Mayor Nagin transcript
 

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/nagin.transcript/

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 goddamn -- 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."

Now, I will tell you this -- and I give the president some credit on this -- he sent one John Wayne dude down here that can get some stuff done, and his name is [Lt.] Gen. [Russel] Honore.

And he came off the doggone chopper, and he started cussing and people started moving. And he's getting some stuff done.

They ought to give that guy -- if they don't want to give it to me, give him full authority to get the job done, and we can save some people.

WWL: What do you need right now to get control of this situation?

NAGIN: I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here.

I'm like, "You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans."

That's -- they're thinking small, man. And this is a major, major, major deal. And I can't emphasize it enough, man. This is crazy.

I've got 15,000 to 20,000 people over at the convention center. It's bursting at the seams. The poor people in Plaquemines Parish. ... We don't have anything, and we're sharing with our brothers in Plaquemines Parish.

It's awful down here, man.

WWL: Do you believe that the president is seeing this, holding a news conference on it but can't do anything until [Louisiana Gov.] Kathleen Blanco requested him to do it? And do you know whether or not she has made that request?

NAGIN: I have no idea what they're doing. But I will tell you this: You know, God is looking down on all this, and if they are not doing everything in their power to save people, they are going to pay the price. Because every day that we delay, people are dying and they're dying by the hundreds, I'm willing to bet you.

We're getting reports and calls that are breaking my heart, from people saying, "I've been in my attic. I can't take it anymore. The water is up to my neck. I don't think I can hold out." And that's happening as we speak.

You know what really upsets me, Garland? We told everybody the importance of the 17th Street Canal issue. We said, "Please, please take care of this. We don't care what you do. Figure it out."

WWL: Who'd you say that to?

NAGIN: Everybody: the governor, Homeland Security, FEMA. You name it, we said it.

And they allowed that pumping station next to Pumping Station 6 to go under water. Our sewage and water board people ... stayed there and endangered their lives.

And what happened when that pumping station went down, the water started flowing again in the city, and it starting getting to levels that probably killed more people.

In addition to that, we had water flowing through the pipes in the city. That's a power station over there.

So there's no water flowing anywhere on the east bank of Orleans Parish. So our critical water supply was destroyed because of lack of action.

WWL: Why couldn't they drop the 3,000-pound sandbags or the containers that they were talking about earlier? Was it an engineering feat that just couldn't be done?

NAGIN: They said it was some pulleys that they had to manufacture. But, you know, in a state of emergency, man, you are creative, you figure out ways to get stuff done.

Then they told me that they went overnight, and they built 17 concrete structures and they had the pulleys on them and they were going to drop them.

I flew over that thing yesterday, and it's in the same shape that it was after the storm hit. There is nothing happening. And they're feeding the public a line of bull and they're spinning, and people are dying down here.

WWL: If some of the public called and they're right, that there's a law that the president, that the federal government can't do anything without local or state requests, would you request martial law?

NAGIN: I've already called for martial law in the city of New Orleans. We did that a few days ago.

WWL: Did the governor do that, too?

NAGIN: I don't know. I don't think so.

But we called for martial law when we realized that the looting was getting out of control. And we redirected all of our police officers back to patrolling the streets. They were dead-tired from saving people, but they worked all night because we thought this thing was going to blow wide open last night. And so we redirected all of our resources, and we hold it under check.

I'm not sure if we can do that another night with the current resources.

And I am telling you right now: They're showing all these reports of people looting and doing all that weird stuff, and they are doing that, but people are desperate and they're trying to find food and water, the majority of them.

Now you got some knuckleheads out there, and they are taking advantage of this lawless -- this situation where, you know, we can't really control it, and they're doing some awful, awful things. But that's a small majority of the people. Most people are looking to try and survive.

And one of the things people -- nobody's talked about this. Drugs flowed in and out of New Orleans and the surrounding metropolitan area so freely it was scary to me, and that's why we were having the escalation in murders. People don't want to talk about this, but I'm going to talk about it.

You have drug addicts that are now walking around this city looking for a fix, and that's the reason why they were breaking in hospitals and drugstores. They're looking for something to take the edge off of their jones, if you will.

