Posted on 09/22/2005 4:48:49 PM PDT by WestTexasWend
WASHINGTON (AP) - With satellite phones, hospital beds, buses and gasoline on the way, President Bush promised on Thursday his administration would react "swiftly and effectively" to Hurricane Rita.
House Republicans, meanwhile, began examining why the government's response to Hurricane Katrina was slow and disorganized.
Hundreds of thousands of people were fleeing in anticipation of the latest mammoth storm. They took seriously the threat as it roared through the Gulf of Mexico. Landfall was expected on the Texas coast late Friday or early Saturday.
Officials aware of the deadly consequences of leaving thousands behind when Katrina hit nearly a month ago kept urging people in Texas and Louisiana to follow evacuation orders.
"Officials at every level of government are preparing for the worst," a grim-faced Bush said from the Pentagon.
The president prepared to fly toward the storm.
He planned to visit Texas on Friday afternoon to review preparations and thank first responders who are set to go in after Rita strikes.
Later, the president was expected to monitor the storm's path from the U.S. Northern Command in Colorado Springs, Colo. The White House did not release details of other hurricane-related stops.
On Capitol Hill, GOP Rep. Tom Davis of Virginia opened what he said would be an aggressive inquiry into a "largely abysmal" response by all levels of government to Katrina.
The director of the National Hurricane Center, Max Mayfield, said by videophone that Katrina had been termed either "potentially catastrophic" or "extremely dangerous" by the center beginning early the day before it hit late last month.
That should have raised alarms across the board, said Rep. Henry Bonilla, R-Texas. "Someone should have been running down the hallways to spread the word."
House Democrats, denied their wish for an independent commission, stayed away from the meeting. It was to continue Tuesday with the testimony of Michael Brown, the former director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency. He resigned on Sept. 12 after becoming, for many, the face of the inadequate federal response.
Ahead of Rita, millions of pounds of food, water, and ice, thousands of medical and rescue personnel, and hundreds of buses and generators were on standby.
To secure enough gas for the evacuation of potentially millions of people, local authorities turned to the Pentagon for help amid shortages in the region. The federal government scrambled to respond to what the acting FEMA chief, R. David Paulison, said was Texas Gov. Rick Perry's "No. 1 request."
"There will be fuel on the ground," Paulison said.
The Coast Guard positioned disaster response teams in Houston. The military staged heavy-lift and medium-lift helicopters at Patrick Air Force Base in Florida, had six Navy ships waiting in the Gulf Coast region to move in behind the storm, and began moving communications teams equipped with satellite phones and radios into Texas.
The Air Force decided to keep C-5 transport aircraft at Lackland Air Force Base, near San Antonio, so the huge planes would be ready to help evacuate people.
Communication was a major problem after Katrina. For Rita, the Federal Communications Commission began reaching out to telephone, television and radio service providers in Texas in hopes of smoothing the process later of getting damaged systems back on line quickly.
Bush praised the evacuation and cited the public's awareness of the need to get out as a major difference between now and the days leading up Katrina. It was a dig at New Orleans, where many failed to heed evacuation warnings, either because they lacked transportation to get out or did not want to leave.
The president also suggested that things might go more smoothly with Rita because of the early naming of Coast Guard Adm. Larry Hereth as the federal official in charge of was overseeing the government's preparedness and response.
The military said Lt. Gen. Robert Clark, commander of The 5th Army, would head the military's Rita activities. In Katrina, the military chief was not picked until a day after the storm hit.
Pressure mounted among conservative lawmakers for spending cuts to help finance the costs of responding to Katrina. Bush, though, said it could take some time to identify precisely how the Katrina and Rita expenses would be offset.
You never hear any complaints from the state of Florida who has had their share, because they are prepared .. As is the state of Texas. They have governors and mayors who have a plan. Maybe John Kerry who had a plan forgot to share with his Democratic governors. I hope that hurricane detours to LA, not that I want any one injured or killed, just NO to sink.
GOP has allowed President Bush to take the hit, when they could have defended him and made Nagin and Blanco repsonsible and put them in their place immediately. Our party needs to start putting the DEM's and Media in their place.
I guess the days are long gone when FEMA was regarded simply as a 'mop up' organization after the 'first responders' were done. (sarcasm)
Read: Intelligent local government facilitates efficient emergency action.
Black and White people in Alabama and Mississippi have been forgotten in order that we pacify the blacks in new Orleans who have played their race card.
The Governor of Lousianna is a total screw up that was the biggest problem. the governors of the other states and Texas asked for help early, In Alabama and Mississippi they are hurting because of the New Orleans priority. The Governor of Texas asked for what he needed and he is receiving it. The governor of Lousiana was afraid the feds would step on her dainty toes. Governor Blanco is directly responsible for the lousy job in New Orleans.
Saw a news briefing from hizhonor bragging about having 500 buses waiting to take out residents from NO mandatory evacuation.
Last I heard, the end result was that 27 people boarded one bus. That leaves 499 buses that could damn well be used elsewhere.
"GOP has allowed President Bush to take the hit, when they could have defended him and made Nagin and Blanco responsible and put them in their place immediately. Our party needs to start putting the DEM's and Media in their place."
Man, you hit that nail on the head. Too bad our party's silence is still deafening. IMHO, 100% of the blame for the NO fiasco belongs to Nagin, Blanco and their rotten-to-the-core DUmmycrat regimes. But you would never know that. The administration and most of the Republicans in Congress continue to self-flagilate and that only serves to validate the MSM's pronouncement that it was Bush's fault.
" I guess the days are long gone when FEMA was regarded simply as a 'mop up' organization after the 'first responders' were done. (sarcasm)"
No need for the sarcasm notation. I always thought of FEMA as the folks who showed up after the storm to help with the rebuilding. After Katrina, they will be expected to be the first and last responders. What a perversion of their mission.
Jennifer Loven's signature is her digs at Bush. She never fails to disappoint.
To make matters worse, there were evacuation plans that were never communicated by the mayor or anyone else apparently.
In tyler, we are both ready to handle evacuees and deal with the storm hitting us like a hurricane.
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