As I watched coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, I grew angrier and angrier. Thousands of people stranded at the New Orleans Convention Center without food or water for days. Exhausted evacuees traveling for hours to Houston only to be turned away. Patients at hospitals waiting and waiting with no sign of help. And we had time to plan for this one. It doesn’t give me much confidence in our government’s ability to handle an unexpected disaster — such as a terrorist attack.
Tim Naftali of Slate is wondering about the same thing: “How is it possible that with the fourth anniversary of 9/11 almost upon us, the federal government doesn’t have in hand the capability to prepare for and then manage a large urban disaster, natural or man-made?”
Posted by Melissa Cooley
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34 Comments
By all means, we need to do whatever is needed to help the people on the coast; but is the federal government the only entity allowed to initiate help?
Why aren’t the city and state governments being held to a higher standard? Rows of buses still sit in parking lots in New Orleans, never used by the city to evacuate the poor and sick. Why weren’t fire engines and EMS trucks relocated to high ground? Doesn’t the city or state own a boat or a helicopter? Why are New Orleans’ flood pumps placed where they won’t work in the event of a flood? Did New Orleans even have a disaster plan that anybody had ever read or practiced?
Everyone expects the federal government to wave a magic wand. Reading too much Harry Potter, I guess. What makes people think the federal government is their nanny? What ever happened to self-reliance and personal responsibility?
Yes, by all means, help the people; but how long are we going to let people expect us to pick up their pieces every time a predictable disaster happens, just because the exact location isn’t perfectly predictable?
Why do people insist on living in harms way and then expect the government to make them whole again?
People living near the ocean need to be told to make their own provisions for their survival. Society can’t keep bailing out those who live stupidly. It’s the same with helmet and seat belt laws, and with smoking regulations. Society cannot support grossly and unnecessarily risky behaviors.
I was thinking the same thing about idiot rednecks who are own their 3rd and 4th trailer houses. I also wonder how Pat Robertson and Falwell will blame the hurricane on gays since Trent Lott lost his house also. Mabye God was getting high.
I was thinking the same thing about idiot rednecks who are own their 3rd and 4th trailer houses after the torandos. I also wonder how Pat Robertson and Falwell will blame the hurricane on gays since Trent Lott lost his house also. Mabye God was getting high.
Finally, a post with teeth. This is exactly what the response should have been after 9/11: Federal, state and local governments preparing for a natural or man-made disaster. That obviously has not been accomplished. All we’ve heard is talk about finding terrorists, nothing about what to do if we don’t find them. “The unthinkable will never happen again…not to us!”Arrogance and stupidity reign in the land. Maybe the deaths, destruction, and anarcy that have resulted from hurricane Katrina will be a wake up call. One would surly hope so, but judging from past performance, one doubts it.
What’s even worse here is that they knew the problems they would have from the recent disaster drills. It’s unfolding just as their worst case predictions said it could yet nothing was in place to head off the problems.
Since when is the federal government solely responsible for resolving local problems, which is what Katrina is. Every person who lives on or near the ocean understands, or should understand, that hurricane season brings risks like this. More importantly, local governments should be prepared for this without looking to Washington and casting blame on the feds for a slow response. Engineers had been warning folks that the levees were unsafe, but local government did nothing to address the issue until disaster struck. Plus, folks had been warned to evacuate but chose not to. This is a local issue, not an issue for the feds.
sbp,It IS now a federal, state and local problem.Federal, via the fact that this disaster affects us all…in the pockbook, whether we donate out of the kindness of our hearts, or are hit in the pocketbook by higher gas prices. These people in the struck areas need our help NOW, and the feds have, or should have, the best logistics to set it up.The city is basically destroyed. Who will rebuild it? Who will come up with way to rebuild the levees so this disaster wont and can’t be repeated? Who will provide the temporary housing, food and medicinal needs of the people left homeless?Answer: All the good people of this nation, including federal, state and local agencies.I, for one, will be very interested on hearing the ideas coming up about the chances of making New Orleans a great city again.
You know! The Billions of Dollars given away to State and Local areas from the Department of Homeland Security to prepare for disasters, this will be a failure.
The local government will probably say they did get enough money, but I think they sat on their butts and love the money they were getting from Homeland Security for thier slush fund. A failure of planning and preparing from the local and state government, NOT the federal government.
