FEMA HELD OFF REQUESTS FOR AID

[conjur]

Yeah, I've seen that before. That was following the New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan to get people, who did not have transportation, to the shelters via free RTA transportation.

 

[ShadesOfGrey]

Originally posted by: ShadesOfGrey

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: ShadesOfGrey

Originally posted by: conjur
How do you know that would have taken people out of the Superdome? You all are clamoring for this to have happened BEFORE the Superdome was filled with people. The same amount would still have been in there.

No, I'm saying it COULD have been done. Are you saying it wasn't even possible?

Let me try to understand your math. 12K were taken out on the busses from that picture(a small portion of the available busses) yet you say that the Superdome would have had the same amount of people in it? How exactly do you arrive at that conclusion?

Your scenario is possible yet unlikely. Remember, they closed the Superdome after a while as there were too many people in it. If buses had taken 12,000 away, 12,000 more would have filled in to take their place.

As for your little attempt to try to blame Bush for the communication failiures of N.O. - you get a You and Bbond are disgusting partisan hacks for trying to use this disaster to further your anti-Bush agenda. Disgusting and sad.

Oh, knock it off with your talking point "disgusting" verbiage. Seriously, give it a rest. You're more partisan than most up here and you know it. And, am I not correct in repeating the President's promise post-9/11?

You don't know how many were turned away but taking 12K out before the hit would be 12K less later, plus the staging of busses to do just that.

The hell I am. I and Don Vito(and a couple others) have been trying to get you trolls to knock off this partisan BS over the disaster yet you and your gaggle just keep reaching into the partisan rhetoric bag and tossing poo around. Your display here has been nothing short of disgusting.

Figures you wouldn't reply with substance.

Oh, and I suppose you and others might be wondering why the Red Cross isn't there.

The state Homeland Security Department had requested--and continues to request--that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city.

Well, it may just be that some of these other situations were caused by this same person, entity, or way of thinking. But then again that doesn't fit into your agenda of blaming the Feds for everything now does it. :roll:

 

[Lanyap]

Originally posted by: yllus

Originally posted by: rudder
fVck you Bush!!!! A traffic light was out on my way to work and the drivers did not treat it as a four way stop!! Damn you to hell, Bush!!!!

LOL!

Hey wait a moment...

THIS IS NO JOKING SITUATION! A BLUBBERING OLD MAN IS SCREAMING AT HIS COMPUTER AT THIS VERY MOMENT FOR JUSTICE TO BE DONE, AND YOU FIND HIS WHACKO-LEVEL ANGER AMUSING? PERHAPS READING SOME MORE TEXT IN CAPS WILL CHANGE YOUR MIND, EVIL-DOER!!!

I think BBond is too far gone. He went right over BDawg's anti-bush sarcasm. He reminds me of the counter-strike hacker video cartoon.

Originally posted by: BBond

Originally posted by: BDawg
What the hell do you want? The President already cut his vacation short to help those people. Seriously, you act like he doesn't even care. He visited with them last Friday and thought hard about the situation. What have you done???

Are you insane? The "president" sat on his a$$ in Crawford for TWO DAYS before ending his "vacation". Bush is the most irresponsible president EVER! He sat in Crawford on vacation JUST ON 9/11 JUST LIKE HE DID DURING AND AFTER KATRINA!

And here's a flash for you, I'M NOT THE FVCKING PRESIDENT. WHAT THE HELL DO YOU EXPECT ME TO DO? I CONTRIBUTED! IF I WENT TO NEW ORLEANS TO HELP, THE IDIOTS YOU ARE EXCUSING WOULD ONLY TURN ME BACK LIKE THEY DID WALMART TRUCKS FULL OF WATER AND THE 500 PEOPLE WHO SHOWED UP WITH THEIR OWN RESCUE BOATS TO HELP GET SOME OF THOSE PEOPLE THE HELL OUT OF THEIR ATTICS WHILE THEY WERE STILL ALIVE!

Too late now.

Instead, "Team Leader", the FEMA director failed to act and any president should have acted IMMEDIATELY especially, as CNN is reporting RIGHT NOW and as anyone who reads the news also knows, the president signed emergency orders on August 27th but sat on his a$$ on vacation as New Orleans DROWNED!

