FEMA should try to get into an area as fast as practical. But the bitching about Katrina is just the usual bashing unless someone can explain specifically what FEMA did or didn't do that should have been done.
You need to ask that question again after the reassignment of Brown away from the Gulf? You know damn well that FEMA screwed up. Stop playing games.
Frankly, you would stop asking if you went to the First Responder page on the FEMA website. It explains how to develop a response plan during disasters. FEMA all but holds the local offices hands as they fill out their plan for disaster recovery based on guidelines from FEMA. Everything is directed from the federal level.....the local level simply fills in the blanks. That's true with almost every federal agency. Why does it work that way? There is a carrot. The feds have a lot more money to carry out local plans that the local level does.
But let's go through the nonsense written up by the good major in his article.
"We coordinate all city departments and allied state and federal agencies which respond to citywide disasters and emergencies through the development and constant updating of an integrated multi-hazard plan. All requests for federal disaster assistance and federal funding subsequent to disaster declarations are also made through this office. Our authority is defined by the Louisiana Emergency Assistance and Disaster Act of 1993, Chapter 6 Section 709, Paragraph B, 'Each parish shall maintain a Disaster Agency which, except as otherwise provided under this act, has jurisdiction over and serves the entire parish.' "
Of course, its written up this way. We are a republic. The states have a certain level of autonomy that must be observed. Nonetheless, the state takes its cue from the feds on this issue too[see the First Responder page on the FEMA website].
Check the plan -- the "we" in this case is the office of the mayor, Ray Nagin who was very quick and vocal about blaming everyone but his own office.
The guy is brilliant.....who new that Nagin had a role in all of this.
A telling picture, at left, taken by The Associated Press on Sept. 1 and widely circulated on the Internet shows a school bus park, apparently filled to capacity with buses, under about four feet of water. If a mandatory evacuation was ordered, why weren't all the taxpayer-purchased buses used in the effort?
You righties love this one.......I will always hate the photographer who took the picture because of the ridiculous questions it allows the Bushies to raise.
Tell me.....let's say Nagin could get every one on the bus.....highly unlikely given the penchant of people living in hurricane alley to want to stay in their homes during a hurricane. But say that he could........where would would he have taken them? Where would he have taken 100-200K New Orleanians without the help of the feds? Every shelter was full up in the rest of LA by people in other parts of the state taking shelter. Please tell me what would he have done with all those people? They can't afford hotels and I doubt that NO could either. Answer the question.
Who could have predicted the anarchy resulting as a consequence? The individuals who devolved into lawless animals embarrass the entirety of America. (I worked in a U.S. Embassy overseas for a couple years and I can imagine what foreign diplomats are thinking.) What societal factors would ever lead people to believe that this behavior was even remotely acceptable?
Clearly, the good major has never been dirt poor.....of course, he can't possibly understand. If not bigots, neocons are definitely elitist.
The folks in New Orleans who are perpetrating the violence and lawlessness are not that way because of low income or of race, but because they personally do not have any honor or commitment to higher ideals. The civil-rights leaders should be ashamed at playing the blame game.
Oh horse puckey. You people don't have a clue. Of course they don't aspire to higher ideals. Why would they?
The blame is on the individuals. The blame is on the society that allowed these individuals to develop the ideal that the individual is greater than the national pride he is destroying. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice was very clear in her comments that she was offended at those who suggested the suffering in New Orleans was prolonged because of race.
This society is to blame because of its past racism and because of its emphasis on pure capitalism. People are shaped by their society. Why are we different from Canadians if though we have similar roots? Racism and strident capitalism have done a number on the poor. But you don't want to hear this because you're afraid you might have to share.......and you hate sharing.
As a retired Marine, I hang my head in shame to see my fellow Americans degenerate so far. I spent so many years in the Corps helping the citizens of other countries rise to a higher level of personal responsibility to ensure that in case of emergency, anarchy did not necessarily follow. When people are held to a higher standard of personal responsibility and they accept that, then they will do the right thing when the time comes.
I hang my head knowing this guy served in the military. All I feel is shame reading his words.
It seems that the mayor of New Orleans is leading the effort in not taking responsibility for his actions. The emergency managers for the state of Louisiana do not have much to say either. The failure in the first 48 hours to provide direction for survivors is theirs to live with. When FEMA was able to take over, it started out behind and had to develop its plan on the fly. Now the federal government has established priorities -- rescue the stranded, evacuate the city, flow in resources and fix the levee. It appears that now there is a plan and it is being systematically executed.
Nonsense. The mayor had no resources and so he had no choice but to ask for help.....that should have been there and was not.
Hurricane Katrina was a national tragedy -- not just in the number of lives lost or the amount of physical damage, but also in the failure of people to do what is right when no one is looking.
Dude, I have news for you. FEMA is still screwing up. People were supposed to get $2K to help them through. Very few have seen anything. There is confusion around the evacuation from NO. How its to be handled. There is no clarity. The problems continue.......this is one very screwed up agency. And they are supposed to help us if a terrorist strikes an American city??? I don't think so.
This all leads back to Bush. Its his hand that has removed the capable professionals from FEMA and replaced them with hacks. What do you say to that? I'm waiting for your answer. |
