This from a friend from New Orleans.
On Friday night before the storm hit, Max Mayfield of
the National Hurricane Center took the unprecedented
action of calling Nagin and Blanco personally to plead
with them to begin MANDATORY evacuation of NO and they said they'd take it under consideration. This was after the NOAA buoy 240 miles south had recorded 68' waves before it was destroyed.
President Bush spent Friday afternoon and evening in
meetings with his advisors and administrators drafting
all of the paperwork required for a state to request
federal assistance (and not be in violation of the Posse
Comitatus Act or having to enact the Insurgency Act).
Just before midnight Friday evening the President
called Governor Blanco and pleaded with her to sign
the request papers so the federal government and the
military could legally begin mobilization and call up.
He was told that they didn't think it necessary for
the federal government to be involved yet.
After the President's final call to the governor she
held meetings with her staff to discuss the political
ramifications of bringing federal forces. It was
decided that if they allowed federal assistance it
would make it look as if they had failed so it was
agreed upon that the feds would not be invited in.
Saturday before the storm hit, President Bush again
called Blanco and Nagin requesting they please sign
the papers requesting federal assistance, that they
declare the state an emergency area, and begin
mandatory evacuation.
After a personal plea from the President, Nagin agreed
to order an evacuation, but it would not be a full
mandatory evacuation, and the Governor still refused
to sign the papers requesting and authorizing federal
action. In frustration the President declared the area
a national disaster area before the state of Louisiana
did so he could legally begin some advanced preparations.
Rumor has it that the President's legal advisers were
looking into the ramifications of using the Insurgency
Act to bypass the Constitutional requirement that a
state request federal aid before the federal government
can move into state with troops - but that had not been
done since 1906 and the Constitutionality of it was called
into question to use before the disaster.
Throw in the fact that over half the federal aid of the past
decade to NO for levee construction, maintenance, and
repair was diverted to fund a marina and support the
gambling ships. Toss in the investigation that will
look into why the emergency preparedness plan
submitted to the federal government for funding and
published on the city's website was never implemented
and in fact may have been bogus for the purpose of
gaining additional federal funding as we now learn
that the organizations identified in the plan were
never contacted or coordinating into any planning -
though the document implies that they were.
The suffering people of NO need to be asking some hard
questions as do we all, but they better start with why
Blanco refused to even sign the multi-state mutual aid pack activation documents until Wednesday which further delayed the legal deployment of National Guard from adjoining states. Or maybe ask why Nagin keeps harping that the President should have commandeered 500 Greyhound buses to help him when according to his own emergency plan and documents he claimed to have over 500 busses at his disposal to use between the local school buses and the city transportation buses - but he never raised a finger to prepare them or activate them.
This is a sad time for all of us to see that a major
city has all but been destroyed and thousands of
people have died with hundreds of thousands more
suffering, but it's certainly not a time for people to
be pointing fingers and trying to find a bigger dog to
blame for local corruption and incompetence. Pray to
God for the survivors that they can start their lives
anew as fast as possible and we learn from all the
mistakes to avoid them in the future. |
