Blanco staff records sent
Papers sent to Congress show governor's outburst questioned
By MICHELLE MILLHOLLON
Baton Rouge Advocate
Capitol news bureau
Just days after Hurricane Katrina pummeled Louisiana, there was concern within Gov. Kathleen Blanco's administration that she was succumbing to fits of anger instead of looking like a leader.
"She must temper her anger and frustration," the governor's assistant chief of staff, Johnny Anderson, lamented in an e-mail to other administration officials on Sept. 2 after Blanco stormed out of a news conference.
"Ten four. Right on," responded Andy Kopplin, who was the governor's chief of staff at the time.
The e-mail is included in 100,000 pages of documents that the Blanco administration delivered to Congress Friday.
Two congressional committees are investigating the slow response that left thousands stranded in the New Orleans area for days after Hurricane Katrina stormed ashore on Aug. 29.
Blanco gave news reporters Internet access to the records about 5 p.m. Friday. A reading room is being set up for the public to look at the documents.
The Advocate will continue reviewing the files today.
Some of the documents are mundane, such as weather reports, hurricane preparedness plans and a roster of state officials.
Other records offer a window into the behind-the-scenes activity of the Blanco administration before and after the hurricane.
The days leading up to the storm were full of frenetic preparation. Once the hurricane hit, the mood became frantic as reports of human suffering poured in.
The governor scrapped plans to attend a conference in Georgia the weekend of the storm. Some of her staff had traveled ahead of her and watched the weather unfold from afar.
State officials were busy as Katrina intensified into a major threat.
Two days before the hurricane, the Department of Corrections hurriedly moved inmates out of the storm's path. That same day, Commissioner of Administration Jerry Luke LeBlanc noted there already was a gasoline shortage in some areas.
In a light moment, LeBlanc messaged Kopplin, "so much for the weekend."
The situation quickly turned serious.
The hurricane made landfall at dawn on Monday, Aug. 29, flooding Orleans, St. Bernard and Plaquemines parishes.
The day before, Deputy Commissioner of Administration Jean Vandal emailed LeBlanc about Charity Hospital in New Orleans.
"I almost hate to ask but have we removed most or all of the people from big Charity?" Vandal asked.
It's not apparent whether LeBlanc responded. However, the hospital wasn't emptied before the storm. The generator failed when the flood waters rose, leaving thousands of patients, medical staff and relatives in the darkened hospital for days. Some died before help arrived.
The documents show how desperate telephone calls and other pleas for help poured into Blanco's office.
By 9:06 a.m. Monday, Kopplin was reporting a 50-foot gash in the roof of the Superdome, where thousands sought shelter.
"Of course, there are still several hours of hurricane force winds ahead of them," Kopplin wrote in an e-mail.
One fax message the day of the hurricane read: "Governor Blanco. My husband, Chaplain Joseph Teno Jr., is still in the house located 2032 Tennessee St. He is upstairs in a camel back house needs rescue. He is in need of dialysis treatment. When found please call one of these numbers."
Four telephone numbers and names were listed at the bottom of the fax message.
The governor's legislative liaison, Rochelle Michaud Dugas, reported hearing from Rep. Nita Hutter, who was trapped on the second floor of a Chalmette office building. Flood waters prevented her from leaving.
"(She's) in a panic!!!" Dugas e-mailed other administration officials the day of the storm. "She says NOT 1 house has been spared and that food, help, supplies are needed asap. Can someone call & give her some timeline/something!!!! Thanks."
That same Monday, the Governor's Office got a call from Nashville from the manager of famed singer Fats Domino.
"Fats was in 9th Ward and (manager) Al hasn't heard from him," Blanco speechwriter Chris Frink said in recounting the conversation. Domino was later found safe.
Barely a week after the hurricane, top officials of the Blanco administration were concerned about how the governor's response was viewed. Kopplin said in one message that national surrogates needed to promote the view that the federal response to the hurricane was "anemic."
Keying off a comment by Dugas, Communications Director Bob Mann suggested Blanco brief the New Orleans legislative delegation.
"Rochelle says they see (word deleted) she had time to do a press briefing with Jesse Jackson but no time to meet with them," he wrote. "They have a point."
Blanco submitted a 15-page narrative outlining her actions before and after Katrina as she responded to the congressional committees request for documents and answered questions the lawmakers posed.
The chronology repeats her complaints about the "lack of significant federal resources to supplement state efforts."
The e-mails include cutting comments by Blanco aides about other officials.
Some of the governor's staff expressed amazement how little they had seen U.S. Rep. William Jefferson on television during the hurricane crisis.
Jefferson, however, wanted to visit New Orleans to meet with his two brothers on Friday, Sept. 2.
Executive Counsel Terry Ryder responded that he would "see that it gets considered -- but we have been limiting such to elected officials and emergency responders."
It's clear from the e-mails that there's little love among the governor's staff for Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard, who's publicly carped at Blanco.
Roderick Hawkins, the governor's deputy press secretary, told another administration official that Blanco was calm and cool during a joint news conference with Broussard two days before the hurricane.
Broussard "(expletive) it all up," he wrote.
Mann also was blunt.
Asked how Broussard was doing in the hours leading up to the hurricane, he wrote that Broussard was probably "soiling himself."
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