[SmithL]

It's going to be a rough job when his very first task is making excuses for the incompetence of his new boss.

[atomicpossum]

James Lee Witt, the former Federal Emergency Management Agency director hired to advise Louisiana's governor,

Whatever they're paying this guy, it's WAY too much.

[ncountylee]

"I don't think they turned a blind eye. I don't think the state did. I don't think the mayor did. I think they worked as fast as they could do whatever they could."

He's started!

[the invisib1e hand]

"You could point the finger at anybody and everybody

yeah, except the very people who screwed up.

[gpapa]

Or himself!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1477043/posts?page=596#596

[the invisib1e hand]

Witt Says La. Crisis 'Our Worst Nightmare'

translation: we're gonna ride your &sses until we get all the money out of you that we can.

[hole_n_one]

A *ping* for your vast notebook

[Howlin]

It's going to be a rough job when his very first task is making excuses for the incompetence of his new boss.

He's there for one reason: CYA:

IEM Team to Develop Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans & SE Louisiana
IEM press release ^ | June 3, 2004 | IEM

Posted on 09/04/2005 1:56:42 AM EDT by XHogPilot

IEM Team to Develop Catastrophic Hurricane Disaster Plan for New Orleans & Southeast Louisiana June 3, 2004

IEM, Inc., the Baton Rouge-based emergency management and homeland security consultant, will lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast Louisiana and the City of New Orleans under a more than half a million dollar contract with the U.S. Department of Homeland Security/Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA).

In making the announcement today on behalf of teaming partners Dewberry, URS Corporation and James Lee Witt Associates, IEM Director of Homeland Security Wayne Thomas explained that the development of a base catastrophic hurricane disaster plan has urgency due to the recent start of the annual hurricane season which runs through November. National weather experts are predicting an above normal Atlantic hurricane season with six to eight hurricanes, of which three could be categorized as major.

The IEM team will complete a functional exercise on a catastrophic hurricane strike in Southeast Louisiana and use results to develop a response and recovery plan. A catastrophic event is one that can overwhelm State, local and private capabilities so quickly that communities could be devastated without Federal assistance and multi-agency planning and preparedness.

[wolfpat]

No.
Our worst nightmare is "President Hillary Clinton"

[skr]

Clinton appointee from Arkansas governorship time. No wonder an agenda seems to be lurking.

[cgbg]

I don't think they turned a blind eye. I don't think the state did. I don't think the mayor did. I think they worked as fast as they could do whatever they could.

Is this guy's real name Witless?

He sounds like a lying dirtbag Clinton appointee.

Maybe that is because he was one.

[niteowl77]

Based on what I've seen of his earlier statements and the different role(s) he's played in the past, this guy is going to need some excuses of his own.

[prion]

Whew! I thought that was Joyce de Witt! When she talks, I listen.

[leadpenny]

When Witt was talking to Rita Crosby a couple hours ago, he made sure she knew that 5,000 LA Guardsmen are in Iraq. I could almost hear Blanco whispering in Witt's ear, "Be sure to say, over and over again . . . "

[Prince Charles]

"This was our worst nightmare," Witt said. "You could point the finger at anybody and everybody. ... I don't think they turned a blind eye. I don't think the state did. I don't think the mayor did. I think they worked as fast as they could do whatever they could."

Money talks.

[river rat]

"It's going to be a rough job when his very first task is making excuses for the incompetence of his new boss."

And, explaining why his PLAN didn't get implemented.

Witt is the Gorelick of "The Katrina Inquiry", being joined by that perfumed prince of an Clinton a$$hole General Clark.....

The rats are calling out the snakes to cover their asses on this one......EXACTLY like they did with the 9/11 Ommission hearings.

Semper Fi

[Tarpon]

When he took the job, the very first thing on the tube was FEMA should have never been put under DHS. So you know what he was hired for.

The blame game is going to be fun, facts aren't on his side, and there is no 9/11 commission to rig the time line.

[Bommer]

"You could point the finger at anybody and everybody. ... I don't think they turned a blind eye. I don't think the state did. I don't think the mayor did. I think they worked as fast as they could do whatever they could."

MAYOR NAGIN: I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here.

I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."

That's -- they're thinking small, man. And this is a major, major, major deal. And I can't emphasize it enough, man. This is crazy.

