FEMA/New Orleans/Louisiana
I've read what you all have written including the link to Meet The Press that Shea gave. I've heard many great ideas: the buddy system, evacuation drills and bringing the homeless to the army bases.
I've also learned some things. I didn't know there was only one highway out. I also hadn't thought about traffic or those that wanted to leave but ran out of time.
The transcript to Meet The Press allowed me to gain some insight into those at the helm of the wheel. I'm just going to randomly mention some of the things that irked me.
Tim Russert asked Secretary Chertoff how it could be that the White House and FEMA were surprised that the levees broke. Here is part of Chertoff's response:
"What I said is in this storm, what happened is the storm passed and passed without the levees breaking on Monday. Tuesday morning, I opened newspapers and saw headlines that said "New Orleans Dodged The Bullet," which surprised people. What surprised them was that the levee broke overnight and the next day and, in fact, collapsed. That was a surprise."
What this tells me is that the top official of the Federal Emergency Management Agency used the newspaper to learn of the storm's direction. Yes, you read it right, the newspaper. Why was he not given frequent up-to-the-minute reports from the National Weather Service or a similar panel of experts? That one sentence tells me how Chertoff just doesn't get it.
Tim later spoke with Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard. He mentioned a couple of examples where FEMA actually hindered the process. Mr. Broussard said that FEMA turned back three trucks full of water they had ordered from Wal-Mart. Whose side is FEMA on anyway? Their job is to save lives, not to end them.
The governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour had a much different outlook on what happened in the territory of which he is responsible. This shows what can happen when the local and state officials do things right.
"But my experience is very different from Louisiana, apparently. I don't know anything about Louisiana. Over here, we had the Coast Guard in Monday night. They took 1,700 people off the roofs of houses with guys hanging off of helicopters to get them. They sent us a million meals last night because we'd eaten everything through. Everything hasn't been perfect here, by any stretch of the imagination, Tim. But the federal government has been good partners to us. They've tried hard. Our people have tried hard. Firemen and policemen and emergency medical people, National Guard, highway patrolmen working virtually around the clock, sleeping in their cars when they could sleep. And we've made progress every day."
For those old enough to remember, I imagine that Pearl Harbor and President Kennedy's death were life-altering events. In my life, it has been 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.
I don't know how many days or hours it was before the city of New Orleans was notified of Hurricane Katrina but there was at least enough time for some people to leave the city. As we are well aware, for a variety of reasons, many people did not or could not leave.
The mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana made many impassioned pleas for help. We are all disgusted and horrified at FEMA's slow response time. Hundreds or thousands of people may have been saved. For all their preparedness, the federal government didn't deliver.
Here's where it becomes unsettling for me. The people of New Orleans were told to leave but how did the city and state officials expect the elderly and infirm to leave? The city of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana made no provisions for mobilization. Telling people they need to evacuate is simply not enough.
Where was the Louisiana National Guard? Why weren't they in full force helping to evacuate. Where were all the busses before the hurricane hit? Does the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana have an evacuation plan? If so, I doubt the plan says to wait for the federal assistance. Emergency responsiveness expands from local to state to federal. It does not bounce straight to the federal level.
And so I say to the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana, where were you and why did you let the people of New Orleans down?
The government really doesn't have an excuse and that's they're running around the question instead of answering it. I'm watching Gen. Myers on TV right now and he just mentioned the headline of 'Dodged a Bullet'. They don't even get that that's a bad answer. I hadn't thought about the governor of Mississippi being republican. I'm sure that has a lot to do with why he didn't criticize FEMA. ~gg
I've also learned some things. I didn't know there was only one highway out. I also hadn't thought about traffic or those that wanted to leave but ran out of time.
The transcript to Meet The Press allowed me to gain some insight into those at the helm of the wheel. I'm just going to randomly mention some of the things that irked me.
Tim Russert asked Secretary Chertoff how it could be that the White House and FEMA were surprised that the levees broke. Here is part of Chertoff's response:
"What I said is in this storm, what happened is the storm passed and passed without the levees breaking on Monday. Tuesday morning, I opened newspapers and saw headlines that said "New Orleans Dodged The Bullet," which surprised people. What surprised them was that the levee broke overnight and the next day and, in fact, collapsed. That was a surprise."
What this tells me is that the top official of the Federal Emergency Management Agency used the newspaper to learn of the storm's direction. Yes, you read it right, the newspaper. Why was he not given frequent up-to-the-minute reports from the National Weather Service or a similar panel of experts? That one sentence tells me how Chertoff just doesn't get it.
Tim later spoke with Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard. He mentioned a couple of examples where FEMA actually hindered the process. Mr. Broussard said that FEMA turned back three trucks full of water they had ordered from Wal-Mart. Whose side is FEMA on anyway? Their job is to save lives, not to end them.
The governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour had a much different outlook on what happened in the territory of which he is responsible. This shows what can happen when the local and state officials do things right.
"But my experience is very different from Louisiana, apparently. I don't know anything about Louisiana. Over here, we had the Coast Guard in Monday night. They took 1,700 people off the roofs of houses with guys hanging off of helicopters to get them. They sent us a million meals last night because we'd eaten everything through. Everything hasn't been perfect here, by any stretch of the imagination, Tim. But the federal government has been good partners to us. They've tried hard. Our people have tried hard. Firemen and policemen and emergency medical people, National Guard, highway patrolmen working virtually around the clock, sleeping in their cars when they could sleep. And we've made progress every day."
For those old enough to remember, I imagine that Pearl Harbor and President Kennedy's death were life-altering events. In my life, it has been 9/11 and Hurricane Katrina.
I don't know how many days or hours it was before the city of New Orleans was notified of Hurricane Katrina but there was at least enough time for some people to leave the city. As we are well aware, for a variety of reasons, many people did not or could not leave.
The mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana made many impassioned pleas for help. We are all disgusted and horrified at FEMA's slow response time. Hundreds or thousands of people may have been saved. For all their preparedness, the federal government didn't deliver.
Here's where it becomes unsettling for me. The people of New Orleans were told to leave but how did the city and state officials expect the elderly and infirm to leave? The city of New Orleans and the State of Louisiana made no provisions for mobilization. Telling people they need to evacuate is simply not enough.
Where was the Louisiana National Guard? Why weren't they in full force helping to evacuate. Where were all the busses before the hurricane hit? Does the city of New Orleans and the state of Louisiana have an evacuation plan? If so, I doubt the plan says to wait for the federal assistance. Emergency responsiveness expands from local to state to federal. It does not bounce straight to the federal level.
And so I say to the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of Louisiana, where were you and why did you let the people of New Orleans down?
The government really doesn't have an excuse and that's they're running around the question instead of answering it. I'm watching Gen. Myers on TV right now and he just mentioned the headline of 'Dodged a Bullet'. They don't even get that that's a bad answer. I hadn't thought about the governor of Mississippi being republican. I'm sure that has a lot to do with why he didn't criticize FEMA. ~gg
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home