Now they're reporting that DeLay is "delaying" the House hearings into this. This is not only a crime and a naitonal disgrace, it is turning into a FARCE!

It is time to name a special prosecutor, and independent non-partisan counsel RIGHT NOW to get to the bottom of this fiasco while events are still fresh and HOLD THOSE RESPONSIBLE FOR THIS CRIMINAL NEGLIGENCE ACCOUNTABLE!!!

 

[BBond]

The posts by PELarson and Conjur say it all. There is no excuse for the federal government abandoning Americans in New Orleans. How many more would be alive today if the Bush administration, that people here refuse to condemn for FIVE DAYS OF INACTION, had handled this national emergency responsibly?

U.S. faces huge task to identify Katrina victims
Process expected to take months; precise DNA analysis will be difficult

Reuters
Updated: 2:47 p.m. ET Sept. 7, 2005

BANGKOK - U.S. police face a ?hell of a task? to identify thousands of Hurricane Katrina victims left rotting in heat and humidity similar to the aftermath of the Indian Ocean tsunami, a top forensic expert said on Wednesday.

?I don?t envy them at all,? said Detective Superintendent Derek Forest, a Briton who has been running the largest forensic operation in history to try to identify the nearly 5,500 victims of the Dec. 26 disaster in Thailand.

?We had 5,500 here and we?re still going after eight months ? and we?ve still got 1,500 we?re trying to identify,? Forest told Reuters.

?I really do wish them the best, because they?ve got a very difficult situation on their hands. It?s a hell of a task.?

Many of the conditions which have made the process so complicated and lengthy in Thailand, he said, would be the same for the United States, where officials fear Katrina may have left as many as 10,000 corpses in its wake.

?You?ve got bodies exposed to water and intense temperatures ? and that?s going to introduce bacteria quickly,? Forest said. The bacteria would start breaking down DNA immediately, making laboratory analysis more difficult, he said.

Precise DNA analysis difficult
Even though Thailand sent DNA to laboratories in the United States and China after the tsunami, much of the data that came back was insufficiently precise to allow for a positive identification.

The two other main methods of post-mortem analysis ? fingerprinting and dental records ? might also prove ineffective in some cases, Forest said.

With fingerprints, the longer a body lies in water the more difficult it is to obtain reliable prints, while dental records can prove useless if children have had no fillings.

His comments raise the prospect that many victims of Katrina ? children in particular ? might never be identified.

?Children don?t tend to have a lot of dental history and as oral hygiene improves, they?re having fillings later and later in life,? Forest said.

?As far as dental records are concerned, I would be more worried about children than about the older people.?

Grim recovery process
Before any of the forensic analysis can begin, the bodies must be recovered. Many will be bloated, unrecognizable and in an advanced state of decay. Adequate cold storage will have to be found to prevent further decomposition.

In tropical southern Thailand, where around half the victims were tourists from at least 25 nations, mobile refrigeration units were trucked in to store the bodies at a makeshift morgue in a Buddhist monastery.

Forest said U.S. officials would probably be thinking about commandeering ice rinks as temporary mortuaries while they work out how to store thousands of bodies at -10 degrees celsius or below ? the temperature required to prevent further DNA damage.

?If the numbers involved are anything like what?s been suggested on television, there are going to be big logistical problems in terms of storage at the appropriate temperatures,? he said.

In Thailand, some bodies were thrown into mass graves temporarily to try and halt the decay. Attempting any sort of visual identification was impossible after a matter of days.

One week after the tsunami, the only way to determine whether a victim was European or Asian was by analyzing their pubic hair. Head hair usually falls out easier compared to tougher pubic hair, and Caucasians tend to have curly pubic hair while the Asian variety tends to be straight.

?Generally, if a body is exposed to these sorts of temperatures, it will degrade and decompose very, very quickly,? Forest said. ?One day it will be visually recognizable. The following day, it won?t.?

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: Sudheer Anne
for the people saying *where* the thousands stranded should have been evacuated had the buses been used....how bout ANYWHERE BUT NEW ORLEANS! At least then we'd be able to send aid and supplies IMMEDIATELY if we had dropped them all off at one location. Instead they were stranded in NO, which was quite difficult to even send food or supplies.

LOL, give them a tent and hope the 145 mph winds don't blow it away and the people with it.. Brilliant!!

