I am so Angry

[TexMex]

NEW ORLEANS FLASHBACK: OFFICALS WARNED RESIDENTS 'YOU'LL BE ON YOUR OWN'
Mon Sep 05 2005 18:57:15 ET

Before residents had ever heard the words "Hurricane Katrina," the New Orleans TIMES-PICAYUNE ran a story warning residents: If you stay behind during a big storm, you'll be on your own!

Editors at TIMES-PICAYUNE on Monday called for every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency to be fired. In an open letter to President Bush, the paper said: "Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame."

But the TIMES-PICAYUNE published a story on July 24, 2005 stating: City, state and federal emergency officials are preparing to give a historically blunt message: "In the event of a major hurricane, you're on your own."

Staff writer Bruce Nolan reported some 7 weeks before Katrina: "In scripted appearances being recorded now, officials such as Mayor Ray Nagin, local Red Cross Executive Director Kay Wilkins and City Council President Oliver Thomas drive home the word that the city does not have the resources to move out of harm's way an estimated 134,000 people without transportation."

"In the video, made by the anti-poverty agency Total Community Action, they urge those people to make arrangements now by finding their own ways to leave the city in the event of an evacuation.

"You're responsible for your safety, and you should be responsible for the person next to you," Wilkins said in an interview. "If you have some room to get that person out of town, the Red Cross will have a space for that person outside the area. We can help you."

 

[Dara]

It's one thing to encourage--strongly--everyone to get out of the city, but it's simply not realistic to think everyone would or could. If you think of the practical considerations, it's not surprising more people stayed or were left behind.

FEMA knew in June 2004 that a great number of people would stay behind. They said so in their report. And they said they would be making plans to shelter and feed them during an extended period (I've posted their report). I'm sure they asked for funding to do the report and then to plan for all those people they knew would stay. So, if those people--the people they knew would be there--were on their own, it's yet another failure of government.

This piece sums it up. Here's a key snippet:

Though officials involved in the scenario acknowledged that tens of thousands of residents would be without the means to evacuate New Orleans in the absence of government help, the Hurricane Pam scenario teams did not determine strategies for evacuating people ahead of time. Instead, officials predicted that only one-third of the city’s residents would make it out in time and designed their response plan around that assumption.

 

[Dara]

Some lapses may be due to inadequate money. For example, Tolbert, the former FEMA official, said "funding dried up" for following up on the July 2004 Hurricane Pam exercise. She said this cut off work on planning for certain categories of response, notably the need to shelter thousands of survivors.

Brian Wolshon, an engineering professor at Louisiana State University who was a consultant on Louisiana's state evacuation plan, said little attention was paid to the evacuation of New Orleans' "low mobility" population – the elderly, infirm and poor without cars or other means of fleeing the city, who totaled about 100,000.

At disaster planning meetings, Wolshon said, "the answer was often silence."

"There was not much attention paid to the low mobility population," he said. "That's the million dollar question."

San Diego Tribune

The picture I'm getting from articles, TV interview, etc, is that FEMA ran an exercise that left them to conclude we'd see conditions like we did (Michael Brown said that on CNN), but somewhere along the line, the funding dried up--diverted to fighting terrorism, it seems. They knew many people would be in the city, which they knew would flood. They should have known the levees might break. But at some point, they realized that they never followed through on the plan, and with a hurricane bearing down started to try to get the message out that people who they knew might not have the means to leave should get out of the city.

They put it in the newspaper, which might help if you can read.

They said it on TV, which might help if you have one and happen to catch one of the taped messages.

But even if you get the message and believe it, what if you just can't get out. We live in a country that has told us we're safe. We elected a president who said he'd take care of us, and we'd better elect him, because the other guy couldn't.

We're told that no one could have anticipated a scenario that FEMA says they did. Some want to give them a pass because they couldn't know (again, they sure should have and they say they did).

And then we expect that people who've seen this country come briskly and effectively to the aid of pretty much anyone anywhere in danger for their entire lives to change gears and expect the abandonment they got because of a newspaper headline or taped message they may or may not have seeen and that doesn't sound very different from the warnings we always hear--get out, take care of yourselves, evacuate. And even if they believed, many couldn't.

