Posted on 10/02/2005 4:14:47 AM PDT by Deacon_m
Things I have noticed while watching media coverage of the recent hurricanes. 1. Texas: Productive industrious state run by Republicans.
Louisiana: Government dependent welfare state run by Democrats.
2. Texas: Residents take responsibility to protect and evacuate themselves.
Louisiana: Residents wait for government to protect and evacuate them.
3. Texas: Local and state officials take responsibility for protecting their citizens and property.
Louisiana: Local and state officials blame federal government for not protecting their citizens and property.
4. Texas: Command and control remains in place to preserve order.
Louisiana: Command and control collapses allowing lawlessness.
5. Texas: Law enforcement officers remain on duty to protect city.
Louisiana: Law enforcement officers desert their posts to protect themselves.
6. Texas: Local police watch for looting.
Louisiana: Local police participate in looting.
7. Texas: Law and order remains in control, 8 looters tried it, 8 looters arrested.
Louisiana: Anarchy and lawlessness breaks out, looters take over city, no arrests, criminals with guns have to be shot by federal troops.
8. Texas: Considerable damage caused by hurricane.
Louisiana: Considerable damage caused by looters.
9. Texas: Flood barriers hold preventing cities from flooding.
Louisiana: Flood barriers fail due to lack of maintenance allowing city to flood.
10. Texas: Orderly evacuation away from threatened areas, few remain.
Louisiana: 25,000 fail to evacuate, are relocated to another flooded area.
11. Texas: Citizens evacuate with personal 3 day supply of food and water.
Louisiana: Citizens fail to evacuate with 3 day supply of food and water, do without it for the next 4 days.
12. Texas: FEMA brings in tons of food and water for evacuees. State officials provide accessible distribution points.
Louisiana: FEMA brings in tons of food and water for evacuees. State officials prevent citizens from reaching distribution points and vice versa.
13. Louisiana: Media focuses on poor blacks in need of assistance, blames Bush.
Texas: Media can't find poor blacks in need of assistance, looking for something else to blame on Bush.
14. Texas: Coastal cities suffer some infrastructure damage, Mayors tell residents to stay away until ready for repopulation, no interference from federal officials.
Louisiana: New Orleans is destroyed, Mayor asks residents to return home as another hurricane approaches, has to be overruled by federal officials.
15. Louisiana: Over 400 killed by storm, flooding and crime.
Texas: 24 killed in bus accident on highway during evacuation, no storm related deaths.
16. Texas: Jailed prisoners are relocated to other detention facilities outside the storm area.
Louisiana: Jailed prisoners are set free to prey on city shops, residents, and homes.
17. Texas: Local and state officials work with FEMA and Red Cross in recovery operations.
Louisiana: Local and state officials obstruct FEMA and Red Cross from aiding in recovery operations.
18. Texas: Local and state officials demonstrate leadership in managing disaster areas.
Louisiana: Local and state officials fail to demonstrate leadership, require federal government to manage disaster areas.
19. Texas: Fuel deliveries can't keep up with demand, some run out of gas on highway, need help from fuel tankers before storm arrives.
Louisiana: Motorists wait till storm hits and electrical power fails. Cars run out of gas at gas stations that can‘t pump gas. Gas in underground tanks mixes with flood waters.
20. Texas: Mayors move citizens out of danger.
Louisiana: Mayor moves himself and family to Dallas.
21. Texas: Mayors continue public service announcements and updates on television with Governor's backing and support.
Louisiana: Mayor cusses, governor cries, senator threatens president with violence on television, none of them have a clue what went wrong or who‘s responsible.
22. Louisiana: Democratic Senator says FEMA was slow in responding to 911 calls from Louisiana citizens.
Texas: Republican Senator says "when you call 911, the phone doesn't ring in Washington, it rings here at the local responders".
What if state and local elected officials were forced to depend on themselves and their own resources instead of calling for help from the federal government? Texas cities would be back up and running in a few days. Louisiana cities would still be under water next month. Republicans call for action, Democrats call for help. What party will you be voting for in the next election?
Don't make these cheap political points. The main difference between Texas and Louisiana is that Texas suffered only minor exposure to the hurricane, while Louisiana got an entire city swamped.
Nobody came out of Katrina looking too pretty, and your trawling for votes off of it while damage crews are still scooping bodies out of the mud sure doesn't break the mold.
I noticed that both of these monster hurricanes were females.
Coincidence?
I don't think so.
The vast majority of Louisiana residents who were in the way of Katrina evacuated, and we didn't even wait for the government to tell us to do it. The evacuation went pretty smoothly too.
Though the media has focused on only one city, much more than that was devestated in Louisiana. At least four other parishes (counties) were severely damaged. Everyone who lived in St. Bernard parish lost everything. It was that bad. If you lived there, you lost your house. The media has all but ignored the other locations which were devestated by Katrina.
Oh get over yourself. The poster is dead-on right. Show me one point in this post that isn't accurate.
Oh......and if you want to talk about "cheap political points", hang onto your hat........
I've also noticed Texans eat beef brisket smoked for 8 hrs, while Louisianans eat French food made from bottom feeders (catfish and crawdad etouffee) in cream sauce. (I like both, but still just an observation)
How about the whole premise, which is ass-backwards? Texas went relatively unscathed, while Louisiana took the full blow. Explains what happened a hell of a lot better than the various officials' parties. This thread is just a hackjob.
Maybe in New Orleans, but not SW Louisiana. They were dumping the boats out and going and getting their neighbors.
In most major cities, the goobermint takes care of a lot of people (10% in NOLA)--the rest got out.
Out in the sticks, you take care of your own and your neighbors, because no one else is around to do it for you.
This is a rural/urban thing as much as anything else, and even then, generalizations can come back and swat you. But city folks like living where there are abundant services, country folks provide their own every day.
4. Texas: Command and control remains in place to preserve order.
Louisiana: Command and control collapses allowing lawlessness.
# 4 was a key factor in taking a bad natural disaster to the worst case possible! We know now that the reports of multiple murders & rapes were unconfirmed rumors....but when the mayor and police chief were the rumor mongers on Oprah, they stopped everyone who should have been in New Orleans rescuing & helping those first days.
What did you notice about Mississippi?
With ONE very glaring exception. Texas had no "contraflow" plan in place to make all lanes of Interstate highway AWAY from the coast "one-way-only"---hence the massive traffic jams .
Louisiana DID have and implement such a plan, and the evacuation of those with personal transport went MUCH more smoothly.
One thing I noticed is that, like the mainstream media, you have completely left out Mississippi in your coverage. The hurricanes did not stop at Louisiana and Texas. There was damage all along the path of those two and yet like the media and the partisan politicians you have decided to pit Texas (GW's home state) against Louisiana (dem rule).
Sorry, but this thread mirrors the mainstream coverage it doesn't expose it.
Morning SHJ,
Open your eyes and see the reality of what Deacon posted. Please remove your DNC hoodwink and see the truth of the matter."Great leadership versus Poor leadership at the local level."
In regards to hurricanes any municipality, county, or state goverment should excute their emergency plans in expecting the worst, but hoping for the best outcome.
Deacon was not trawling for votes, only deliniating common sense. It seems you have little, due to your excuse making for the illiterate/failed/loser local government in La.
Good Day,
NSNR-CSAOTL
Huh? Considering the immediate and monumental heaping of guilt, responsibility and blame on President Bush for the incompetence of the local officials BY those very same local officials (and their accomplices in the MSM), these points NEED to be made [degree of damage nowithstanding] and reinforced.
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