SOme of you guys are as bad as our Federal Gov.

[Greg L]

I'm sitting here reading some of the replys of the N.O. situation and am amazed!



Our federal government waited days before they started any movement to assist the people in the area.



When people are dying around you and you see no hope, what would you do - just sit there and let it be.......



The initial looting was uncalled for but our existing government is too busy sending people into space and trying to police the entire world rather than taking care of their own. Maybe now we can see why people in foreign lands are rebelling....

 

[The Ape]

Typical socialist thinking. You do realize that when the storm was coming, the Red Cross was performing their largest mobilization in their history in anticipation of the storm. Ten billion dollars is on the way to help from the US Gvt. This is one of the largest natural disasters in this country has ever seen. If you can do better, than run for office yourself. If not, then lay off the armchair politicking.



Ape Out.

 

[Chuck Lake]

Before we start blaming the federal government for all of our woes, let's look at the responsibility of others. First and foremost, people were given notice to evacuate and many did just that. In addition, the gulf states always do a very good job all thru hurricane season of telling people how to prepare for a hurricane to include planning evacuation routes, and putting together a survival kit to include water, flashlights, a small radio (one of the crank ones that doesn't need batteries is preferred), your medications etc. It was funny on the news where I saw folks outside of the Super Dome smoking. They couldn’t be prepared enough to pack canned food, a jar of peanut butter and some bottled water, but they managed to get out with their smokes. ... not to mention some taking the time to pack out their AK47 with ammunition. Granted, many in the inner city of New Orleans had no means of transportation, but that does not relieve their responsibility to plan accordingly and have a plan to get out.



The next level of responsibility falls on the city officials of New Orleans. Ever since I have lived in the Gulf States and there has been a strong hurricane in the Gulf, the news media has always talked about the vulnerability of New Orleans. City officials knew this and they had plenty of data to know approximately how many in the city are without transportation. The city has no problem using this census data at election time... how about using it to plan for the evacuation of folks. If you have more folks that need the city's help to evacuate, you must make the decision to evacuate sooner.



The next level of responsibility falls on the state government. Their job is to ensure that the plans to evacuate and protect all of their citizens are thorough. It is their responsibility to review the plans of the City of New Orleans and offer assistance in areas that the city cannot address.



Finally the Federal Government. The Federal Government has no "response" force to respond to such emergencies to hand out water, food and ice. FEMA handles emergency response but does not have the number of bodies it takes to distribute water and food in the amounts that are needed here. The ability to call out federal troops to handle aid and to ensure civilian rest is prohibited by law (I believe) and that is why the National Guard is used as they are a state militia separate from the Federal government. They are placed on State Active duty orders and not federal so they continue to work for the Governors. All of this was designed many years ago by very wise men to protect the citizens from being ruled by a military backed federal government. As for the National Guard troops… Because they have to be on State Active Duty orders, the first to be activated are the ones that are called the "Traditional" Guard. They are the ones with the full time civilian jobs that must be called in from their normal life, activated and then deployed to the disaster area. Add to the mix that this is the first disaster I can recall where the Guard had to wear Kevlar helmet and body armor and now we get into a whole new realm of legalities and chain of command. Does a National Guard member from Florida have the authority to open fire on citizens of Louisiana?



It is not as simple as you imply… but blaming the federal government is a lot easier to swallow then having to accept the fact that everyone else in the chain I mention failed to live up to their responsibility.

 

[TomT]

The City of New Orleans and everyone that lived there have ignored the warnings about the vulnerability of their city for years. Can't feel to sorry for people that have a false sense of security. I do feel sorry for the tourists stranded there that were unaware of the situation. The hotels should have found ways to evacuate them. I'm sure the hotel managers told them they would be fine and not to worry about a little hurricane. Anything to squeeze another nights stay out of them.

 

[Thomas Rogers]

Harry Connick Jr was on the Today show this morning reporting from N.O. (his hometown).



He stated the convention center still has thousands of people, and there is a clear path to it, but no one helping them, and mostly they simply need water.



But, then again, the whole city is f'ed, and there are several hot spots. Still, makes you wish we could mobilize and provide assistance quicker; regardless of whether or not the people had warning, should have left, etc, as they are there now and to let them suffer is inhumane.



