Posted on 09/04/2005 11:39:17 PM PDT by smoothsailing
State and local officials did not inform top federal officials early on of the deaths and lack of food among hurricane victims in the Superdome or convention center, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday.
Mr. Chertoff said neither he nor Federal Emergency Management Agency chief Michael Brown was told of the deteriorating situation in New Orleans until Thursday night.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
But apparently plenty of time to appear on TV mouthing untruths and drivel. I'll give Cheftoff some slack but the FEMA head BRown has got to go. He almost makes Blanco look effective.
Ever hear of delegation? In a Department the size of HLS, someone can be assigned the task of monitoring the media and using that info as intelligence. Not everything the media reports is untrue. Conditions were deplorable at the Dome. There was a lack of water and food, etc.
Do you really trust cable television news for facts? It was the job of local elected officials to communicate their needs. This is not to say that mistakes were not made at all levels--but your critical thinking here is at the level of the blow-dried cable news airheads.
It strikes me too that it is highly unlikely that Nagin said at once and forthrightly, "We don't know what's going on. Our communications system is out." Would still have been a bad situation, but maybe someone would have turned to media to get any info.
What do you need to be convinced? Hidden video footage of Mayor and Governor conspiring to shift the blame? How about Chertoff saying, "May God strike me dead if I am not telling the truth?"
Many Freepers have came to the conclusion that most of the tragedy in New Orleans could have been avoided if the Mayor had implemented page 13 of the Southeast Louisiana Evacuation Plan, 2000 revision, which reads in part:
"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."
(See page 13, section B, part 5 of this document)
Recall that there are many hundreds, maybe thousands of New Orleans buses that are currently underwater that could have been used to evacuate the poor and disabled. Also recall that Nagin waited until virtually the last minute to order the 'mandatory-in-name-only' evacuation.
And then there was this from another post: ". . . the federal plan advises state and local emergency managers not to expect federal aid for 72 to 96 hours, and base their own preparedness efforts on the need to be self-sufficient for at least that period".
Nagin, Broussard, and other New Orleans officials are blaiming the feds big-time in hopes the Bush-hating media will not challenge the local officials on their evacuation and recovery preparation blunders.
If you want to draw all of your information about conditions from news reports than all the reporters were reporting that New Orleans had "dodged" a bullet.
Think about this: There were hundreds of affected communties. Most of these communities were actually doing their job and giving first hand reports and information to FEMA and the feds telling them where to allocate the federal resources. To expect them to send out resources based on news reports alone is unrealistic. Suppose the reporters were wrong, or sensationalizing and they sent resources. They would be reamed because they sent them unneeded and unasked.
Exactly and bears repeating.
>> If FEMA and DHS had paid attention to the news reports it would have been clear that there was a disaster brewing -- especially when compared with what they were getting from the local officials.
You mean FEMA and DHS were supposed to ignore (or not believe) local officials?
..."I never saw one TV shot from inside the Superdome"....
Brian Williams of NBC spent the night of the hurricane in the superdome, and was taking pictures inside. Once the power went off, the picture quality was lousy as the emergency lights were very dim. At daybreak some stills he took clearly showed the slits in the roof, and the folks moving from the wet areas to dry territory. Once the communications went down, he was unable to get enough bandwidth for video out, but he did upload some stills through his satphone.
Once the water rose a few feet to take out the below sea level "emergency generators" (what total stupidity to place them on the ground) there was no light inside to take meaningful photos, and Williams was history from that hellhole by that time.
FEMA never did stagger on to the scene, did it??? It was the military that saved the day, so to speak...I'm sure there will be a re-asessment of the role of the Federal and regional Fema organization...
Exactly!
9:22 am NBC
Lauter: How much responsibility does the local authorities hold?
Nagin: Well I think we hold some...only 250 National Guard for three straight days, so you tell me
Lauer: All told to go to convention center-that help would be there in three days....
Nagin: This was a mandatory evacuation-we sent busses out all throughout the city to get people to the shelter of last resort
Lauer: What about the convention center?
Who told them to go there?
Nagin: 2nd operation after the dome (was full)
Police opened it up.
The Feds have to follow the protocol of the Federal Relief and Recovery Act and CNN and Fox are listed on the list.
Exactly!
Wasn't there enough for 15,000 people for three days? There were 25,000 people there.
Perhaps they don't like to watch those channels anymore than the rest of us.
Thanks for the link. I saw this and wondered what world this good doctor was in?
"I never felt threatened and I walked around the entire place," Stephens said. "I was talking to people, administering first aid. But people were ready to get out of there. The conditions were horrid and horrible. The stench was unbearable. If we had electricity, it would have been so much better."
But Stephens stopped short of placing blame on authorities for not responding to the needs of the city sooner. He said it would have been impossible to have the required number of buses arranged that were required to evacuate such a large number of evacuees.
"Buses were running (regular routes) to other places," he said. "If you own a bus company and had that many buses available, you would be out of business."
It's not on that page....
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