Does anyone know how to determine when this PR actually appeared on the website??? Was it just recently, or did she really do this on Friday, Aug. 26???? Is this dishonest CYA, or simply more evidence that she knew of the threat and did nothing? Either way, she is cooked....
Does anyone know how to determine when this PR actually appeared on the website??Here, validated by WWLT-TV (among others):
www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWL082605blanco.b15272b7.html
Blanco declares state of emergency05:49 PM CDT on Friday, August 26, 2005
Associated Press
Louisiana kept a close watch on the Gulf of Mexico on Friday, Gov. Kathleen Blanco declared a state of emergency, and a strengthening Hurricane Katrina moved further to the west.
Blanco ordered the state's disaster preparedness offices to start taking precautions, saying Katrina posed an "imminent threat." Meanwhile, emergency preparedness officers in southern Louisiana were mobilizing on their own.
"We were looking at it going up the East Coast two days ago and now it's looking like it will hit the central Gulf Coast," said Larry Ingargiola, director of the St. Bernard Parish Emergency Preparedness. "Like we always say, the only one who knows where a storm will go is the man upstairs."
More worrisome was that experts with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned that the hurricane's track could move even further west, Ingargiola said.
"We just hope our people are prepared," he said. "It's kind of late in the year to be making disaster plans."
Walter Maestri, the emergency director for Jefferson Parish, said he was concerned about the movement west and how it was intensifying.
New Orleans City Hall spokeswoman Tami Frazier said officials were watching the storm, and had activated what she called the lowest alert level -- monitoring storm movements.
perhaps a computer savvy person would be able to determine when this link and announcement was placed onto the website:
http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=973
Press Release
Date: 8/26/2005
Contact:Denise Bottcher or Roderick Hawkins at 225-342-9037
GOVERNOR BLANCO DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY
Tuesday, August 30, 2005UPDATE ~ Louisiana "martial law" declarations clarified Bernard Hibbitts at 10:16 PM ET
[JURIST] The Louisiana Attorney General's office late Tuesday issued a number of clarifications concerning the "martial law" assertions made earlier in the day by local officials and law enforcement agents [JURIST report] in the wake of devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina. According to the AG's office, no such term exists in Louisiana state law.
The declaration of a state of emergency [text] issued by Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Friday and set to continue for at least a month does, however, give officials power to suspend civil liberties in the process of restoring order, and the Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act of 1993 gives the governor and heads of parishes power to commandeer property. The New Orleans Times-Picayune has more.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1477621/posts
Anyway, Here is the post from Fri. Aug 27th, 2005:
Blanco's State of Emergency letter to President Bush
BATON ROUGE-Today Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco forwarded a letter to President Bush requesting that he declare an emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina. The full text of the letter follows:
(click link below to read full letter)
August 27, 2005
The President
The White House
Washington, D. C.
Through:
Regional Director
FEMA Region VI
800 North Loop 288
Denton, Texas 76209
Dear Mr. President:
Under the provisions of Section 501 (a) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster
Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 5121-5206 (Stafford Act)
. . .