The Times-Picayune Letter

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<p>Note: This is an open letter to the President, and is not subject to the usual copyright protections…</p>

<p>An open letter to the president from The Times-Picayune of New Orleans, published Sunday</p>

<p>NEW ORLEANS — Dear Mr. President:</p>

<p>We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, “What is not working, we’re going to make it right.”</p>

<p>Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.</p>

<p>Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It’s accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.</p>

<p>How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.</p>

<p>Despite the city’s multiple points of entry, our nation’s bureaucrats spent days after last week’s hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city’s stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.</p>

<p>Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.</p>

<p>Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a “Today” show story Friday morning.</p>

<p>Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.</p>

<p>We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.</p>

<p>Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing when he allowed those with no alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don’t know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city’s death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.</p>

<p>It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?</p>

<p>State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have but two urgent needs: “Buses! And gas!” Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.</p>

<p>In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, “We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day.”</p>

<p>Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.</p>

<p>Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, “You’re doing a heck of a job.”</p>

<p>That’s unbelievable.</p>

<p>There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.</p>

<p>We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We’re no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.</p>

<p>No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn’t be reached.</p>

<p>Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.</p>

<p>When you do, we will be the first to applaud.</p>

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<p>Anyone watching television or reading internet news seemed to be more aware of what was going on than the Bush Administration. As soon as I saw a reporter in an SUV driving through the city I wondered where were the caravans of support bringing help in and people out. </p>

<p>I expect more Bush photo ops as his lackies blame the Mayor and the Governor, but I don’t think they will attack the Republican Governor next door…who also has a mess on his hands. Is this the way we take care of the country while our national guard is out on Bushes mideastern conquests.</p>

<p>It will be interesting to see if federal money goes to the wealthy with second homes, before it rebuilds homes for the poor.</p>

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<p>As Harry Truman said “The buck stops here” (the President’s desk).
The Bush administration however is incompetent and dysfunctional. It is not by coincidence that every business Bush ran in private life went in the toilet. Our country is just the next unfortunate business in that legacy.</p>

<p>It is a one issue presidency (terrorism) and they have used 9/11 and the terrorist issue to avoid most anything else and as a shield against all criticism (we’re at war, don’t be unpatriotic and criticize your gov’t).</p>

<p>The Bush administration has blocked or downsized many, many domestic programs including several specific to the New Orleans area. Now, talk about national security, here is an area (NO/gulf coast) with the largest port in the country, an area responsible for a HUGE percentage of oil refinement and natural gas distribution for our country and the area was protected by a 100 year old, outdated levee and pump system with known superior technology ignored. Specific upgrades have been proposed to the Bush admin over the past 4-5 years and have gone ignored (in fairness, he is not the first President to ignore this issue-just the one in charge when the luck finally ran out).</p>

<p>Under Bush, FEMA lost cabinet level status and was folded under the new Homeland Paranoia Security cabinet post and FEMA’s funding has been reduced significantly year after year after year. The only focus is terror response, not disaster response, with the apparent arrogance that such disasters only happen to third world nations.</p>

<p>Hospitals, bases, etc. are builit in Iraq instantaneously, but a week goes by on the Gulf Coast… I must presume that the president was busy finishing the children’s book he had started on the morning of 9/11.</p>

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<p>What a load of BS. If things were built so quickly in Iraq I want to see it. You are beyond the pale.</p>

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<p>Did the local paper arrange one bus to take folks without funds out of town?? What exactly did they tell people before the storm?? I want to see all there bright ideas in advance–not Monday morning quarterbacking.</p>

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<p>barrons-I get the approach. Attack me personally and avoid the subject. BTW, yes things were built that fast in Iraq (albeit temporary structures, leading to more permanent edifices). We have responded to many other world matters in hours. A week for the federal government to act within OUR OWN COUNTRY… please. Defend Bush all you want. There’s a reason he has the lowest approval rate since the height of the Vietnam war era and his handling of this tragedy is just another example.</p>

<p>BTW, as to your question, I would presume that the local paper may have been underwater for a day or so and, in any event, evacuation and aid is NOT THEIR responsibility. It is that of your president, FEMA and other agencies who are apparently preoccupied instead with issuing their BS terror alerts to keep us all in line.</p>

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<p>TheTimes-Picayune’s coverage of Katrina that is readily accessible starts on Saturday 8/27. It may have begun covering both the progress of Katrina and of local governments, but the available archives only begin on 8/27. TP’s coverage show that measures were being taken to evacuate Louisianians and that Gov. Blanco had written to Pres. Bush to request emergency assistance. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_08_27.html[/url]”>http://www.nola.com/newslogs/breakingtp/index.ssf?/mtlogs/nola_Times-Picayune/archives/2005_08_27.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>I would hold a Democratic president or an Independent president just as responsible as I hold Bush. Barrons, honestly, your attempts to defend this president leave me speechless. But, I’ll keep on going anyway.</p>

