Why was New Orleans such a disaster?

Amen, Chris. I’ve been saying the same thing. I say again, Bush has a lot to answer for not only abroad, but right here at home. I hate to say I told you so to those that voted for him, but I told you so…

Perhaps it has something to do with the 5.2 BILLION dollars a month that we are spending in Iraq? Lets face it that Bush has his own agenda that is geared more toward the neo cons new american century than the interest of “good” domestic and foreign policy.
Imagine what 5.2 BILLION dollars could do in the Katrina affected areas… Just one month worth of fighting in Iraq.
Can I say that again? 5.2 BILLION dollars. Staggering. I wonder how many bullets and bombs does 5.2 BILLION dollars buy? How many gallons of fresh drinking water could it buy, how many emergency generators, meals and blankets. How many helicopters to rescue victims and how many aid workers could it buy? How many temporary homes for the afflicted coud that buy. 5.2 BILLION dollars.

It’s amazing that people in the US still think such an amount of weapons in the public makes life safer. Why are Americans soooo trigger happy? When they look for solutions its always the gun. At least this time no foreign nation has to suffer from this attitude. Sorry for the people who are the vicitims, but I doubt the US will learn a single thing from this whole incident. Homeland security, everything just big big bla bla to cover up huge business for companies that invest plenty in the parties during election. 98% of the things the US Army does outside of the US to other peoples never shows up in the US media. And if they show pictures of other nations they always pretend to be the ones who show others how things are done better. This time it shows how the people are really doing. And the perfect solutions are demasked as a pure chaos not a big difference to a third world country. And again thank you for not signing the Kyoto protocol. And keep driving these SUV’s, second thanx for driving the oil price sky high.

You may wish to keep an eye out for changes in policies in Iraq by the US government. With the evacuation of New Orleans, it is doubtful that the ports around the area will be operating at full capacity (if at all) for some time. Local port workers need a place to live, and all of their neighborhoods are currently filled with contaminated water. If this disaster becomes a huge drain on the economy, then you may see the administration become more willing to compromise with people it previously did not want to deal with at all. This would allow Bush to free up troops in Iraq, and cut down on spending there in order to pay for the rebuilding of the South Louisianna and Mississippi. A strong-armed Iraqi leader who can keep the peace might become very appealing to officials back at home even if he is not very democratically inclined .

Christopher,

You mentioned a while ago the widespread Iraqi belief that all the suffering there had to be part of an American plot, because America was too rich and too powerful to allow a place under its control to disintegrate into chaos unless chaos was what it wanted.

It’d be interesting to see if you see that viewpoint changing at all.

Cuba evacuates it’s citizens in the face of hurricanes. In November 2001, a class 4 hurricane Michelle hit them - they lost five people. Last year, a class 5 hurricane Ivan hit them - they lost zero people.

They turn off the electricity and gas in the evacuated areas. No worries of live down power lines or fires from natural gas lines.

How come Americans are so stupid?

Not to be a spoilsport here, but my Constitution says that the responsibility to fund first responders lies exclusively with the states, not the federal government.

Of course, to be fair, it’s not like the Republicans in DC believe that truth any more than the Democrats do, so it’s not like that would be their excuse/reason. But it’s mine!

Oh, and that goes for the levees too. Those are not DC’s responsibility, they are Louisiana’s. Period.

My Prayers are with all of the victims and the countless volunteers who have been affected by hurrican Katrina.

Bush and his cronies have RUINED this country!!! People you are seeing the two Americas in New Orleans right now. We are wasting our lives, time and money in that sand pit, Iraq. We had not business over there. The response to this Castastropy is disgraceful and I am ashame of my government. I am shameful of how they treated our fellow Americans. People we are not Prepared to deal with any kind of major natural or manmade/terrorist castastrophe. The 4 years after 9/11 and we are not prepared!!!! We are idiots for allowing our politicians and goverment to get aways with doing the same old things they have done in the past. Nothing!!! but waste our money and spend it on useless Pork Projects for their rich special interests. Fema and Home land Security are also USELESS. They exist to deal with emergencies. They had the nerve to say they were doing a great job when people are stranded, have no water or food and are dying. What the hell are they doing 365 days a year when nothing is going on???? This is why they exist!!!! Now the entire country is going to pay and pay big. People we better wake up and change our ways. I hope everyone who voted for Bush is proud of their vote. We need to really think about how we are going to reconstruct Gulf Coast and do it in way that is suitable to the natural surroundings. They call them barrier islands for a reason. Stop building in dangerous areas and start funding and investing to the most vulnerable among us. Stop giving all the tax breaks to the rich and share with the rest of us. I hope this will lead to positive change.

Jesus Christ…why don’t we blame Bush for everything. I don’t like the guy but people make him a scapegoat for every damn thing. If Kerry were in office, people down in N.O. would be blaming him for everything too. 3 issues with this whole thing:

1) The people still in N.O. were issued a mandatory evacuation that they ignored. 2) The governor of Louisiana waited a couple of days before asking for help from the other states. So, the ignorant mayor of that city can blame his own governor for lack of immediate response. 3) N.O. has had ample time (read decades) to get a disaster recovery plan in place if something catastrophic were to hit the 6-feet below sea-level city and they dragged their feet.