 

[Ntegrity]

S. O'BRIEN: Governor Kathleen Blanco and the former FEMA director, James Lee Witt, join us this morning.

Nice to see you.

Governor Blanco, let's begin with you.

Do you think the president was trying to snub you with that meeting yesterday? I mean, I heard from your spokespeople that you didn't even know about that meeting until you made the call. You saw it on CNN, apparently.

GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO (D), LOUISIANA: Well, in the heat of battle a lot of things happen. And we feel like we're in the heat of battle.

That having been said, we had a great day together. The president came in, and we believe that he's solidly behind our efforts without a doubt.

S. O'BRIEN: Solidly behind your efforts, although there's been much written about kind of a power tussle between the two of you. Specifically, the mayor was telling us about a flight on Air Force One. And he said that you and he and the president were all in a room, and finally you and the president went separately to have a meeting.

Listen to what the mayor told us, ma'am, if you will.

MAYOR RAY NAGIN (D), NEW ORLEANS: He called me in, in that office, after that. And he said, "Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor." I said -- I don't remember exactly what -- two options.

I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision.

S. O'BRIEN: Twenty-four hours. Is that right? Was that what came out of that meeting on the tarmac with the president?

BLANCO: Soledad, the mayor was not in my meeting. And it was -- I'll tell you, it was a meeting that did not affect what was going on out in the field.

They were talking about paper organizations, nothing else. Nothing more. And they gave me a very complicated proposition to look at.

It didn't help our effort in that instant moment. I needed a little time to understand exactly what it meant.
We went forward, all of us. All the resources were there. Nothing stopped. We ended up coming to terms and agreements. And I think that the effort's going great.

S. O'BRIEN: Coming to terms, meaning that you rejected after that 24-hour window, that you didn't have any interest in federalizing the troops or turning power over to the president. Why not hand it over, Madame Governor, when the first five days -- and I think that meeting was on Friday, so the first several days of the recovery were clearly disastrous?

BLANCO: The first five days of the recovery were heroic. We had -- we were the people who took control..

The National Guard took control of the city, brought order out of chaos, because we have law enforcement authority. The federal troops do not. I was very concerned about giving up law enforcement authority.

S. O'BRIEN: Heroic, but by a very small number of people who were on the ground. In fact, I believe it was Friday morning when I was talking to the FEMA director, who had only just seen that there were tens of thousands of people at the convention center. So at least by Thursday, let's say the first four days, those people at the convention center were actually not getting anything. If it was not coordinated...

BLANCO: Soledad...

S. O'BRIEN: Yes, ma'am?

BLANCO: Soledad, the mayor and I were both asking for the same thing. We wanted troops, we wanted food, we wanted water, we wanted helicopters. We asked for that early in the week.

I asked for everything that we had available from the federal government. I got it from the National Guard. I got as much as possible. And the federal effort was just a little slow in coming.

I can't understand why. You know, those are questions that are yet to be answered.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

S. O'BRIEN: Governor Blanco and the former FEMA director, James Lee Witt, talking with us a little bit earlier this morning. And of course you can see where the blame game is going.

The mayor is blaming the governor, who is clearly blaming the feds and FEMA. The feds, who clearly blame the local authorities. And the people here who are now losing essentially everything are angry and desperate, and really ready to blame everybody. I think there's lots of blame to go around.

Transcript

 

[TexMex]

Craig Martelle: FEMA is not a first responder
Don't be so quick to pillory the federal response in New Orleans. Immediate emergency management is primarily a local and state responsibility
Tuesday, September 06, 2005

As one who has received training by FEMA in emergency management and also training by the Department of Defense in consequence management, I believe that the federal response in New Orleans needs clarification.



The key to emergency management starts at the local level and expands to the state level. Emergency planning generally does not include any federal guarantees, as there can only be limited ones from the federal level for any local plan. FEMA provides free training, education, assistance and respond in case of an emergency, but the local and state officials run their own emergency management program.

Prior development of an emergency plan, addressing all foreseeable contingencies, is the absolute requirement of the local government --and then they share that plan with the state emergency managers to ensure that the state authorities can provide necessary assets not available at the local level. Additionally, good planning will include applicable elements of the federal government (those located in the local area). These processes are well established, but are contingent upon the personal drive of both hired and elected officials at the local level.