Louisiana disaster plan, pg 13, para 5 , dated 01/00

'The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating'...

they're thinking small, man!
they're thinking small, man!

they're thinking small, man!
they're thinking small, man!

they're thinking small, man!
they're thinking small, man!

they're thinking small, man!
they're thinking small, man!

small thinking man! small thinking man!

[FlingWingFlyer]

Blanko putting this pinhead in charge of the "recovery" shows how seriously she is taking this crisis. She screwed the pooch with this guy last time and she's wanting to do it again. This is like putting Jamie GoreLick on the 9-11 Commission. CYA!!!

[StAnDeliver]

"James Lee Witt, the former Federal Emergency Management Agency director hired to advise Louisiana's governor, described the crisis Sunday in the hurricane-ravaged state as "our worst nightmare."

Hey AP & Blank0, take your shadow government kabuki and stick it where the sun don't shine.

[Libloather]

Direct hit by Hurricane Ivan could spell doom for New Orleans (10,000 body bags ready)
Residents fleeing deluge that could sink low-lying city
Houston Chronicle
September 15, 2004

NEW ORLEANS - More than 1.2 million people in metropolitan New Orleans were warned to get out Tuesday as 140-mph Hurricane Ivan churned toward the Gulf Coast, threatening to submerge the below-sea-level city during what could be the most disastrous storm to hit in nearly 40 years.

Residents streamed inland in bumper-to-bumper traffic in an agonizingly slow exodus amid dire warnings that Ivan could overwhelm New Orleans with up to 20 feet of filthy, chemical-polluted water. About three-quarters of a million more people along the coast in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama also were told to evacuate.

Walter Maestri, an emergency manager in New Orleans, America's most vulnerable metropolitan area, has 10,000 body bags ready in case a major hurricane hits. As Hurricane Ivan's expected path shifted uncomfortably close to the low-lying urban soup bowl, Maestri said Tuesday he might need a lot more.

If a strong Category 4 storm such as Ivan made a direct hit, he warned, 50,000 people could drown, and the city could cease to exist.

"This could be The One," Maestri said. "You're talking about the potential loss of a major metropolitan area."

Forecasters said Ivan, blamed for at least 68 deaths in the Caribbean, could reach 160 mph and strengthen to Category 5, the highest level, by the time it blows ashore as early as Thursday somewhere along the Gulf Coast.

"Hopefully the house will still be here when we get back," said Tara Chandra, a doctor at Tulane University in New Orleans who packed up his car, moved plants indoors and tried to book a Houston hotel room. Chandra said he wanted to ride out the storm, but his wife wanted to evacuate: "All the news reports are kind of freaking her out."

Houston-area emergency officials were keeping an eye on Ivan's path and have made preliminary plans should the hurricane continue to turn west.

Galveston County emergency management officials Tuesday discussed the potential for landfall there.

High tides are always a concern for Galveston County residents, and more so for those living in low-lying areas such as on the Bolivar Peninsula and West Galveston Island, the emergency management office said Tuesday. The county will continue to watch the storm and the potential for higher than normal tides to decide whether to evacuate those areas.

With hurricane-force winds extending 105 miles from its center, Ivan could cause significant damage no matter where it strikes. Officials ordered or strongly urged an estimated 1.9 million people in four states to flee to higher ground.

"I beg people on the coast: Do not ride this storm out," Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said, urging people in other parts of the state to open their homes to relatives, friends and co-workers.

Late Tuesday, Ivan was centered about 325 miles south-southeast of the mouth of the Mississippi River and moving north-northwest at 10 mph.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami posted a hurricane warning for a 300-mile swath from Apalachicola in the Florida Panhandle to New Orleans and Grand Isle in Louisiana. Forecasters said Ivan could bring a coastal storm surge of 10 to 16 feet.

About an hour away from New Orleans in Baton Rouge, I-10 West was filled with bumper-to-bumper traffic. Highway rest stops, convenience stores and gas stations were filled with people fleeing the storm. Some evacuees were worried about their homes being flooded and what they would find when they returned.

New Orleans, the nation's largest city below sea level, is particularly vulnerable to flooding, and Mayor Ray Nagin was among the first to urge residents to get out while they can. The city's Louis Armstrong Airport was closed Tuesday night.

Meanwhile, off western Mexico, forecasters were watching Hurricane Javier, a Category 4 storm on a northwest course out to sea. Forecasters said it was possible the storm could make a sharp turn toward the southern Baja California peninsula.