Posted on 09/04/2005 1:13:53 AM PDT by Former Military Chick
The man in charge of coordinating the military’s hurricane response is a Louisiana native with previous experience in flood disasters who already has received high marks from one state official for his efforts.
Lt. Gen. Russel L. Honoré, the man in charge of U.S. Northern Command’s Joint Task Force Katrina, is a former 2nd Infantry Division commander.
Honoré, from Lakeland, La., led 2nd ID in South Korea from October 2000 until July 2002.
During that time he dealt with monsoon-season flooding on many Area I installations and oversaw flood prevention measures put in place following a disastrous 1998 flood that caused more than $150 million in damage to Area I bases.
Honoré is a man who announces his presence with authority.
In an interview with local WWL radio, New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin was expressing dismay at the lack of federal help for his city, but said of Honoré:
“I give the president some credit on this, he sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get some stuff done, and his name is Gen. Honoré, and he came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussin’ and people started movin’!
“And he’s getting some stuff done,” Nagin said. “They ought to give that guy — if they don’t want to give it to me, give him full authority to get the job done.”
Honoré was commissioned a second lieutenant of infantry in 1971. He also has served as commander, 4th Battalion, 16th Infantry Brigade, 1st Infantry Division, Germany.
“I give the president some credit on this, he sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get some stuff done, and his name is Gen. Honoré, and he came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussin’ and people started movin’!
“And he’s getting some stuff done,” Nagin said. “They ought to give that guy — if they don’t want to give it to me, give him full authority to get the job done.”
The Mayor said from his phone, well, well, he needs to get off his butt, quit whining and start leading.
Of course I prefer he get out of dodge, he IS NOT a leader.
Resignation Accepted.
Now STFU, and go home.
“And he’s getting some stuff done,” Nagin said. “They ought to give that guy — if they don’t want to give it to me, give him full authority to get the job done.”
Ray Nagin a textbook illustration of the Peter Principle
Just needed a real man to run the show. A real woman could have done the job too.
Leave your keys on the desk Blanco and Nagin and relocate out of country. Like France.
Why would anyone in their right mind give this clown Nagin any power? He was the mayor! What did he do for his citizens? Nothing.
I think the authority is by default at the local level ie the incident commander, at least that is what we were taught. If something happened where I work the supervisor in charge becomes the incident commander and has the power to call in all available resources up to and including the federal level but the authority remains with him, unless he turns it over. The local incident commander is boss over whatever local, state, or federal help comes into the picture. So the authority belongs to the mayor and his local incident commanders. The authority isn't something the feds "own" and can "give to" the mayor, he and his fire/police chiefs already have it. He and his fire/police/etc. chiefs must not have a clear understanding how disaster management works.
I don't think so.
Did you see the CNN clip of him running around, yelling "weapons down" to his troops? It had the look of someone who was purposely trying to humiliate his own troops in front of a populace that seems to need a barrel pointed to the head.
They should have given this command to someone with a little more gravitas.
The "guns down" CNN tape of Honore running around like an idiot telling his troops not to point their weapons was a clincher for me. Honore looks like a political hack himself.
Nah... just 'normal' Louisiana politics....
A lot of them are in over their head [local officials]
Fox reported 2 days ago half the police department left.
If Rudy had been down there he would be in the middle of the city running things. Nagin was not really heard from except here and there cussing out the government over the radio. You get nothing accomplished by that type of behavior.
I don't think so.
A better way to phrase that might be "Did you hear who the incident commander was?".
Where I work the incident commander is the on duty shift supervisor, even if he calls in federal help the overall incident command remains with him. Of course the scale of the disaster in NO is huge but it looks like whatever incident command there was rolled over. The mayor's statement that "they" give authority to "the John Wayne dude" "if" "they" don't give it to "me" shows he didn't understand disaster management or that they had given up on managing it themselves.
Yep, and he also yelled the order to what looked like the police. Anyway, I wondered why Nagin had praise for him ... now the MSM has a new woman/minority to champion. I doubt we'll hear anymore squawking from the media about the Federal response now that "John Wayne" Honore is there.
Thanks for the correction, you are right.
What I meant was, after the collapse of local authority, was any successor ever appointed to the head of N.O. EMS or whoever the "designated" incident command was.
Bush should declare NO a Military Protectorate and put Honore in charge.
"Bush should declare NO a Military Protectorate and put Honore in charge."
Elsewhere on FR there is a story about this. Bush tried to do something like this Thursday night, trying to federalize troops, thus invoking the Posse Commitatus act.
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