"Busses staged in LaPlace that were requested by the Governor. We drove 8 hours from Webster Parish only to be told the people in N.O. did not want to use our busses because they had no AC or restrooms."
Posted on 09/14/2005 8:25:34 PM PDT by Uncle Joe Cannon
-snip-
In his first extensive interview since resigning as FEMA director on Monday under intense criticism, Mr. Brown declined to blame President Bush or the White House for his removal or for the flawed response.
"I truly believed the White House was not at fault here," he said.
He focused much of his criticism on Governor Blanco, contrasting what he described as her confused response with far more agile mobilizations in Mississippi and Alabama, as well as in Florida during last year's hurricanes.
But Mr. Brown's account, in which he described making "a blur of calls" all week to Mr. Chertoff, Mr. Card and Mr. Hagin, suggested that Mr. Bush, or at least his top aides, were informed early and repeatedly by the top federal official at the scene that state and local authorities were overwhelmed and that the overall response was going badly.
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
It seems to have been set up as a catch 22 from the very beginning. If things went bad it was Bush's fault, if Bush took control, they would attack him as being a heavy-handed dictator.
The New York Times is the print version of Juan Williams' brain.
Bring On the Hearings!
Republicans should stop giving interviews with the OLD GRAY WHORE. No upside only downside.
Most people in New Orleans did a great job of evacuating. The mayor and the Gov obviously did not do so well. And when caught with their pants down started to panic and play the blame game.
Thanks for the pics, Zacs Mom. FEMA, Michael Brown, was THERE pre-storm trying to do his job.
Thanks for the ping to this article, Starwise. I've yet to see what the feds did wrong here. When I hear even conservatives say that we are unprepared for a terrorist attack and the hurricane response proved that, I get frustrated that no one seems to understand the fallacy of the argument.
In a terrorist attack, the military would be dispatched within minutes. Blanco needed 24 hours to make monumental decisions that cost lives.
Mike Brown was hung out to dry. IMHO, it's a complete travesty.
And delivered by the Bayou Man himself, James Carville?
And what pray tell were they supposed to do about it?
Not sure what the timing was, but early press conferences noted that relief was pouring in; and emphatically did not admit that the response was going badly. I recall a big disconnect between news reports and the versions described in pressers. It took President Bush until Saturday to say that the results in NOLA were unacceptable.
President's remarks of Wednesday, August 31
Thursday, September 1 press briefing
Friday, September 2 press gaggle
I did read yesterday that if there is a hurricane warning for Lake Charles or Lafayette there are no shelters south of Interstate 10 that will withstand a cat 5 storm. However, I don't think that the hurricane warning extended that far west though. There's a lot of schools, colleges, hospitals, etc though north of Interstate 10 that could have housed those people.
No Local Hurricane Shelters?
July 14, 2005
Reported by Vince Atkinson
With such an unusually active hurricane season, city leaders are reminding everyone to prepare for the worst. If a storm heads toward Southwest Louisiana, our options for ridding the storm out here may be slim. According to Louisiana state regulations, no shelter can be set up south of Interstate 10 in an area under a hurricane warning. That means you have little or no options of staying in a local shelter if your home is damaged.
They are a hard to predict and deadly, but for anyone living in Southwest Louisiana, hurricanes are part of life. Getting out of their path is no easy task. Lake Charles city leaders are reminding everyone that dogging a hurricane is a team effort. Lake Charles Mayor Randy Roach says, "We think that it's a good idea that we start thinking about it in a neighborly way. What can we do to help friends, and neighbors, and people in our community, people in our churches, what have you."
If Southwest Louisiana is placed under a hurricane warning, residents will not be able to ride out the storm in a local shelter. Roach says, "In Calcasieu Parish, any area's south of I-10 we will not be able to open up the evacuation shelters that I think most of us are familiar with." That means it is a good idea to go ahead and make plans for some type of transportation. You may have to drive some distance in order to find a shelter. Roach says, "When you get north of I-10 we really don't have many suitable facilities that will house a large number of people."
City leaders all stress the need to pre-plan for folks that have special needs. The elderly and people that require specialized medical treatment are at greater risk during evacuations. Roach says, "To me the best plan that we could have would be one that we never use, but we need to have it and be ready for it."
Lake Charles may still set up shelters for people evacuating from other parts of the state, but only if Southwest Louisiana is not under a hurricane warning. "Last Resort" shelters may be set up in the area, but they will simply be a building to ride out the storm. "Last Resort" shelters will not have emergency workers.
Check it out: http://dailyhowler.com/dh091205.shtml
A rough Convention Center reporting timeline emerges from posts on NautiNurse's live threads. There were reports 24 hours earlier, but early reports didn't indicate the gravity of the situation.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1483077/posts?page=19#19
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1483077/posts?page=25#25
Did the NO Saints and Blanco Superdome contract negotiations have anything to do with the decision to use the SD as a shelter? Was Blanco anticipating federal funds coming in prior to Katrina? /tinfoilhattheory
Blanco trying to set date for Saints talks
Negotiations on deal could restart soon
Friday, August 26, 2005
By Ed Anderson
Capital bureau
BATON ROUGE -- State negotiators are trying to work out a date to resume negotiations with representatives of the New Orleans Saints geared toward locking the team into a less expensive, long-term contract, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Thursday.
"There will be more discussions," Blanco said at an informal news conference after an appearance at a Baton Rouge middle school.
Superdome Commission Chairman Tim Coulon, the state's chief negotiator, could not be reached for comment. Superdome spokesman Bill Curl said the two sides are seeking a mutually acceptable date, "but nothing has been scheduled yet."
He said he expects the sides to set a date for resuming talks in the near future. "It should be sooner rather than later," Curl said.
Saints officials declined to comment. Team owner Tom Benson broke off talks with the state on April 27, saying he was focusing his time and energy on the upcoming football season and that after the 2005 season he would "once again look forward to continuing our dialogue with the state."
Under the terms of the existing $186.5 million, 10-year deal struck between Blanco's predecessor, Gov. Mike Foster, and Benson, the team can cancel its agreement -- which runs through 2011 -- but if it does, it must pay the state $81 million in penalties.
The state is on the hook to Benson for $15 million next year and had to borrow money for the past two years to make the annual payments to the team.
(snip)
http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/capital/index.ssf?/base/news-3/1125039762269620.xml
::Well I highly suspect that if this happened under the previous Gov (Rep Mike Foster) the same thing would have happened if not worse. ::
Bull Puckey! He would have at least gotten on tv and radio to tell people to get the hell out of NO. Blank0 fretted, wrung her hands, and hemmed and hawed. She failed to lead in a time of crisis. She couldn't make a decision to at least tell people to GET OUT there's a cat 5 monster heading your way.
When was that picture taken? Those ungrateful folks have worn down my sympathy to just about nothing.
That really was unreasonable! I mean like how is FEMA supposed to provide what is needed when they don't know./ heavy sarcasm.
The communications system (telephones, cell phones) were out in southern Mississippi and Alabama as well, but those states didn't have the same problems. Where were Lousiana's Satellite phones that were supposed to have been bought with that big hunk of homeland security money that the fed gave them?
I can absolve Nagin for his actions after the hurricane, but I cannot absolve him for his failure to effectively use (or at least try to use) the evacuation plan.
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