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: BBond
The posts by PELarson and Conjur say it all. There is no excuse for the federal government abandoning Americans in New Orleans. How many more would be alive today if the Bush administration, that people here refuse to condemn for FIVE DAYS OF INACTION, had handled this national emergency responsibly?

Quit trolling. Had your great Mayor Nagin done has job, and Governor Blanco, how many lives would have been saved? Thank God Bush TOLD her to get the evacuation going or she probably wouldn't have figured it out. As it was it took her 24 hours too long to order it!

[worthless, irrelevant news post deleted for brevity]

WTF does a story about difficulty identifying the victims have to do with this?

 

[Lanyap]

July 2005 article reveals New Orleans told poor: 'You're on your own'

http://rawstory.com/news/2005/July_2005...ss_told_poor_Youre_on_your_o_0902.html

John Byrne

A July 24, 2005 article in the New Orleans Times Picayune (not available online) reveals just how unprepared officials were for a hurricane, especially as it affected the city's poor, RAW STORY has learned. The first sentence alone reveals how little support the city expected to have for the poor in the event of a disaster, saying, "City, state and federal emergency officials are preparing to give the poorest of New Orleans' poor a historically blunt message: In the event of a major hurricane, you're on your own."

The article was first discovered in a detailed piece by the Philadelphia Daily News' Will Bunch.

The local Red Cross executive director was quoted as saying, "You're responsible for your safety, and you should be responsible for the person next to you. 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. But we don't have the transportation."

Selected excerpts from July Picayune article by Bruce Nolan appear below.

#
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...

Officials are recording the evacuation message even as recent research by the University of New Orleans indicated that as many as 60 percent of the residents of most southeast Louisiana parishes would remain in their homes in the event of a Category 3 hurricane.

Their message will be distributed on hundreds of DVDs across the city. The DVDs' basic get-out-of-town message applies to all audiences, but the it is especially targeted to scores of churches and other groups heavily concentrated in Central City and other vulnerable, low-income neighborhoods, said the Rev. Marshall Truehill, head of Total Community Action.

"The primary message is that each person is primarily responsible for themselves, for their own family and friends," Truehill said.

Production likely will continue through August. Officials want to get the DVDs into the hands of pastors and community leaders as hurricane season reaches its height in September, Katz said.

In an interview at the opening of this year's hurricane season, New Orleans Emergency Preparedness Director Joseph Matthews acknowledged that the city is overmatched.

"It's important to emphasize that we just don't have the resources to take everybody out," he said in a interview in late May.




Yet Many Still Refuse to Leave New Orleans

http://pics.bbzzdd.com/users/Lanyap/2005_09_05t163808_450x300_us_katrina.jpg

:shakes head;

 

[BBond]

Originally posted by: Pabster

Originally posted by: BBond
The posts by PELarson and Conjur say it all. There is no excuse for the federal government abandoning Americans in New Orleans. How many more would be alive today if the Bush administration, that people here refuse to condemn for FIVE DAYS OF INACTION, had handled this national emergency responsibly?

Quit trolling. Had your great Mayor Nagin done has job, and Governor Blanco, how many lives would have been saved? Thank God Bush TOLD her to get the evacuation going or she probably wouldn't have figured it out. As it was it took her 24 hours too long to order it!

[worthless, irrelevant news post deleted for brevity]

WTF does a story about difficulty identifying the victims have to do with this?

You're an absolute liar and you know it. Blanco and Nagin did their part. It was Brown who failed to act until AFTER the storm had passed.

There is no spinning this one. The whole world saw it live as it happened.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: BBond
You're an absolute liar and you know it. Blanco and Nagin did their part. It was Brown who failed to act until AFTER the storm had passed.

Ah, so this is all Brown's fault now?

First it was solely Bush's fault. Now Brown's the guy. When will you make it to the real culprits?

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: BBond
You're an absolute liar and you know it. Blanco and Nagin did their part. It was Brown who failed to act until AFTER the storm had passed.

There is no spinning this one. The whole world saw it live as it happened.

Sorry but it is the responsiblity of the local and state government to be the first responders to natural disasters. They had a disaster plan that included evacuating people who were incapable of leaving on their own out of the city and they didn't follow it. Instead they let hundreds of buses sit in parking lots where they were eventually flooded and damaged.

