The chain of responsibility!
citizens in New Orleans is:
1. The Mayor 2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security (a political appointee of the Governor who reports to the Governor) 3. The Governor 4. The Head of Homeland Security 5. The President
What did each do?
1. The mayor, with 5 days advance, waited until 2 days before he announced a mandatory evacuation (at the behest of the President). The he failed to provide transportation for those without transport even though he had hundreds of buses at his disposal.
2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security failed to have any plan for a contingency that has been talked about for 50 years. Then he blames the Feds for not doing what he should have done. (So much for political appointees)
3. The Governor, despite a declaration of disaster by the President 2 DAYS BEFORE the storm hit, failed to take advantage of the offer of Federal troops and aid. Until 2 DAYS AFTER the storm hit.
4. The Director of Homeland Security positioned assets in the area to be ready when the Governor called for them
5. The President urged a mandatory evacuation, and even declared a disaster State of Emergency, freeing up millions of dollars of federal assistance, should the Governor decide to use it.
the levees that broke were the responsibility of the local landowners
Very early this a.m. I heard on the radio about a 200 page report that had been prepared on evacuating New Orleans in the event of a levee break. It was unclear if it had been written by this NO person or by an outside consulting firm. It was also unclear if it had been delivered to the Federal Government before the storm or at all. I wonder if it is a back-dated report for which the feds paid a huge pile of money. Maybe the vagueness of the news bit is the beginning of someone's CYA.
I made the mistake of listening to Bob Beckel on Fox just now. The discussion was about the conflict between Nagin and Adm Allen regarding evacuees returning to NO.
Beckel flat out lied by saying "the federal government is responsible for evacuating cities of this size." Must have been in the DNC memo this morning. I have never heard that suggestion before, and it is nowhere in the lengthy evacuation plan that I just posted on this thread.
Of course, at the same time that the Feds failed in the evacuation, according to Beckel, Allen is wrong to contradict Nagin in allowing residents back in.
Emergency services are still being provided by people from other states. Maybe the first people allowed back in should be the police and fire dept employees, the telephone linemen, the gas and electric co. repairman and the 911 answerers.
It seems to me that Nagin has no problem taking handouts and criticizing the quality of the handout!