<p>He smirked just the other day, I watched. It was a smirk and a little kind of laugh, not a funny laugh but a laugh that comes from smirking</p>
<p>cgmom…that’s funny. I love this board.</p>
<p>
Yes, and in case you didn’t know, the National Guard is under control of the governor! So, after you get done talking to the mayor about his lack of planning in getting the people out of town after he ordered an evacuation, then you can talk to the governor about why she is doing an inadequate job with the National Guard. But, of course, they are both Democrats, so they are immune from your barbs.</p>
<p>Yeah and the President took our national guard away to fight his war</p>
<p>So who is really in charge of them if the President takes them</p>
<p>THey are not immune- they are cuplible, but they have limited resources- I don’t know many states that have helicoptors that can fly into war zones</p>
<p>You just seem to think the Department of Homeland Security has done a good job protecting us here in American the Homeland and keeping us safe and alive</p>
<p>I am so glad you think the relief effort has been do so well, and that FEMA and DHS has been beacons of Intelligent planning</p>
<p>Even Delay, who was just one, wonder why communications between everyone is such a mess</p>
<p>And he is an R person
What are they there for?</p>
<p>From Bush:</p>
<p>Out of the rubbles of Trent Lott’s house – he’s lost his entire house – there’s going to be a fantastic house. And I’m looking forward to sitting on the porch. (Laughter.)</p>
<p>How swell</p>
<p>Good thing Mr. Lott will have a job. And he had insurance. For the lucky few, his fantastic house while hundreds will be living in barracks or the like</p>
<p>As of yesterday (possibly the day before) only half of the LA guard that was available in LA had been called up. In the other states, the percentage was far less than that. Had the LA guard been called out immediately by the governor, the state of lawlessness could have been avoided.</p>
<p>Surprise, but where do you think the National Guard gets its equipment? They have jets and helicopters and tanks - just like the regular army. And it is all under control of the governor.</p>
<p>REPORTER: Theres a lot of discussion going on about the funding of projects prior to this, whether projects in New Orleans in particular were underfunded because of the Iraq war or for other reasons. Do you find any of this criticism legitimate? Do you think there is any second guessing to be done now about priorities given that [a disaster in] New Orleans was sort of obvious to a lot of the experts?
MCCLELLAN: As I have indicated, this is not a time for politics. This is a time for the nation to come together for those in the Gulf Coast region and thats where our focus is. This is not a time for finger-pointing or politics. And I think the last thing that the people who have been displaced or the people who have been affected need is people seeking partisan gain in Washington. So if thats what youre talking about, thats one thing. Now, if youre talking about specific areas, I would be glad to talk about some of those, if thats what you want.
REPORTER: Im talking about policy
REPORTER: One project, for instance, is the one where people felt they needed $60 million in the current 06 fiscal year, and they were given $10 million. Those types of projects. And a lot
MCCLELLAN: Which project is this?
REPORTER: Southeast Louisiana Flood Control.
MCCLELLAN: Flood control has been a priority of this administration from day one.</p>
<p>Where were the NO city and school busses before the storm that could have taken away people–your answer below. Sometimes the answer is in the mirror, Mayor.</p>
<p><a href=“Yahoo News: Latest and Breaking News, Headlines, Live Updates, and More”>Yahoo News: Latest and Breaking News, Headlines, Live Updates, and More;
<p>I can forgive Xiggi for not undestanding what being poor means.</p>
<p>He should read today’s NYT for a discussion of the situation w/r/t the poor in NO:</p>
<ul>
<li><p>It happened at the end of the month, when many were out of $$, waiting for the first of the month check.</p></li>
<li><p>so, where were they to walk to? Baton Rouge? Sleep outside? Forage on the countryside for food? They had no money.</p></li>
<li><p>The only way out of the area involved bridges (has Xiggi ever BEEN to NO?). You want folks to walk on the bridges along with the traffic? I can just see the picture now…white folks in their SUVs, “others” pushing carts…ever see the movie Hotel Rwanda?</p></li>
</ul>
<p>Yea, let them walk out…</p>
<p>Okay, lets say the Mayor was incompent and didn’t do everything exactly right </p>
<p>Does that negate what the Feds have done or not? That FEMA, the people who are trained and whose only job is to deal with disastors have done so badly, that the Department of Homeland Security does secure our homeland,
that the levees funding was cut</p>
<p>And even if the levees would not have been fixed in time and the money was there, if no hurricane, they would have been fixed for the future.</p>
<p>So to say, well, they wouldn’t have been ready in time for this one anyone misses the point. it is the attitude of not keeping our homeland safe and secure- by keeping our coasts secure - and not investing the money for long term real projects and saving some little money relative to the billions we will now have to spend</p>
<p>Maybe now, the concerns of the people asking for the money to shore up the coast areas will be taken seriouslly</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html#076042[/url]”>http://www.nola.com/newslogs/tporleans/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_tporleans/archives/2005_09.html#076042</a></p>
<p>worth the read</p>
<p>Obviously the response has been a disaster. Beyond that, the lesson to me is that we have got to regain the will as a country to invest in infrastructure. Decades of discussion over the need to improve the levee system came down to this: it cost too much. Now look at the cost.</p>
<p>At the same time, private development allowed along the cost made the situation worse by destroying some of the natural buffers. Previous generations invested in projects for the benefit of their children and grandchildren. Among those projects were not just highways and damns but good public schools and great public university systems.</p>
<p>“Scores of New Orleans police had simply gone AWOL and fled, according to a ranking NOPD officer, who spoke on condition of anonymity.”
