<p>Does anyone talk to him and tell him the facts of the life</p>
<p>guess not</p>
<p>that was the stupiest thing to say</p>
<p>was there any federal planning at all before had</p>
<p>Since it wasn’t FEMAs job anymore, whose was it</p>
<p>NPR had the local head of the Army Engineers on today. He stated that none of the proposed projects would have changed the levees as they were considered complete and up to standards. NO has never had a Category 5 storm hit in history. The cost to design to that level would be multiples of the huge costs already spent. He also stated that the systems have been the product of projects built in the 60’s, 70’s and 80’s. It takes many years to do these types of projects.</p>
<p>I am horrified that this disaster happened–the breaching of the levees, that is. I am even more horrified by the inadequate and slow response to it. I had no idea this country was so unprepared to handle a disaster like this.</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/national/nationalspecial/02response.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/02/national/nationalspecial/02response.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th</a></p>
<p>
Of course, just as in the movies and TV the president is supposed to know more than the engineers on the scene. He should have phoned them and told them, “Of course the the levees will burst, don’t you remember Civil Engineering 453 where we covered Levees of NOLA in case of a Class 4 huricane. Now get those people out of there! I’ve just ordered in the 10,000 buses that we had prepositioned for just this sort of thing. I know that the weather service doesn’t know where the storm will hit, but they obviously forgot what they learned in Meteorology 650. This thing is headed right for New Orleans.”</p>
<p>At least that’s the way the best president this country has ever known, Mertin Sheen, would have handled it.</p>
<p>So what an Army Corp guy says that NOW, of course they would, I guess those years and years of asking for money, begging for money the plans, etc, were useless</p>
<p>So, now they are trying to cover the collective behinds of this administration</p>
<p>And this President, where was he last week, where was he!!</p>
<p>We have people DYING three days after the hurricane- from what, lack of water, yet, we can get water to Iraq</p>
<p>Come on, admit this has been a planning nightmare on ALL sides, but wait, was there ANY federal planning, if FEMA doesn’t do it,who does?</p>
<p>And if we knew enough to get 7000 prisoners out, why couldn’t we get elderly people and babies out</p>
<p>I guess if this was a bunch of blond teens on spring break, they would have been out of there days ago</p>
<p>We can question a country for the death of one women, but we aren’t supposed to question our own country when people died from lack of water?</p>
<p>I’ll admit, I don’t know much about these things. But don’t they train the National Guard to airdrop food and water and stuff? Did they not have any? Or did someone make an actual decision not to do so? I mean they could have simply dropped it on the roof of the Hyatt, and the Convention Center, and had food and water for tens of thousands, without any security risk to speak of.</p>
<p>I’m probably missing something - it just seemed wierd to me.</p>
<p>“Just sick. Absolutely sick. Do you expect that Bush will march on down and tell people to stop playing basketball?”</p>
<p>Ariesathena, I don’t understand what you are saying here. What is sick and what are you referring to when you mention basketball?</p>
<p>Its not weird it is total lack of planning an being ready by the powers that be</p>
<p>Its scary is what it is</p>
<p>Mini:</p>
<p>The answer to your question emerged yesterday: red tape.</p>
<p>When asked on Thursday why nothing had been delivered to the Convention Center, the FEMA bosses said that they had not received a request from the state officials until just a few hours earlier.</p>
<p>They are sitting in a suite of air conditioned offices looking at their nice, neat maps and “planning excercises”. There has been no effective mechanism for survey where real people are gathering and addressing those REAL needs. For example, the 1500 people rescued by private citizens and deposited on the top of a levee/ferry launch in St Bernards county. As of yesterday, they had not received so much as one bottle of water. 100 of the rescued had already died of dehydration.</p>
<p>Aries,
Nevermind the question. One part I figured out and the other part I don’t care about.</p>
<p>SHouldn’t they have said, HEY YOU NEED ANYTHING DOWN THERE?</p>
<p>FEMA is laughable right now, after what the head of FEMA said yesterday, blaming the victims who coudlnt get out, that compassionate conservative shows its true colors</p>
<p>I am wondering, if this was a man-made event, if the government would have pulled it together faster, but it being, Nature or God, its being treated in almost a biblical way…when someone blames victims, that what I think of</p>
<p>When the President said it was a “trying time”, well, trying times often call for prayer, not bottles of water and food</p>
<p>It is hard to understand how a station can get a news crew and equipment into sites that FEMA can’t get food or water or a radio to.</p>