And right now, they don't have anything to take the edge off. And they've probably found guns. So what you're seeing is drug-starving crazy addicts, drug addicts, that are wrecking havoc. And we don't have the manpower to adequately deal with it. We can only target certain sections of the city and form a perimeter around them and hope to God that we're not overrun.

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.

WWL: You and I will be in the funny place together.

NAGIN: But we authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq lickety-quick. After 9/11, we gave the president unprecedented powers lickety-quick to take care of New York and other places.

Now, you mean to tell me that a place where most of your oil is coming through, a place that is so unique when you mention New Orleans anywhere around the world, everybody's eyes light up -- you mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can't figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on, man.

You know, I'm not one of those drug addicts. I am thinking very clearly.

And I don't know whose problem it is. I don't know whether it's the governor's problem. I don't know whether it's the president's problem, but somebody needs to get their ass on a plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out right now.

WWL: What can we do here?

NAGIN: Keep talking about it.

WWL: We'll do that. What else can we do?

NAGIN: Organize people to write letters and make calls to their congressmen, to the president, to the governor. Flood their doggone offices with requests to do something. This is ridiculous.

I don't want to see anybody do anymore goddamn press conferences. Put a moratorium on press conferences. Don't do another press conference until the resources are in this city. And then come down to this city and stand with us when there are military trucks and troops that we can't even count.

Don't tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They're not here. It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and do something, and let's fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country.

WWL: I'll say it right now, you're the only politician that's called and called for arms like this. And if -- whatever it takes, the governor, president -- whatever law precedent it takes, whatever it takes, I bet that the people listening to you are on your side.

NAGIN: Well, I hope so, Garland. I am just -- I'm at the point now where it don't matter. People are dying. They don't have homes. They don't have jobs. The city of New Orleans will never be the same in this time.

WWL: We're both pretty speechless here.

NAGIN: Yeah, I don't know what to say. I got to go.

WWL: OK. Keep in touch. Keep in touch.

they played some of that on CNN - he was angry and righteously so. above and beyond all else, the response was the federal government's ball and they dropped it completely. from the Dept. of Homeland Security website:
some response. it's just astonishing that it apparently takes at least five days to put troops, in quantity, to a given point within the US. some Homeland security - we've been hearing nothing but 9/11 this, 9/11 that, 9/11 changed everything, yada yada for the last four years, but at the end of the day, the administration is apparently still unprepared.

edit: btw, where's Cheney? he hasn't been seen in public for a while...

Well, if nothing else you know who to point the finger at, not that it accomplishes anything in the short term.

It's a sign of the times when the political response to a natural disaster is swifter than the relief efforts. Passing the buck is the American political system's highest art form.

I, the formerly un-jaundiced human rights advocate, have finally come to see my country for what it really is. A monstrous fraud.

Sure, blame America for the distruction of New Orleans. Heaven forbid we blame this disaster on the hurricane, where's the satisfaction in that?

still on vacation

perhaps?

:dunno:

fuck the planet
 

dont blame it on a fossile fuel hungry society or other damage that humans have done to the environment..or anything
http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/
(october 2002)

/ blame the flying spagetti monster

Or maybe forget blaming people for a while and attend to the situation at hand.

Mayor Nagin more optimistic about future of New Orleans


President Bush meets New Orleans mayor
Ray Nagin following a news conference at
the Louis Armstrong New Orleans
International Airport, Friday, Sept. 2, 2005.
Bush is touring the Gulf Coast communities
battered by Hurricane Katrina, hoping to
boost the spirits of increasingly desperate
storm victims and exhausted rescuers. (AP
Photo/Susan Walsh)

yeh ...sit back and watch the underclass of new oreleans get kkkulled in their own little version of a holocaust

seig fucking heil !
no looken peepers !
free speech is now verboten!

send in the storm troopers
and empty choppers
while thousands cry for food
force them to go scrounging and get shot on sight

witholding aid from these people is criminal
witholding those 500 boats and ambulances is fucking unbelievable

is it going to be that all these folks in nola are going to be labled drug crazed murderers and rapists or is it going to be anyone decent is already dead so kill em all?

when i saw some australian survivors of this thing,
that were sitting there being interviewed
the guy kept wanting to talk about all the different disinformation they were seeing and hearing but the interviewers kept taking turns in shutting him up
i dont want to even think of what that might of been about

oh, ok. like in this picture? here we have a photo op for the Prez at New Orlean's airport, which actually requires closing New Orlean's airspace for security reasons, thereby shutting down air rescue operations.

