Posted on 03/02/2006 6:42:26 PM PST by blogblogginaway
In the hectic, confused hours after Hurricane Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast, Louisiana's governor hesitantly but mistakenly assured the Bush administration that New Orleans' protective levees were intact, according to new video obtained by The Associated Press showing briefings that day with federal officials.
"We keep getting reports in some places that maybe water is coming over the levees," Gov. Kathleen Blanco said shortly after noon on Aug. 29, according to the video. "We heard a report unconfirmed, I think, we have not breached the levee. I think we have not breached the levee at this time."
(Excerpt) Read more at forbes.com ...
How else would ya say it?! No one would understand you any other way.
as intense as labor pains for sure.. let's hope this one makes as much headline news as the earlier one about Bush...
As God is my witness, people on TV said "Mar-dee Graw." Like there's an "R" in it - like, well, hmmmm ... party ... no, that doesn't have an "r" in it ... like barbecue ... no, that neither. Oh! Like "Laura" as in Bush. Jest teck muh wuhd fo it.
The tone of this article is much more forgiving to the incompetent and irresponsible BLANCO, isn't it??? The same woman who had to be TOLD to evacuate residents was merely "mistaken"....I WONDER IF SHE "ASKED ANY QUESTIONS" about the levees....
The LameStream Media sucks. BIG TIME.
right on; I just said the same thing....
Well, see, it's like this. Blanco knew the *levees* were intact, because they were. They were keeping the Mississippi and most of the Gulf of Mexico out of the New Orleans gumbo bowl.
GWBush and everyone at FEMA also knew the *levees* were intact, because they were.
What Blanco *found out* and Nagin *found out* and didn't bother to pass along up the line was that the *canal floodwalls* which kept Lake Pontchartrain out of the gumbo bowl were NOT intact. They weren't overtopped, either. They were breached, broken, undermined, compromised and useless. Not all, but some.
Now we know more of the story, 6 months later. I'm guilty of saying "levees" but meaning "canal floodwalls" so I'm certain GWB and FEMA are, too. We just have to know when to speak precisely to nawlinsians and when we can talk Texan to the Prez.
Dey's riverpeoples, we be cowpeoples. FEMA's gonna hafta pony up some extra $$ for interpreters next hurricane. That's what they like to call lagniappe.
What was the President supposed to do with his fore-knowledge of the sure destruction of New Orleans - get on TV and tell the people of New Orleans not to listen to the people that were lawfully in charge of their welfare? "Get the hell out of Dodge. Nagin and Blanco want you all to die. They hate black people! Flee, flee I tell you!
Was he supposed to stage a coup then and there and wrest authority away from the Governor of the State? "Excuse me Ms. Blanco, I realize that by law a governor is in charge of their state and it's welfare during an impending natural disaster, but I have a premonition that you are going to screw things up royally, so I'm taking over." Would Blanco have let him take control at that point in time? Not just no, but HELL NO!
The President and the federal government knew that a freaking possible category 5 hurricane might make a direct hit on land. I am confident that they were doing everything that was logistically feasible to get as much help as they could to the WHOLE Gulf Coast hurricane watch area.
The only thing more the President possible could have done is activate federal troops with the governor's permission and we know from events afterwards that even when things were as dire as they could get the Governor refused that offer. As I said before, no way in hell she would have agreed before the hurricane even hit.
I read several accounts where people who had stayed thought that after the hurricane had passed everything was okay because, well, the Governor said it was okay. At this point in time these people had cell phones, radios, some even had phone and tv reception. They went to bed thinking they had dodged the bullet only to wake up to their house flooding and having to scramble on the roof to keep from being swept away.
If the danger that night had been so apparent that the President should have known, then the Mayor and Governor had to know and yet they let people that got through the hurricane, who could still leave the city, go to bed thinking everything was alright.
It is apparent to anyone with half a brain who should be blamed and impeached and it ain't President Bush.
