Posted on 09/06/2005 5:35:09 AM PDT by pittsburgh gop guy
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
As one who has received training by FEMA in emergency management and also training by the Department of Defense in consequence management, I believe that the federal response in New Orleans needs clarification.
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| Craig Martelle, retired as a major in the U.S. Marine Corps, lives in North Huntingdon. He recently launched the Strategic Outlook Institute, a public-policy organization. | |||
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The key to emergency management starts at the local level and expands to the state level. Emergency planning generally does not include any federal guarantees, as there can only be limited ones from the federal level for any local plan. FEMA provides free training, education, assistance and respond in case of an emergency, but the local and state officials run their own emergency management program.
Prior development of an emergency plan, addressing all foreseeable contingencies, is the absolute requirement of the local government --and then they share that plan with the state emergency managers to ensure that the state authorities can provide necessary assets not available at the local level. Additionally, good planning will include applicable elements of the federal government (those located in the local area). These processes are well established, but are contingent upon the personal drive of both hired and elected officials at the local level.
I've reviewed the New Orleans emergency management plan. Here is an important section in the first paragraph.
"We coordinate all city departments and allied state and federal agencies which respond to citywide disasters and emergencies through the development and constant updating of an integrated multi-hazard plan. All requests for federal disaster assistance and federal funding subsequent to disaster declarations are also made through this office. Our authority is defined by the Louisiana Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act of 1993, Chapter 6 Section 709, Paragraph B, 'Each parish shall maintain a Disaster Agency which, except as otherwise provided under this act, has jurisdiction over and serves the entire parish.' "
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Phil Coale, Associated Press Flooded school buses in a lot, New Orleans, Sept. 1. Click photo for larger image.
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Check the plan -- the "we" in this case is the office of the mayor, Ray Nagin who was very quick and vocal about blaming everyone but his own office. A telling picture, at left, taken by The Associated Press on Sept. 1 and widely circulated on the Internet shows a school bus park, apparently filled to capacity with buses, under about four feet of water. If a mandatory evacuation was ordered, why weren't all the taxpayer-purchased buses used in the effort?
Who could have predicted the anarchy resulting as a consequence? The individuals who devolved into lawless animals embarrass the entirety of America. (I worked in a U.S. Embassy overseas for a couple years and I can imagine what foreign diplomats are thinking.) What societal factors would ever lead people to believe that this behavior was even remotely acceptable?
The folks in New Orleans who are perpetrating the violence and lawlessness are not that way because of low income or of race, but because they personally do not have any honor or commitment to higher ideals. The civil-rights leaders should be ashamed at playing the blame game.
The blame is on the individuals. The blame is on the society that allowed these individuals to develop the ideal that the individual is greater than the national pride he is destroying. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was very clear in her comments that she was offended at those who suggested the suffering in New Orleans was prolonged because of race.
As a retired Marine, I hang my head in shame to see my fellow Americans degenerate so far. I spent so many years in the Corps helping the citizens of other countries rise to a higher level of personal responsibility to ensure that in case of emergency, anarchy did not necessarily follow. When people are held to a higher standard of personal responsibility and they accept that, then they will do the right thing when the time comes.
It seems that the mayor of New Orleans is leading the effort in not taking responsibility for his actions. The emergency managers for the state of Louisiana do not have much to say either. The failure in the first 48 hours to provide direction for survivors is theirs to live with. When FEMA was able to take over, it started out behind and had to develop its plan on the fly. Now the federal government has established priorities -- rescue the stranded, evacuate the city, flow in resources and fix the levee. It appears that now there is a plan and it is being systematically executed.
Hurricane Katrina was a national tragedy -- not just in the number of lives lost or the amount of physical damage, but also in the failure of people to do what is right when no one is looking.
And then the democrats would legally impeach Bush, with just cause.You would figure out how quick certian people would love the law be broken by Bush. The feds: FEMA, National Guard, Army can not do anything until the Governor permits them in writing.
States have rights, that means they have responsibilities. The federal government took over when they were permitted and only did what the state agreed to.
>Don't be so quick to pillory the federal response in New Orleans. Immediate emergency management is primarily a local and state responsibility<
This should be tatooed on the forehead of Howard Dean and his band of flying monkeys.
It is sad that the liberals in this country, who so love to depend on the federal government, do not understand how this country is actually run.
What part of "unprecedented national disaster" do you not understand? The people on their roof tops and in their attics don't care a tinker's damn whether FEMA is a first responder or not. You can be right legally and process-wise and wrong about the bottomline--saving lives. FEMA stopped private individuals from going in with boats to save people.
How many years has the city had to prepare for this inevitable storm? Why did the mayor not have an effective evacuation plan? Why were hundreds of school buses allowed to be destroyed instead of filling them with people (at gunpoint if necessary) and moved?
Good questions. The blame game is fine, but it doesn't save lives during this crisis. The Feds should have acted sooner, i.e., immediately after the Coast Guard helos were shot at and the chaos at the Convention Center and Superdome were known.
BUMP!
