Posted on 01/17/2009 1:24:05 PM PST by BBell
BATON ROUGE -- Nearly five months after Hurricane Gustav, the public relations battle between Gov. Bobby Jindal and FEMA continues over who was to blame for the exasperating depletion of emergency food and water supplies soon after the storm.
At stake is a clear understanding of how to prepare for disasters.
FEMA's argument, contained in a retort to comments made by Jindal last week, is that basically the responsibility for the problem lies with the storm victims of Louisiana, who gobbled up food and water at an "extraordinary" rate after Gustav swept through.
The federal agency said it worked closely with state officials to pre-position what was believed to be an adequate supply of Meals Ready to Eat packets, water bottles, ice and tarps, but the actual demand was far greater and resupply efforts stumbled.
"FEMA brought up this same assertion during the storms, and the governor made it clear that it is nutty to tell the people of south Louisiana that we are simply eating too much and are choosing MREs over our terrific local cuisine," Jindal's spokeswoman Melissa Sellers said.
The renewed flap apparently started when Jindal on at least two occasions in the past week brought up the post-Gustav supply problem.
"FEMA took too long to replenish the MREs, the water, the tarps that were in desperate need by our people," Jindal said Wednesday at the grand opening of the National Guard Readiness Center in Reserve. "Victims should not have to worry about delays in FEMA shipments of food, water and emergency supplies.
In a "Fact Sheet" released Friday, FEMA described a massive program of emergency supplies for Louisiana and Texas both before and after Hurricanes Gustav and Ike struck in September. FEMA said it had more than 1.4 million meals, 4.5 million bottles of
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
James Madison Quote
“If Congress can employ money indefinitely to the general welfare,and are the sole and supreme judges of the general welfare,they may take the care of religion into their own hands;they may appoint teachers in every State, county and parishand pay them out of their public treasury;they may take into their own hands the education of children,establishing in like manner schools throughout the Union; they may assume the provision of the poor;they may undertake the regulation of all roads other than post-roads; in short, every thing, from the highest object of state legislation down to the most minute object of police, would be thrown under the power of Congress.... Were the power of Congress to be established in the latitude contended for,it would subvert the very foundations, and transmute the very nature of the limited Government established by the people of America.”
When they started handing out supplies after Katrina there was no accountability.
~~~
True Dat,,,
I looked like just a “grab”,,,for everything,,,
Some of the pics I saw from the ‘08 storms seemed to show
much more order,,,
That makes me wonder,,,
Makes Bobby wonder too...
Even for sarcasm it is stupid. Sarcasm, like humor, just have a shred of truth to it. This has none.
This must be a misprint. All the complaining from the southern politicians, shouldn’t they be getting their aid from their German and Japanese masters?
Is there more complaining from southern politicians than from others about not getting federal money? Wall Street is in your neighborhood, not mine. Detroit is north...and as for German and Japanese masters...do you have someone specific to bitch about or just air headed allegations?
Nope, your comments were stupid.
And stupid is as stupid does.
Someone that doesn’t know the difference between New Orleans and the South is stupid.
I know Eagle Eye. You'd be wise to just move along, sonny.
I can’t WAIT for government health care!!!!
FYI, look at where the big hurricanes go and the damage that they cause hundreds of miles inland.
Katrina is another case of Congress acting like innocent by-standers. After 9-11 Congress created The Dept of Homeland Security and put most of the federal bureacracy under it. Fema, with Brown in charge, had handled several disasters quite well as an independent agency. That they didn’t do so well as part of Congress’ latest boondoggle should surprise no one but congresscritters.
Bobby Jindal for President, eh? A democratic president?
One lesson that a lot of people ‘learned’ because of the tv hysteria and desire to blame President Bush for living, was that it is the government’s responsibility to care for everyone caught in a hurricane.
I remember seeing some Katrina evacuees being interviewed on local tv, in Baltimore, and describing how there was “nothing to eat or drink”. Then they described pouring bottled water over their heads to try to cool off. Obviously their definition of “something to drink” must have meant a cold soda, not bottled water. Same disconnect that mre’s were actually ‘food.’ I guess because it was not ‘mcdonalds’.
New Orleans is a Southern city in a state with a GOP governor...no more excuses.
It’s a fact that Alabama receives more money back from the Feds then they pay in taxes...more than New York, California or Michigan. The only Southern state that doesn’t is Georgia...they get 99% back-pretty sweet deal if you ask me. As for the Mid West, we will come back because we have one thing in abundance the South is lacking...water. Can’t increase manufacturing without this precious commodity.
LOL....so you're in a New England town because Bronx is in New York and New York is a New England state, right?
Montgomery, Atlanta, Charleston, Tallahassee, Jacksonville, Tupelo, Memphis are all Southern cities but New Orleans is a city in the South.
There is a difference.
So what? It sounds to me like your first post was just a straw man argument that you were going to lose anyway.
The only Southern state that doesn’t is Georgia...they get 99% back-pretty sweet deal if you ask me. As for the Mid West, we will come back because we have one thing in abundance the South is lacking...water. Can’t increase manufacturing without this precious commodity.
Totally irrelevant but since when is the South lacking water? I guess not like Nebraska, Kansas and the Dakota lol...
The point on all that is that you shouldn’t blame THE SOUTH in general for what the xxx people in Lousiana, ESPECIALLY New Orleans do, does, or did.
The storm caused serious flooding and problems in more than the coastal areas though. It affected a whole lot of people that normally never have to deal with the worst part of a hurricane.
Gustav did major damage in the central and northern part of the state. There was a whole lot of flooding. Floods tend to ruin supplies.
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