Posted on 09/06/2005 10:16:17 PM PDT by tallhappy
National Public Radio (NPR)
SHOW: All Things Considered 8:00 AM EST NPR
September 1, 2005 Thursday
HEADLINE: Michael Chertoff discusses US aid effort being criticized in New Orleans
ANCHORS: ROBERT SIEGEL
BODY:
ROBERT SIEGEL, host:
From NPR News, this is ALL THINGS CONSIDERED. I'm Robert Siegel.
Conditions and public order continue to deteriorate in New Orleans today. Looting and violence spread. Evacuation efforts moved slowly. Four days after Hurricane Katrina people were still being plucked from rooftops. Officials reported little progress in plugging the damaged levees and flood walls. President Bush has proposed $10 billion for the flooded city and parts of the Gulf Coast hit by the storm. Congress will return to Washington from summer break to approve it.
Heavily armed National Guard were evacuating people out of the squalid conditions of the Superdome. They were boarding buses for the Astrodome in Houston. But it emerged that people stranded at the New Orleans Convention Center about eight blocks away were in more than dire straits. We'll have more on that in a moment.
Earlier we spoke with Michael Chertoff, Homeland Secretary secretary, who's overseeing the recovery operation. I asked him what a Louisiana official told one of our reporters that there are just not enough National Guard on the scene and that this is a federal disaster, not a local one.
Secretary MICHAEL CHERTOFF (Department of Homeland Security): In fact, there is a significant National Guard presence not only in Louisiana but in New Orleans, and it's getting bigger every day. Let me tell that, as we speak, there are approximately 7,400 National Guard working on this in Louisiana; of those, there are 2,800 in New Orleans itself. Today, tomorrow and the next day we're going to be adding 1,400 additional Guard every single day. In addition, we are bringing federal and local law enforcement authorities from Louisiana and other parts of the country to supplement. There is, I think, going to be more than adequate--and there is a more than adequate--law enforcement presence in New Orleans.
SIEGEL: Let me ask you about images that many Americans are seeing today and hearing about. They are from the convention center in New Orleans. A CNN reporter has described thousands of people, he says, many of them--you see them in the pictures, mothers with babies--in the streets, no food, corpses and human waste. Our reporter John Burnett has seen the same things. How many days before your operation finds these people, brings them at least food, water, medical supplies, if not gets them out of there?
Sec. CHERTOFF: Well, first let me tell you there have been deliveries of food, water and medical supplies to the Superdome, and that's happened almost from the very beginning.
SIEGEL: But this is the convention center. These are people who are not allowed inside the Superdome.
Sec. CHERTOFF: Well, but, you know, there have been--we have brought this to the Superdome. There are stations in which we have put water and food and medical supplies. The limiting factor here has not been that we don't have enough supplies. The factor is that we really had a double catastrophe. We not only had a hurricane; we had a second catastrophe, which was a flood. That flood made parts of the city very difficult to get through. If you can't get through the city, you can't deliver supplies. So we have, in fact, using heroic efforts, been getting food and water to distribution centers, to places where people can get them.
SIEGEL: But if those people who haven't gotten them--if they ask our reporter, `When am I going to see those supplies? When does it get to me?'--what's the answer? How many days until it reaches them?
Sec. CHERTOFF: I think the answer is that we are as much as humanly possible--given the fact that we still have feet of water that have not drained out of the city yet, we are moving those foods and supplies as quickly as possible. People need to get to areas that are designated for them to stage for purposes of evacuation. We're contending with the force of Mother Nature and...
SIEGEL: But--and what is your sense? I'm trying--I mean, by the weekend do you expect that everybody in New Orleans will have some kind of food and water delivered by this operation?
Sec. CHERTOFF: I would expect that--unless people are trapped in isolated places that we can't get to, I would expect that everybody's going to have access to food and water and medical care. The key is to get people to staging areas. There are some people who are stranded but who are not in imminent danger. They are not people that we're going to necessarily rescue immediately. We're going to try to them, you know, food and water, so they can sustain themselves until we can pick them up.
SIEGEL: We are hearing from our reporter--and he's on another line right now--thousands of people at the convention center in New Orleans with no food, zero.
Sec. CHERTOFF: As I say, I'm telling you that we are getting food and water to areas where people are staging. And, you know, the one thing about an episode like this is if you talk to someone and you get a rumor or you get someone's anecdotal version of something, I think it's dangerous to extrapolate it all over the place. The limitation here on getting food and water to people is the condition on the ground. And as soon as we can physically move through the ground with these assets, we're going to do that. So...
SIEGEL: But, Mr. Secretary, when you say that there is--we shouldn't listen to rumors, these are things coming from reporters who have not only covered many, many other hurricanes; they've covered wars and refugee camps. These aren't rumors. They're seeing thousands of people there.