Like they "buried" the vidoe of Lt. General Russell Honore giving his world-reknowned "Stuck-on-Stupid" lecture to the media reporters ???
Bull-hockey! I was on FR early that morning and I remember the report of the flooding started around 3 am! I was stunned to find out the next morning that the folks in NO were still just sitting there!
I'm a thousand miles away but knew some 10 hours before the governor did it? Yeah right!
No, the 29th was Monday.
Instant replay - a few of my notes, NOLA only:
~~~~~
11:42 PM 8/28/2005 [Sun]
I-10 to TX is bumper to bumper for 400 mi.
....
12:45 AM 8/29/2005
Heard they have ceased emergency services and told personnel to go to shelters.
785,000 evacuated from Jefferson Parish
....
12:58 AM 8/29/2005
WWL "I-10 is still a sea of headlights" 15mph speeds. This according to Texas officials.
....
1:04 AM 8/29/2005
AP reports 90 mph gust at 12:45 in Downtown New Orleans
....
1:27AM - CDT
Ap now reporting on msnbc that 107 mph wind gust now in downtown NO!!!
....
on Fox a man is saying anybody who is thinking about coming back to New Orleans should wait a MINIMUM of five days!
.....
02:37 PM CDT on Monday, August 29, 2005
Nagin made the announcement in his first press briefing after Hurricane Katrina slammed just east of the city, but did plenty of devastation to New Orleans.
....
Nagin said at least 20 buildings in the city had collapsed and that it might be 48 hours before residents would be allowed back to their homes to assess the damage.
....
In New Orleans' historic French Quarter of Napoleonic-era buildings with wrought-iron balconies, water pooled in the streets from the driving rain, but the area appeared to have escaped the catastrophic flooding that forecasters had predicted.
....
The National Weather Service reported that a levee broke on the Industrial Canal near the St. Bernard-Orleans parish line, and 3 to 8 feet of flooding was possible. The Industrial Canal is a 5.5-mile waterway that connects the Mississippi River to the Intracoastal Waterway.
....
Pieces of roof from the Superdome, a makeshift shelter for about 10,000 people, peeled off and crashed into the downtown Hyatt Regency.
Flood waters breeched at least two of the city's crucial flood-control levees, Nagin said, and three pumps failed.
....
By mid-afternoon, with the storm largely passed, Nagin said he was grateful the damage wasn't even worse, but he pleaded with residents eager to return to whatever was left of their homes.
....
Lake Ponchatrain now extends to OLD SPANISH TRAIL (Hwy 90)
....
FOX now has unreal video on - now saying half the city of NO is under water.
....
Local FEMA rep: Will have to house at least 10,000 for several months. NOLA I-10 bridge is compromised. Don't want to call them breaches, but water is still spilling over some levees. Water still rising in some areas.
....
Monday, 8 p.m.
50" water main in NOLA is severed.
....
Setting up temporary morgues . . . right now the bodies are "just kind of there" . . . National Guard will set up temporary morgues in key areas of city . . . disease will be a concern . . . (per Mayor on WWL) . . .
....
Report from Slidell: No power anywhere. No gas or services past Denham Springs. Advise giving Slidell a couple of days to recover before returning.
....
[Understatement of the Year](8/29/05 - HOUSTON) - Some of the evacuees from Hurricane Katrina will call Houston hotels home for the next few nights.
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2:43 AM 8/30/2005
The French Quarter is now flooding. The talking head says that there will be a statement given about this levee break and the flooding in about an hour or less.
....
10:16 AM 8/30/2005
BREAKING- Martial law has been declared IN NOLA- per FOX
....
Jefferson Parish under Martial Law. No one being allowed into New Orleans.
Levee breaches are causing rising water in New Orleans. WWL-TV studios are being evacuated due to rising water in the French Quarter. WWL will begin broadcasting from LSU as soon as possible and we will be attempting to stream on the web.
....
With conditions in the hurricane-ravaged city of New Orleans rapidly deteriorating, Gov. Kathleen Blanco said Tuesday that people now huddled in the Superdome and other rescue centers need to be evacuated.
