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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices
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To: i-node who wrote (248982)9/3/2005 1:12:05 PM
From: combjelly  Read Replies (1) of 1571939
 
"FEMA and the federal government have done everything they could possibly do."

Bullshit. We were dropping food and water on Banda Aceh less than two days after the tidal wave. Are you saying the devastation was less, or it was easier to get there? If you believe that, well, what can I say?

The disaster plan which you so rightly criticize, was contracted out to a private firm with strong Homeland Security ties and approved by FEMA. When it proved to be so glaringly inadequate, they did what they could by using things like the Superdome and the convention center. It could, and should have been handled better. But it is hard to get all the details right when in a crisis.

And it is bullshit that there wasn't any need for FEMA to do anything until the levees breached. A Cat. 5 hurricane was heading for the Third Coast. While there was some uncertainty as to exactly where it was going in, it was pretty certain it wasn't going to turn around and quietly leave or just evaporate. It takes an utter moron to not realize that there was going to be a crisis regardless of where it went in. Which is why, in the past, aid was mobilized before the hurricane went in. They've been doing that for decades, except for this time. Louisiana even filed an official request for aid on the 28th.

gov.louisiana.gov

The job of FEMA is to plan for disasters, pre-position for the predictable ones and coordinate efforts on a regional or national level. They failed on all of these. FEMA was given authority when Bush declared a disaster area. That is part of the reason for that declaration, and why they are regularly declared before a hurricane makes landfall. The failure isn't about the breaching of the levees, although it should have been at least considered as a possibility. The failure has to do with preparing to deal with a major hurricane. Why was it assumed it wasn't going to do significant damage?
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