I've reviewed the New Orleans emergency management plan. Here is an important section in the first paragraph.

"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.' "

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. 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?

 

[Dara]

This is what the Voice of America announced August 28th:

Saturday's emergency declaration authorizes federal officials to coordinate all disaster relief efforts and provide appropriate assistance in several Louisiana parishes.

Well, we know FEMA was there, and we know the federal goverment was supposedly coordinating the efforts, and that they were authorized to do so. That is where ultimate accountability must lie.

There were so many instances of red tape preventing aid from getting through. Not floodwaters, not snipers. Red tape.

 

[Dara]

BLANCO: Soledad, the mayor was not in my meeting. And it was -- I'll tell you, it was a meeting that did not affect what was going on out in the field.

They were talking about paper organizations, nothing else. Nothing more. And they gave me a very complicated proposition to look at.

It didn't help our effort in that instant moment. I needed a little time to understand exactly what it meant.
We went forward, all of us. All the resources were there. Nothing stopped. We ended up coming to terms and agreements. And I think that the effort's going great.

S. O'BRIEN: Coming to terms, meaning that you rejected after that 24-hour window, that you didn't have any interest in federalizing the troops or turning power over to the president. Why not hand it over, Madame Governor, when the first five days -- and I think that meeting was on Friday, so the first several days of the recovery were clearly disastrous?

I still have to ask: if Blanco screwed up and Bush let her, how can he be considered blameless? If my governor is doing something that may cost me my life, and my president knows it and can save me, and doesn't even though he has full power to, he's to blame.

We should blame Blanco for anything she did wrong. I think we've all been in agreement on that. But the more she did wrong, the worse it is that Bush, supposedly aware and in a "power struggle," let people die rather than do his job.

 

[kgeaux]

I still have to ask: if Blanco screwed up and Bush let her, how can he be considered blameless? If my governor is doing something that may cost me my life, and my president knows it and can save me, and doesn't even though he has full power to, he's to blame.

We should blame Blanco for anything she did wrong. I think we've all been in agreement on that. But the more she did wrong, the worse it is that Bush, supposedly aware and in a "power struggle," let people die rather than do his job.

Do you think perhaps he believed her when she said she had it under control?

It is a very, very difficult thing to wrest control out of state control. I do not consider Bush to be completely blameless, but I think as this continues to wash out, we will discover that the local and state authorities are going to bear the brunt of the blame.


BLANCO: The first five days of the recovery were heroic. We had -- we were the people who took control..

If she believes the first five days were heroic, then she is in complete denial. For much of that time, she had the NO police department alone on the ground, half of the force since the other half had apparently evacuated. She had armed thugs on the ground keeping Red Cross and FEMA at bay. She had tons of bottled water and MRE's sitting in an arc around the New Orleans area, undelivered. If I was her, I'd be lying like a rug and saying that *I* wasn't the one responsible!

 

[Ntegrity]

BLANCO: The first five days of the recovery were heroic. We had -- we were the people who took control..

If she believes the first five days were heroic, then she is in complete denial. For much of that time, she had the NO police department alone on the ground, half of the force since the other half had apparently evacuated. She had armed thugs on the ground keeping Red Cross and FEMA at bay. She had tons of bottled water and MRE's sitting in an arc around the New Orleans area, undelivered. If I was her, I'd be lying like a rug and saying that *I* wasn't the one responsible!

I watched the interview this morning and was floored by that remark too.

 

[Dara]

Do you think perhaps he believed her when she said she had it under control?

If he did, he's about as well informed as Brown and Chertoff. We all knew better, though we didn't know who was in charge.

It is a very, very difficult thing to wrest control out of state control.

When people are dying, you do the difficult thing. He had the power. He had the power. He had the power.

I do not consider Bush to be completely blameless, but I think as this continues to wash out, we will discover that the local and state authorities are going to bear the brunt of the blame.

I'm sure the federal government, with more power and already having launched a massive PR campaign, will do their best to convince us of that. But I and hopefully others will remember sitting, watching in horror as we learned that people were dying and being raped and that rescue efforts were suspended. And waking up the next day to the news that people were dying and being raped and nurses and doctors were being shot. And the next day.

And the president couldn't NOT know it.

BLANCO: The first five days of the recovery were heroic. We had -- we were the people who took control..

