to leave, the city set up 10 places of last resort for people to go, including the Superdome.
The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could leave the city should. He exempted hotels from the evacuation order because airlines had already cancelled all flights.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding. (emphasis mine)
The ball was placed in Mayor Nagin’s court to carry out the evacuation order. With a 5-day heads-up, he had the authority to use any and all services to evacuate all residents from the city, as documented in a city emergency preparedness plan. By waiting until the last minute, and failing to make full use of resources available within city limits, Nagin and his administration f**ked up.
Mayor Nagin and his emergency sidekick Terry Ebbert have displayed lethal, mind boggling incompetence before, during and after Katrina. […]
As for Mayor Nagin, he and his profile in pathetic leadership police chief should resign as well. That city’s government is incompetent from one end to the other. The people of New Orleans deserve better than this crowd of clowns is capable of giving them.
If you’re keeping track, these boobs let 569 buses that could have carried 33,350 people out of New Orleans–in one trip–get ruined in the floods. Whatever plan these guys had, it was a dud. Or it probably would have been if they’d bothered to follow it.
As for all the race-baiting rhetoric and Bush-bashing coming from prominent blacks on the left, don’t expect Ray Nagin to be called out on the carpet for falling short. You want to know why? Here’s why:
It’s more convenient to blame a white president for what went wrong than to hold a black mayor and his administration accountable for gross negligence and failing to fully carry out an established emergency preparedness plan.
To hold Nagin and his administration accountable for dropping the ball amounts to letting loose the shouts and cries of “Racism!”. It’s sad, it’s wrong, but it’s standard operating procedure for the media and left-wing black leadership.
Mark my words: you will not hear a word of criticism from Jesse Jackson Sr., Randall Robinson, the Congressional Black Caucus, the NAACP, or Kanye West being directed toward Raymond Nagin. Why? Because he is a mere black politician instead of an effective elected official who happens to be black. In the mindset of more-blacker-than-thou blacks, black politicians who are on their side can do no wrong.
(links via Sister Toldjah, Balloon Juice, and Ramblings’ Journal)
Update: JunkYardBlog points out more evacuation plans at the state level which weren’t implemented.
Just out of curiosity can you point to a single instance where a mayor or governor called for a mandatory evacuation 5 days before a storm hit?
the only reason as many people evac'ed as they did was because BUSH called for mandatory evac:
This was Saturday, Aug 27:
"“Although the track could change, forecasters believe Hurricane Katrina will affect New Orleans,” said Mayor Nagin. “We may call for a voluntary evacuation later this afternoon or tomorrow morning to coincide with the instatement of contraflow. This will give people more options to leave the area. However, citizens need to begin preparing now so they will be ready to leave when necessary.
The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/03/AR2005090301680.html
MM, backhoe, have you seen this? And thanks for the link, Peach.
Yes, but thanks for calling it to my attention- there's so much information flowing that I do miss things.
You're welcome. Blanco just wrote her own political obituary.
What I can't get a handle on is whether the Friday referenced is August 26 or September 2.
Later in the article there is mention that New Orleans officials didn't want to federalize this because if it went wrong, they (New Orleans) would be blamed.
#1. That statement is nonsens of course because if the evacuation was federalized and it went wrong, it would be the feds who were blamed.
#2. It seems to me that if the article is referencing Friday as in September 2nd, it's a little late for NO officials to worry about blame post hurricane. NO officials are already going to be blamed because it went so badly so why not turn it over to the feds.
#3. If the article was referencing Friday the 26 of August, before the hurricane, I can see NO officials worrying they would take blame for something.
Although why they didn't try to pass that blame off to the federal government is a mystery.
What's your take on which Friday they were referring to, mewzilla?
I'd like to know the answer to this, though. Someone should ask the WH.
And if it was the Friday before landfall, then Congress should do something that would allow the POTUS to shove the response down a governor's throat, just in case a state's populace choose to elect a freaking incompetent.
I think we should e-mail the reporter for this story.
And then send it to Brit Hume and people who we think can get the answer.
Good idea! And Rush Limbaugh, too.
I've been looking at all the places within this article to find HOW to e-mail the reporters involved in writing it, and darned if I can find it.
She filed a request with FEMA for disaster assistance on 8/28.
I for one am glad you posted this. AND we got a disrupter banned too!
Yeah, I suppose you are right, the rescuers should've assumed rescuing people in New Oreans, Lousiana, in the US, would be just like rescuers wandering into Al Qaeda strongholds in Asia.
Still, the level of evil never rose to similar levels during the tsunami and 9/11 rescues.
Press Release
Date: 9/1/2005
Contact:Denise Bottcher or Roderick Hawkins at 225-342-9037
Governor Blanco Announces Executive Order
Baton Rouge, LA— Governor Blanco today announced the following Executive Order:
Executive Order NO. KBB 2005- 31- provides that pursuant to the Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act, R.S. 29:721, et seq., grants emergency powers to the governor, where, she has in consultation with school superintendents, utilized public school buses for transportation of Hurricane Katrina evacuees. As you are aware most public school districts will not begin school until Tuesday, September 6th 2005.
The full text of the above mentioned proclamation is available on the Internet at www.gov.state.la.us.
The citizens who live there are responsible.
Citizens of every city, town and rural community need to set up civil defense corps with shelters and supplies at the ready in every community. No waiting for corrupt and bloated governmental agencies then to "help". Forget FEMA, Jimmy Carters bloated bureaucracy that was designed to do away with self reliance and civic responsibility through civil defense.
Citizens need to remove every politician and bureaucrat implementing "smart growth". "Smart growth" creates very dense cities and developments where people are discouraged or not allowed to have private transportation.
Note that New Orleans evacuation plan stated that private transportation should be used to evacuate people, knowing that there are politically created "smart growth" areas where the people have no private transportation. The concept of controlling people through "smart growth" is criminal beyond belief and has no place in a free society.
If I lived ten feet below sea level and was a politician from sin city LA my boy scout training would have prepared me for an emergency. A volunteer peace keeping force should have always been in the ready in case of levy break. Just like on a boat there should have been access to inflatable rafts, hard tack, water and radios. Emergency towers with generators and lights would be another. BE PREPARED is a motto of survivors. Sin city New Orleans was not prepared. That ain't no ones fault but LA politicians.
As I've said repeatedly, government across the board made gross errors in its response to this storm. There are numerous accounts of FEMA scew-ups as well, such as refusing a fleet of emergency vehicles from Florida because they wanted GSA to approve it, being unable to accept aid from Chicago, and forcing a search-and-rescue group from Virginia to return home because they couldn't authorize their participation in the rescue efforts.
Read my tag line.
Bravo, you nailed it.
Citizens must expect that government will screw things up, and they must be prepared to be self sufficient.
In the end it isn't government's fault that people in New Orleans died, it is the fault of those who relied on government to protect them.
September 2nd.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.