The federal level response could have been swifter but again, things are handled from the bottom up. The President can not send troops into a state unless the Governor requests it. She did not make that request until Wednesday.

 

[conjur]

That's fine when the first responders are numerous enough to handle the situation. Obviously, a Cat 5 sort of overwhelms that.

The rest of your talking points are duly noted and summarily dismissed.

 

[BBond]

Originally posted by: Pabster

Originally posted by: BBond
You're an absolute liar and you know it. Blanco and Nagin did their part. It was Brown who failed to act until AFTER the storm had passed.

Ah, so this is all Brown's fault now?

First it was solely Bush's fault. Now Brown's the guy. When will you make it to the real culprits?

Bush appointed a total political hack as FEMA director and the result is that NOTHING has been done since 9/11 until now. As a matter of fact, not only has NOTHING been done, we've actually gone into reverse at 60 mph.

That's all Bush's fault with his strangle the beast mentality and his phony empathy.

He planned it to be this way. Welcome to "The New World Order"?.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: conjur
That's fine when the first responders are numerous enough to handle the situation. Obviously, a Cat 5 sort of overwhelms that.

Agree but the important point I was trying to make was the failure to follow the already established plan beforehand. Not evacuating people. Not having the Superdome prepared with enough supplies and security. Not using the available resources at hand. The total clusterfvck at the local level did not help the federal level response. Blanco and Nagin were slow in issuing the evacuation order. Blanco was slow in requesting help from other states. According to Nagin, Blanco told Bush she needed 24 hours to make a decision on what kind of federal help she needed.

There is plenty of blame to go up the chain.

 

[conjur]

Oy vey...that 24hr timeframe was this past weekend...once the worst part of the crisis was over. Makes no sense for the Feds to takeover now. They already fvcked it up. Why let them fvck it up more?

 

[BBond]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: BBond
You're an absolute liar and you know it. Blanco and Nagin did their part. It was Brown who failed to act until AFTER the storm had passed.

There is no spinning this one. The whole world saw it live as it happened.

Sorry but it is the responsiblity of the local and state government to be the first responders to natural disasters. They had a disaster plan that included evacuating people who were incapable of leaving on their own out of the city and they didn't follow it. Instead they let hundreds of buses sit in parking lots where they were eventually flooded and damaged.

The federal level response could have been swifter but again, things are handled from the bottom up. The President can not send troops into a state unless the Governor requests it. She did not make that request until Wednesday.

National emergencies ARE NOT handled from the bottom up. What the hell do we need a FEMA director or a president for if people have to handle it from the bottom up?

The day after Brown failed to act any president worth the title would have taken over and acted on his own.

Bush vacationed until the disaster reached such epic proportions that even HE could no longer ignore it. The Bush administration has been one mistake after another. Only they're NEVER responsible or held accountable. If you people succeed in lying your way out of this one, I give up all hope.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: BBond
Bush appointed a total political hack as FEMA director and the result is that NOTHING has been done since 9/11 until now. As a matter of fact, not only has NOTHING been done, we've actually gone into reverse at 60 mph.

NOTHING has been done since 9/11? I guess you missed the other disasters FEMA has handled since then.

That's all Bush's fault with his strangle the beast mentality and his phony empathy.

<sigh> The usual "Blame Bush for Everything" by BBond.

He planned it to be this way. Welcome to "The New World Order"?.

When is your novel due?

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: BBond
National emergencies ARE NOT handled from the bottom up. What the hell do we need a FEMA director or a president for if people have to handle it from the bottom up?

Sorry to be the one to tell you this but our form of government is federalism not Communism or a Dictatorship. Per the Posse Comitatus Act the federal government is not allowed to operate military troops on US soil. Governors however can activate their own state's National Guard under their own control. They also can request National Guardsmen from other states.

Hell, read FEMA's own guidelines:

Immediately after an incident, local jurisdictions respond using available resources and notify State response elements. As information emerges, they also assess the situation and the need for State assistance. The State reviews the situation, mobilizes State resources, and informs the DHS/EPR/FEMA Regional Office of actions taken. The Governor activates the State emergency operations plan, proclaims or declares a state of emergency, and requests a State/DHS joint Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA) to determine if sufficient damage has occurred to justify a request for a Presidential declaration of a major disaster or emergency. Based upon the results of the PDA, the Governor may request a Presidential declaration and define the kind of Federal assistance needed.