It’s funny how the states want their own rights and the government to stay out but when something bad happens, they blame the government for not getting involved. If you need more proof that my country is the most hypocritical nation in the world, there it is.

And, for the record, I’ll add Kanye West is an ignorant, douche-bag. Why don’t you stir the racism pot a little more.

I empathize with the good people that are suffering down South, and also those that travelled there to help, but there are those who are also selfishly taking advantage of the situation by looting jewelry stores and the gun section at Wal-Mart that I don’t have sympathy for. Yeah, you need that stuff to survive.

Anyway, getting back to my first point, you people need to stop blaming Bush for every damn thing. But, I know you won’t.

If the federal government—which presumably is most able to mobilize a massive relief plan—is not responsible for stepping in when local government is overwhelmed. what the hell was Bush doing waving a bullhorn and flag at the World Trade Center rubble?

Louisiana and N.O. can take its share of blame. But they’ve been begging for help with the levees. To attack them for not doing enough when it is FEMA, Homeland Security, and Bush who bear primary responsibility for failing to act when citizens needed it. The whole point of folding everything into Homeland Security was supposed to make response time quicker and more coordinated. But, like with the war in Iraq, Bush can’t plan his way out of a paper bag. He hires amateurs and ignores or fires the professionals.

If, as some have suggested, the federal government does not have a primary role in dealing with massive disasters, who needs them at all? Why should we even be citizens of this country if all the feds want is our money and blood?

But no. The government is there to represent us and help us with infrastructure and security. Otherwise, I quit. What’s the point of being an American?

Crisis creates oppportunity. Bush was a fool to waste days at fundraisers and playing guitars and so forth. This could have been his great shining moment. But instead he acted like a petulent child until Friday. Now I do not care where you stand politically, the die has been cast. Bush will go down in history as one of our worst Presidents ever. He will suffer the fate LBJ suffered. He will be stuck on that horrible ranch in Crawford, driving his pickup trucks in circles, while the ghosts of Iraq and New Orleans slowly torment him to death. That is his legacy.

The Lousiana Governor sent her request letter for aid to Bush and FEMA on the 28th, -a full day- before the storm hit.

Link: http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf

“The states are responsible and didn’t ask for help” isn’t going to fly as an excuse for the Bush Administration’s incompetence, sorry.

When we elect people who think government can’t do much good, it seems sort of silly to expect them to do much good while they govern.

“1) The people still in N.O. were issued a mandatory evacuation that they ignored.” Are you serious??? Most had no means of leaving!

Our country is being laid bare before an astonished and titillated jury – people all around the world. There are no secrets left. We elected this administration when we should have known better. Bush’s shame is our own and people around the world know it.

In the months and years to come, we will all learn the details of the horrendous governmental failures in New Orleans and the rest of the battered coast. Today, already, we know the worst: President Bush could have picked up the phone and ordered help for those suffering people we all have been watching on our TVs, day and night for DAYS. He could have done something. If such an idea was beyond Mr. Bush’s reach, any of a dozen top aides could have given him a little nudge. “Uh, sorry to interrupt your holiday, Mr. President, but I think it might be a good idea to, uh, hmm, do something?” Instead, the president and his closest, best and brightest advisers chose to believe their own spin, not their lyin’ eyes. “Help is on the way!” they said. There was no outrage, no phone calls, and no commands.

When he finally did emerge from his cocoon (on day 5, after a few jolly fundraisers and a bike ride or two), took a look-see around the shattered land and even shared a few hands-on comforting moments with actual victims, he seemed to wake from his slumber. He convened a meeting and made calls and gave orders and, to all appearances, really seemed to do something.

More repulsive than the president’s personal failure to act when it would have really made a difference; more craven than his policy and budget decisions that effectively cancelled on-going repairs of the failing levees; the worst thing about the president (and his people) is that they really don’t care that much about the horrendous suffering we have all seen. The president and his advisers are not as competent, obviously, as they think they are, but even they are capable of better than this. Maybe if those folks living like animals on the streets were white…and rich … the administration could have understood and done something a lot sooner.

Today I learned that FEMA turned away truckloads of Red Cross supplies that were headed into the city on that first Tuesday. Their reasoning? FEMA believed that, by making things too comfortable for the victims of this disaster, they might stick around and not evacuate as ordered. Too comfortable to evacuate? Were they serious?

The only way to understand the criminal neglect of the suffering people in New Orleans is to see the government’s response through the prism of racism and utter disdain for the plight of the poor in this country. Dissing the poor and ignoring their despair is woven into every policy and institution of this administration. I am enraged.

What about that world jury? They see the U.S.A. as a scary war machine, willing and able to send its military anywhere on earth to promote its perceived interests, but unwilling and apparently unable to help its own people in a disaster. They see George “Bring ‘em on!” Bush as a ridiculous, arrogant cowboy who would have provided eight years of comedy if he had not proven to be so dangerous. If it were not for the innocent victims of Katrina, they would see this catastrophe as more or less our karmic reward for the death and destruction we have caused elsewhere.