First they decide to allow looting–both the Mayor and Governor said there were higher priorities–and then it gets out of hand and they cry about the chaos that they promoted.
A fine city indeed.</p>
<p>FEMA, which has been mentioned so often here, is not, and was never intended to be, an agency in charge of prescribing or directing all emergency relief in the country. Instead, its purpose is to provide federal support to local leaders who will use their contingency plans to deal with the emergency as it unfolds. As you recall, years later, people still proudly wear their NYPD and FDNY hats, in honor of the real heros of that disaster. They functioned so well in part because the had a plan, and executed it. Similarly, Jeb Bush performed well as governor in the last big hurricane there because they had a plan, and executed it. Part of the plan included moving buses and emergency vehicles to higher ground so they’d be available if needed. The mayor of NO allowed the city’s fleet of buses to be swamped, and then blames the feds because he has no buses. BTW, it wasn’t FEMA that ordered a mandatory evacuation of NOLA…it was the mayor and the governor.</p>
<p>FEMA has a stated response time of 72 hours. For the first 72 hours they expect you to plan and have your own provisions.</p>
<p>driver, so FEMA should be FESA (FEderal Emergency Support Agency)? </p>
<p>A bit of bacground from the FEMA website. Careful reading will give you all sorts of hints regarding what went wrong!</p>
<p>"FEMA History</p>
<p>FEMA Directors</p>
<p>The Federal Emergency Management Agency - a former independent agency that became part of the new Department of Homeland Security in March 2003 - is tasked with responding to, planning for, recovering from and mitigating against disasters. FEMA can trace its beginnings to the Congressional Act of 1803. This act, generally considered the first piece of disaster legislation, provided assistance to a New Hampshire town following an extensive fire. In the century that followed, ad hoc legislation was passed more than 100 times in response to hurricanes, earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters.</p>
<p>By the 1930s, when the federal approach to problems became popular, the Reconstruction Finance Corporation was given authority to make disaster loans for repair and reconstruction of certain public facilities following an earthquake, and later, other types of disasters. In 1934, the Bureau of Public Roads was given authority to provide funding for highways and bridges damaged by natural disasters. The Flood Control Act, which gave the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers greater authority to implement flood control projects, was also passed. This piecemeal approach to disaster assistance was problematic and it prompted legislation that required greater cooperation between federal agencies and authorized the President to coordinate these activities.</p>
<p>The 1960s and early 1970s brought massive disasters requiring major federal response and recovery operations by the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration, established within the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD). Hurricane Carla struck in 1962, Hurricane Betsy in 1965, Hurricane Camille in 1969 and Hurricane Agnes in 1972. The Alaskan Earthquake hit in 1964 and the San Fernando Earthquake rocked Southern California in 1971. These events served to focus attention on the issue of natural disasters and brought about increased legislation. In 1968, the National Flood Insurance Act offered new flood protection to homeowners, and in 1974 the Disaster Relief Act firmly established the process of Presidential disaster declarations.</p>
<p>However, emergency and disaster activities were still fragmented. When hazards associated with nuclear power plants and the transportation of hazardous substances were added to natural disasters, more than 100 federal agencies were involved in some aspect of disasters, hazards and emergencies. Many parallel programs and policies existed at the state and local level, compounding the complexity of federal disaster relief efforts. The National Governor’s Association sought to decrease the many agencies with whom state and local governments were forced work. They asked President Jimmy Carter to centralize federal emergency functions.</p>
<p>President Carter’s 1979 executive order merged many of the separate disaster-related responsibilities into a new Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Among other agencies, FEMA absorbed: the Federal Insurance Administration, the National Fire Prevention and Control Administration, the National Weather Service Community Preparedness Program, the Federal Preparedness Agency of the General Services Administration and the Federal Disaster Assistance Administration activities from HUD. Civil defense responsibilities were also transferred to the new agency from the Defense Department’s Defense Civil Preparedness Agency.</p>
<p>John Macy was named as FEMA’s first director. Macy emphasized the similarities between natural hazards preparedness and the civil defense activities. FEMA began development of an Integrated Emergency Management System with an all-hazards approach that included “direction, control and warning systems which are common to the full range of emergencies from small isolated events to the ultimate emergency - war.”</p>