This is extremely easy to say, but it absolves all responsibility and accountability of the local and state agencies responsible for DEVELOPING and IMPLEMENTING 'their' disaster emergency plans, PLUS... constitutionally the State government (i.e. Governor) would have to relinquish jurishdictional control (i.e. "tantamount to declaring Federal martial law" accoring to Governor Blanco) over NO control to the Federal government.
You are right Looters should have been shot Monday afternoon.
This is what leadership is all about. Doing what is right regardless of the consequences. Bush would not have been impeached, at least as long as the GOP controls Congress. The President can federalize the National Guard and take emergency actions to protect Americans regardless of what state they live in. Let the Dems rail against Bush about states' rights when he is saving lives. The American people will support Bush, especially after the facts come out.
States have rights, that means they have responsibilities. The federal government took over when they were permitted and only did what the state agreed to.
Tell that to former Gov Wallace or the people of Little Rock. When the lives, safety, and rights of American citizens are in danger, the Federal government should intervene. You are using the process argument, which may be legally correct, but morally wrong.
No matter you being upset, the feds can not take over unless asked. Republican governors in Mississippi and Alabama did not have trouble giving control of their state over to the feds the Democrat governor did. It is just that simple. It still took time to get into place in those states, the facts of logistics.
Katrina "grazed" NOLA too, but the media gives the impression it slammed into NOLA. Nonetheless, the damage from Camille was just as bad then as it was with Katrina.
I agree with you. BUT what you are arguing for is essentially that President Bush should have FORCIBLY seized authority from "Governor" Blank-0. Instead, he tried to negotiate it.
Can you imagine the uproar from the media and feminsists and the Left (sorry, redundant) if he had done "seized the day," as you put it?
We'd be hearing hysterical cries of "CONSTITUTIONAL CRISIS" and "BUSH IS SHREDDING OUR CONSTITUTION" again and again and again.
So Bush is damned if he does, and damned if he doesn't.
Yes, you're right that he should've erred on the side of saving lives. But there would've been huge political cost.
I have a masters in Political Science and am a retired USG bureaucrat with 36 years of service. I understand the way the "basic US government" works and how it is set up. I also understand the corporate culture, which is more concerned about turf and control than achieving a common objective. Chertoff and Brown are lawyers. They are all about process. Trading memos and getting the right paperwork signed are well and good, but once the crisis hit and its magnitude known, taking action is more important, especially when it involves saving lives. "
No matter you being upset, the feds can not take over unless asked. Republican governors in Mississippi and Alabama did not have trouble giving control of their state over to the feds the Democrat governor did. It is just that simple. It still took time to get into place in those states, the facts of logistics.
I don't accept it as a given that the feds can not take over unless asked." There comes a time when saving the lives of our fellow citizens takes precedence over the rules.
Understand your levels of government. The Federal government intervened in Little Rock because the Governor would not enforce FEDERAL law. Local emergencies are a function of STATE government, and as such are handled by the state. Under what FEDERAL law do you suppose Bush would have been justified in using to intervene ?
After training at the local level year after year in more than one state I can tell you that FEMA isn't in the picture until you ask and they take more than a day to move in.
The 82nd and the 1st Cav are over there now as for humanitarian support and not police control. Regular troops can only be sent in for the Insurrection act or Martial law.
Blanco the first desponder?
Listen to what you are saying. You are absolving local goverment of any responsibility, asking for some sort armed Federal HR Fire Brigade of 50 or 60 thousand men to be ready to respond anywhere in the country at a moment's notice? And where would you put them?
Louisiana, like every other state, has a National Guard, State Police, Sheriff Departments, EMT's, School Bus Drivers and buses, Bus Companies and drivers, RailRoads, Taxicabs, private cars, African American Churches with buses and vans, NOLA has a Police Department. The plan was in place. None of these resiources were orgaized, none were deployed properly. Emergency situations require IMMEDIATE RESPONSE LOCALLY. With the advance warning these Affirmative Action Ani had, there is simply no excuse for their inaction and ineptitude.
The Governor did not even ASK for help from other states, until it was OVER. Do you not realize, in your zeal to overturn process, that Federal troops and National Guardsmen from other states, must be ASKED into a state by the Governor?
The Mayor did not order the evacuation until too late and until after the Governor asked him to. They both disregarded instructions from FEMA AND GW. Can you not see that the Mayor and Governor did not handle their jobs? He, for one, is an idiot with a substance abuse problem and cannot be criticized because he is black. She, a snivelling monument to ineptitude, cannot be criticized because she is a woman. Political Correctness gives them both immunity. What they gave back was the needless deaths of hundreds, which with MSM support, they can now blame on the Feds.
O buyer of MSM BS, What you are really asking for in effect, is that when there is advance warning of some natural disaster, that the Federal Government take over cities. Ain't the way it works in America. Locals are responsible first. Help is on the way. Takes a few days. BTW, it would be extremely helpful if the locals didn't shoot at it.
It's called principle and character. If there would be a huge political cost, I think the Dems would have borne most of it if they attacked the President for taking action. The Governor and Mayor are extremely vulnerable for their role (read lack of action and preparedness) in this crisis.
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