Seems to me they could land the president without interrupting air rescue operations, even during a period of crisis, when a good commander is in control of the airspace. There's an other airport in town too, and though it's partially submerged, it might be a better place to fly refugees out of there 'cause it's closest to the most damaged parts of the city.

I would't worry about him too much. Besides, it seems the people want him at ground zero rather than just flying over for a quick peek.

like the last four years, every appearance by the Prez is a scripted, stage-managed, orchestrated show. under normal circumstances, it's to be expected, but in this case, the photo ops have either pre-empted recovery efforts or simply faked them. from a press release issued yesterday by Louisiana Senator Mary Landrieu:
or if the fake levee repair didn't warm your heart, how about the fake food giveaway?
that's your leader in action - how proud you must be.

You'll find no greater critcism of Bush and his administration than in the German media. Some even claim that the president caused the hurricane. I wouldn't believe a word they or any other European journalists print.

Link

ah, i see. the german media is the problem. think we can relay that on to the people of Mississippi and Louisiana? i'm sure they'll perk right up once they understand that thier problems are perceptual in nature.
your blogger doesn't quite have his facts in order: major disaster relief is organized along federal, state, and local lines - in that order. it starts from the top down... perhaps you missed this above:
your government has had primary responsibility for relief. that's where the criticism is righteously leveled. yes, it's political - it's also relevant, valid, and it's not a minute too soon to ask what the fuck went wrong here?

the most shallow and callous politics taking place right now is not those who are asking for accountability - it's those who are avoiding it.

de-nile, meet de-mississippi.

- js.

You mean busses like these that YOUR Hypocritical dumbass ordered locked up in their secure razor wire topped fenced yards when you called for the evacuation, instead of USING them to move the poor residents that COULDN'T leave, as your OWN disaster plan calls for?????????

Accountability!!!!!!!!!!! yea Mayor how making your ass "accountable".


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'...

I had been wondering why school/public transit busses had not been used to aid in the evacuation of the city before the hurricane made landfall.

It's been a while since I have been in New Orleans, I think that is the bus yard near the convention center, which has about 200 school busses.

When the 17th street levee gave way on Tuesday, the flooding made the busses useless.

There is also apparently a matter of Louisiana Governor Blanco refusing Federal aid in the evacuation because she did not want to allow the Feds to take control of the evacuation efforts. Governor Blanco also apparently did not request mutual aid assistance until Wednesday.

I think Louisiana residents need to look closer to home for most of the "unpreparedness" problems.

i'll post this again:
and nobody is suggesting the feds needed a crystal ball to anticipate thier situation - this warning, from the National Weather Service, issued at 10 am on Sunday morning, August 28th, was clear and explicit:
could the warning have been any clearer this was going to be a natural disaster and a large scale emergency of epic proportions? and that therefore, by law, this was going to be the federal government's responsibility, as defined in the Homeland Security regulations? this was as devastating as any terrorist attack, only with advance warning.

but perhaps FEMA and the Dept of Homeland Security were lulled into a false sense of complacency by these photos of the prez, taken Monday the 29th, and Tuesday the 30th. he wasn't worried about it - why should they have been?

Mayor Nagin had some interesting things to say today, it's not getting any play though, i wonder why. :shf:

video here

In a harried, fast-moving interview with CNN’s Soledad O’Brien this morning, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin had many words of praise for President Bush, while pointing much blame at Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco:


Nagin>> I got promises too. I can't stand any more promises. I don't want to hear any more promises. I want to see stuff done. That's why I'm so happy the president came down here because I think they were feeding him a line of bull also. They were telling him things weren’t as bad as it was, he came down and saw it and he put a general on the field. His name is general Honore. When he hit the field, we started to see action. What the state was doing, I don't friggin' know but I tell you, I am pissed. It wasn't adequate. The president and the governor sat down. Air force one, I said, Mr. President, Madam governor, you two have to get in sync. If you don't get in sync, more people are going to die.
O’Brien>> What date was this?

