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 ...
Yes, you're right. I'm sure everyone who opened the MRE cartons did so carefully, with a view to using them for trash disposal. And so they wouldn't get soaked, they stacked them neatly away from the floors, which were awash in the overflow from the toilets and the leaks in the roof. And everyone's mind works clearly in 100+ degree temps and no ventilation (HVAC out) except what may have drifted down from the holes in the roof. What's wrong with these people?
Same questions I was going to ask. Duh.
I was in Mexico and able to find CNN (in English) and I knew on Wednesday.
How could he NOT know until Thursday night?
Is every elected official in Louisiana and idjit?
By the time it was reported on TV, the troops had already been deployed, but had not yet arrived, IIRC.....
It takes time, even after the decision has been made.
I thought the Super Dome was never meant to be used as a shelter either (at least not built with that intention -- not sure that's what you meant). I seem to recall the owners agreed to allow it's use as such, but said they did not know whether it could withstand the expected storm.
Even I knew something was up by Thursday night. C'mon, that's ridiculous.
Amen.
The rumors were flying thick and fast - first the NO police shot some looters (or 'thugs' as the headline put it - everybody on FR cheers), then they were Army CoE contractors (everybody on FR screams OMG!), then turns out the contractors weren't shot after all, just a sniper (everybody on FR breathes big sigh of relief).
Now, imagine if FEMA spent time, resources, gas, and manpower to send supplies to a rumored location . . . and turns out the refugees are at a DIFFERENT location - or, even worse, the goblins are waiting there in force to shoot them and take the stuff?
FEMA has to wait for official notification from local government as to where the assembly points are. The ball was in NOLA's court. And if it's true what I've heard (and that's a big "if" given the rumors flying everywhere) that officials DENIED there were refugees in the Convention Center . . . then it's just more confirmation that nobody in NOLA is qualified to organize a one-car funeral, let alone a major disaster relief effort.
The Superdome obviously did not have generator back up. Why?
What about a blackout during a regular old thunderstorm? How would you evacuate thousands of people in the dark? Don't any of these giant Domes have generators for emergencies?
Just goes to show its not who you know it is who you sleep with.
I read on several threads that FEMA was ordered to stay out by local NO authorities because their safety could not be guaranteed.
The SD did have backup generators for emergencies. But they weren't connected to the air conditioning, they never do because the load is too heavy for the compressors. Just an ordinary household AC compressor will choke an 8,000w generator . . . we don't even TRY to run ours when the power's out (or the oven, or an electric stove if we had one).
Under ordinary use, it just wasn't cost effective to have generators in the SD to run the air conditioning for that huge space. That's understandable - the cost would have been unbelievable (and the noise too). The backup power was adequate as you note for evacuation and basic power.
At one point, the engineer guys at the SD thought the backup power was going to fail. It flickered but held on.
Let's see, thousands of hit tired hungry homeless people with no food, drink, or security - - what do you think is going to happen????
I've never heard of emergency generators that did more than light the exits sufficiently so people can find their way out. The Superdome had them -- until they were flooded out.
LA Game and Fish had organized a flotilla of boats to get people off rooftops - I saw some of them on camera on FOX, maybe 50-75 little john boats. They were turned back because they were fired upon.
You can't in good conscience ask folks who are rescuers, not soldiers, or even just ordinary people trying to help, to go in under fire.
"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." How else could the Democraps create a stink to blow at Bush?... The appearance of Federal fumbling had to be manufactured don'tchaknow ... the Democrap party will sacrifice ANYONE'S life to forward their agenda. If you don't believe it, count the tens-of-millions of slaughtered alive unborn children they've protected the killing of in order to keep abortion as their protected rite.!
>>>"When you dont have FEMA employees in the city reporting back to their leaders, it would seem prudent to use the MSM reports as your eyes and ears on what is occuring where. Even if you dont agree with their interpretation, you at least can see what is happening and then make decisions based on a semblence of facts rather than just assuming everything is okay."<<<
The highest priority for the helicopters was rescuing those in imminent danger of drowning. The convention center was not as high a priority, as it turned out.
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