White House Knew of Levee Failure on Night of Storm

The New York Times ^ | FEB 9, 2006 | ERIC LIPTON

[blogblogginaway]

Among the findings that emerge in the mass of documents and testimony:

¶Federal officials knew long before the storm showed up on the radar that 100,000 people in New Orleans had no way to escape a major hurricane on their own and that the city had finished only 10 percent of a plan for how to evacuate its largely poor, African-American population.

¶Mr. Chertoff failed to name a principal federal official to oversee the response before the hurricane arrived, an omission a top Pentagon official acknowledged to investigators complicated the coordination of the response. His department also did not plan enough to prevent a conflict over which agency should be in charge of law enforcement support. And Mr. Chertoff was either poorly informed about the levee break or did not recognize the significance of the initial report about it, investigators said.

¶The Louisiana transportation secretary, Johnny B. Bradberry, who had legal responsibility for the evacuation of thousands of people in nursing homes and hospitals, admitted bluntly to investigators that "we put no plans in place to do any of this."

¶Mayor C. Ray Nagin of New Orleans at first directed his staff to prepare a mandatory evacuation of his city on Saturday, two days before the storm hit, but he testified that he had not done so that day while he and other city officials struggled to decide if they should exempt hospitals and hotels from the order. The mandatory evacuation occurred on Sunday, and the delay exacerbated the difficulty in moving people away from the storm.

¶The New Orleans Police Department unit assigned to the rescue effort, despite many years' worth of flood warnings and requests for money, had just three small boats and no food, water or fuel to supply its emergency workers.

[spunkets]

"To say that they were telling nola residents to evac a week before is incorrect."

There were threads on FR about that cane at ~5-6 days before. I looked at them and noted the feds were telling NO the cane looked threatening to them. It's up to the locals what to do.

"Blanco had really just got into office."

The LA emergency services were in place. The job of gov is over her head.

"To be fair one must ask why the Former Gov who was in office for 8 years doesnt receive some blame."

He does depnding on the state of the emergency services.

Still, NO is on the water and folks that live there should take responsibility for their own. The levy break was caused by experts who failed to actually know the structure of the ground below. Never mind it was a "misprint", they had no hands on knowledge. Probably didn't want to dip their tie in the water.

[Kirkwood]

"...they prohibited the Red Cross from entering the city!"

No, this was the choice made by the RC, not by Louisiana or NO. It is common practice to not put emergency rescue services in harm's way. This is also true in FL. The difference in FL is that you have multiple ways to reach the disaster site. The same is not true in the gulf coast region.

[McGavin999]

I'm aware of that. My point was the first 72 hours is the responsibility of the state and local government. FEMA was not and never was intened to be a first responder. Despite that, the CG was there almost immediately. President Bush had to actually go to LA and practically beg the gov to let the military take over. She took days to decide.

There is a reason the feds don't step in immediately, it's called States Rights.

[Buddy B]

I guess "onyx" is gone?

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[bayourant]

I agree that Blanco cert appeared to be over her head. The point about the huricanne is this. We were quite aware of it 5 days before. However everytime a hurricane enters the gulf you cant exactly evacuate the whole LOuisiana coast. There is a period of wait and see. After the hurricane had left Florida. Agenies were being put on alert here in Louisiana. People knew to get out. To me all this talk about evacuations and mandatory evacuations is really meaningless. In the end people knew to get out.

[onyx]

NO, onyx is not gone.

Note the smilie face? I designed the page.

[Buddy B]

Cheers...

[onyx]

To: shhrubbery!
You know the rules. When speaking of another poster, make sure you ping that poster.



1,078 posted on 03/19/2005 6:05:24 PM CST by Lead Moderator
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[jonrick46]

It is interesting to note that nobody is talking about the cause of the levy break. Eye witnesses saw the levy break when a contruction barge that was loose and driven by the heavy winds rammed into the levy. No amount of levy engineering could have withstood that type of impact.

[Dustbunny]

I am more than tired of all this news. I post but no longer read the 'articles'.

[Buddy B]

Your    winky.jpg     is a very clever...Smiley!

[onyx]

Thanks. Your hardly the first one the page has fooled. It's my sense of humor...lol.

Thanks you for your service to our country.

[Shortstop7]

I think every time we get these "bogus" news stories......a link should be at the bottom.... so we can all reply and say BS!. Don't care, don't believe it, whatever.......... I think a lot of citizen of NO have moved on.......news media still plays it up though. I cannot stand Nagin, the whiner...

[CedarDave]

"...they prohibited the Red Cross from entering the city!"

No, this was the choice made by the RC, not by Louisiana or NO.

WRONG! Check out this FR post:

La. Officials Bar Red Cross From New Orleans

And from here:

This Is Why the Red Cross Was Not In New Orleans

EVANS: Well, Larry, we were asked, directed by the National Guard and the city and the state emergency management not to go into New Orleans because it was not safe.

[Petronski]

Federal officials knew long before the storm showed up on the radar that 100,000 people in New Orleans had no way to escape a major hurricane on their own and that the city had finished only 10 percent of a plan for how to evacuate its largely poor, African-American population.

Bush is to blame for failing to anticipate and adjust for the abject incompetence of the local government.

[OKIEDOC]

If New Orleans had be predominately white and Republican then the head line would have read that it was state and local governments fault for not having planning.

New York Slimes a despicable rag it surely has become.

[Tzimisce]

...Where is this from? I mean does the NYT cite its source?

"Federal officials knew long before the storm showed up on the radar that 100,000 people in New Orleans had no way to escape a major hurricane on their own and that the city had finished only 10 percent of a plan for how to evacuate its largely poor, African-American population."

Another evil white racist plot to hold back minorities.

If Bush knew, then Blanco knew, then Nagin knew....Hell, National Geographic knew 12 years ago that there was a problem. But for some reason IT'S ALL BUSH'S FAULT.

[Diddle E. Squat]

Same here.

Alternative text: Everyone BUT the NY Times knew of the levee's failure that night.

[Yaelle]

Could you even IMAGINE what the Slimes and all MSM would be saying if Bush had marched in there 5 minutes before the hurricane, announced he was taking full control, and stuffed the poor black residents into school buses and sent them north?

[SR 50]

ping