Joe,It IS the federal government’s responsibility to be prepared to handle disasters such as that left by Hurricane Katrina. That does not in any way relieve state and local agencies from their responsibility to be prepared. All these agencies failed big time, and they had better learn real fast from their failure or we, the people, are going to be paying through the nose.Imagine if New York were to be hit by a disaster of this magnitude. If a hurricane were to hit that city, millions would be affected; hundreds of thousands would probably be dead. Half the city is underground; Manhattan Island would be under water. Do you think we’re prepared for that? Not a chance.That’s what we should be paying taxes for: protecting and serving the people of this nation when disaster does strike, from either natural causes or terrorism. Disasters are going to happen. Federal, state and local government agencies had better wake up and get their acts together.
It’s not hard to understand why everything went so wrong. The people of NO have been complaining for years that the levys might not hold if there was a major hurricane, even when I was there 7 yrs ago. Why was nothing done? If the levy didn’t give way, it might not have been such a huge disaster. It’s really sad that everyone knew what the potential was, but did nothing to prevent it.
Exactly, Damoon: Why was nothing done in the past? But it did happen, and what are we going to do to see that it can’t be repeated? The blame game does nothing to answer that question.But the question “will we learn from this mistake” does deserve an answer. Lets make damn sure that the question is answered to the satisfaction of the nation. Anything less is unacceptable.
Getting back to the topic of this blog. Thanks to the American fighting men and women, the terrorists will not have a chance to hit the US like they did on 9-11. Because of our pres’s efforts to take this war to them and fight it on their turff, we can all sleep a little safer. No, they wont give us any warnings, but we a better prepaired then we have been in the past. Thanks to our military they have not had a chance to hit us again.
Kevin,Dream on.
Have we been attacked and I missed it?
Been to London or Madrid lately? The British are with the US in Iraq, and it didn’t help them any. They can hit us anytime they want to. I think one reason they haven’t is because they set the bar so high after their success on 9/11, they are having a hard time trying to outdo their attacks of that day.
Where are those hundreds of millions of bucks that were supposedly spent to improve our responses to emergencies following 9/11?Seems they were used to buy political support instead of infrastructure.I’m sure the people of New Orleans are properly grateful that our fearless leader is protecting them against the threat of liberalism and low oil prices, and can sleep better in their soggy beds, knowing that at least they don’t have to worry about an excess of aid!
All I have is questions.Who are these idiots out there shooting at the rescue teams? Druggies? Looters? Why are they so intent on stalling the evacuation? Is it party time for the bums and where can they hope to stash their loot?And why do you think the mayor, governor or president should have anticipated that?
Great blog posting including TV stills of the predicted path of Katrina in the days before it hit. Monday morning QB’s might want to skip this link.
http://eurota.blogspot.com/2005/09/msm-blamestorming-under-radar.html
lol. Yeah, if FEMA had depended on your tv guy, Jimmy, it would have been a mess. Me, I’m thinking that if I were responsible and I were the president (not that those two go together these days), I’d have just concentrated on the place with the levees: NOLA.
On Friday afternoon, late, I got my haircut. The barber and I talked about how Katrina had bounced off the east coast of Florida and was heading out into the gulf. The gulf and its warm water: fuel, and how big do you think this thing will get? Don’t know, but I remember that New Orleans is below water level, with just levees to protect it from the lake and the gulf…
Heck, my BARBER and me had this thing pretty well hammered out on Friday, 8/26.
Why didn’t FEMA?
Today on MSNBC, a reporter interviewed a professor at LSU, a Dr. Van Heerden. He said that he and his colleagues had been studying the possible effects of a hurricane and the possibility of the NO bowl flooding since 1998. They showed their findings a year ago in a large symposium that was attended by NO and Louisiana high government officials and FEMA personnel and a representative from the White House. He reported to them that 70% of the city and surrounding parishes would evacuate which would leave 300,000 people, mostly poor. They discussed evacuation procedures, which they thought would take 10 days and other problems with diseases. He said the Louisiana officials worked very well with him and implemented his suggestions into emergency plans. But FEMA and the White House walked away without lookin’ back.He showed his disgust with the fact that help should have come 2 days after the hurricane. He said the direct blame for any deaths that have occurred in the last few days and the deaths that will occur in the next weeks is on FEMA and the current administration.