....
The governor said that at midnight, all of the boat operators trying to rescue people from rooftops were told to take a break.
"They refused. They couldn't do it," Blanco said.
....
Things are so bad, Nagin said, that rescue boats are bypassing the dead.
"We're not even dealing with dead bodies," Nagin said. "They're just pushing them on the side."
....
Nagin said there are two major breaks in levees _ one at Florida Ave. in New Orleans East and another on the 17th Street Canal, where two or three blocks of concrete levee blew out.
Because of the 17th Street Canal break, Lake Pontchartrain water is pouring down into the city. Nagin said the pumps which normally protect the city are working, but since they send water into the lake it does no good.
He said the Corps of Engineers is trying to sandbag the break but he had no timeline for their efforts.
Levees seem to be holding everywhere else, he said.
....
BREAKING FROM WWL....
Sandbagging efforts at a breach HAVE NOT WORKED! Pump will fail, and waters will rise to 3 FEET above sea level!
This means 12-15 feet deep waters in the east end and Jefferson Parish..
WWL is calling for people to IMMEDIATELY EVACUATE these areas!
....
WWL TV - The 17th St Canal pump (station #6) has just failed. More flooding will happen.
....
10:46 PM 8/30/2005
CNN just showed buses loading evacuees in Kenner, to take them to shelters outside the NOLA area. Began loading 3 hours ago, and will continue.
....
Tuesday, 11:45 p.m.
Late Tuesday, Gov. Blanco spokeswoman Denise Bottcher described a disturbing scene unfolding in uptown New Orleans, where looters were trying to break into Children's Hospital.
....
The whole WWL news crew just paused and took a deep breath, 'St Bernard Parish is gone,' --heartbreaking.
A professor from LSU said on WWL yesterday that the storm surge of 22 feet inundated the 17 foot sea wall.
He said the entirety of St. Bernard Parish was under 12 feet of water within two hours.
....
WDSU reporting...
Water is rising at 1 inch per hour in downtown NO.
....
WWL-TV reporter now fleeing downtown NOLA, 'too dangerous' at this point before the army comes in.
....
Wed 8/31/05
6:13 A.M. - Governor Blanco: Essential personnel will stay in city, but general public needs to go. Logistical nightmare to bring in food and water.
7:06 A.M. - Gov Blanco wants the Superdome evacuated within two days.
9:04 A.M. - (AP) Plans are being put into place to transport evacuees from the Superdome to the Houston Astrodome via a bus convoy.
9:46 A.M. - CNN: Commercial flights coming out of New Orleans International Airport could resume in two months.
....
In case you missed this .. and the video
Blanco Says Levees Are Safe (VIDEO)
http://exposetheleft.com/2006/03/03/blancoleveekatrina/
WASHINGTON Mar 2, 2006 (AP)— In the hectic, confused hours after Hurricane Katrina lashed the Gulf Coast, Louisiana’s governor hesitantly but mistakenly assured the Bush administration that New Orleans’ protective levees were intact, according to a new video obtained by The Associated Press showing briefings that day with federal officials.
“We keep getting reports in some places that maybe water is coming over the levees,” Gov. Kathleen Blanco said shortly after noon on Aug. 29, according to the video that was obtained Thursday night. “We heard a report unconfirmed, I think, we have not breached the levee. I think we have not breached the levee at this time.”
It's time to stop blaming the lamestream media for this gross misrepresentation of Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. Indeed we should stop blaming the Dems and their partisanship on the matter, particularly the Louisiana Dems and Repubs that are only trying to pilfer money from the federal government.
Bad decision get made from bad information. And THIS is the basis for Bush to come out kicking and screaming. Yes Bush. Not you, not I, not Rush Limbaugh.
I'll roughly try to paraphrase an effective speech by the prez to set this mess on the right track.