The day after Brown failed to act any president worth the title would have taken over and acted on his own.

Why do you think he came out with the "unacceptable" statement? He looked like he had just gotten through chewing some ass.

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: BBond
National emergencies ARE NOT handled from the bottom up. What the hell do we need a FEMA director or a president for if people have to handle it from the bottom up?

Sorry to be the one to tell you this but our form of government is federalism not Communism or a Dictatorship. Per the Posse Comitatus Act the federal government is not allowed to operate military troops on US soil. Governors however can activate their own state's National Guard under their own control. They also can request National Guardsmen from other states.

Hell, read FEMA's own guidelines:

Immediately after an incident, local jurisdictions respond using available resources and notify State response elements. As information emerges, they also assess the situation and the need for State assistance. The State reviews the situation, mobilizes State resources, and informs the DHS/EPR/FEMA Regional Office of actions taken. The Governor activates the State emergency operations plan, proclaims or declares a state of emergency, and requests a State/DHS joint Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA) to determine if sufficient damage has occurred to justify a request for a Presidential declaration of a major disaster or emergency. Based upon the results of the PDA, the Governor may request a Presidential declaration and define the kind of Federal assistance needed.

The day after Brown failed to act any president worth the title would have taken over and acted on his own.

Why do you think he came out with the "unacceptable" statement? He looked like he had just gotten through chewing some ass.

<ahem>

http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/NRP_FullText.pdf

See page 43 re: Proactive Federal Response to Catastrophic Events

 

[realsup]

Now it is coming out thestate of Lousiana blocked the Red Cross.

This premise sure backfired on the blame Bush for everything crowd.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: BBond
National emergencies ARE NOT handled from the bottom up. What the hell do we need a FEMA director or a president for if people have to handle it from the bottom up?

Sorry to be the one to tell you this but our form of government is federalism not Communism or a Dictatorship. Per the Posse Comitatus Act the federal government is not allowed to operate military troops on US soil. Governors however can activate their own state's National Guard under their own control. They also can request National Guardsmen from other states.

Hell, read FEMA's own guidelines:

Immediately after an incident, local jurisdictions respond using available resources and notify State response elements. As information emerges, they also assess the situation and the need for State assistance. The State reviews the situation, mobilizes State resources, and informs the DHS/EPR/FEMA Regional Office of actions taken. The Governor activates the State emergency operations plan, proclaims or declares a state of emergency, and requests a State/DHS joint Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA) to determine if sufficient damage has occurred to justify a request for a Presidential declaration of a major disaster or emergency. Based upon the results of the PDA, the Governor may request a Presidential declaration and define the kind of Federal assistance needed.

The day after Brown failed to act any president worth the title would have taken over and acted on his own.

Why do you think he came out with the "unacceptable" statement? He looked like he had just gotten through chewing some ass.

<ahem>

http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/NRP_FullText.pdf

See page 43 re: Proactive Federal Response to Catastrophic Events

I don't see anything in there that allows the President to throw the Posse Comitatus Act aside and direct military forces without the permission of the governors. I do see alot of talk about "expediting" and "collaborating" between the local, state, and federal level along with moving assets into strategic positions beforehand.

 

[conjur]

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: BBond
National emergencies ARE NOT handled from the bottom up. What the hell do we need a FEMA director or a president for if people have to handle it from the bottom up?

Sorry to be the one to tell you this but our form of government is federalism not Communism or a Dictatorship. Per the Posse Comitatus Act the federal government is not allowed to operate military troops on US soil. Governors however can activate their own state's National Guard under their own control. They also can request National Guardsmen from other states.

Hell, read FEMA's own guidelines:

Immediately after an incident, local jurisdictions respond using available resources and notify State response elements. As information emerges, they also assess the situation and the need for State assistance. The State reviews the situation, mobilizes State resources, and informs the DHS/EPR/FEMA Regional Office of actions taken. The Governor activates the State emergency operations plan, proclaims or declares a state of emergency, and requests a State/DHS joint Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA) to determine if sufficient damage has occurred to justify a request for a Presidential declaration of a major disaster or emergency. Based upon the results of the PDA, the Governor may request a Presidential declaration and define the kind of Federal assistance needed.

The day after Brown failed to act any president worth the title would have taken over and acted on his own.