N>> I don't know.

O>> When did you say that?

N>> Whenever air force one was here.

O>> Okay.

N>> And this is after I called him on the telephone two days earlier. And I said, Mr. President, madam governor, you two need to get together on the same page because the lack of coordination people are dying in my city.

That's two days ago? Easement I don't know the exact date. They both shook their head, said yeah. I said great. I said everybody in this room is getting ready to leave. There was senators and his cabinet people, you name it, they were there. Generals. I said everybody right now, we're leaving. These two people need to sit in a room together and make a doggone decision right now.

O>> Was that done?

N>> The president looked at me. I think he was a little surprised. He said, no, you guys stay here. We're going to another section of the plane and we're going to make a decision. He called me 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.

O>> You told me the president told you the governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision?

N>> Yes.

O>> Regarding what? Bringing troops?

N>> Whatever they had discussed. As far as what the -- I was advocating a clear chain of command. So that we could get resources flowing in the right places.

O>> The governor said no?

N>> She said she needed 24 hours to make a decision. 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.

http://newsbusters.org/node/953

probably just the insurgents speading rumors..but
*
http://www.waynemadsenreport.com/

I'll make one last post on this subject. For me, beyond this point any more discussion is futile.

For those who think President Bush and/or the Federal Government is to blame for a poor relief effort in the wake of hurricane Katrina in Louisiana, this post is for you.

New Orleans Mayor Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of his city in advance of hurricane Katrina's landfall.

See the picture of the busses in the post by jcmd62 in this thread?
These are the busses that Mayor Nagin could have, but did not use to evacuate people from New Orleans. He could have used them to help evacuate people that had no other means to leave the city. They could have been taken to the superdome or convention center, or other shelters. Now, many of those people are DEAD.

As I understand it, chartered busses were used to evacuate people to places like the Astrodome.

The use of public transportation for such evacuations is in the emergency plan of every city with such resources available. I have been a volunteer disaster service worker in Alameda County, California for over 30 years. I also worked for a large public transit agency for 10 years and have first hand knowledge of how such emergency arrangements work, because I have been a part of them.

Now, look at the post by daddydirt above and see how Louisiana Governor Blanco refused to cooperate with the Federal Government. The Governor of a State has command of National Guard and Local Emergency Services - but not Federal Emergency Services. The Feds want to assume command of the overall effort so it can be uniformly coordinated. Governor Blanco has so far refused to allow that to happen.

Why is Governor Blanco doing this? According to reports I have read by MSNBC, Governor Blanco is afraid of Federally declared martial law and the fear of local officials being "blamed" for inadequate action by the Federal government. Hmmm... I thought the restoration of law and order is one of the things Blanco wanted. I would be willing to wager most of her population wants this as well.

As for the "blame" befalling local officials (such as herself) I think Blanco is doing a pretty good job at attracing blame without any assistance from the Federal Government.

Trying to avoid martial law where it may be necessary and avoiding blame do not sound to me like valid reasons to withold vital emergency services from the population after a major disaster.

So, while Governor Blanco "thinks" about what to do next, more of the people she has sworn to protect are dying. When people are dying it's usually not a good idea to get into a pissing contest about who gives the orders - especially when Louisiana State Emergency Services is not capable of handling a disaster of this magnatude by itself.

Emergency Services personnel are supposed to undergo training and familiarization with procedures so that when real disasters happen, they know what to do and can inter-operate with other agencies in an efficient and effective manner. Apparently, "key personnel" missed that type training.

I can excuse most of Mayor Nagin's unprofessional demenor and language. The guy is human like the rest of us, and he's going through unimaginable distress seeing his people dying and in need and not being able to help them. However, I find it considerably more difficult to excuse his failure to use resources available to him for getting everyone possible out of the city before the hurricane hit.

If Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco had done what they were supposed to do, many lives could have been saved, and the disaster relief efforts would have had better coordination from the start.

