I am so Angry

[less0305]

He said/she said.....it's an age old problem.

 

[Dara]

A lack of action is why people are being blamed. The decision makers knew this was going to be a bad one. They knew way ahead of time. That was the time for action. That was the time to have a plan. The National Guard should have been standing by ready for action....a supply of food and water should have been set up somewhere ready to be handed out or dropped down so people wouldn't have had to go without for nearly 5 days..

Sunday Michael Brown told Tom Foreman (as he said on CNN) that they had done exactly that. He was very proud of the supplies (and possibly personnel) that were brought into areas near the affected areas before Katrina came through. He called it an "arc of relief."

Makes it more puzzling that no help was forthcoming and that so many people died from dehydration and other avoidable situations.

 

[tybee204]

A Partial Meet the Press Transcript from this morning. There is also an interview with Chernoff and others but this is the segmant with Mr Broussard, President of Jefferson Perish. Its heartbreaking.


MR. RUSSERT: And we are back.

Jefferson Parish President Broussard, let me start with you. You just heard the director of Homeland Security's explanation of what has happened this last week. What is your reaction?

MR. AARON BROUSSARD: We have been abandoned by our own country. Hurricane Katrina will go down in history as one of the worst storms ever to hit an American coast, but the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will go down as one of the worst abandonments of Americans on American soil ever in U.S. history. I am personally asking our bipartisan congressional delegation here in Louisiana to immediately begin congressional hearings to find out just what happened here. Why did it happen? Who needs to be fired? And believe me, they need to be fired right away, because we still have weeks to go in this tragedy. We have months to go. We have years to go. And whoever is at the top of this totem pole, that totem pole needs to be chain-sawed off and we've got to start with some new leadership.

It's not just Katrina that caused all these deaths in New Orleans here. Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area, and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now. It's so obvious. FEMA needs more congressional funding. It needs more presidential support. It needs to be a Cabinet-level director. It needs to be an independent agency that will be able to fulfill its mission to work in partnership with state and local governments around America. FEMA needs to be empowered to do the things it was created to do. It needs to come somewhere, like New Orleans, with all of its force immediately, without red tape, without bureaucracy, act immediately with common sense and leadership, and save lives. Forget about the property. We can rebuild the property. It's got to be able to come in and save lives.

We need strong leadership at the top of America right now in order to accomplish this and to-- reconstructing FEMA.
MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Broussard, let me ask--I want to ask--should...

MR. BROUSSARD: You know, just some quick examples...

MR. RUSSERT: Hold on. Hold on, sir. Shouldn't the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of New Orleans bear some responsibility? Couldn't they have been much more forceful, much more effective and much more organized in evacuating the area?

MR. BROUSSARD: Sir, they were told like me, every single day, "The cavalry's coming," on a federal level, "The cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming." I have just begun to hear the hoofs of the cavalry. The cavalry's still not here yet, but I've begun to hear the hoofs, and we're almost a week out.

Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, "Come get the fuel right away." When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. "FEMA says don't give you the fuel." Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, "No one is getting near these lines." Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America--American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn't be in this crisis.

But I want to thank Governor Blanco for all she's done and all her leadership. She sent in the National Guard. I just repaired a breach on my side of the 17th Street canal that the secretary didn't foresee, a 300-foot breach. I just completed it yesterday with convoys of National Guard and local parish workers and levee board people. It took us two and a half days working 24/7. I just closed it.

MR. RUSSERT: All right.

MR. BROUSSARD: I'm telling you most importantly I want to thank my public employees...

MR. RUSSERT: All right.

MR. BROUSSARD: ...that have worked 24/7. They're burned out, the doctors, the nurses. And I want to give you one last story and I'll shut up and let you tell me whatever you want to tell me. The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night.

MR. RUSSERT: Mr. President...

MR. BROUSSARD: Nobody's coming to get us. Nobody's coming to get us. The secretary has promised. Everybody's promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For God sakes, shut up and send us somebody.

