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 ...
Can anyone tell me the approx. time between when the hurricane ended and the levees failed? I mean, honestly, if they had the hurricane (cat. 4-5) coming near them, and the levees could only sustain a cat. 4, couldn't they have inspected the levees, and tried to find out what they could do to prevent the break before it happened, and to see if there was enough time to emergency evac the people at the shelters? Also, why didn't the shelters have enough food stockpiled to handle several days without food anyways? I believe in my honest opinion that every single state and local official in New Orleans and Louisiana should be charged with negligent genocide. IMHO. As for the federal governments response, it takes a while, they were not prepared for this sort of disaster. It also didn't make it easier that the city was in complete anarchy.
This is the crux, imo.
Nagin needed his governor to do the required work to get the feds there.
It is incredibly important to interview Witt and ASK why he advised this?
This is genuinely horrific, if true.
Also.....why did they not order a mandatory evacuation when the President asked them to do so? And I mean immediately. IMMEDIATELY! Such action would have given the mayor over 48 hours to get the mega-horns, city and school buses OUT into the communities, moving people to dry land asap.
Also....and this REALLY BURNS ME.....
because they did NOT comply with President's Bush's plea to them to order a mandatory evacuation when he asked it....and waited until the DAY BEFORE to make their evacuation suggestion a MANDATORY evacuation....the HEAD of the Hurricane's monitoring, the agency that follows and determines the path of the Hurricane, had to CALL the mayor and BEG him to call a mandatory evacuation, which he FINALLY did the next morning. Sunday.
WHY DID IT TAKE THESE PEOPLE WHO KNEW IT WAS A KILLER STORM SO LONG TO TAKE ACTION TO PREVENT WHAT HAPPENED?
It is astounding.
The pics of the city and school buses underwater tells a story of people so lacking in concern for their people that they allowed many to die, hoping that Katrina would act like Ivan, and miss NO.
"DHS and FEMA should not have to spend valuable time watching television for information when there is work to be done - especially when the top officials are in contact via video conference. Those "officials" should be the official source of information - not MSM."
You're wrong. Yeah, the officials should give FEMA the info, but like the Russians say, "Between 'Should Be' and 'Is' many pairs of shoes are worn out."
As an emergency coordinator, a reporter with a sattelite truck (or even a camera phone) is one of your best assets. Exploit that asset to it's fullest- don't ignore it. And no, the directors of FEMA and DHS don't need to watch TV- they have staff for that!
When Shep first started his rants about the overpass, there were thousands of people (remember when he was speaking to the City Police spokesman). I saw myself a truck pull up and off load water. The next day, there were only hundreds on the bridge (the others had found their way to the Super Dome or had walked on down the road and been picked up.
I'm sure the feds, when they were able to contact Nagen, were assured it was being taken care of. I heard that at one point, the city denied there was a problem.
There are some interesting facts about Witt that are poping up. For one, a group he was in (perhaps even the leader of) that supplied the state with an emergency plan. Was it followed? If so, he is quite exposed.
As for the mayor, the guy is toast. I don't see how he escapes going down in history as a complete buffon, costing countless lives.
To my knowledge, the governor has STILL not declared parts of the state a disaster area. Perhaps in Louisiana there is not benefit of doing so, no emergency funding available. I just don't know, but it sure sounds weak IMO.
"CNN and MSNBC is trying Sheehanization of the mayor. They are presenting him as a wonderful hero. The fact is that he is an incompetent fool and they won't get away with it.
If Dayton is on the Homeland Security Committe, God help us. He's the biggest socialist pansy chicken in a State full of them. You may remember Markie being the only Senator to close his office and run home when briefed on a threat analysis. (/sarcasm That's the caliber of people we need in charge of a disaster./endsarc)
What the H are these people thinking. The only saving grace is that he has announced that he is not seeking a second term.
OK I feel better now.
No one used any common sense at all...The danger was always the levee break.
Flood means no electricity, no water and no flushing. 30K people crapping once a day means that the Superdome was a time bomb. This fact which should have been part of the decision making process was totally overlooked.
In other words there was no safe refuge in the city of NO "even as a last resort" and the Mayor and Governor should be held accountable for not evacuating all the people earlier on.
i'll forgive your unneccessary insults if you forgive my knee jerk reaction to what appeared to be obvious to me.
I think that much will be learned from this mega-disaster experience, and we can only pray that city and state administrations will act on this quickly, and enforce their plans when the time comes.
Maybe they should try watching CNN. Then they wouldn't have to worry about creating lies to cover up their incompetent criminal negligence.
WHY HAVEN'T CHERTOFF AND BROWN BEEN FIRED!!!!!
Well .. since you posted this idiotic statement .. I hope you have had a chance to watch TV yourself - because FOX has been having on those people who were responsible for staging the recovery and rescue - a Pentagon briefing - and there is NO WAY the FEDS did ANYTHING WRONG - but the state and local govt response to their own people was pathetic - to put it nicely - and as far as I'm concerned - Blanco should resign for her CRIMINAL NEGLECT OF HER PEOPLE - all those BLACKS she is so willing to court for a vote - but when push came to shove she left them to drown.
Also .. the organizations that are helping - it's coming from REPUBLICAN states - not democrat!
The 'incompetent criminal negligence' you refer to is on the part of the state officials who didn't do their job. Apparently, they were too busy giving each other high fives when New Orleans wasn't directly in Katrina's path. They were on TV stating that New Orleans had "dodged a bullet".
Since you're looking for someone's head and you know it's not going to be the President (I know you in the BLAME BUSH crowd real tore up about that!), you want to nail someone with his administration. All reality points to those who didn't get people out BEFORE the storm even hit!
We'll find out all the facts, hopefully sooner than later.
Yes, I do remember that; plus, he's not running for reelection which will give him plenty of gall to drone on and on and on and on and on........he is singularly the most boring senator up there.
It's going to be UGLY.
What a bunch of crap. Chertoff should be embarassed to make such a ridiculous statement.
It looks pretty discouraging, doesn't it?
Exactly!
Of course, they would have heard Wolf Blitzer say "They're so poor, they're so black."
:-)
LOL>...isn't that the truth!
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