Replies

Doug, I'm a retired senior officer of the CA National Guard. I've worked several years, both active duty and guard, working with and creating concept and operational planning documents. Additionally, I have worked on staff to numerous Inspector General evaluations as well as worn numerous "hats" as a local inspector.

Regardless of the state, the National Guard is under the command of the respective Governor. It would be beyond extraordinary for it to act outside the Governor's direct command. That would include mustering the force, orders for movement, assignment of tasks, and return to garrison/release.

All signs point to the information in Species8472 reply 34 as right on. Orders from the Governor of LA to her Adjutant General will be a matter of public record. Orders would be available through the Adjutant General's office. Lack or such public record would indicate no orders were provided.

I'll don't know if I'm willing to take the time to critique LA Emergency Plans, but the basis for all this should be spelled out in documents linked by Wild Irish Rogue reply 35. A quick review of the New Orleans evacuation plans reveal a concept plan only when an operational plan was needed. For example, the plan utterly fails to highlight limiting factors (weak links). For example: Directs increased attention to critical roadway intersections without naming them. Directs NOPD to door-to-door notify and recover disabled persons not able to evac on their own - obviously never tested and failed in this attempt. Just as telling, check this wikipedia link including a Gov Blanco quote to get a taste of how "off the cuff" this whole operation was: The same morning of August 29, 2005, during an interview on ABC news, Governor Kathleen Blanco called the Superdome shelter strategy an "experiment", when asked if it could hold the storm or the flood.

Finally, did you see this earlier FR post?
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said that President Bush had called and urged the state to order the evacuation. links this excellent cached CNN article New Orleans Orders Evacuation, Hurricane Katrina's winds nearly 175 mph Sunday, 28Aug2005 11:47 a.m. EDT (15:47 GMT). Post apocalypse, its fully indicting of NO Mayor and LA Governor...

--- From the St. Petersburg Times --- Here may be the criticism on which the blame game finger points will concentrate. Everything will go back to the Iraq war and the funding being cut.

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Experts say the answer is more complicated. New Orleans suffered from a string of problems, some of which could not have been foreseen and others with roots dating back decades, including a lack of money for preparation, a weak warning to evacuate and a sprawling bureaucratic agency ill-equipped for a quick response.

Emergency management experts say the blame doesn't lie only with FEMA, which coordinates the efforts of more than a dozen agencies with state and local authorities. State and local agencies respond first and design preparedness plans, but in a disaster this unprecedented they could not meet the needs of victims without federal help.

Officials have known for decades that New Orleans was vulnerable to hurricanes and flooding.

Just last year, FEMA hired a private company, IEM Inc. of Baton Rouge, to help conduct an eight-day drill for a fictional Category 5 hurricane in New Orleans named Pam. It included staging a helicopter evacuation of the Superdome, a prediction of 15 feet of water in parts of the city and the evacuation of 1-million people.

But the second part of the company's work - to design a plan to fix unresolved problems, such as evacuating sick and injured people and housing thousands of stranded residents - never occurred because the funding was cut.

Despite all the planning, numerous problems conspired to make a devastating situation worse.