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 ...
We sure have a lot of people from Michigan down here looking for work, as well as other states.
Thank you.
To equate New Orleans with the rest of Louisiana shows your ignorance.
Certainly thought provoking. I am trying to get the link for “THe Battle of Pelican Street” where folks took on looters - and the looters lost (DRT)
IT was on the web for a bit and nothing on the MSM, but that is no surprise....
Hope they find work.
Guess again GM management. Yeah, I’m pissed at certain Senators from the South who bailout transplants with much dollars-taxpayer dollars then walk around complaining about a loan. Let’s just say if Sanford is the GOP candidate in 2012, I’m voting third party.
We had “disadvantaged” evacuees from Gustav just up the road from us at a local gym (15 miles). They did something like 20K in damage and complained the whole time from what I read in the local rag. I don't think they will open it again for the next evacuation. But ignorance is bliss :)
We need a conservative party that actually adheres to moral and economic conservative principles. But I'm dreaming again.
Hope things work out for you at GM. Its going to be a rough couple of years.
Thanks...it will be a rough couple of years to be sure. My kids have been in three schools in three years...not complaining happy to have a job. I had a botched operation a few years ago so I have to keep health insurance which makes it difficult to change jobs at this stage...but I may have to-who knows?
Well it's no wonder that Bed, Bath, and Beyond has more market cap than your entire stupid company.
Whoever hired you should be fired about 3 seconds before you are.
L
BTW, sorry I called you ignorant. I get a little excited when I think people are lumping New Orleans and Louisiana together. The French Quarter is about 35 minutes from my house but my community hasn't had a murder in two years. And the murders we had two years ago involved folks from New Orleans.
What a rude message...not that I care what you think. Since I no longer remember the post you refer to and have little desire to look it up based on this reply,I will say goodbye with this pertinent quote, Great people talk about ideas; ordinary people talk about things; small-minded people talk about other people’,(author unknown).
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