What has become of our country? What has become of the respect and affection we used to enjoy throughout the world? What has become of our basic notion of government? What, in God’s name, has happened to us?

Casey :

“What, in God’s name, has happened to us?” you ask ?

In the name of God, who is merciful, and infinitely generous …

Read ! ” As you sow , so shall you reap.”

Harvest is a bit early this year .

For too long, American Christians have been polite and respectful to our own Taliban .

Pagan nonsense like Bible prophesy about the USA and superstition like The Rapture - it’s not Christian, or even religion - it’s political propaganda …

What’s happened is that the country has been taken over by the forces President Eisenhower tried to warn us about .

The military-industrial complex cares about oil - and poor southerners, who are not cannon fodder, are useless eaters .

What do you expect with a president whose right hand man, top aide, he calls “turd blossom” doesn’t give me a warm fuzzy feeling, the man is a putz, inept, incompetent, doofus with shit for brains. What else could have happened?

UNCANNY FEMA PROPHECIES

Prior to 9/11, in an interview with the Houston Chronicle in 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), predictedthat the three most likely disaster scenerios facing the US were..

(a) Terrorist attack on New York (b) San Francisco earthquake (c) Hurricane strike on New Orleans

” The New Orleans scenerio may be the deadliest of all. In the face of an approaching storm, scientists say, the less-than -adequate evacuation routes would strand 250,000 people or more, and probably kill 1 of 10 left behind as the city drowned under 20 ft. (6m) of water. Thousands of refugees could land in Houston. Economically, the toll would be shattering….If an Allison-type storm were to strike New Orleans, or a category 3 storm or greater with at least 111 mph (178 km/h) winds, the results would be cataclysmic, New Orleans planners said.”

                            Houston Chronicle 2000

Message for San Francisco here!

Referring to funds diverted from the budget for rebuilding levees, Walter Meestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana, told the Times-Picayune..

“It appears that the money has been moved in the President’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.”

                                     Times-Picayune

Bush got that right, eh?

And the Louisiana Guardsmen needed to establish martial law in the face of a dire emergency. Where were they? Why, in Iraq of course! Honest, it would bring tears to a glass eye.

Posted by: pudge at September 3, 2005 09:58 AM Oh, and that goes for the levees too. Those are not DC’s responsibility, they are Louisiana’s. Period.

and 9/11 was NY’s responsibility - United we stand - divided we fall. Welcome to Bu$hAmerica.

Will Katrina do anything to dispel the conspiracy theory that we’ve deliberately fucked up in Iraq as part of some GREAT PLAN?

The heartbreak from Katrina (and, we’ve barely seen the extent of the total destruction) reveals once again that we’ve become a country where ideology rules all.

We’re fucked.

“Are you serious??? Most had no means of leaving!”

Yes, I am serious. They had buses to shuttle people out and more often than not no one got on them. Many buses would leave with 10% capacity not knowing where everyone was. People might say they didn’t know where to go. Well, ask someone then. This is pre-hurricane touchdown by the way.

The buses were not used to bus people out of the city. They figured it would take 6 to 8 hours to reach Baton Rouge and then what would they do with them? Baton Rouge was already overflowing. And they could not even take them all, just a few thousand.

So they used a plan that had been used before: take them to shelters like the Superdome to ride out the storm. This is why the mayor of New Orleans was so frustrated. He anticipated (and may even have been promised) that as soon as the storm was past, the evacuation would begin.

And it could have. The Navy ship Bataan followed Katrina and sat offshore immediately. It was well-equipped with helicopters, doctors, medicine, food and water, and lots of sailors to help. But they never got an order from Bush to start.

This is nothing less than criminal neglect by Bush and his incompetent administration.

Pudge—yes the local governments have the ultimate responsibility for the levees, but huge projects that New Orleans needed and were authorized under Clinton are beyond local budgets and so the federal government provides funds. Happens all the time. Take a good, hard look at the just passed Transportation bill. And I’ll bet those expensive, frivolous bridges in Alaska will get built even though the funds for New Orleans levees got cut.

On first responders. The biggest problem is that the local and state governments have been left high and dry by the feds. Higher standards are passed by Homeland Security, but they provide no funds to accomplish the requirements or even to keep it up to the old standards. Alot like No Child Left Behind. Maybe a good idea, but school districts cannot afford to implement it on their own.

http://www.nydailynews.com/front/story/344065p-293598c.html

History lesson, Pudge. When a great flood happened in the midwest in the early 1900s, killing hundreds of people, (which led to the election of Herbert Hoover, because he did a great job coordinating the relief) the federal government decided, under pressure from the populace, that it was its job to take care of flood control and levees so such a disaster wouldn’t happen again. And where the hell is a poor state and poor city supposed to get the billions of dollars to support the levee? And by the way, the port of New Orleans is the largest port in the country, supports the export of midwestern farmers’ grain and a good chunk of the oil this country refines. So you can’t argue that ONLY La. and NO benefit from the levees. The whole country does. Ye gods, what idiots.

