Posted on 09/02/2005 1:57:33 PM PDT by gitmo
The official version; then there's the in-the-trenches version
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- Diverging views of a crumbling New Orleans emerged Thursday. The sanitized view came from federal officials at news conferences and television appearances. But the official line was contradicted by grittier, more desperate views from the shelters and the streets.
These conflicting views came within hours, sometimes minutes of each of each other, as reflected in CNN's transcripts. The speakers include Michael Brown, chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, evacuee Raymond Cooper, CNN correspondents and others. Here's what they had to say:
Conditions in the Convention Center
FEMA chief Brown: We learned about that (Thursday), so I have directed that we have all available resources to get that convention center to make sure that they have the food and water and medical care that they need. (See video of CNN asking why FEMA is clueless about conditions -- 2:11)
Mayor Nagin: The convention center is unsanitary and unsafe, and we are running out of supplies for the 15,000 to 20,000 people. (Hear Nagin's angry demand for soldiers. 1:04)
CNN Producer Kim Segal: It was chaos. There was nobody there, nobody in charge. And there was nobody giving even water. The children, you should see them, they're all just in tears. There are sick people. We saw... people who are dying in front of you.
Evacuee Raymond Cooper: Sir, you've got about 3,000 people here in this -- in the Convention Center right now. They're hungry. Don't have any food. We were told
(Excerpt) Read more at edition.cnn.com ...
I don't think that's the REAL tragedy here. The state of Louisiana and the city of New Orleans have been warned for 20-30 years that the design of this city would result in exactly the nightmare they are now experiencing. A below-sea-level city surrounded on all sides by levies, sitting in the likely site for Cat-5 storms, is nothing short of a death trap. Regardless of whether those dams hold or not, the city will drown.
These people ignored very real danger for decades, and now they complain because FEMA took a couple of days to get to their town? The failure of the state and the city to respond last millenium is nothing short of criminal.
Agree with everything in your link. Thanks. I've been thinking it, but of course saying it outloud would be so un-PC.
I've been watching a lot of nitpicking whiners who don't seem to understand that the Federal government - or ANY government - just can't respond to a natural disaster of this magnitude instantaneously. And a lot of people seem to think that natural disasters just shouldn't happen to them. Or it one does, then somebody (Joe Taxpayer) ought to be there right way to help them out.
All unrealistic, and all ultimately wrong. All of us are always at the mercy of nature, and this time is no exception. This just might be the biggest natural loss to hit the USA since the San Francisco earthquake and fire of 1906. But let's get real. We don't have an instant reaction force, standing by to go at a moment's notice, to make things right for all. Nor should we. That would be a huge waste of money, time and effort.
We may have lost New Orleans. That would be a real tragedy, no question. But the city was built below sea level by the very people who live there, not by my forebears in South Dakota. We have blizzards, tornados and occasional droughts to deal with. Louisiana has hurricanes. We need to get used to the idea tht nature is powerful, and doesn't care much for Man and his works. We take the blows nature deals us and we move on. I'd like to hear the whining stop. I'd really like Nancy Grace to ease up on the misplaced outrage. Can't she get a flight to Aruba? There must be something she could cover down there.
After all of this, we should be able to recognize the blameless power of nature on the rampage and the heroic efforts of many in the aftermath. But, I'm afraid that once again, it will be all Bush's fault.
Oh thank you! I was in a hurry and just pasted it in....rather than actually link it. I guess I should have linked it. It's easier for people that way.
Did you ever try to go and buy a week's worth of water, bread, tuna, and other essentials at a supermarket the weekend before a big hurricane?
A simple look at the weather projections from last Friday will demonstrate that the city and state had 60 hours warning of a Cat 3 or higher hurricane hitting NOLA. Once a hurricane gets into open water the projected strike zones are almost never off by more than 40 miles. Once a hurricane breakes into the Gulf, it always intensifies.
I can live with plans that don't work out, but it was criminal not to have plans.
Glad you read it! Everybody should read it! The author just sums it up as well as it can be said.
Heard somone interviewed on FOX today that it's taking the mayor hours to make simple decisions and he's appointed no one to help with each phase - water, evacuation, transport, medical. Said what NO needed days ago was a war room.
The Super Dome was only one of several emergency shelters ~ "emergency" ~ an important word.
No one planned for a longterm stay at any of them.
Then the levee system failed due to loads which exceeded its design capacity.
At that point, the "emergency" shelters became "the only" shelters!
According to some witnesses the water came up in 15 seconds. 1 out of 5 of the refugees have NO shoes. I doubt FEMA planned on 20% of the refugees not having shoes. I doubt that any FREEPERS working on an emergency preparedness plan would think to do that either.
No. That is because we try to keep 30 days of food at home at all times. Planing ahead doesn't hurt.
Yet the mayor had the nerve to say he's been all over the city and Bush just flew over once. Yet I have never seen the mayor at any problem site.
Well, if FEMA is so innocent, let's cut the budget and cut my taxes for them.
My pleasure. Thank you for pointing out this excellent article. I e-mailed it to everyone on my list. I'm sure the two or three remaining liberals I still communicate with will be mortified.
In NO, you'd had to store your food above the level of the Mississippi river, though. Otherwise, it'd gotten trashed in the flood.
Everywhere has very real threats. Disasters strike, nature is a harsh mistress. The question isn't is there a potential natural disaster there, the question is do the people being paid to know what to do actually know what to do.
What was their response supposed to be? Anything that would have would have cost TRILLIONS of dollars, been soundly ridiculed until this week, never would have gotten the ongoing and repeated budget approval to continue (the ACE says it would have taken 25 years to upgrade those levees to what they needed to be this week, do you really think Carter, Reagan, Bush, Clinton, and the new Bush and ALL of the versions of Congress they dealt with would have approved of the funding). Meanwhile, like it or not, NO is one of the most important ports in our country for every form of trade, no way in hell we were going to abandon the place do to safety concern.
The disaster was predictable but not preventable in the real world we're forced to live in. But the people in charge blew off reacting to it until the last minute (and if Bush hadn't called the governor and mayor to ask why they weren't evacuating there's no reason to believe they would even have reacted in the last minute) and THAT is what made this such a tragedy. Yes NO the real estate has been doomed for over 100 years, but the citizens could have been saved, and would have been saved if anybody in the state and local governments had put down their mint juleps long enough to actually read the FEMA plan they were provided when they took office.
He said more than that.
Nagin was quoted in that local radio interview -- replayed on CNN and other networks -- that there had been a proposal to use school buses. "School buses!" he ranted with disdain, "School buses! Where are the Greyhounds? Why isn't every bus company coming here to rescue these people."
Far be it from me to excuse the ineptitudes of Mayor Nagin et al, but after 200 years dodging dangerous storms I don't think the city was capable of the attitude or aptitude to mobilize either itself or outside parties. By the time the seriousness of the situation became apparent the mayor was barking orders (putting the best construction on things here) at a fleeing, or unlistening, population.
What was the last hurricane to come close? Check it out, and see what kind of emergency measures, if any, came into play. New Orleans gambled. Nature took it's course. Now we can all think about it for a while.
Excellent read. It should have it's own thread, if it doesn't already. And also it would be a great response to this thread, if it hasn't been posted there already:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1475753/posts
Days? More like years. Hurricanes are not a new type of disaster and each year there are all kinds of announcements about hurricane preparedness, but some people decide that the difference even $1/mo can make isn't something they are interested in. Well, they aren't interested until all hell breaks loose.
Just wondering..... how much assistance has CNN given while touring the streets of NOLA?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.