I would criticize President Bush if I felt he had done something wrong in this matter, but I prefer to place blame where it is due.

so that conversation took place on Fridy August 2nd - 6 days after the NWS warning, 5 days after the levee broke. a bit late, no?
so you must have been in the SF '89 earthquake - so was i. i have a pretty good impression of that recovery, and have also seen FEMA do some good things as well here in Hurricane Alley, NC. so, i'll make this my last thought on the subject as well - katrina was big, well-anticipated, and as devastating as any terrorist attack on the largest port in the country. the response and recovery should have been strong, well-planned and federally managed from day 1. that's what Homeland Security was supposed to do, why we created this vast new bureacracy that ate FEMA. obviously, it did not go down that way.

Thank you so much, I could not have said it better.

Hey theknife,
That was pre-Homeland Security when they cleaned up after Hugo. There are still ongoing programs that are building up the homes in the affected area of North Carolina.
The Mayor had the resposibility PRE disaster to remove the citizens, FEMA has POST disaster resposibilty. And considering what the Governor and the Mayor did NOT do, I thnk FEMA is doing an outstanding job. The job should have been much smaller in scale.
pz

Like chef and Drak have explained, had the local authorities done what was in their power to do, this meeting would not have been necessary.

All I've heard over the last week are people who already disliked or hated the president using this event as an excuse to dislike or hate him more. People are using this opportunity to bash Bush the way some people have used this opportunity to break into jewelery stores.

Just a quick qestion for anybody who cares to answer: when you hear the term 'first responder' who comes to mind?

Here's another quick question: Does theknife know the difference between August and September?

apparently not.

money quote of the week:

Aaron Broussard has lost it this time. The residents that I have talked to want him dismissed immediately.
He will single handedly foul most of the recovery and remaining evacuations by allowing the residents back in for a "peek" of there property.
Guess what? They ain't going to leave, not for a minute.
The influx of the Jeff Parish residents will have Orleans Parish residents hell bent on staying. It will be anarchy.
Real soon, the US Marines will be deployed to forcefully evacuate the Orleans Parish residents.
Just imagine the bedlam this will cause.
Aaron Broussard is the idiot. Trust me, he has lost it, and will lose all because of it.

chefws, the army isn't having any part of any forced evacuations. these people own property. they are citizens. the broussards of the world work for them, the army works for the citizens. not the other way around. long before we had a cop on every corner we had self-governing communities. with states assets and power for leverage it'll come together. try to calm down a little. it will work out. this isn't the end of the world. it's not even the end of new orleans.

- js.

The Police/Army/National Guard will force people to evacuate when it is clearly dangerous for people to remain in a disaster area - and such a danger exists in New Orleans due to water borne pathogens.

Tests show that sewage and dangerous levels of harmful bacteria are present in the flood waters. The flood water is sufficiently polluted to be a skin contact hazard. Disinfecting the water before pumping it into the lake or river will not be reasonably possible.

They are trying to convince everyone to leave. Those who will go willingly will be assisted out first. Eventually, they will have to evacuate the unwilling forcefully. This is very unfortunate, but clearly a necessity.

Bacterial infection from storm surge driven by the hurricane is already blamed for 5 deaths. Add to that coliform bacteria from sewage, bacteria from decomposing bodies, and hazardous chemicals and you have a serious health hazard.

Yes, it will work out in due time.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9156612/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9242497/
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9241863/

Heheh. A little post for you to eat Jack. Martial law changes things.

No doubt the name "New Orleans" will live on but the old city bearing it now may essentially end.

Mayor orders forced removal of civilians

Mayor Ray Nagin today issued an emergency proclamation calling on all law officers and military members to begin using force, if necessary to compel all civilians to leave New Orleans.

http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakin...005_09_06.html

Published yesterday morning, but the Governor says he doesn't have the authority, only she does. More Louisiana political bullshit that will eventually cost more lives. The remaining people need to be forced out. Period.
They do not understand that their lives are worth more than their home, not their land, but the stick and stones. They fear that if the leave, they will never return. It is that fear that makes them stay. THIS IS THE PROBLEM!!!! They don't understand that they are WORTH SOMETHING!!!!! They have been told all their lives that they are worthless, make them leave and let them realize that they ARE worth the world.

btw, Broussard is the Parish President of Jefferson Parish, which is a self-sufficient suburb of the city. It is not relavent to the forced evacuations, except for the fact that he let the citizens return to their homes prematurely, which will cause problems when the citizens of New Orleans are forcefully evacuated.