I live in Baton Rouge and my son lives in New Orleans, so I think I am qualified to speak up here. Kelso’s response is absolutely accurate. Those of us who are natives of La. have known all our lives that this catastrophe would happen … not if, but when. We’ve begged the feds for ages for funds to restore our vanishing coastline (barrier islands protect the coastal areas from hurricanes). Finally, in 1998 (yes, during the CLINTON administration), the State of Louisiana and its Federal partners approved a coastal restoration plan entitled Coast 2050: Toward a Sustainable Coastal Louisiana. That plan presented strategies jointly developed by federal, state, and local interests to address Louisiana’s massive coastal land loss problem.

For the first time, solutions were proposed to address fundamental ecosystem needs in order to prevent the loss of this natural treasure. By implementing the plan’s regional strategies, it was envisioned that a sustainable ecosystem would be restored in coastal Louisiana, in large part by using the same natural forces that initially built the landscape. Here’s a link to the plan: http://www.coast2050.gov

The Bush administration, in its infinite wisdom, cut the funding for the levee projects each year during the last 3 years. The head of the US Army Corps of Engineers protested and lost his job. (Please note the name of the group in charge of the levees: US ARMY CORPS OF ENGINEERS … that’s NOT a state agency!)

And let’s not forget that Bush doesn’t believe in global warming, which indeed has had an impact on the number and strength of tropical storms and hurricanes.

Bush said no one anticipated a breach of the levees in New Orleans. Really? Apparently he’s the only person who had no idea this could happen. Newspapers in La. printed articles on Sunday, Aug. 28th predicting that levees could break when Katrina hit. When Hurricane Betsy hit N.O. in 1965, one of the levees broke, flooded the Lower 9th Ward and a lot of people died then, so there’s a fairly recent historical precident.

Gov. Blanco declared a state of emergency on Friday, Aug. 26, then sent the president a letter asking for federal relief on Sunday, Aug. 28. The hurricane hit on Monday, Aug. 29th. The right-wingers are absolutely lying when they say she didn’t ask for federal aid until 2 days after the storm hit.

For a variety of reasons some people will never evacuate, no matter how many times they are warned. For proof, don’t just look at New Orleans; look at other areas. I don’t see any mass exodus from Los Angeles or San Francisco, despite the warnings that a huge earthquake could destroy both cities and even most of the state of California. Miami still has a booming population, and it gets hit with hurricanes more often than we do.

New Orleans is one of the oldest cities in the US and historically has been a rich mix of African-American, Creole and Ango populations (despite the images depicted by Hollywood movies, Cajuns live in a different part of the state). The poorest of the nation’s poor reside in urban New Orleans. Many of them had no means whatsoever to escape the pending storm; many didn’t even realize they should try to get out of harm’s way. See what Anne Rice had to say about this segment of the population: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/04/opinion/04rice.html?ei=5090&en=ce2f33f8719

Just because they were too naive or stubborn to leave doesn’t mean they should have been abandoned to die in their own waste. When we discover someone who has kept animals in such filthy conditions, we prosecute them. We should do the same with the federal officials who ignored these people’s pleas for help. Send them all to jail (and let them do without water, food or toilets for at least 5 days).

It’s time for the Republicans and other hate-mongers to stop spewing lies and rely on real facts to support their positions. Oh, wait … there aren’t any.

Soldier on fellow Progressives. The truth shall set us free.

What I cannot understand is a President who DOESN’T want to take charge, be involved, make it better. I mean, on Sundy the 28th it looked like this would be the biggest natural disaster to ever hit this country. The Weather Service said a Category 5 hurricane would be the equivalent of a Force 4 tornado twenty miles wide.

Can you imagine Dwight Eisenhower, or any Democratic President from the past 70 years, not getting involved? People talk like Carter was a wuss, but he went to the control room of TMI while they still thought the containment vessel was going to blow.

It also amazes me that Mike Brown of FEMA didn’t know the levee had failed 36 hours after the Corps knew, and Chertoff of DHS didn’t know there were people in the Superdome even on Thursday. Can’t these guys even find a secretary or someone to clue them in to what’s happening?

Now I’ve heard that they’re going to keep the EPA out of the post-disaster assessment and keep the media and local coroners away from the body collection. This is all starting to look like the part of a science fiction movie where the feds cover up everything and tell the public a different story from what actually happened.

I think a lot of us are in shock at the extent to which a cover-up has been tried already. It didn’t work while the reporters were there to tell the truth, but what happens if they’re kept out?

We may need Chris back here more than we need him in Iraq right now.

Kate, there is little to no warning for earthquakes. People are supposed to evacuate LA and SF out of paranoia? Yeah, Miami gets hit hard by hurricanes, but they must have a better plan of action in situations relating to this because you never hear much about problems post-touchdown with them. Obviously they haven’t been hit as hard as N’awlins but still. There were a number of days worth of warning for Katrina. If I were living down there and saw a cat 5 hurricane on a direct path, I’d find a way to get my ass out of dodge. By plane, train, or automobile, I’d find a way.