<p>There must be hundreds of flat water boats in the bayoo that could have been used to help these people. What would happen if we had to evacuate New York or Los Angeles? </p>
<p>I am tired of seeing a well shaven, freshly pressed shirt in an unwrinkled suit…saying we are doing everything we can…How long does it take to load and bring a barge from Memphis (or closer) down to NO?</p>
<p>Where is Patton when we need him?</p>
<p>Yep, and those FEMA should have been there with hundreds of satelite phones to pass out at the minimum</p>
<p>I hear a company today proudly stating the had RENTED out satelite phones relief groups</p>
<p>How gracious</p>
<p>The ex head of the FCC was talking about communication systems that work in times of disators, the kind we use in war zones, so the technology is there, the caring is not</p>
<p>Stop blaming the President for this. This is not the failure of a few, but the failure of an entire system called government. This is not a failure of leadership, but our collective failure of holding responsible the people who stay in their job regardless of the administration. </p>
<p>The Corps of Engineers has been working in the area for HUNDREDS of years. The lack of funding is just a bunch of governmental cow manure. Let’s talk about the money they wastes for tens of decades. If the danger was SO REAL and If they did not get the money to complete the levees, they could have tried to use some that was earmarked for other projects. Of course, that would mean they KNEW how to pinpoint the imminent danger for the city. What good is it to spend 80,000,000 on a canal to Venice if the levee is about to fail? The reality is that this was business as usual for the Corps: spend more time on filling the “order book” than to solve anything. After all, nobody would like to see a loss of jobs among that precious office, and that would go contrary to the governmental first mission: ensure the self-preservation at all cost. </p>
<p>The city officials are the ones who were living behind the protection of those flimsy levees. Was it not their responsibility to make sure that EVERY citizen would know HOW to evacuate in cases of a natural disaster. Was it not a local responsibility to ascertain and measure the NUMBER of people who could NOT be evacuated. Why did not go door to door and count the people? Were they too busy rubber-stamping their precious liquor licenses and collecting the bribes in the century long tradition of New Orleans? </p>
<p>If you live next to a imminent danger, it is YOUR responsibility to know what to do. The French say something like, “Charite bien organisee commence par soi-meme.” The Cajuns should have been the first ones to understand the adage.</p>
<p>Um the President hired the head of FEMA< Homeland Security…</p>
<p>Department of HOMELAND Security- what the )&%# does that mean</p>
<p>And hey, you started your 25 mile trek yet carrying three days supply of food?</p>
<p>Sorry xigs. Valiant effort. Even the president says it was not an adequate response.</p>
<p>
</p>
<p><a href=“http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/home/main100.shtml[/url]”>http://www.cbsnews.com/sections/home/main100.shtml</a></p>
<p>Bush Admits Katrina Response ‘Not Enough’
Sep 02 7:48 PM US/Eastern</p>
<p>By JENNIFER LOVEN
Associated Press Writer</p>
<p>NEW ORLEANS</p>
<p>Scorched by criticism about sluggish federal help, President Bush acknowledged the government’s failure to stop lawlessness and help desperate people in New Orleans. “The results are not enough,” Bush said Friday in the face of mounting complaints from Republicans and Democrats alike. </p>
<p>Bush promised to crack down on crime and violence, rush food and medicine to the needy and restore electrical power within weeks to millions of customers across the Gulf Coast in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. </p>
<p>“This is a storm that requires immediate action now,” the president said after a daylong tour of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana. “I understand the devastation requires more than one day’s attention. It’s going to require the attention of this country for a long period of time.” </p>
<p>Congress passed a $10.5 billion disaster aid package, and Bush said he would sign it by day’s end. He also said National Guard troops were moving in to restore order in New Orleans. He said the city’s convention center, where thousands of people sheltered for days in unsafe conditions, was secure. </p>
<p>Inspecting Gulf Coast disaster scenes from the air and on the ground, Bush said the damage was “worse than imaginable.” He consoled weeping women and praised Coast Guard teams that pulled stranded people from the roofs of flooded homes. In New Orleans, Bush flew by helicopter to the ruptured 17th Street levee and watched workers load huge sandbags that were airlifted and dropped into the breach. </p>
<p>He stayed far from the worst-hit areas of the city and places that have been gripped by crime. Bush met with state and local officials, including New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin who a day earlier had lashed out at federal officials: “They don’t have a clue what’s going on down here.” </p>
