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Sorry for the long post, but I just want to add my timeline. Let me briefly explain the purpose of this. I tried to focus only on a couple of narrow issues. In particular, the now widely-accepted “truth” that the Federal response was “slow” and that people at the Convention Center and Superdome were somehow ignored or abandoned. In fact, as the timeline shows, those at the Superdome were actually well-fed (I say this as one who has eaten many MRE’s in his life.) They also began evacuating within two days of the hurricane, despite the added complication of the...

-snip- In his first extensive interview since resigning as FEMA director on Monday under intense criticism, Mr. Brown declined to blame President Bush or the White House for his removal or for the flawed response. "I truly believed the White House was not at fault here," he said. He focused much of his criticism on Governor Blanco, contrasting what he described as her confused response with far more agile mobilizations in Mississippi and Alabama, as well as in Florida during last year's hurricanes. But Mr. Brown's account, in which he described making "a blur of calls" all week to Mr....

Mr. Brown said that in one much-publicized gaffe - his repeated statement on live television on Thursday night, Sept. 1, that he had just learned that day of thousands of people at New Orleans's convention center without food or water - "I just absolutely misspoke." In fact, he said, he learned about the evacuees there from the first media reports more than 24 hours earlier, but the reports conflicted with information from local authorities.

Saturday 27 August -- Seven of the 18 Urban Search and Rescue task forces FEMA has deployed were already in the region before the storm struck Sunday. (CNN) These US&R teams exist for the purpose of structuring local emergency personnel into integrated disaster response task forces. (FEMA) -- FEMA Director Mike Brown. "There's about 36 hours for folks to get ready. Beyond that, it's just too late. I can't emphasize enough to viewers how serious FEMA is taking this storm. The agency has dispatched teams to both states." (CNN) 6:45 pm -- President Bush declares a federal state of emergency...

New Orleans rescue effort thwarted My name is Jason Robideaux, I am an attorney from Lafayette Louisiana and have dealt with all of the various law enforcement agencies in Louisiana during the past 18 years. . . . I regretfully have a story to share that will shake your head in disbelief about the La. Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries. A group of approximately 1,000 citizens pulling 500 boats left the Acadiana Mall in Lafayette this morning (Weds.) and headed to New Orleans with a police escort from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Department. The “flotillia” of trucks pulling boats stretched...

Thursday, September 15, 2005 IN KATRINA'S WAKEPolitician caught in tearful lieParish prez fabricates claim about feds leaving coworker's mom to die Posted: September 15, 20052:06 p.m. Eastern © 2005 WorldNetDaily.com The president of a Louisiana parish tearfully told a national TV audience the heartbreaking story of a coworker whose mother was left to die in a flooded nursing home days after Hurricane Katrina immobilized New Orleans – but, as it turns out, the story isn't true. The blog WuzzaDem.com uncovered the truth-stretching rhetoric of Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard's account he shared on "Meet the Press" Sept. 4 as he emotionally...

Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco's abrupt decision Wednesday night to take responsibility for her state's inadequate response to the Hurricane Katrina disaster followed an inadvertent confession that was caught on camera where Blanco admitted she blew it. "I really should have called for the military," Blanco said, while chatting with her press secretary in between TV interviews. "I really should have started that in the first call." Unbeknownst to Blanco, her bombshell acknowledgment was recorded on a network satellite feed, and by Tuesday the clip was getting wide exposure in Louisiana news broadcasts. In the early days of the Katrina crisis,...

“People inside were literally dying,” ABC News correspondent Chris Bury told The Observer over the phone. He was talking about the New Orleans Convention Center, where he spent the day on Friday, Sept. 2, and from which he filed an impassioned report on the evacuees from the sinking city who had sought refuge there and found horror. “When you’re confronted with American citizens who are doing the right thing and are neglected and abandoned, it makes you mad. It made me mad.” Mr. Bury and a Nightline crew had ridden out the storm in Biloxi, Miss., and arrived in New...

While nobody is going to say that FEMA and the federal response to Hurricane Katrina has been a model of efficiency, what should be acknowledged, however, is why it wasn't. From FEMA's own Website: "SOME THINGS FEMA DOES NOT DO": - Physically rescue people or serve as "first-responders" in a disaster – that is the responsibility of local and state police, fire and emergency personnel. (This is exactly why FEMA notes that they won't arrive for 72-96 hours after a natural disaster passes). - Building dams or levees or activating sand-bagging activities – generally the responsibility of local/state officials and...

New Orleans' motto is "Let the good times roll," but its homeland security efforts since 9-11 are anything but laissez faire. New Orleans, famed for its Mardi Gras festival--which draws 1.5 million revelers--is also home to five major universities, nuclear power plants, petroleum facilities and refineries, chemical plants, and seaports, all of which require heightened security attention in the post-9-11 threat environment. New Orleans also has infrastructure elements such as reservoirs, pipelines, and electrical power systems to protect. On top of that, says Colonel Terry Ebbert, director of New Orleans' Homeland Security and Public Safety Department, "We're the only city...