Thing is, I just love how people blame the current fed administration for this. DECADES have passed and no one has done anything to prepare for something like this down south. Clinton threw some money their way? Surprising, but fine. Bush cut some funding? Not so good. Well, they’re doing something about it now and changes will be made going forward.

“Republicans and other hate-mongers,” huh? Real nice. I wonder how much hatred would be spewed if this had happened in 1995.

Canadian news has had stories about tourists stranded in New Orleans. The stories are different from the “refused to evacuate” theory. Young and old, speaking French and English, the stories all begin the same way.

” We went to New Orleans for a short vacation. When we heard about the hurricane, the airport was closed, there were no vehicles to rent, no buses or trains, so our hotel said to stay upstairs. Then they told us to go to the shelter, and kicked us out. After wading through water up to our chests, we got to the Dome or Convention Centre. After a few days, we were evacuated to a highway overpass. We met some nice European tourists there, but it was even worse. Days later, we were taken to an airport, so we bought tickets and flew home. “

Not exactly ” ignored orders” , were they ?

As for first responders, The Canadian Red Cross and the Navy were told to stop and await instructions.

The first responders to St. Bernard Parish have been relieved. Vancouver’s heavy urban rescue team returned home today. At the homecoming press conference, their leader mentioned how they had, uh, “commandeered” any boats they could find, and “looted” a WalMart so the engineers could get motors started.

They have not been watching TV, so when the reporters started asking - What did you say - looting ? You can’t say that, he explained that every time they looted something somewhere, they tried to leave a thank you note !

The Navy sailed from Halifax today. They are carrying the extra tongue depressors that FEMA says are needed .

Hey Chris, sorry I didn’t read any of the comments posted.

A poll released today by CNN said; 38% feel nobody is at fault 68% feel nobody should be fired. and only 13% say it’s George Bushes fault.

Chris, the MSM seems to be failing to sell the public that a catagory 5 hurricane disaster is the fault of the presidemt.

December 7th 1941 Pearl Harbor attack put the blame on the shoulder of the local commander. What did he know and when did he know it????

well, I don’t know if you saw the sattelite pics of all those swamped out school buses in New Orleans parking lots yet, but if you add them up with the unused local public bus motor pools that were also swamped out

you have close to 560 unused “life boats”. Ordering women and children first on board busses could have trimmed ( the unfinished ) death toll. It could have relieved overcrowding pressure off of the “shelters of last resort” say Who was the 1st line of civil defense on scene prior to the disaster ? We all know who was in charge of New Orleans when that storm was sweeping over Florida.

What did he know and when did he know it?

Currently, time,energy and resources are being spent playing the “blame game”. because above all else,at ALL times, what really matters to the politicians is if there is a ( D ) or an ( R ) affiliated with names. btw People will start to die from water related sickness over the next few weeks…..while politicians play this political finger pointing. ..what a waste of life.

I’m doing my part in the aid and relocating of refugees ( on a personal level )

Screw those playing the blame game.The disaster is far from over.

Interesting how people in other parts of the country can armchair quarterback after the fact. There are a few things you don’t know that those of us who are natives know. The urban poor in New Orleans generally don’t have access to private transportation. They rely on the streetcars (which run only on electrical lines within the city of New Orleans) and on the city bus system, which has far too few buses to handle a mandatory evacuation of 100,000 or more people who could not provide for their own means of transportation.

As for school buses … the Orleans Parish schools are very much under funded and are primarily populated by African American students who walk to school or ride the street cars. There are very few school buses available in Orleans Parish. The submerged school buses shown on TV were located in Jefferson Parish.

As for the comment, “If I were living down there and saw a cat 5 hurricane on a direct path, I’d find a way to get my ass out of dodge. By plane, train or automobile, I’d find a way.” Well, I would too, and so would my son and my sister and their friends and acquaintances, all of whom did so. But they all have money, cars, resources and places to go. But not everyone has the means that we have. It’s real easy to say that everyone should have gotten out, but logistically it’s very difficult to evacuate a major city which has a population of about 1.3 million people in the greater metropolitan area. In fact, though, about a million people DID evacuate. About 300,000 were left behind. And realistically, many people won’t leave, no matter what.

Again, take a look at Florida. It gets hit over and over by hurricanes every year. Not everyone leaves. Many lose their lives and property. They don’t get criticized the way the New Orleans citizens were. And think about this: FEMA has responded much more promptly in Florida in the aftermath of hurricanes. Gee, I wonder why? Could it have something to do with the fact that Florida’s governor’s brother just happens to be the President of the United States?

What people who criticize the evacuation efforts in New Orleans seem to overlook is that the major cause of the devastation was not the hurricane; it was the breaching of the levees. And that could have happened without a storm, and without any warning. In fact, it has been hypothesized in the past that a terrorist strike as minimal as dynamiting the levees surrounding New Orleans would have a bigger impact than flying planes into the World Trade Center building. And now you see that it can.