Jefferson Parish is as different to New Orleans as is Dallas to San Fransico, in many ways.

Jeeze you're a mean fucking drunk jc! Killing people for not helping you is called murder; martial law or not.

You must miss the good old concentration camp and gulag days.

Your reply are getting age old here, everybody is a god damned drunk beside you eh? Or a monkey bong sucker, that is also an age old reply coming from your narrow side of the world.

Take a chill pill and if you get bored out of your mind again, go trash my name at the tehru again, they didn't pay any notice to your little anal-ology rant, not even squishy. IMO, you are a little pathetic man with nothing else to do but bitch and troll

Keep going, this way you are digging you grave much sooner than expected. to my great pleasure that is :p

Keep spinning troll boy :PE:

:bdance: :bdance: :bdance: :bdance: :bdance:

Are you saying your name really is Sasquatch?; since that's the only name I mentioned. No wonder you're so fucked up. What else did your parents do to you?

Howard Dean tries playing the race card with Katrina victims.


http://www.miami.com/mld/miamiherald/12586210.htm
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean on Wednesday sought to turn the chaos of Hurricane Katrina into a benefit for Democrats, decrying Republican priorities and telling black pastors in Miami that race played a ''significant role'' in the storm's death toll.



Who didn't see that coming?

Maybe he'll try for a photo op with some rotting corpses. Go for it Howard.


New link, second line with "miami herald".
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q...oogle+Se arch

500 Airboaters stalled by FEMA

A "floatilla of aid" TURNED BACK from New Orleans

Fearing riots, Guard rejects food airdrops

Homeland Security won’t let Red Cross deliver food

US won’t let Canada help Katrina victims

On BBC: Northern Command was in position, waiting for Presidential orders

Confirmation of BBC report: Navy Ship still unused 6 Days after Katrina!

Daley ’shocked’ as feds reject aid

Virgina Team turned away- others efforts wasted

FEMA prevents water, fuel delivery- cuts communication lines!

Paperwork from DC late to arrive- prevents National Guard from helping

Guardsmen ’played cards’ amid New Orleans chaos: police official

FEMA Chief Brown caught in a LIE.

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=8066

I wonder what would make this dude happy?

I say just give New Orleans to the black people, the poor people, the crack heads and other drug addicts. Call it New Africleans or whatever. It can be like a reservation, no whities or republicans allowed. They could open casinos and stuff then all the rich people would come there and spend lots of money!!!

From Wikipedia:
So there you have it, from the mouth of Louisiana Governor K. Blanco.

They (apparently) had no intentions to order an evacuation. The only reason they evecuated anyone from New Orleans is because President Bush "appealed that this evacuation be made".

Imagine the increased death toll had no evacuation efforts been made.

It's obvious there were failures in New Orleans - not only Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco. Both of these politicians should have nightmares about their decisions for years to come. But the buck doesn't stop there at the local level, it never really does does it?



We can go back to this:

Budget Cuts

We can also take another infamous hurricane in Galveston, Tx (105 years ago today i believe). An island yes, but also well below sea level.

105 years ago

(perhaps when New Orleans is rebuilt they can take a good look at Galveston)

They weren't even close to being as technologically empowered as today's generation is. But they learned something.

The lesson they learned went unnoticed by the powers-that-be.

National Geographic, Oct. 2004 ed

Purely a fictional description of disaster but quite chilling when read in hindsight.



Louisiana Coastal Area - Hearing - 7.15.05

But the answer was no.

All the funding in the world can't help New Orleans now but perhaps it will give food for thought for the next president.

and last but not least (a few pages down from the same National Geographic Article)

More here to think about.

So you see, there's so many more to blame here than just a mayor and a governor. It goes so much deeper than that. Perhaps after the bodies are counted and buried, the displaced have found some sense of normalcy wherever they decide to call home and way before the city of New Orleans begins to plan for it's future, the blaming will stop and something will be done before the next hurricane strikes.