Posted on 09/13/2005 10:39:24 AM PDT by kiriath_jearim
Disaster official at NY symposium: Planners didn't anticipate gun problem after Katrina
By DAVID B. CARUSO Associated Press Writer
September 12, 2005, 4:45 PM EDT
NEW YORK -- Emergency officials who prepared Louisiana's plan for responding to a major hurricane never guessed that one of their duties would be to protect aid workers from gunmen, one of the state's senior disaster officials said Monday.
Speaking at a symposium in New York, Arthur Jones, chief of disaster recovery for Louisiana's Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said he was caught off guard by the violence in New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina.
No disaster planner, he said, predicted that people would loot gun stores after the storm and shoot at police, rescue officials and helicopters.
Jones said the flow of aid to the city was delayed because officials were not able to guarantee the safety of American Red Cross workers and other volunteers.
"That's never been in any plan," Jones said in an interview following his speech to the emergency response officials at the symposium. "Unfortunately, in the future, it will have a place at the table."
Jones took time off from his disaster recovery duties Monday to participate in the symposium on emergency preparedness sponsored by New York Downtown Hospital. The event was planned months before Katrina hit.
Jones initially was scheduled to lecture on lessons learned by studying a simulated storm, dubbed Hurricane Pam. The analysis of the fictitious storm was still under way when Katrina struck the Gulf Coast.
The projections from the simulated hurricane proved strikingly accurate, Jones said. Planners had anticipated that the storm would cause a catastrophic flood that would leave much of southeast Louisiana uninhabitable for months.
(Excerpt) Read more at nynewsday.com ...
What I want to know is why the hell this idiot is up in New York instead of DOWN IN LOUISIANA DEALING WITH THIS DISASTER?
But, then again, having one less state pinhead in the way probably speeds the flow of relief.
It was not a GUN problem. It was a PEOPLE probelm.
maybe he moved to ny like mayor nagin moved to dallas
FYI
Obviously the gun problems were Bush's fault.
OK. Gangs didn't have guns before the hurricane. Sure.
Buy the computer simulator with the money saved by firing this highly paid disaster "chief" who did nothing with the results.
There must be a brain-sucking parasite problem in Louisiana. What do these people think about all day?
Better start.
America is now suffering from the full bloom of liberal idiocy and will continue to suffer until something drastic happens.
"That's never been in any plan," = "My dog musta ate that page"
When LBJ gave use the welfare state, many people predicted just this. Now that it's (inevitably) come true, many people suddenly have amnesia.
and the welfare class continues to grow.
He is up there speaking in New York because he no longer has a job in New Orleans. The City is bankrupt, the State is near insolvency, and he failed to plan.
At a minimum they should have asked the retailers to take their weapons and ammo with them when they closed for business...but their police department was too busy fleeing from the City.
Then he's and idiot and should be fired, or at least moved to a nice office where he can't hurt anyone.. else.
Of course, if he hadn't vetoed the renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban... oh wait, he never got a chance to veto it, it failed to pass in Congress. Wonder how many lives that little lack of action *saved* in NOLA?
BTW, there weren't any gun problems, other than the ones involving the police and National Guard confiscating them from peaceable folks. There was a thug problem, a gangster problem, but not a "gun" problem.
I'm not sure the guns and ammo would be more secure in the back of a U-Haul than in a vault or safe, which is where every gun dealer I know about that doesn't have an on-site guard, and some that do, keeps their firearms during non business hours. We're not talking the little home safes most are familiar with, but room sized affairs, or at least a large closet size. Short of a few hours with a torch, the thugs weren't getting into those. The "worse" the area of town a gun store is located in, the more massive their safe tends (and needs) to be. It's much easier, although more risky, to rob a gun store during business hours. Wal Mart might be an exception, but the average store, if it has guns at all, probably has no more than 50 or so on hand. Most of those will be .22 rifles or bird guns. Wally World doesn't carry handguns, nor UBG's.
I'm not sure the guns and ammo would be more secure in the back of a U-Haul than in a vault or safe, which is where every gun dealer I know about that doesn't have an on-site guard, and some that do, keeps their firearms during non business hours. We're not talking the little home safes most are familiar with, but room sized affairs, or at least a large closet size. Short of a few hours with a torch, the thugs weren't getting into those. The "worse" the area of town a gun store is located in, the more massive their safe tends (and needs) to be. It's much easier, although more risky, to rob a gun store during business hours. Wal Mart might be an exception, but the average store, if it has guns at all, probably has no more than 50 or so on hand. Most of those will be .22 rifles or bird guns. Wally World doesn't carry handguns, nor UBG's.
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