Again, the US Army Corps of Engineers is in charge of the levee system. Their funding has been cut over and over again, and the funds diverted to the war in Iraq. Most of the people in the Super Dome, the Convention Center, the Lower 9th Ward, Bywater, St. Bernard Parish, Jefferson Parish and other areas devastated by the flooding came through Hurricane Katrina just fine. Katrina was NOT the worst case scenario storm, which would have been a Category 5 hurricane hitting New Orleans directly, or hitting just to the west. Katrina was a category 4 when it hit to the east of New Orleans. If the levees hadn’t been breached Monday night and early Tuesday morning, evacuees could have gone on home Tuesday and life would have resumed as normal.

Again, many, many New Orleaneans simply had no ability to leave … no private transportation, insufficient funds to take a bus, train or plane out of there. Many of those people already had difficulty just surviving on a day to day existence before the storm hit. Those who were able to comprehend that they should leave did what they were told, and did what they had done before: they went to the Super Dome and to the New Orleans Convention Center, where they were given hot meals, water and had running toilets until the flooding shut down the water and power after the hurricane had passed through. People who did fine a way out still had problems: hotels were full and gas stations were tapped out. Many could not afford long-term stays in hotels.

By the way, the mayor issued the mandatory evacuation order Sunday morning. The airlines, trains and bus companies stopped all transportation in and out of the city Sunday afternoon. So even people who wanted to leave by those means could not do so.

Take a look at a map of Louisiana and the New Orleans area. You’ll see that N.O. is quite isolated in terms of passable roadways to the northeast and northwest … the only ways in which one can leave in order to escape a storm approaching from the Gulf. And those roadways to the northeast and northwest all go over large expanses of water. It’s not like New York City, where people can walk across a bridge to New Jersey or make their way to surrounding towns or states simply by leaving the immediate heart of the city.

It made sense for New Orleans officials to house evacuees in the Super Dome, which was done for previous hurricanes. In those instances, people stayed a day or two, then went back to their homes.

I do think that both Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco should have made sure that advance preparations for a major disaster like this were better coordinated. But the Governor DID execute the official acts necessary to invoke federal assistance before the storm hit. And the president did declare a state of emergency in La., Miss., and Alabama on Sunday morning. But he sure didn’t end his month-long vacation and he reacted to the catastrophe only after it became obvious that the entire nation was becoming more and more outraged by the lack of federal efforts despite their promises that “the cavalry is coming.”

The truth is that our federal government has failed us miserably. It has shown the rest of the world, particularly terrorists, that we are woefully unprepared for a disaster of this magnitude. Installing the college roommate of a political hack as the head of FEMA shows a remarkable lack of concern and an amazing amount of arrogance and ignorance. Meanwhile, Congress is set to take up the administration’s issue of more tax cuts for the wealthy. This is insane.

People who continue to support President Bush need a reality check. I campaigned for LBJ in 1964. By 1967, I hated him with a passion because of Viet Nam. Other Democrats like me had the wisdom and ability to admit that we had made a mistake and that it was time for him to go. Fortunately for us, he decided not to seek reelection. And fortunately for the country, he didn’t have a brother waiting in the wings to succeed him. We need to realize now that the Bush dynasty has done nothing for this country and in fact, has set much of it on a path to destruction. Those who think Jeb should be the next president need to take a look at the messes his father and brother made … huge deficits, wars to protect oil interests, lack of concern and compassion for the poor and minorities, disregard for women’s rights and the environment, enhanced patronage and largesse for their rich friends, and much more. Absolutely disgraceful.

It is very sad to see so many people trying to blame a “natural disaster” on the President and then to have fools like Jesse Jackson say it’s a racial thing. I guess Bush made sure the hurricane went through the poorest state in the nation, which for over 60 years has been run by Democrats, in order to get rid of as many minorities as possible. If anyone is to be blamed here, it is the mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of LA for failing to do their job before the hurricane hit. Of course, the fact that these incompetent fools are Democrats, they get a pass from the media and everyone else. Was the Govt. response slow after the damage had been done? I think so. Were some lives lost as a result? I believe so. But THOUSANDS more lives probably drowned as the hurricane went through. The Mayor of NO and the Governor of LA are 100%responsible for these deaths.

Jerry … get your facts straight. Governor Blanco is a Democrat. Her predecessor, Mike Foster, who served eight years, was a Republican. Before him, within those 60 years you reference, we also had Republicans Buddy Roemer and Dave Treen.

Even if racism had nothing to do with the slow response by the federal government, it APPEARED that way to those who observed the situation. It’s really hard to understand such an abysmally slow response otherwise.

And you’re wrong about thousands drowning as the hurricane went through. They drowned when water quickly filled their homes and cars when the levees broke.

Apologists tend to use diversionary fallacies to make escuses for the inexcusable. Of course, Jerry, no one is blaming Bush for the hurricane—so what exactly is your point? The issue is the RESPONSE to the hurricane. If you are going to make excuses for Bush, at least stick to the specific charges, specifically the cutting of levee funding, the slow response, the diversion of resources of Iraq.