<p>“The president is starting to grasp the magnitude of the situation,” said Sen. Mary Landrieu, D-La. Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said, “The president obviously was just stunned” by what he saw. </p>
<p>Bush sprinkled levity in his remarks at New Orleans’ airport at the end of the day. He talked about Houston, which has agreed to house more than 15,000 evacuees from New Orleans, and recalled that he used to enjoy himself _ “occasionally too much” _ in that Texas town. </p>
<p>Four days after Katrina killed hundreds if not thousands, Republicans joined Democrats in wondering why it was taking so long to relieve the misery of so many people living in squalor without the necessities of life. </p>
<p>“If we can’t respond faster than this to an event we saw coming across the Gulf for days, then why do we think we’re prepared to respond to a nuclear or biological attack?” asked former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Republican. </p>
<p>Republican Gov. Mitt Romney of Massachusetts called the government’s response “an embarrassment.” </p>
<p>Rep. Mark Foley, R-Fla., called upon Bush to recall National Guardsmen stationed in Iraq whose homes and families were in the path of Katrina’s destruction. The president said there were enough Guard troops for Iraq and recovery efforts. </p>
<p>The storm of criticism was stinging for a president who won widespread praise for his handling of the terrorist attacks four years ago. It was an unwelcome turn for Bush, suffering sagging approval ratings in the polls. </p>
<p>While Bush has been loath to admit errors throughout his presidency, he conceded that the recovery is not proceeding well. Some White House aides and Republicans were glad to hear the president stop defending the administration’s response when it was so obvious that conditions were so bad for so many people. </p>
<p>“Where it’s not working right, we’re going to make it right,” the president said after walking through a devastated neighborhood of Mobile, Ala. “Where it is working right, we’re going to duplicate it elsewhere.” </p>
<p>Bush faulted efforts to restore order in New Orleans, where looting, violence and other crimes have been rampant. Asked what he meant by unacceptable results, Bush said, “Well, I’m talking about the fact that we don’t have enough security in New Orleans yet.” He said 1,200 National Guard troops arrived there on Friday and that 1,200 were deployed on Thursday. </p>
<p>“They need to stabilize that situation,” the president said. “They need to make sure that the food and medicine that is in place is given to the people that need the food and medicine.” </p>
<p>He said he was not faulting efforts in Mississippi, where Republican Gov. Haley Barbour praised federal help. Still, Barbour said, “We’ve suffered a grievous blow that we won’t recover from for a long while” </p>
<p>There were calls from Republicans for Bush to name a prominent official to oversee the recovery. Gingrich suggested former New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani. Rep. John Sweeney, R-N.Y., suggested Giuliani, former Secretary of State Colin Powell or retired Gen. Tommy Franks to take charge. </p>
<p>In Biloxi, Miss., Bush comforted two weeping women on a street where a house had collapsed and towering trees were stripped of their branches. “My son needs clothes,” said Bronwynne Bassier, 23, clutching several trash bags. “I don’t have anything.” </p>
<p>“I understand that,” Bush said. He kissed both women on their heads and walked with his arms around them, telling them they could get help from the Salvation Army. “Hang in there,” he said. </p>
<p>Asked later how the richest country on Earth could not meet the needs of its people, Bush said: “I am satisfied with the response. I am not satisfied with all the results.” </p>
<p>Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she would fly to her native Alabama on Sunday to view the destruction there. She acknowledged that the trip is an unusual one for the nation’s top diplomat. </p>
<p>“I’m an American and I’m a Southern American,” she told reporters. “I just hope I can be a little bit of an extension for a president who cares deeply about what’s going on in the Gulf region but can’t be everywhere.” </p>
<p>Rice, the administration’s highest-ranking black, dismissed criticism from black leaders who were angry about what they said was a slow federal response to a disaster affecting mostly poor people.</p>
<p>The President said this today in Alabama…
“…Again, I want to thank you all for – and, Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job. The FEMA Director is working 24 – (applause) – they’re working 24 hours a day. …”</p>
<p>and said this today in Mississippi"…And the people have just got to know, we’ve got what it takes to do more than one thing, and we’ll secure our country from the terrorists, and we’ll help rebuild this part of the world. …" </p>
<p>so after what weve seen this week do you think we are secure from “the terrorists”? Are we a safer country?</p>
<p>Clearly, the US is not yet capable of moving one million people with advance notice. Keep in mind, that is a gargantuan task in the hisstory of western civilization.</p>