MR. RUSSERT: Just take a pause, Mr. President. While you gather yourself in your very emotional times, I understand, let me go to Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9179790/[/quote]

 

[BirdieBoo]

Sunday Michael Brown told Tom Foreman (as he said on CNN) that they had done exactly that. He was very proud of the supplies (and possibly personnel) that were brought into areas near the affected areas before Katrina came through. He called it an "arc of relief."

Makes it more puzzling that no help was forthcoming and that so many people died from dehydration and other avoidable situations.

Possibly the guy who forgot to pass out the water bottles will be blamed.

 

[concernedperson]

Tybee,

I didn't want to quote your whole post about Aaron Broussard but I just saw a clip of it on CNN.What the article didn't say was that he was crying uncontrollably. This is one of the most heartbreaking things I have ever seen.
People living this horror in the most uncomprehensible way.Just breaks my heart.

 

[Cypros]

MR. BROUSSARD: ...that have worked 24/7. They're burned out, the doctors, the nurses. And I want to give you one last story and I'll shut up and let you tell me whatever you want to tell me. The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night.

I was watching Meet the Press this morning and saw Mr. Broussard's interview. This man began to sob and could barely speak the words but he completed the story before they cut to someone else. I was sobbing along with him. How could a helpless elderly woman have been allowed to sit in flooded conditions for FOUR DAYS (!!!!!) with no help. People knew she was there. How many others died in that nursing home?

Unfreakin believable!

 

[dakini]

I was watching Meet the Press this morning and saw Mr. Broussard's interview. This man began to sob and could barely speak the words but he completed the story before they cut to someone else. I was sobbing along with him. How could helpless elderly women have been allowed to sit in flooded conditions for FOUR DAYS (!!!!!) with no help. People knew she was there. How many others died in that nursing home?

Unfreakin believable!

This is heartbreaking. It's like a nightmare or a bad Stephen King horror novel. It will take a long time for people to heal over this.

 

[Dara]

I just came inside and caught Broussard's interview. I was crying with him, too. And then, not long after I heard the clip of him saying "They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For God sakes, shut up and send us somebody" I watched another press conference. Michael Brown said he asked for troops as soon as they were needed. Except he couldn't have asked as soon as they were needed because he didn't know they were needed. As of Thursday afternoon, he didn't know there were people at the convention center, he didn't seem to know about hospital evacuations (which we know didn't happen) and he hadn't heard any reports of "unrest."

What a load of CYA bull.

 

[BirdieBoo]

This is heartbreaking. It's like a nightmare or a bad Stephen King horror novel. It will take a long time for people to heal over this.

I don't think people have really gotten their minds around the fact that one of America's largest and oldest cities has been basically completely destroyed.
Along with the death toll that goes with something like that.

The magnitude and scope of this is really very difficult to comprehend, and we are just seeing the beginning of what it will do to our nation as a whole, both the good of people and the bad.

 

[tybee204]

Tybee,

I didn't want to quote your whole post about Aaron Broussard but I just saw a clip of it on CNN.What the article didn't say was that he was crying uncontrollably. This is one of the most heartbreaking things I have ever seen.
People living this horror in the most uncomprehensible way.Just breaks my heart.

I saw it concerned and had to just walk away for a while. I am so heartbroken and so angry at the same time I just dont know how or have the capabilities to express it. America needs to be angry. America needs answers as as to what went wrong and why. President Bush needs to demand answers and deliver then to the public. What went wrong President Bush??? We want to know!!!

 

[tipper]

For decades America has accepted an increasingly incompetent and elitist government. This is the result. I hope it stirs us to action. As I posted in the PP - I thiink manslaughter charges should be brought against some of these people.

 

[PrayersForMaura]

I was watching Meet the Press this morning and saw Mr. Broussard's interview. This man began to sob and could barely speak the words but he completed the story before they cut to someone else. I was sobbing along with him. How could a helpless elderly woman have been allowed to sit in flooded conditions for FOUR DAYS (!!!!!) with no help. People knew she was there. How many others died in that nursing home?