TJR

 

[Jeff Geist]

Thanks for the insight, Doughboy. I was wondering why the government didn't send troops to support the people of NO. Sounds very logical the rationale for not allowing the military to assist right away. I would place most of the blame on the city officials. They knew this could happen...just hoped it wouldn't happen during their lifetime. Those levees were apparently only able to withstand a Category 3 hurricane. I also heard (from the news; which can be biased as we all know) that the budget to improve the levee system was cut from 100 billion to 40-some billion under Bush. There are many to blame. That's why I live in PA. No hurricanes, tornados, earthquakes. We get all four seasons and high humidity. Beats having mother nature relocating my house or destroying it.



Oh...and the sport trac loves the snow!!!

 

[Gerald Pierce]

Our federal government waited days before they started any movement to assist the people in the area.

I guess that is why the USS Bataan was on station in the Gulf of Mexico immediately? Ever been through a hurricane on a ship underway? She just didn't appear there....



Many other ships departed here with supplies the day after...... they don't get loaded overnight.



There are other areas that also require attention/assistance than N.O. If the govt sends all the assets to N.O., the others would say they are left out. If they had prestaged all the National Guard/Military assets inside the area.... what would that have done?



What were all those people still doing IN the city? I hear many didn't have the means to evacuate. HELLO!!! Don't wait untill the last minute or for the govt to get you out. If you cant afford to get out or dont have the means.... DONT LIVE THERE unless YOU have a plan! Where is the personal accountability?



NO ONE expected this level of damage. Any response, regardless of how good, will not be enough, will not be fast enough. The uninformed expect IMMEDIATE results, but do not understand the limitations of the system we have in place. It is very easy for the cynics to point fingers -- the anger and frustration from the folks in the area is to be expected.... one person suffering is to much in their eyes.



The threat has been there for many many years, what did the state do to increase the protection of N.O. ? The levy system was only designed for a cat 3 hurricane......



The govt could have been more expeditious in estabilishing the command and control, and yes, the response should have included "martial law" to protect the remnants of the area.



My camper is in the garage, ready to go. I live in an area that is subject to hurricanes. My house is in a flood area in the event of a cat 4 or better hurricane. I know the general area I will go to depending on which direction the storm comes from. If the order to evacuate is given... I can be gone in 15 minutes. MY family will be taken care of by me, not the govt.

 

[Chinh P]

I think people have to understand that a lot of N.O. people didn't prepare like they should, and N.O. people have to understand that it's not a matter of dealing with 10,000 refugees- not 50,000 but what 150K ?



Anyways, I'm sick of watching that CNN female news-anchor with all her negativity --FOXnews seems to be more informational then pestimistic.

 

[Chuck Lake]

Yeah.. I'm a big Fox News fan but even they drop the ball occasionally. I remeber them reporting immediately after the storm that New Orleans had "dodged a bullet". Now we have National Guard, Coast Guard, doctors and police dodging bullets.

 

[Chinh P]

Haha, I was on CNN and they were listing some of the big company's contributes



culligan, 5 truck loads of water

15 mill. from walmart



but when he said WESTERN UNION doing 50% off money transactions to that area -- he said they could do more, maybe 100% ?= (

 

[Johnny O]

Miscellaneous ramblings....



Hopefully this will get some people to realize they can't count on the govt to take care of them all the time, but I doubt it. Gotta take care of yourself. Keep some canned food, bottled water, batteries, radio, flashlight, and a gun. I do.



When you create a class of people almost totally dependent on the govt, and suddenly the nanny govt is gone, you get the Lord Of The Flies in real life.



When you're told repeatedly to get the hell out of town because a hurricane is coming, you should get the hell out of town.



I'm wondering now how many people stayed behind on purpose so that they could loot after the hurricane.



It doesn't look good for black folks when you see mostly black folks looting, but then it's mostly black folks who live there. It ain't a racial thing.



[Broken External Image]:

 

[user 62785]

One of the great challenges of the time we live in... personal accountability is almost a thing of the past. Is it just me or has the 21st centuries battle cry become "It's somebody elses problem"?



I feel bad for the folks living in the Big Easy! I've already sent a couple hundred dollars to the Red Cross to help. It just really concerns me that these folks, many of whom live thanks to our national welfare program, chose to "ride it out" with no backup plan in the event the storm got really bad. And because it now got really bad some of these same people are standing around with cancer sticks in their mouths screaming for someone to help them... while others help themselves to anything not nailed down.