<p>The new agency was faced with many unusual challenges in its first few years that emphasized how complex emergency management can be. Early disasters and emergencies included the contamination of Love Canal, the Cuban refugee crisis and the accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant. Later, the Loma Prieta Earthquake in 1989 and Hurricane Andrew in 1992 focused major national attention on FEMA. In 1993, President Clinton nominated James L. Witt as the new FEMA director. Witt became the first agency director with experience as a state emergency manager. He initiated sweeping reforms that streamlined disaster relief and recovery operations, insisted on a new emphasis regarding preparedness and mitigation, and focused agency employees on customer service. The end of the Cold War also allowed Witt to redirect more of FEMA’s limited resources from civil defense into disaster relief, recovery and mitigation programs.</p>
<p>In 2001, President George W. Bush appointed Joe M. Allbaugh as the director of FEMA. Within months, the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11th focused the agency on issues of national preparedness and homeland security, and tested the agency in unprecedented ways. The agency coordinated its activities with the newly formed Office of Homeland Security, and FEMA’s Office of National Preparedness was given responsibility for helping to ensure that the nation’s first responders were trained and equipped to deal with weapons of mass destruction.</p>
<p>Billions of dollars of new funding were directed to FEMA to help communities face the threat of terrorism. Just a few years past its 20th anniversary, FEMA was actively directing its “all-hazards” approach to disasters toward homeland security issues. In March 2003, FEMA joined 22 other federal agencies, programs and offices in becoming the Department of Homeland Security. The new department, headed by Secretary Tom Ridge, brought a coordinated approach to national security from emergencies and disasters - both natural and man-made. Today, FEMA is one of four major branches of DHS. About 2,500 full-time employees in the Emergency Preparedness and Response Directorate are supplemented by more than 5,000 stand-by disaster reservists.</p>
<p>As it has for more than 20 years, FEMA’s mission remains: to lead America to prepare for, prevent, respond to and recover from disasters with a vision of “A Nation Prepared.” At no time in its history has this vision been more important to the country than in the aftermath of Sept. 11th.</p>
<pre><code>Last Updated: Saturday, 23-Oct-2004 00:00:00 EDT"
</code></pre>
<p>Note the next to last paragraph.</p>
<p>“BTW, it wasn’t FEMA that ordered a mandatory evacuation of NOLA…it was the mayor and the governor.”</p>
<p>Right, so FEMA - not being responsible, of course - would be willing to have people remain there and die. Not that they would care that much about deaths, not being responsible for it, of course, but it would make their job later a little bit more difficult. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the top of the Hyatt, and the Convention Center were very simple bullseyes for airdrops, nice and wide and flat, and no people or obstructions on them, but I guess there were just more important things to do…</p>
<p>Oh, well. We’ll see if they’ll do better with the 200,000 permanently homeless black folks roaming the southeast. (My bet is that they decide on “trickle down”.)</p>
<p>“I can forgive Xiggi for not undestanding what being poor means. He should read today’s NYT for a discussion of the situation w/r/t the poor in NO”</p>
<p>Well, NewMassdad, the implication is that because I am not homeless, I must not have the mental capacity to understand. As far as my understanding of poor people and compassion, I invite you to come and visit me in El Paso/Juarez. I’ll show you around a few areas where REAL poor people live. People who have to fight for every morsel of food and fight to keep a house of pallet wood and cardboard together. The poor people in the neighborhood I’ll show you do not sit on a porch waiting for the next welfare check to clear: they do not have it. Their survival hinges on going to work for a few dollars per hour. On another difference is that most people do have families that stick together though thick and thin. I do not pretend to know the plight of every poor from New Orleans. I know there is misery everywhere. So, come on down, not to the fancy Shangri-LA neighborhood you assume I still live in. I’ll show you what I have done to help poor people and then you’ll judge if I still deserve the condescending remark. </p>
<p>“Yea, let them walk out…” </p>
<p>Again, you missed my point. If people had been made aware that the evacuation was mandatory, the “exodus” could have been organized and a minimum of support and guidance would have sufficed. The helpless could have used a number of public vehicles that were left behind. Do we know what happened to all the school vehicles, the vehicles used in the maintenance of the city and school districts, the vehicles used by the utility companies? Do you believe for a second that the employees used those vehicles to seek higher grounds? I bet you that the majority of those vehicles are floating in the city or parked behind heavy gates. </p>
<p>As far as having to forage for food, why would you think it is easier for trucks filled with food and water to access the submerged Superdome that sits in the middle of a flooded city than the side road of a highway a few miles out?</p>
<p>I am not blaming the refugees for not having tried an alternative avenue. I am blaming the local government for not having a workable plan in place and for not being there to INSTRUCT the people to follow the orders to LEAVE town.</p>
<p>The mayor of New Orleans SHOULD have known to the hour when the State and Federal agencies would be THERE to take over the rest of the evacuation. Didn’t they not rehearse a possible emergency before Katrina?</p>
<p>Xiggi,</p>
<p>OK. I stand corrected. Peace!</p>
<p>How ironic that the mayor of New Orleans is a democrat. I would bet my bottom dollar that if he or she was a republican that all you Bush followers wouldn’t be pointing fingers at the mayor. How conveeenient!</p>