If she believes the first five days were heroic, then she is in complete denial.

Or she knows they weren't and is spinning like the rest of them. But we can say they weren't because we saw they weren't. We're hearing the stories. There were heroes. Plenty of people did heroic things. But the response was a failure. And this is the woman who supposedly prevented the most powerful man in our nation from taking control.

For much of that time, she had the NO police department alone on the ground, half of the force since the other half had apparently evacuated. She had armed thugs on the ground keeping Red Cross and FEMA at bay. She had tons of bottled water and MRE's sitting in an arc around the New Orleans area, undelivered. If I was her, I'd be lying like a rug and saying that *I* wasn't the one responsible!

I don't what I'd be doing. I do know that FEMA had those tons of bottled water that went undelivered and police units who were summoned and sent back and more. Read the White House's own dispatches. They were coordinating the rescue effort.

But when you say "she" had armed thugs keeping FEMA and the Red Cross at bay, I say we don't know who kept FEMA at bay. FEMA kept aid at bay, from an overwhelming amount of reports I've read.

But if she was the one "keeping Red Cross and FEMA at bay," the second that happened, Bush needed to take over. The worse she is, the more negligent he was to let her continue in her job.

He didn't luck out this time. He didn't get a Giuliani.

Now we know.

 

[Dara]

BTW, Chertoff also thought the initial response was good, though I don't know if he believed that past Wednesday. I'll try to find a quotation.

To make matters worse, Chertoff said he was "extremely pleased" with the response on Wednesday as floodwaters paralyzed the city, spreading death, suffering and violence.

He also said this:

As the floodwaters raged last week, Chertoff pledged the situation was under control. He said the new national response plan gave his department "the lead responsibility" in response and recovery.

It's not what we're hearing now, but it was what we heard then.

 

[Ntegrity]

"To the State governments are reserved all legislation and administration in affairs which concern their own citizens only, and to the federal government is given whatever concerns foreigners or the citizens of other States; these functions alone being made federal. The one is the domestic, the other the foreign branch of the same government; neither having control over the other, but within its own department. There are one or two exceptions only to this partition of power." --Thomas Jefferson to John Cartwright, 1824. ME 16:47


"Our country is too large to have all its affairs directed by a single government. Public servants at such a distance, and from under the eye of their constituents, must, from the circumstance of distance, be unable to administer and overlook all the details necessary for the good government of the citizens; and the same circumstance, by rendering detection impossible to their constituents, will invite public agents to corruption, plunder and waste." --Thomas Jefferson to Gideon Granger, 1800. ME 10:167

 

[TexMex]

Monday, Sept. 5, 2005 11:38 p.m. EDT
Mayor Nagin: Gov. Blanco Delayed Rescue

After days of blaming the federal officials for not responding quickly enough to the Hurricane Katrina crisis, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin praised President Bush on Monday - and charged that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco had delayed federal rescue efforts by 24-hours.

"I'm so happy that the president came down here," Nagin said of Bush's Friday visit to Louisiana in an interview with CNN. "He came down and saw it, and he put a general on the field. His name is General Honore. And when he hit the field, we started to see action."

But Nagin had harsh words for his state's leaders, telling CNN: "What the state was doing, I don't frigging know. But I tell you, I am pissed. It wasn't adequate."
The New Orleans Democrat said he urged Bush to meet privately with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco during the visit. The meeting took place aboard Air Force One, he said.

After reviewing the crisis with Gov. Blanco, Bush summoned Nagin for a private chat - where, according to Nagin, Bush explained: "Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor. I said . . . I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision."

Reacting to the governor's footdragging, Nagin lamented: "It would have been great if we could of left Air Force One, walked outside, and told the world that we had this all worked out."

"It didn't happen, and more people died."

 

[DEPUTYDAWG]

Monday, Sept. 5, 2005 11:38 p.m. EDT
Mayor Nagin: Gov. Blanco Delayed Rescue

After days of blaming the federal officials for not responding quickly enough to the Hurricane Katrina crisis, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin praised President Bush on Monday - and charged that Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco had delayed federal rescue efforts by 24-hours.

"I'm so happy that the president came down here," Nagin said of Bush's Friday visit to Louisiana in an interview with CNN. "He came down and saw it, and he put a general on the field. His name is General Honore. And when he hit the field, we started to see action."