Unfreakin believable!

this really bothered me as well.
I can't believe no one saved her.
The phones were working?
Are phones working everywhere?

 

[tipper]

MSNBC said some phones are working to call out but not in.

 

[TexMex]

I was watching Meet the Press this morning and saw Mr. Broussard's interview. This man began to sob and could barely speak the words but he completed the story before they cut to someone else. I was sobbing along with him. How could a helpless elderly woman have been allowed to sit in flooded conditions for FOUR DAYS (!!!!!) with no help. People knew she was there. How many others died in that nursing home?

Unfreakin believable!

The state didn't follow it's own plan-

Louisiana disaster plan, pg 13, para 5 , dated 01/00

'The primary means of hurricane evacuation will be personal vehicles. School and municipal buses, government-owned vehicles and vehicles provided by volunteer agencies may be used to provide transportation for individuals who lack transportation and require assistance in evacuating'

 

[tybee204]

http://landrieu.senate.gov/~landrieu/releases/05/2005903E12.html

US Senator Mary L Landrieu

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
09/03/2005

Landrieu Implores President to "Relieve Unmitigated Suffering;" End FEMA's "Abject Failures"

WASHINGTON -- U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La., issued the following statement this afternoon regarding her call yesterday for President Bush to appoint a cabinet-level official to oversee Hurricane Katrina relief and recovery efforts within 24 hours.

Sen. Landrieu said:

"Yesterday, I was hoping President Bush would come away from his tour of the regional devastation triggered by Hurricane Katrina with a new understanding for the magnitude of the suffering and for the abject failures of the current Federal Emergency Management Agency. 24 hours later, the President has yet to answer my call for a cabinet-level official to lead our efforts. Meanwhile, FEMA, now a shell of what it once was, continues to be overwhelmed by the task at hand.

"I understand that the U.S. Forest Service had water-tanker aircraft available to help douse the fires raging on our riverfront, but FEMA has yet to accept the aid. When Amtrak offered trains to evacuate significant numbers of victims -- far more efficiently than buses -- FEMA again dragged its feet. Offers of medicine, communications equipment and other desperately needed items continue to flow in, only to be ignored by the agency.
"But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast -- black and white, rich and poor, young and old -- deserve far better from their national government.

"Mr. President, I'm imploring you once again to get a cabinet-level official stood up as soon as possible to get this entire operation moving forward regionwide with all the resources -- military and otherwise -- necessary to relieve the unmitigated suffering and economic damage that is unfolding."

Today's aerial tour of the 17th Street levee will be featured tomorrow on ABC's This Week with George Stephanopoulos. Later, Sen. Landrieu will also appear on CBS's 60 Minutes.

 

[Mabel]

US Senator Mary L Landrieu for President!

 

[Dara]

What's interesting is that Landrieu had me tearing my hair out on Tuesday or Wednesday when she was spouting the same useless platitudes and "We're doing fine" rhetoric. Anderson Cooper called her on it bigtime (I saw it).

My point is that she was trying to have faith, she wasn't predisposed to believe the government was failing its citizens or to try to find reasons to complain, and she tried to support the government. Until, it seems, she couldn't any more. I give her credit for that and for trying to help.

 

[Cypros]

"I understand that the U.S. Forest Service had water-tanker aircraft available to help douse the fires raging on our riverfront, but FEMA has yet to accept the aid. When Amtrak offered trains to evacuate significant numbers of victims -- far more efficiently than buses -- FEMA again dragged its feet. Offers of medicine, communications equipment and other desperately needed items continue to flow in, only to be ignored by the agency.

This needs to be fully documented and relayed over and over again for the impeachment hearings.

 

[Dara]

This needs to be fully documented and relayed over and over again for the impeachment hearings.

That comment prompted me to check something out. Wow, there are a lot of groups. Wonder if their membership will increase after this. These meetups were what helped Howard Dean get on the map. He may have self-destructed, but without Meetups, he would have had much less support.

 

[tipper]

This needs to be fully documented and relayed over and over again for the impeachment hearings.

And criminal and civil suits.