I would be relieved to see two things happen. First, I’d like to see a real expression of responsibility from the Bush administration. Bush’s treatment of this like it’s a PR disaster rather than a human catastrophe really confirms for the umpteenth time my impression of this imperial presidency. The solipsism of Bush and his administration scares and saddens me.

Second, I’d like to see a real investigation instead of the sham that has already been put together. There is a limit to how long the U.S. can continue to live in the world of make-believe. When political process little more than theatre, little can be done to actually figure out how to move this country forward as oil scarcity and climate change take on increasing importance.

I get a sick feeling that the primary purpose of our national government has become figuring out how to protect the elite on the rocky road ahead.

What I have been hearing from the right over the past week is a policy even more frightening than I previously imagined: The federal government want our money and bodies to engage in war, but when it comes to our safety and welfare, we’re on our own. Are they really that calculating and cynical? Can your local government handle a disaster of the Katrina scale, Jerry? Do you feel safe? Do you feel that your taxes are well spent if the government will stand by and watch you drown?

As soon as it was clear that the feds had bungled this, the main talking point became: “Don’t engage in partisanship.” Thus, any criticism could be batted down as a partisan attack. What is more partisan than treating the lives and deaths of thousands of people as a PR problem? Maybe Republican leadership is so thoroughly engaged in spinmaking that it can’t imagine anyone actually being outraged. To them, our lives are just part of the power game.

How much more? What will it take, America?!

Bush appointed a FEMA director who had been fired from his previous job overseeing horse shows. The federal government CUT (yes, that’s right cut) the budget for levee maintenance and flood control in LA. FEMA was directed to focus on the so called war on “terror” (hmmm, how can one fight abject fear with a war?) and thus it neglected a known natural disaster threat. The weather service, scientists, and even the media had predicted time and time again that the levees would break in a massive hurricane such as Katrina. And the hapless, clueless, former party boy Bush stated that no one could have predicted that the levees would break. What bush-shit.

Finally, college students posing as journalists managed to drive to the Superdome with relief aid, and even evacuate a number of people from the city at a time when FEMA appeared clueless about the scope of the tragedy. That’s right. There was a dry road and vehicular access to the Superdome, yet FEMA left people in there to DIE from lack of food, care, medicine, provisions, and simple human attention. Where was FEMA? Where were the amphibious vehicles? (oh right, in the Iraqi desert.) Where was the national guard? Where were the buses that could have evacuated the people trapped in the Superdome? Where was the leadership?

After impeachment, Bush and company should be made to shovel out the human excrement and waste in the Superdome. Let them sample the squalid conditions that years of Republican downsizing, neglect, complacency, tax cuts, and corporate greed have created.

Bush policies would lead one to believe that the poor are overpaid and the rich are underfunded. This is the result and as people in New Orleans have pointed out, the government is guilty of murder by neglect.

and these are the people bringing security and basic services to the iraqi people? Good luck with that.

Same old talking points: “the war in Iraq kept the Fed. Gov. from responding quickly, the Imperialist Bush Govt. only cares for the rich” (you know the rich, ie John Kerry, Ted Kennedy, etc.) If only for once, the Democrats were brave enough to admit their own racial bias and were willing to look past their personal hatred of Bush, then and only then can we have a true dialogue of the issues and challenges that face this country. This disaster is a prime example. Instead of focusing on the tremendous needs of tens of thousands of people, it only took Jesse Jackson 48 hrs after the hurricane to say that the Bush Adm. was “racist” in their respond. Anybody with half a brain knows this is not true, yet Jackson felt it was more important to divide the nation and harm the President, than it was to bring people together in such a critical moment. Jackson failed to question the Governor of La as to why she DID NOT allow Fema to go into NO with trucks full of water and food for the evacuees in the Superdome and Convention Center immediately after the storm hit. When questioned about this yesterday, the ofiice of the governor said that if feared turning the Superdome into a “magnet” at that time. Is the Governor of LA a “racist” that wanted to see black people suffer? Maybe she is. Jackson did not question the mayor of NO as to why the hundreds of buses lined up near the Convention Center, assigned to take people out of the city before the storm hit, were not used. Does the Mayor of LA, a black man himself, hate other blacks? If we’re going to pull the most favorite card of the Democrats, the race card, then let’s apply it across the board.

Ya know what?

If there was no war in Iraq…. … the funding to each and every individual levee presidents would not have gone up.

The following was the New Orleans Hurricane mentality;

the current levee system was built to survive a CAT 3… what were the odds the NO would even take a “direct hit” from a hurricane, let alone a storm stronger than a CAT 3 ( Levee s were built to withstand CAT 1,2 and 3 )

That as the attitude. btw the city shouldn’t be rebuilt unless they duplicate what Galviston Texas did 100 yrs ago after they were leveled behind their sea walls/barrier island.

Also, Eminent domain; will be argued as the city will have to take away private property….. for the good of the community .

