New Orleans mayor learns about disaster response in Cuba

CNN ^

[james500]

New Orleans, Louisiana, Mayor Ray Nagin arrived in Cuba late Friday on a mission to learn about how to deal with storms, a spokeswoman said.

"We understand we may have a lot to learn from the Cubans in terms of disaster preparedness and how they have dealt with hurricanes," spokeswoman Ceeon Quiett said.

Cuba is internationally applauded for exceptional disaster management, according to a news release from Nagin's office.

In the Cuban capital, Havana, Nagin plans to meet with several officials, including some from the Latin American Medical Centers for Disaster. He will also learn about preparations the Cuba Defense Committee makes in advance of disasters.

Nagin's trip comes a day after President Obama held a town hall meeting in New Orleans, still reeling from the aftermath of deadly Hurricane Katrina in 2005.

"It has now been just over four years since that terrible storm struck your shores," the president said. "And [in] the days after it did, this nation and all the world bore witness to the fact that the damage from Katrina was not caused just by a disaster of nature but also by a breakdown of government, that government wasn't adequately prepared, and we didn't appropriately respond."

...

Nagin is the first New Orleans mayor to make an official visit to Cuba in 50 years. The State Department sanctioned Nagin's trip, Quiett said. He plans to return to New Orleans on Thursday.

[crazyhorse691]

I heard he spent about four hours in a class showing you how to turn the ignition key on a bus.

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Hey, lay off the busses already...Nagin said they couldn’t use them because there was no air conditioning installed and he didn’t want people to suffer unnecessarily.(irony/off)

[jwparkerjr]

It's truly sad that there are people so unable to tell real from fiction that they think Cuba has a good system for handling emergencies. Even worse, some of these people are trying to run our country now.

If Nagin learns anything from his trip it will that the people of Cuba know that when the chips are down they are on their own, that they don't have a sugar daddy named Uncle Sam to take care of them. Something the people of New Orleans have yet to learn.

[GAB-1955]

Actually, the Cubans are pretty good about dealing with hurricanes. However, the disaster called Communism is one that has laid them flat for 50 years.

[IrishCatholic]

horse pucky.
His going had nothing to do with disaster preparedness. It had everything to do with getting a street cred for meeting with Communist Cuba.

Just like the CBC going there. It is one Marxist showing his love for the remaining Soviet satellite still running.

If Cuba renounced Communism, embraced capitalism and personal responsibility, Nagin wouldn't be caught dead there if they could tell him how to stop hurricanes in their tracks.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

***Were I King,,,, he never be able to come back!***

One good thing about the old USSR, if you left on a trip and they didn’t like you, they could revoke your citizenship.

Sometimes I wish we could do the same, but only under administrations I like!

[Notasoccermom]

Will he stop by Gitmo to confer with the inmates?

[BerryDingle]

That’s an easy one. Don’t allow your friends or yourself to steal from the public coffers that are allocated for disaster prevention and relief. He could have saved the taxpayers money if he just gave me a phone call about it.

That was finally after they found him in one of the whorehouses and wiped the coke off of his nose.

[Right Wing Assault]

Rule 1: Know your buses. Don't go to Cuba for lessons. Go to Galveston.

[Gapplega]

The most brilliant comment of the day! LOL

[kenavi]

If we are willing to give up our freedom to an absolute central ruler, as in Cuba, and like them have a population mostly engaged in unproductive activity, we might well increase our preparedness for hurricanes. Rebuilding from one, however, would be another matter altogether:

(From http://www.globalgiving.com/projects/hurricane-medical-relief-in-cuba/updates/)

"Continuing Hurricane rebuilding efforts
By Angela Garcia - Deputy Director, September 30, 2009

Working in collaboration with our partners in Cuba, Global Links has sent 15 total shipments of urgently needed medical supplies and furnishings to assist hospitals in regions most impacted by the hurricanes last fall.

The original focus of our relief efforts in Cuba was to provide assistance to Pinar del Rio and the Isla de la Juventud. However we have extended the aid to the other three provinces that were also severely affected by the hurricanes."

Note that they are talking about damage from a year earlier!

[Bogey78O]

They supposedly were expecting the cell phone network to work after Katrina. Anyone in telecommunications can tell you the silliness of expecting cell service after a disaster.

I’d have sold them that nugget of wisdom for a lot less than the millions of dollars they paid consultants.

[CaptainK]

Cuba already looks like it was hit by a hurricane.
If the government does nothing who could tell the difference?

[classified]

Exactly! This is Bullshit! Nagin is not there for Hurricane planning! There is more going on here with the Black Congressmen and now Nagin? This is too suspicious.

As if we can learn from Cuba on how to handle Hurricane recovery. The place is a pathetic dwelling of starving, poverty ridden, backward in technology and absence of hope and freedom. What is really going with Nagin using such a stupid excuse!

[jch10]

“We understand we may have a lot to learn from the Cubans in terms of disaster preparedness and how they have dealt with hurricanes,”

Hey, Ray! Mississippi and Alabama is much closer and you could have learned alot from them too.

[TASMANIANRED]

The disaster plan for Cuba...

Dissidents stand outside in the hurricane.

[TomasUSMC]

We should have taken care of Cuba around this date in 1962!