<p>Right, people with no transportation, people who were in wheelchairs and using oxygen, babies in neonatal intensive care: It was certainly their fault that they didn’t evacuate.</p>
<p>The fed government needs to WAKE UP!</p>
<p>"(CNN) – The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday those New Orleans residents who chose not to heed warnings to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina bear some responsibility for their fates.</p>
<p>Michael Brown also agreed with other public officials that the death toll in the city could reach into the thousands.</p>
<p>“Unfortunately, that’s going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings,” Brown told CNN.</p>
<p>“I don’t make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans,” he said.</p>
<p>I’d fire him within minutes of such a statement (and my poll numbers would go up! ;)) The fact that he couldn’t do his job competently, either before or after the hurricane, does not give him the right to sit in judgment on other people. After all, his expertise is in, ahem, emergency management.</p>
<p>I have spent most of the morning distracted from my work by the horrific images coming from New Orleans. I have tried to avoid the political discussions but when I read the news account of the FEMA director blaming the victims, it was more than I could take. In the wake of a mind-boggling lack of assistance, to even give voice to this notion is beyond my comprehension. </p>
<p>There are, no doubt, people who made a decision to stay and do bear some responsibility for their circumstances of being in New Orleans when the storm struck. There will be time for talking about the importance of heeding future hurricane warnings. But, there are thousands and thousands of people who clearly had no luxury of a decision. They had no means, were ill, were children, were staying with those who were ill, etc. This callous position being espoused by Michael Brown, the person in charge of bringing relief is perhaps more telling than we would like to imagine. </p>
<p>I have sent money, I have cried, I have yelled at the television. I am angry, I am ashamed, I am hearbroken, I am helpless.</p>
<p>While I agree that the ultimate responsible need to be removed, it won;t do a lot of good. Merely replacing the head of a governmantal entity does not cure the real symptom: the inability of any governmental agency to DO the job they are paid for. The incompetence and laziness transcends through the various levels and increases as you get lower. </p>
<p>One question to ask is how many people were at WORK between Friday noon -the hour where punlic officials who come in late have a chance to visit the ones that leave early- and Monday noon at the various agencies involved with disaster prevention. </p>
<p>This is not a failure of a few; it is the collective failure of a system! </p>
<p>It reflects that we have allowed our government to grow in a conglomerate of inefficient, arrogant, and heartless monsters. We see its image through the offcials who are thrown in front of the TV cameras to explain the failures. The real failures are found at the levels that do not see many changes regardless of the administration in charge. The saddest part is that it is not hard to see the failures at work: you only need to step in any governmental office and try to get something done.</p>
<p>What is scary is that is what he said out loud…often, what surrounding what is said, but kept back is even scarier</p>
<p>I mean, if he says something so callous in public, imagine what went on behind closed doors, with planning (wellwhat planning) and with the head of Homeland Security, who is his boss</p>
<p>I saw the interview. I saw the reaction of the interviewer. I was as shocked as anyone by the first sentence, but I also listened to the rest of the interview. </p>
<p>It was easy to see the level of frustration of the human behind the title and rank. It was easy to notice the frustration of someone who gets reports of shots being fired at the workers and volunteers. I agree that the person should not have SAID what he said, because he cannot say what millions of people do THINK about what happened in New Orleans. </p>
<p>It was also easy to see that he was genuine when he said that FEMA had not learned of the plight of the people stranded at the convention center. </p>
<p>I think that all agencies involved have shown how poorly prepared the City of New Orleans was for something that was PREDICATBLE. It also showw how naive and incompetent the locals were to believe that they could be saved by our current government. </p>
<p>They could have hoped for divine intervention with the same fervor. God is not known to help men who cannot help themselves. The difference is, of ourse, that we all pay for a government to do the job they claim to be able to do. For all of you who want larger and larger governments, you now have the proof in front of your eyes. People who believe that the government can do a job the citizens cannot handle can see the same devastating image of incompetence, arrogance, and heartlessness. </p>
<p>The biggest criticism that our leaders deserve is that they are continuously failing to see that the system they command is rotten at the core and that the accountability ought to start from the bottom up.</p>
<p>He is in charge, to say that ws a disgrace, he had days and days to get it right…he can be frustated, he should be, he is incompetent</p>
<p>He is the front person for the Administration with regard to FEMA and Homeland Security on this disastor</p>
<p>For him to say that while old ladies lie dead in their wheelchairs is so callous it makes me ill</p>
<p>ANd if they hadn’t learned the plight, why not? What kind of excuse is thet? He is in charge, he is the boss, and he doens’t know that? We all knew and we watch the news</p>
<p>For him to not know what was going on is pathetic.</p>
<p>To excuse himn for not knowing what was going on is really amazing</p>
<p>Its his job to know, thats why he is in charge</p>
<p>Oh yeah, the worlds greatest country doesn’t have communication systems that work in an emergency, I forgot</p>
<p>What is the NO’s mayor excuse to not know the extent of the damages and the number of people who could be stranded? What is her excuse for not enforcing the curfews and allowing establishment to operate minutes before the levees broke? </p>
<p>The Feds biggest mistake was to believe that the local government had a clue. We spent billions trying to save a city led by thieves who also happen to be blind, deaf, and braindead. The image of NO’ best and finest stealing dresses from Wal-Mart tells the level of the selfishness of a city that elevated debauchery, revelry, lack of morals, and lawlessness to a science. No wonder they did not know how to do things right!</p>
<p>I couldn’t believe the head of FEMA calling the flooding in NO “unexpected”!! The levees were constructed to handle a Cat 3 hurricane, at best, so how could he or anybody else be surprised by widespread flooding when the city was hit by a Cat 4. The devastation and desparation has been difficult to watch. I am astounded by the government’s lack of coordination and response.</p>
<p>Since the Mayor of NO had no clue, the US Gov’t has no responsibility for stepping in to ensure that lives of “clueless” American citizens are valued and protected?</p>
<p>That is the definition of Federal Government.</p>
<p>Perhaps it’s calculated risk. Can you imagine the COST of really trying to evacuate an entire city and there’s a chance that the hurricane might turn off, or as they have always done, weaken?
Hmmmm. So they take a gamble. They lost this time. I’m a terrible cynic, and I really do believe that governments at all levels do put a dollars and cents value on human life.
oh, and the head of FEMA should really be fired…after making an apology to all those poor, pitiful citizens of NO…and perhaps leave him to their mercy.</p>
<p>So I guess this is the blame thread…you DPs are so organized…</p>
<p>I started watching 20/20 tonite before i realized that Numbers was on CBS. there was a clip on the NO police headquartered in an abandoned WalMart…the police interviewee admitted they were hungry and were “SCROUNGING” food from the WalMart shelves…then the show followed with a series of clips of New Orleansians “LOOTING” food from stores and police pointing guns at them… then i realized i had to change the channel. Language is a powerful thing…</p>
<p>Mom0809- we were in NO moving our D into college. It was very difficult to get clear answers as to whether to leave. This was Saturday. The school had closed the campus but the staff of the hotels and residents we spoke with all felt that people staying in the hotels would be fine. That many NO residents ride out the hurricanes by moving to the hotels. On the news it did not say leave. But that if you were going to leave it was a good time to do it. We made the decision to drive out. Lucky that we had a rental car. On the late news Sat evening the mayor was interviewed and was clearly shaken. He announced that he would like to order a mandatory evucuation but was looking into the legality of such a move. That the city attorney was researching. When the order did come the next morning it excluded the hotels, hospitals and essential service people. The hotels and hospitals weren’t excluded because they were safe but because they could not be accomplished and the city was worried about being sued.</p>