But Nagin had harsh words for his state's leaders, telling CNN: "What the state was doing, I don't frigging know. But I tell you, I am pissed. It wasn't adequate."
The New Orleans Democrat said he urged Bush to meet privately with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco during the visit. The meeting took place aboard Air Force One, he said.

After reviewing the crisis with Gov. Blanco, Bush summoned Nagin for a private chat - where, according to Nagin, Bush explained: "Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor. I said . . . I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision."

Reacting to the governor's footdragging, Nagin lamented: "It would have been great if we could of left Air Force One, walked outside, and told the world that we had this all worked out."

"It didn't happen, and more people died."

Wow, Tex, wow....

 

[Dara]

Nagin's had a pretty big about face, hasn't he?

The following is a transcript of WWL correspondent Garland Robinette's interview with Nagin on Thursday night. Robinette asked the mayor about his conversation with President Bush:

NAGIN: I told him we had an incredible crisis here and that his flying over in Air Force One does not do it justice. And that I have been all around this city, and I am very frustrated because we are not able to marshal resources and we're outmanned in just about every respect. (Listen to the mayor express his frustration in this video -- 12:09)

You know the reason why the looters got out of control? Because we had most of our resources saving people, thousands of people that were stuck in attics, man, old ladies. ... You pull off the doggone ventilator vent and you look down there and they're standing in there in water up to their freaking necks.

And they don't have a clue what's going on down here. They flew down here one time two days after the doggone event was over with TV cameras, AP reporters, all kind of -- excuse my French everybody in America, but I am pissed.

WWL: Did you say to the president of the United States, "I need the military in here"?

NAGIN: I said, "I need everything."

That interview is really eye-opening. I can't quote it all here, because of the rules, but in view of what Nagin's saying now, I urge everyone to read it. There are some pretty big contradictions, which I expect from different people, but not the same one.

I will add one more section:

WWL: Well, you and I must be in the minority. Because apparently there's a section of our citizenry out there that thinks because of a law that says the federal government can't come in unless requested by the proper people, that everything that's going on to this point has been done as good as it can possibly be.

NAGIN: Really?

WWL: I know you don't feel that way.

NAGIN: Well, did the tsunami victims request? Did it go through a formal process to request?

You know, did the Iraqi people request that we go in there? Did they ask us to go in there? What is more important?

And I'll tell you, man, I'm probably going get in a whole bunch of trouble. I'm probably going to get in so much trouble it ain't even funny. You probably won't even want to deal with me after this interview is over.

We know the president had the power; we hashed that out over the weekend. But Nagin's words being so different? Maybe he started thinking more about the trouble he could get in. Or maybe he started to seeks to distance himself from the governor.

 

[Ntegrity]

Wow is right. What's the source of that article, TexMex?

 

[TexMex]

Wow is right. What's the source of that article, TexMex?

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/5/234033.shtml

Nagin made these comments to CNN

Howdy Ntegrity

 

[TexMex]

The Hill:


Livingston, the former Appropriations Committee chairman turned successful lobbyist, said his 83-year-old mother escaped to Shreveport with his sister and brother-in-law. His wife’s mother, also 83, fled the city just in time.

Livingston had to wait for word of the fate of his oldest son’s in-laws. On Friday, he received word that they were safe.
Livingston represented the New Orleans metro area for more than 20 years. He owns a condominium and two rental properties there and feared they were damaged or destroyed.

He was particularly critical of Gov. Kathleen Blanco (D) for failing to declare martial law promptly to deter widespread looting.

“I raised hell with the governor for not declaring martial law,” he said Thursday. “I told her last [Wednesday] night I was going on ‘Hannity & Colmes’ and criticize her for not doing that, and 20 minutes later, she did.”

 

[Ntegrity]

http://www.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/5/234033.shtml

Nagin made these comments to CNN

Howdy Ntegrity

Uh oh. I don't think we're permitted to quote NewsMax because it's such a slanted right wing publication, bwahahahaha.

Howdy back atchya, Tex

 

[TexMex]

Uh oh. I don't think we're permitted to quote NewsMax because it's such a slanted right wing publication, bwahahahaha.

Howdy back atchya, Tex

LOL....well the CNN part shoud balance things out.