<p>I find myself wondering how soon it will be before Haliburton positions itself to profit from no bid contracts to rebuild New Orleans. If anything is beyond the pale, it was watching American citizens die when children could see what needed to be done.</p>

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<p>remember, barrons thought NO was a “cesspool of humanity” so whatever</p>

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<p>Marite, again, you seem to confuse the Governor’s request that La. be declared in a state of emergency (a request the president immediately granted) with an immediate assumption of responsibility for managing the immediate aftermath of the storm. It simply isn’t so. Also, the TP link contains this, showing how little the mayor had done to prepare for evacuating those with “special needs.” Go to the Superdome, and bring your own food, water for three or four days, to be safe and folding chairs. Perhaps his single stupidest stipulation–you may not bring weapons. Two previous use of the Superdome as a refuge had proven that if the mayor wasn’t providing police protection there, he’d damn well better let the people there protect themselves.</p>

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<p>it is amazing to me that they the President, who didn’t even leave his vacation for several days did a good job, when in fact he went to do a political speech</p>

<p>Guess that was okay, and Cheney didn’t leave his vacation till Thursday</p>

<p>its amazing the defending of incompetence, guess thats why Brown had that job</p>

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<p>Driver:</p>

<p>I don’t confuse anything. I merely reported what I read in the TP. What the implications are of Blanco’s request or the adequacy of the measures that were being launched, I did not get into. You are willfully trying to make me say things I did not, and have no intention of saying. Please stop.</p>

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<p>Marite: Then what was the point of your post? You’ve implied before that the administration failed in its obligation to save the city following declaring the region a disaster area. That is incorrect. Excuse me for failing to understand the point behind the obvious redundancy of #7, with its link.</p>

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<p>Blanco still refuses to cooperate. Which is it–state job or federal .</p>

<p>“Blanco has refused to sign over control of the National Guard to the federal government and has turned to a Clinton administration official, former Federal Emergency Management Agency chief James Lee Witt, to help run relief efforts”</p>

<p>I think having armed thugs shooting at relief workers certainly cements NO’s fine reputation. My day was made when I heard they were DEAD. What other cities have had such thuggery running rampant after a natural disaster??</p>

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<p>The Times-Picayune coverage is very thorough and worth reading. That was the point of providing the link in post #7. Do read that coverage.</p>

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<p>Bush wasn’t too quick out of the gate for 9/11 either but in this case, he has a real opportunity to make it up to hundreds of thousands of stranded folks–with temporary but decent housing, schooling and jobs.</p>

<p>I didn’t vote for Bush and he isn’t my favorite human being, but I’m not going to bet against him when so much is still needed. He can make it ($$$) happen. </p>

<p>Fingers crossed he delivers!!</p>

<p>btw Nagin pointed out that many of the crazed armed gangs are in fact, drug addicts without a fix. Yet another contingency to plan for in the future…</p>

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<p>Marite,
Sorry if I imputed a false motive. You’re right, the T-P has lots of useful information on this subject, both recent and historical.</p>

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<p>The Times-Picayune did an absolutely outstanding job serving the public throughout Hurricane Katrina. Their effort to keep reporters in the city and publish a continual news source electronically was amazing.</p>

<p>The NYTimes ran a feature in today’s paper on the Times-Picayune’s effort:</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/business/media/05picayune.html?hp&ex=1125979200&en=db6f4da165b1dea9&ei=5094&partner=homepage[/url]”>http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/business/media/05picayune.html?hp&ex=1125979200&en=db6f4da165b1dea9&ei=5094&partner=homepage&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>Here’s a short sample</p>

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<p>So Mini, as you know all and have been at all major disasters, a simple question. Do they evacuate everyone left in NO-even against their will, or let them stay? How about pets?</p>

<p>I also read all the Times articles which emphasize evacuation and following the state and local plans which included providing transport to those without cars. Guess they forgot in all the excitement. The request to FEMA does not include evacuation help prior to the storm. </p>

<p>As to those fine citizens of NO–the visitors have a different take. They spoke of rampant sex assaults, fights, and murder during their stay at the Superdome. Fine people indeed.</p>

<p>More evidence NO was warned but many took no action</p>

<p>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!</p>

<p>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.” </p>

<p>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.”</p>

<p>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.”</p>

<p>"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.</p>

<p>“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.”</p>

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<p>There aren’t that many of them, but what the rule of thumb has always been is: 1) Are they in imminent danger of death? (if not, there are always plenty of people who are); and 2) Does their presence hamper other emergency efforts, or place others at undue risk? If the answer to either is “yes”, then folks are forcibly evacuated, under emergency powers maintained by the local authorities. (In our state, such powers are granted by the state to towns and municipalities having their own charters - they are state powers, implemented locally.)</p>

<p>At some future time, property may be condemned and cordoned off, or “taken” (shades of previous discussions.) </p>

<p>We had examples of all of these during the Santa Cruz quake. The last (the cordoning off of property) is always the most controversial, done under the auspices of public health and safety laws, which always raise eyebrows.</p>

<p>Did you really want an answer?</p>