=====
Good evening American citizens
I speak to you tonight not to cast aspersions on any American institution or the opposing party. I speak to you as your lawfully elected leader and with an eye to setting the record straight on the events of Hurricane Katrina, its aftermath and how we can benefit from lessons learned (plug for the White House report here.)
For no business makes important decisions based on faulty investigation and information. Such as profit and loss, market studies, study teams....all are set up to provide accurate and insightful information that will avoid bad decisions by management. To base conclusions on bad or biased information is to continue on with faulty behavior and not in the best interest of the business.
So too must a government study past events and with ACCURATE information, draw conclusions that will avoid repeats of past mistakes.
There were problems with Hurricane Katrina at ALL levels. I've already taken full responsibility for failures at the federal level. Which is not, good citizens of America, to be construed that the main failure of Katrina was on the federal government. To conclude so based on misleading and somewhat hysterical media reporting is to condemn us to keep repeating the mistakes.
Citizens of the United States, I take this time to look you collectively in the eye and ask if you truly think it would be wise for the FEDERAL government to command mandatory evacuations to any locality across the land in the event of an emergency?
To those of you who live in Littlecounty, Indiana, what would your reaction be if you heard across the media that Washington D.C. has demanded an evacuation of your area? Wouldn't your first reaction be...'why on earth is the FEDERAL government demanding this? Where are the local people?"
American citizens, the decisions NOT to proclaim a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans was a local decision and I respected it. Yes, I suggested a mandatory evacuation would be wise to the local authorities but in the end, I respected their decision. They know the area better than the congress, president or senate.
The local officials chose not to call for a mandatory evacuation and as a result, school buses were left in feet of water and New Orleans citizens, including the helpless in hospitals and nursing homes, left to whatever forces Hurricane Katrina would bring.
And good citizens of America, had I overrode the wishes of the local authorities there would have been no end to the investigations, blue ribbon panels, demands of impeachment and general political mayhem. I made the right decision to give the local authorities the final word on Hurricane Katrina and I'd do it again should an emergency occur in your part of the country.
After the storm went through, those were United States Coast Guard helicoptors plucking New Orleans citizens that were stranded on rooftops. It was National Guard soldiers helping to evacuate the stranded and helpless. The federal government was on the job and any problems on that front IS my responsibility and I acknowledge there were some.
But to continue this arguement that only the FEDERAL government failed during Hurricane Katrina is to avoid a better local response in the future. American citizens, we depend on your local authorities as a first responder in such emergencies and there's a good reason for this.
I'd urge all Americans to check out their local government's plan for emergency evacuation. Find out who's in charge. The federal goverment has awarded millions of dollars to local police and first responders for just this purpose. We didn't do this so that failed first responders could blame the FEDERAL government for bad choices.
======= So okay, Bush probably won't give the above speech. But he oughta. Because I'm so sick of all the shrill about Katrina when it was LOUISIANA who took a chance. They didn't want to endure the cost of evacuation and when they rolled the dice and lost, then they want to blame the very people who gave them authority to decide and subsequently respected their decision.
I see Bush and company ignoring this bashing, once again, and I'm moving on. If Bush can't defend himself, particularly in this case where bad decisions might be the result, then I just don't care.
Well I care, but I can't do anything about it. Only Bush can and that's a fact. He needs to re-locate that bully pulpit.
I would like to hear Pelosi's comments on this, since she was yammering on yesterday about how this was all Bush's fault.
The "canal flood-walls" were set into "levees". In fact... a concrete (or other) wall supported on one side by dirt is called a... wait for it... "levee".
There's a wall in there... but that's a levee breach.
LOL! May I quote you on that? Yours is the most cogent and funny satire I have read on this subject.
Please, Lord, may the real facts of the state and local incompetence get out to the American people.
I agree with you, Fishtalk. The President's graciousness seems to keep him from doing what is necessary here........that is to state that, while there were some mistakes at the federal level, there was sheer and utter incompetance at the state and local levels.
Those are the facts, and he needs to state them himself.
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