I still say it’s a shame La. didn’t use their civil defense plan for Hurricane pdf file;

http://www.ohsep.louisiana.gov/plans/EOPSupplement1a.pdf

I find it interesting the part about using the public’s school busses as a first resort.

in a nut shell I guess big government isn’t BIG enough to hide behide looking at your states own disaster plan W

Posted by: pudge at September 3, 2005 09:58 AM Oh, and that goes for the levees too. Those are not DC’s responsibility, they are Louisiana’s. Period.

But isn’t funny how the cubans had such a different attitude in 2001 and 2004. Could we actually learn something from one of our neighbors ?

Is it true that Bush’s initial response was to order the Pentagon to hit Katrinastan with a full on air strike?

Limey:

According to reliable sources at the Democratic National Headquarters, Bush’s intention all along was what happened. Bush and the corporate heads at Halliburton got together and created this hurricane. The idea was to wipe out all of the poor black people and the handful of white, rich Democrats from New Orleans. This way Bush vould keep all the oil for himself and New Orleans would become a huge swimming pool for the employees at Haliburton.

Jerry

Those Democrats! What the hell do they know? Lemme give it to you straight. Our guy, infiltrated deep in the GOP headquarters, tells us that Bush thought N’ Awlins was actually in Cuba! In a conversation with the Lord, Dubya requested a big hit on the Big Easy and the rest is history.

Who will carry the can for this geographically challenged president? Well, observing the obfuscation and tap dancing White House staff, I’m reminded of the old Politics 101 adage…..

       Money flows uphill.
       Shit flows down!

Listen folks - I live in New Orleans and so all of you folks sitting in your dry homes pointing fingers and sprouting off your usual political diatribes can stuff it.

The blame for this mess can be passed around. First - the mayor of the city was absent for three days before he started having his public breakdowns where he railed against everyone but himself.

Second - Gov. Blanco was offered two Federal solutions but told Bush she needed 24 hours to think it over. Why would that be? Because she didn’t’t want to cede power to the feds.

Third - Bush and FEMA waited far too long to become aggressive and force action.

And let’s not forget to blame the city of NO. Having evacuated three times in the past four years, many of of the city figured this would be another phantom storm or that it would be a bit of a problem but not the catastrophe that it proved to be.

And - race??? New Orleans is 70% black and has had a predominately black democratic government for the past 20 years. So why not blame them for not taking care of their own city? No - it’s better to blame the rest of us who heeded the calls to leave…who pay the taxes that pay for the services…that paid to build the dome that was trashed by the thugs who housed there.

Yeah - blame Bush, Blame America - show ####### Cuba as an example of a place that gets it right.

My home was in that destroyed city so my opinion counts for a hell of lot more. Those of us who lived there aren’t blaming anyone - we’re thanking the good folks who have opened their hearts to us. We’re dealing with the problem and we’re ignoring the opportunistic ######## like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton and Nancy Pelosi and Hillary Clinton who haven’t visited or thought about New Orleans until it suited their current political agenda.

I’m sure we’ll soon have a photo op with Hillary saying she’s always been a New Orleans Saints fan too…but she’ll probably have to do it from San Antonio since our useless team owner is salivating at the opportunity to leave town.

New Orleans is angry at looters, thugs, self-righteous posturing politicians, opportunistic liberals, hell and brimstone conservatives and everyone that takes a tragedy and wraps it around their agenda.

We love and respect the US Army, Air Force and National Guard that tirelessly defend and rescue the city. We admire the leaders that speak the plain truth like David Vitter. And we appreciate the people of Baton Rouge, Houston and the rest of the country who care.

You all are all stupid for staying in new orleans and it flooding

Do “conservative” Americans love their country enough to pay taxes?

Firefighter to Replace Brown As FEMA Chief

“R. David Paulison, head of FEMA’s emergency preparedness force, will lead the beleaguered agency, according to three administration sources who spoke on condition of anonymity because the announcement had not yet been made.”

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050912/apongoot/katrinabrown12;ylt=Apb0MFRRJZYuyQ.xmTqFhSVqP0AC;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

Duct tape sales rise amid terror Fears

On Tuesday, less than 24 hours after U.S. Fire Administrator David Paulison described a list of useful items, stores in the greater Washington, D.C. area reported a surge in sales of plastic sheeting, duct tape, and other emergency items.

These items, Paulison said, can be helpful after a biological, chemical or radiological attack.”

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/02/11/emergency.supplies/index.html

At the end of the day, whether this is a (D) or (R) failure, whether it lays on the shoulders of the mayor, govenor or the cabinet or in the incapable hands of the former FEMA director (what color horse did he ride?), this is an American failure. Yes we need to fix this so we do not have future reccurences. Yes we need to have a plan for all types of disasters (imagine the 7 point something that hit in Pakistan here in the L.A area?) Everyone needs to share in the responsibility here on this one. Ask yourself: Am I prepared for the worst? Do I have any water, food or escape plans. Have I voted? Have I stood up for the rights of all americans and not just my own? Have I sold my soul just so I can put gas in my Hummer? Have I subscribed to the game theory? Do you feel good about knowing “the worse off they are, the better off I am?” Did you buy into the great american lie?