Sec. CHERTOFF: Well, I would be--actually I have not heard a report of thousands of people in the convention center who don't have food and water. I can tell you that I know specifically the Superdome, which was the designated staging area for a large number of evacuees, does have food and water. I know we have teams putting food and water out at other designated evacuation areas. So, you know, this isn't--and we've got plenty of food and water if we can get it out to people. And that is the effort we're undertaking.
SIEGEL: Just like to ask you, there is said to have been a report in, I think, 2001 which listed a catastrophic hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the three worst potential disasters the country could face. As someone who inherited FEMA and who came to this obviously with 9/11 being the preoccupation that faced us all, have you had a plan somewhere in an office near yours that says, `Huge hurricane hits New Orleans. Here's what we do in case of that catastrophe'?
Sec. CHERTOFF: FEMA has plans for all foreseeable catastrophes. They've had plans for this kind of catastrophe, and they've exercised and worked on these plans. Recognizing this was a possibility over the weekend, we prepositioned an unprecedented amount of food and water and ice. This mandatory evacuation was ordered and begun. But at the end of the day, as with any titanic struggle with nature, a plan only gets you so far in the face of the reality of struggling with miles of cities that are under water.
SIEGEL: And our reporter said 2,000 people at the convention center without anything.
Sec. CHERTOFF: You know, Mr. Siegel, I can't argue with you about what your reporter tells you. I can only tell you that we are getting water and food and other supplies to people where we have them staged, where we can find them, where we can get it to them. And, you know, if you're suggesting to me your--that somehow the National Guard missed a group of people, I will certainly call up and make sure they don't miss them. But I'm not in a position to argue with you about what your reporter is telling us.
SIEGEL: Well, thank you for your time, Mr. Secretary.
Sec. CHERTOFF: Thank you.
SIEGEL: That's Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, who spoke with us this afternoon.
>>> President Bush stood up and said they were slow. <<<
When did he say that? Please provide a link.
The poor people of Louisiana are victims of a hurricane as well as their inept and incompetent state and local leaders. This disaster has merely exposed that incompetence. In contrast, Florida was struck by four devastating hurricanes last year. There was no peep about the incompetence of the response. FEMA was still under the authority of Department of Homeland Security. The only difference was the leadership of Gov. Bush and local leaders.
The most effective way for folks in Louisiana to address the problems of disaster response is for them to kick out the bums who have misled them. It remains to be seen if they will do so.
What the heck does FEMA have to do with it. I have not said anything about FEMA. As for judgement, it is Guiliani's that I don't trust. Gimme a break, I can have my own opinion about Kerrick without it being an insult on Bush. You are turning it into a Bush bash, when I didn't. I don't like Kerrick and I don't like Guilaini. Were they great for NY, yep. Do I want them leading nationally, not a chance. Sorry, but I am entitled to that opinion without you trying to make me a Bush basher. Obviously, you don't trust Bush's judgement of not sticking with Kerrick. LOL. Let's not argue over Kerrick, he is a non-important entitly.
Hey NPR Siegel you lie and you suck.
Hey NPR Siegel you lie and you suck.
It was more than nanny gate of not paying SS, etc. He hired and had an illegal allien working in his home while he was Police Commisioner. He knew it was illegal and flaunted the law. Sorry, but that is not the man for the head of Homeland Security. He has other great skills. Let him have another position in the agency, use his skills, but he should not have been the leader. As for who I would suggest, I am not sure. I do not know the people available and their qualifcations. (my research staff here is pretty small). I do trust the President, I have no problem with Chertoff. I am sure there are others. Kerrick was not the right man for the Job. Sorry it offends you so much that I have an opinion, but too bad.
"Chertoff had no clue -- none. His job and only job is to know such things. "
Was a friend of yours supposed to get Chertoff's job.
Re: Your juvenile claim that Chertoff has "no clue."
You are too defensive and emotional. When you start acting like the liberals, you need to re-evaluate yourself.
"Not to worry. President Hillary will beef up FEMA and will make sure they know everything about everyone."
She will bring back Witt to run FEMA with General Waco Clark to use military force to back what she and Witt want.
Then, the Bushhaters on Free Republic will be happy. Their trolling/mole jobs on Free Republic, paid for by George $oreA$$ will be finished.
After eight straight days listening to pot-bellied armchair quarterbacks (in the media, on FreeRepublic and elsewhere) throwing mud on FEMA, the Coast Guard, Nat. Guard and the rescue crews, etc. --- I have no qualms about calling these critics every name in the book.
This was a monumental effort the likes of which we've never seen, and all some people can do is throw mud, as if THEY are know-it-all experts.
The way I saw it, FEMA's helicopters and trucks spent the first day or two of the crisis plucking out every person they could reach off rooftops and from the swirling waters with direct air and ground missions.