 

[Richard L]

I think the situation at the N.O. Convention center and the Superdome are really the responsibility of the N.O. Mayor. He sent the people to these locations without any pre-positioned supplies to support those people. It appeared that those locations were never intended to be used as staging areas and it was a last minute decision made by the Mayor or other local officials.



The to make matters worse, the Mayor had no difficulty pleading with CNN to get help for the people in the Convention Center, but never contacted the people at FEMA to let them know the situation there. The director of FEMA said today that they were not told until yesterday that the Convention Center was being used as a staging area.



There is plenty of blame to go around but the majority of the responsibility falls on the total lack of preparations and planning done at the local level. That includes the local governments and the population. It's obvious that they just assumed that the Federal Government would be prepared to immediately bail them out regardless of the magnatude of their problem.



...Rich

 

[Chinh P]

Very well put RichL



I love how the mayor said we should take all the school buses and greyhounds to take people out.



First of all, we need to find places to put them -- it takes time for owners to say, hey bring those 25,000 people over to my place.



Secondly, buses/SUV/cars are there, it takes time to load a bus full of confused people. And you can't shut down one city's school/metro system to cover N.O

(hell, back when I was in Highschool, I remember the choas caused by having 3 buses being 1 hour late to school-- you can't take out 50 buses from a neightboring state without choas)

 

[Gavin Allan]

I agree Rich. It seems that many of the southern states are very poorly prepared for dealing with storms like this, and the reaction time from the locals is very long. They need to get some plannning and leadership, and also some "get up and go".

 

[Paul Maurer 2]

I must judge the federal response as extremely poor, and it starts at the top. No sense of urgency was created by the President, and this attitude seems to prevail at all levels, with not one official willing to admit that the lack of Guardsmen and equipment slowed our response by even one second. Everyone says "I understand their frustration" In fact, THEY DON'T- no one who is well fed and showered can. My wife watched her two sisters die of starvation in Cambodia- I believe she understands. Somehow, our military can fire a bomb with laser precision to destroy a target under hostile fire, but we can't lower pallets of food and water to hungry Americans? The Senate can be callled into emergency session at midnight to try and "save" one woman who was already blind and dead(Terry Schiavo), but can't act to save thousands of living Americans until last night? I'm sorry, but our President calling this a "temporary disruption" and calling up good 'ol Presients Clinton and Bush Sr. to assist seems patronizing and scripted, rather than a command decision from someone with real empathy and compassion.:angry:

 

[John Mastrocco]

Funding to the Army Corps of Engineers to increase the wetlands around New Orleans (a project that had been ongoing for quite some time because every mile of wetlands reduces the storm surge by 1 foot) was reduced over the last 5 years to fund the war in Iraq. The orders now stand that only wetlands directly related to interstate commerce are to be dealt with by the Corps.



Over the last 5 years wetlands are being 'sold'/given to developers by the US government - the opposite of the policies of the previous 6 administrations. Funding to save wetlands form developers has been drastically cut in the name of economic development.



Go figure.

 

[Chuck Lake]

It starts at the personal level... not the President. A majority of the people who did not leave New Orleans have no one to blame but themselves for not evacuating earlier.



Let's say I live in a city town home and the unit two doors down is on fire and the reporter on the TV says that folks in the neighboring houses should evacuate. Whose fault is it if I stay there and get burned once the fire spreads to my house? I guess some would suggest it is the fault of the fireman for not coming in and carrying me out. If the fire spreads to my house while I am sleeping and I get burned, is it still the fault of the firefighters despite that fact that I failed to prepare and didn't install a smoke detector? Heck, the fire department was even handing them out for free to my low income neighborhood.

 

[Chuck Lake]

Rocco - The majority of the flooding in New Orleans is due to the levy breaks from Lake Pontchartrain. Increasing wetlands would have done nothing to prevent the flooding.



Between the Bush Administration's mishandling of the wetlands, diverting our resources to the war in Iraq and causing global warming by not signing the Kyoto Treaty it is no wonder we are having these problems in LA. Heck I forgot that this was all probably well thought out by Bush to have Halliburton go in and re-build the oil refineries. He's a clever guy :wacko:

 

[TomT]

Wetlands? Half of Louisiana is swamp land. How much wetter can it get?