Point is, what if this had been a terrorist attack? We’ve had almost 4 years to plan for a disaster, and this is what we get? We might as well face it. If we get attacked, we’re gonna die while the government plays with itself.
Our tax dollars at work.
The federal government is at fault here from start to finish and the main culprit is bs bush.
The Fema director is Bs’s former campaign manager. Now just how does stealing elections quailfy one for addressing disasters?
Funding to improvement in the levies in NO was cut. See, when you eliminate the capital gains tax, the estate tax, and restructure the income tax to favor the super wealthy, while simultaneously comitting to a war in which you over-pay contractors to “guard” and support the troops? Well ya gotta make cuts somewhere…..like levy rebuilding in New Orleans and a lot of other “discretionary areas”
No Terrorist attacks here? Hell why should the terrorists come here? Bush sends Americans to the terrorists to be killed. Would you buy a ticket to Mexico and wade the Rio Grande or cross a desert to kill Americans if you could do it right in your own backyard? Why would you? Those borders are always gonna be open! Get yourself some in the field training and then take the fight to America.
(I’m getting to what we should learn from this. But let’s continue.)
If I am a terrorist, I now know that the current President will ignore all warnings of impending disaster. Given all the intelligence available to him he will no doubt be in the wrong place at the right time. I will know that he’ll run away or get that photo op in before he comes looking for me. And If he does come looking for me, he will look in the wrong place. And as Osama did, I’ll get clean away.
If I was a terrorist I’d also know now that it does me not much good to attack the poor or suffering. Why bother? Bush doesn’t care about them. Why do him the favor of helping him further their misery at home as he does with others abroad.
Finally I’d conclude if I were a terrorist that attacking America was not needed at all. The very enemy I want to destroy is doing that job for me.
I posted too long already. Lessons WE should learn will be Part2
Dear Editor/s:
Today, I had the rare pleasure of having a face to face conversation with one of the New Orleans-Katrina victims.
He’s sought refuge at his mother’s retirement home.
During the course of our discussion, he mentioned Huricane Camile and what transpired at the New Orleans Dome then.
His discription pretty much painted a dismal picture of wide spread indescriminate theft and mindless destruction of public property. He went on to add that both the Mayor as well as the Governor knew that the same widespread caos and havoc would be unavoidable without adequate security forces.
This is something which he, as a resident, bemoaned as a short sighted failing of both officials which boarded upon a derilict wanton regard for their public duty.
Regards,
Bill Landman
So, Dr. Van Heerden, tell us about your meeting with the great world powers over mother nature.
“Vell, you see, I vas certain dat ze federal government could be pressured into zis huge research program to support my research at ze university; so I convinced ze state und local agencies zat I would be happy to include them in ze windfall if zey would help to put ze whole burden on FEMA and the Corps of Engineers.”
“Imagine my surprise vhen zey refused to give me 30 million dollars — a pittance for ze brilliant 10-year study zat I layed out before zem, ze dolts!~!
Thank you, professor for your keen insights and deep undeerstanding of the failure of government to tame mother nature.
Kevin, some sources say another attack is in the works, Bin Laden likes to take his time between attacks and he counts on the fact that Americans have short attention spans. I hope I’m wrong, but I wouldn’t get too comfortable yet.Bush has done nothing but encourage the flow of illegal aliens across the border, he wants to make sure cheap labor remains available to big business rather than protect our borders.
Not only did we have advance warning, we apparently turned away offers of aid from our allies. I have heard several of my friends ask “Where are our friends when we need help? We helped them when they needed it.”
The answer appears to be that they offered, but our elected officials weren’t willing to accept it.
Reuters (Sunday, September 3, 2005) reported that it was only today that the Bush administration finally accepted any help from abroad, and then only food, medicine, and logistical supplies:
“We are and have been ready to contribute to the U.S. efforts aimed at alleviating the humanitarian crisis in New Orleans,” EU Commissioner Stavros Dimas said in a statement.
The request came after several days of “informal contacts and preparatory activities” between the U.S. and the EU, the Commission said in the statement.
A Commission spokeswoman said the EU could have acted sooner if asked.
“If the request would have come earlier we would have been very happy to act earlier,” Barbara Helfferich told Reuters.
“We have (had) no positive signals from the United States that they wanted help or needed help up to this stage.”
“NATO stands ready to continue to support the United States as it recovers from this natural disaster,” it said in a statement.