After they got the most precarious people, they switched over to transporting supplies while at the same time continuing to rescue people as they came across them.
These rescue personnel did a good job under the circumstances, and it is sickening to read critics day after day after day, especially those whose feet never evene got wet.
Overall, the federal government has done a magnificent job in responding to the largest natural disaster in American history. Unfortunately, the defining images may be those of the people in the Superdome, Convention Center, and on the overpasses waiting for help for days while a massive Federal relief force was sitting outside waiting for the bureaucrats to make a decison. General Honore cleaned up the mess in essentially one day once he was given the green light.
You can't unring a bell. There are plenty of people to blame with Blanco and Nagin at the top of the list. It is unfortunate that the WH, Chertoff, and Brown were not more attuned to the political impact of the events in NO on Wednesday and Thursday. 500 buses were sent to the Superdome on Wednesday, which was scarcely enough.
Police Chief Says Thousands Trapped in New Orleans Convention Center
Associated Press
Thursday, September 1, 2005
The New Orleans police chief says 15-thousand people are trapped in the city's convention center. And he says some are being raped and beaten.
Chief Eddie Compass says displaced tourists are "walking in that direction and they are getting preyed upon."
Compass said he sent eight eleven-man teams into the convention center. But as soon as the first team arrived, he said, "they were beaten back within 30 feet of the entrance."
Earlier, the city's mayor issued a "desperate SOS" on behalf of the thousands who are stranded at the convention center.
He also gave the go-ahead for them to march across a bridge to a dry area of the city and look for whatever relief they could find.
Wednesday, 11:09 p.m.
By Keith Spera
Staff writer
At 91 years old, Booker Harris ended his days propped on a lawn chair, covered by a yellow quilt and abandoned, dead, in front of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center.
Mr. Harris died in the back of a Ryder panel truck Wednesday afternoon, as he and his 93-year-old wife, Allie, were evacuated from eastern New Orleans. The truck's driver deposited Allie and her husband's body on the Convention Center Boulevard neutral ground.
And there it remained.
With 3,000 or more evacuees stranded at the convention center -- and with no apparent contingency plan or authority to deal with them -- collecting a body was no one's priority. It was just another casualty in Hurricane Katrina's wake.
A steady stream of often angry or despondent people, many from flooded Central City, trickled first toward Lee Circle and then to the convention center, hoping to be saved from increasingly desperate straits. Food, water and options had dwindled across Uptown and Central City, where looters seemed to rage almost at will, clearing out boutique clothing shops and drug stores alike. Hospitals would no longer accept emergencies, as staffers prepared to evacuate with patients.
I live in Florida. I am familiar with FEMA response and FEMA response times. Because of lack of effective local organization, FEMA effectiveness was reduced.
I cannot blame the chain for a failure in its most important link -- the local govt. I know that no organization is perfect. They all make mistakes. We are all human. But if their mistakes are related to the failure of the local govt to plan, to set up communications, and to take control which is their duty, I will refuse to lay the blame on FEMA.
We may have spoiled FEMA with the excellent capabilities of our governor, Jeb Bush. But there is absolutely no excuse for the locals' failure in NOLA. Local govts are the key to the way our system of response is set up. If we want to change things and take control away from the locals, we will have to look to a soviet form of govt to set up a new system. I hate socialistic govt and worry about one developing in this country far more than I worry about a category 5 hurricane, and I live in Florida.
I'm not turning a blind eye. I'm just looking a the real cause of the mistakes. You need to do the same and stop listening to the liberal MSM spin.
HOFLAND: We are hearing some really frightening stories tonight down at the convention center, where everyone has been told, go down there. You can get some medical treatment. We will be able to get you out of town. So, we have seen people walking for miles, carrying their suitcases, carrying everything that they have left, desperate to get someplace, and also to try to let their family members know across the country that they are still alive.
Well, we are told that down there, at that convention center, it is absolute chaos. We haven‘t been down there, Joe, because we are told that it‘s just not a safe place to be. So, you have families with children and everything down at that convention center. Cars are being carjacked. And there‘s no one there, we are told, to take care of the thousands of people who are there.
I was responding to cahome's observation (post # 6) that he could not find any media report about the Chaos at the convention until September 1.
I didn't say he should be fired, but he should have been aware of the situation at the Convention Center before appearing on NPR. When the lessons learned review takes place, it will become obvious that communications and coordination were a major problem. The fact that the MSM were reporting on what was happening there on Aug 31 should have piqued the interest and attention of Homeland Security and FEMA.
It was leadership that was lacking as well exemplified in Chertoff's incredibly weak interview here.
And, I do not watch MSM and from what I've heard their "criticisms" are ludicrous nonsense.
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