Why do you think he came out with the "unacceptable" statement? He looked like he had just gotten through chewing some ass.

<ahem>

http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/NRP_FullText.pdf

See page 43 re: Proactive Federal Response to Catastrophic Events

I don't see anything in there that allows the President to throw the Posse Comitatus Act aside and direct military forces without the permission of the governors. I do see alot of talk about "expediting" and "collaborating" between the local, state, and federal level along with moving assets into strategic positions beforehand.

Where did I say anything about tossing aside Posse Comitatus. Read pages 42 and 43. The military could have been deployed to proactively assist the local and state authorities w/o violating Posse Comitatus.

 

[Pabster]

Originally posted by: realsup
Now it is coming out thestate of Lousiana blocked the Red Cross.

This premise sure backfired on the blame Bush for everything crowd.

Nah, they're still spinning.

 

[Duckzilla]

This disaster happened down South, not up in Yankee country. Bush and his ilk really screwed up this time.

 

[Queasy]

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: conjur

Originally posted by: Queasy

Originally posted by: BBond
National emergencies ARE NOT handled from the bottom up. What the hell do we need a FEMA director or a president for if people have to handle it from the bottom up?

Sorry to be the one to tell you this but our form of government is federalism not Communism or a Dictatorship. Per the Posse Comitatus Act the federal government is not allowed to operate military troops on US soil. Governors however can activate their own state's National Guard under their own control. They also can request National Guardsmen from other states.

Hell, read FEMA's own guidelines:

Immediately after an incident, local jurisdictions respond using available resources and notify State response elements. As information emerges, they also assess the situation and the need for State assistance. The State reviews the situation, mobilizes State resources, and informs the DHS/EPR/FEMA Regional Office of actions taken. The Governor activates the State emergency operations plan, proclaims or declares a state of emergency, and requests a State/DHS joint Preliminary Damage Assessment (PDA) to determine if sufficient damage has occurred to justify a request for a Presidential declaration of a major disaster or emergency. Based upon the results of the PDA, the Governor may request a Presidential declaration and define the kind of Federal assistance needed.

The day after Brown failed to act any president worth the title would have taken over and acted on his own.

Why do you think he came out with the "unacceptable" statement? He looked like he had just gotten through chewing some ass.

<ahem>

http://www.dhs.gov/interweb/assetlibrary/NRP_FullText.pdf

See page 43 re: Proactive Federal Response to Catastrophic Events

I don't see anything in there that allows the President to throw the Posse Comitatus Act aside and direct military forces without the permission of the governors. I do see alot of talk about "expediting" and "collaborating" between the local, state, and federal level along with moving assets into strategic positions beforehand.

Where did I say anything about tossing aside Posse Comitatus. Read pages 42 and 43. The military could have been deployed to proactively assist the local and state authorities w/o violating Posse Comitatus.

The closest I see to that is "Standard procedures regarding requests for assistance may be expedited or, under extreme circumstances, suspended in the immediate aftermath of an event of catastrophic magnitude."

Could Bush have sent in troops based on this? Hell if I know. Were assets being pre-positioned? Yes.

I do know that Blanco had over 7,000 National Guard under her command sitting outside of New Orleans at the time. I also know that a Navy medical that was already in the area came up behind Katrina to provide rescue and medical assistance.

Information is continually creeping in and nobody is going to come out of this smelling like roses. But you have to ask yourself why did Mississippi (who was hit harder than Louisiana by Katrina) not have near the amount of screwups that Louisiana has had.

 

[conjur]

I know all about the USS Bataan. It had launched a 168-foot ship loaded with supplies and it was traveling up the Mississippi. It was only 40 miles (had gone 50 miles so far) and it was ordered to turn around as the USS Bataan and its 600-bed hospital and ability to make 100,000 gallons of water/day were ordered to depart the area and head toward the Mississippi coast.

As for the 7,000 National Guard, I've yet to see one link that shows 7,000 NG members were active duty. I saw this which says 3500 were called up by Monday:
http://www.shreveporttimes.com/apps/pbc...D=/20050830/NEWS01/508300352/1002/NEWS


And, yes, the NRP allows the military to be used in a proactive manner w/o a Gov. formally requesting them. Howeve, they cannot be used as law enforcement (which wasn't necessary...aid and evacuation assistance were the primary concerns on Monday)