Many members of the 25-nation EU have already made specific offers of assistance and some had specialist emergency response teams on stand-by and ready for immediate deployment.–Reuters
The last paragraph is what really hurts. If even one person has died because stiff-necked pride kept officials from asking for emergency response teams, then the price of that pride is far too high.
It sure seems to me that Bush/Cheney leave a lot of dead people in the wake of their policies. In fairness, Katrina was a tragedy beyond belief, but after all this time couldn’t we have had some plan for a quick response for a disaster…terriorist or natural?Why did we just HAVE to invade Iraq when the phony intelligence was nebulous at best? How much is that joke going to cost in lives and money ?And the latest energy bill! Do the oil rich think we are stupid??? They are making RECORD profits and will benefit further by cleaning up from taxpayers’ money. Did you all notice that as Kansans we’re losing ground in median income? Only Georgia did worse than we did.Why do we continue to vote for individuals that harm us? The whole purpose for a government’s existence is to safeguard and IMPROVE its citizens’ lives.I’m angry but it is mostly because we are allowing ourselves to be hoodwinked!Politicians will say what the people WANT to hear. There’s a lot of talk about God and morals. All I see is TALK. I think the present administration’s actions are grossly immoral and frightening. Perhaps it is time we insist they DO what they should….work for us instead of their cronies.I’m up for cleaning house in the next election.
I got all the answers.Oh, yes I do.And you’re the lucky ones,”cause I’ll share ‘em with you.
I hate that Bush.I really do.An if you like him,Then I hate you, too.
I can snap my fingers.Now why can’t he?That’s all it takes,Now listen to me.
I know it’s easy.It can’t be hard.He just can’t do it,’cause he’s a dumb retard.
Get me a helicopterGet me a ropeFind me a Bush haterWho ain’t on dope.
It just ain’t fairNo it just ain’t fairI love to hateAnd it just ain’t fair
Waaahhhhhh, where’s my nanny?
Judging from what I’ve heard and read, it seems that the conservative, right wing, fundamentalist ditto heads are the ones who hate anybody who has a different thought than they do.
You’re a really bad poet, Lib.
“When Damoon shines over da mountainI’ll be alone wid my memories of you.”– apologies to Kate Smith
It ain’t poetry, sweetie. It’s doggerel –for your amusement and amazement. Don’t lump me in with the bad guys, I’ve been learnin’ at the knees of Al and Jesse.
Well, it’s really bad doggerel! Maybe you should take up watercoloring or something else as a creative outlet.
How interesting that the same badly framed poetry rap shows up in many blogs under many different names. Clearly the poster is conservative. Just as clearly, the multi-named poster is something of a bloviating coward. I should expect no less of a bushie.
“Liberal Bleeding Heart” or whatever you are calling yourself tomorrow. I call you out. I’d enjoy the chance to meet with you. What say you? Is your heart troubled? You don’t have to keep one half of your brain tied behind your back. You can meet me personally and tell me that liberalism is a mental disorder. Unless and until you do that well…..you are part of the problem. You are a mindless faceless sheeple, spouting only what you are told to say.
Sigh………conservatves are HOPING for another terrorist attack. That is the only way these sick little synchophant graspers for power achieve. Uh Oh I’m using big words! and for small minded (conservative) people.
Damoon,Yer breakin’ my heart. Don’cha know I jist give the people what they pays for; an’ it’s worth every penny of it, I do declare.
Besides, the only reason it’s so bad is you guys don’t give me anything good to work with — just the same ol’ complainin’, class envy, race baitin’, Hate Bush, whatever. Yer ’spectin’ me ta do a John Milton on that tripe?
Naaaaa.
Dang, JR, yer purty danged smart there, by golly. Got a mind like a steel trap! Figgered out I done used a name or two along the way, din’cha? Man, I thought nobody’d see that. Gotta git me some better cover.
Tell ya what, PJ, JR, whatever; just pour yourself another one, will ya? It’ll be OK in the morning.
Can’t see why the rest o’ you lib’ral folks keeps callin’ me conservative. All I ever do is repeat what you say. I jist puts what you say into rap.
Now don’t go tellin’ me there’s any standards fer rap. Even my dear, saintly mother knows better’n that.
Anyways, JR, why don’cha pick on somebody yer own size, like that there Santiago dude.
Huh?