Hurricane Katrina: A consolidated list of questions and answers about the crisis.

[mc6809e]

You might also have needed a gun/bat or something to keep someone else from taking it from you. That is where the FEMA mucked it up. When the levee broke, the whole nature of the disaster changed.

FEMA didn't muck it up. The city of New Orleans mucked up since they knew the dome would be used as a shelter and didn't bother to put food and water in it.

Friday night before the storm, the National Hurricane Center had Kartrina going right through New Orleans. Yet no one in the city bothered to start moving water and food into the dome.

You can't expect FEMA to do all the thinking for you.

Besides, what could FEMA have done in this case? They don't have the power to tell the City of New Orleans how they must prepare for a storm. The Mayor and Governor are in charge. Not FEMA and not the Federal government.

In fact, the 3 star general running things right now, General Honore, doesn't even answer to Bush. He answers to governor Blanco.

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

Well done.

 

[Spamela]

legalistic & technical arguments about who had what responsibility
won't help.

after a disaster the public has to have the impression that
the authorities appreciate the magnitude of the problem &
that something's being done about it.

this impression has to come from the President who,
in this case, was slow on the draw.

 

[1EZduzit]

Originally posted by: mc6809e

You might also have needed a gun/bat or something to keep someone else from taking it from you. That is where the FEMA mucked it up. When the levee broke, the whole nature of the disaster changed.

FEMA didn't muck it up. The city of New Orleans mucked up since they knew the dome would be used as a shelter and didn't bother to put food and water in it.

Friday night before the storm, the National Hurricane Center had Kartrina going right through New Orleans. Yet no one in the city bothered to start moving water and food into the dome.

You can't expect FEMA to do all the thinking for you.

Besides, what could FEMA have done in this case? They don't have the power to tell the City of New Orleans how they must prepare for a storm. The Mayor and Governor are in charge. Not FEMA and not the Federal government.

In fact, the 3 star general running things right now, General Honore, doesn't even answer to Bush. He answers to governor Blanco.

You are so FOS it isn't even funny. Eveybody notice this clown, he is full of disinformation. If you can't talk about things woithout trying to misrepresent the facts then kindly STFU.

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

excellent post on this, great job. Let me clarify a few things:

1) NO was not built below sea level. The entire city has been sinking for decades (due to natural processes as well as groundwater removal, wetlands draining, etc.)

2) On the subject of 9/11: The loss of the towers did not have an overall significant impact on the city. The subway system was mostly running within 24-36 hours IIRC. The NG units sent there were not even really needed (their only use was to close off the city).

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Good post yllus and well researched.

:thumbsup:

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: totalcommand
Mostly good, but you missed the key key question of Q: What were the detailed failures of the relief effort?.

Your post makes it seem everything went right (your answers justify the emergency response of delayed national guard and holding people in the city), but tell me what exactly went wrong. That will justify these Q: Why was this disaster relief effort so badly bungled while 9/11 was run so well? and Q: Okay. For the part they played though, what's up with the bungling of the disaster by FEMA?

I also think you put little thought into the fact that State and Local forces were overwhelmed, and that is the reason FEMA was needed to take a strong role in coordination and response.

And this statement is false: "A 24 hour turnaround time would be remarkable - 72 hours minimum is more realistic."

Chertoff, the spokesman for FEMA, said that in real emergency situations the national guard can be mobilized in 24 hours. Apparently, people didn't consider this a real emergency or something went wrong with coordination in FEMA.

1) My local NG unit was activated and shipped in less than 24 hours from my understanding.

2) Local forces WERE NOT OVERWHELMED. How hard is that to understand. Let's say that nobody was able to do a damn thing anymore in LA and MS. It would then fall on Texas, Oklahoma, Tenessee, Arkansas, Alabama, and Flordia to provide immediate relief. Because of the scale, those forces became the "local forces".

3) Forces outside of that area take time to get down there. My local NG unit in Wisconsin had over 1,100 miles to drive to get to LA (and remember, convoys always travel slower than individual vehicles). Therefore, they probably did not arraive until Saturday.

4) The spokesman for FEMA has provel to be clueless. While *some* NG units are designed to respond within 24 hours (rapid reaction forces), the majority are on 72 hour notice.

Wisconsin?s available resources include the National Guard?s 500-soldier Rapid Reaction Force, which is capable of responding on short notice anywhere in Wisconsin with an initial force of 125 soldiers, and 375 additional soldiers available within 24 hours to sustain operations as long as required.

Of the Wisconsin National Guard?s 9,450 current members, there are about 3,080 serving on active duty. Among those, approximately 1,770 are now deployed overseas. The Guard?s remaining soldiers and airmen are available in Wisconsin and are fully capable of responding to homeland security or defense missions anywhere in the state.

 

[Bowfinger]

Originally posted by: OS

Originally posted by: Zebo
Boy talk about a government applogist and selective information. This is about as Bias a speil as you can get.

For example who cares if 99% of National Guard is here if all the first reponders are in Iraq? Accountants and cooks dont do you much good.

http://www.thenewamerican.com/artman/publish/article_2136.shtml

Maybe tomorrow if I feel up to it I'll try and present a more balanced arguement... the truth is often in the middle somewhere.

"Some commanders from the Southeast likewise worry about hurricane season. After a big storm, there is high demand for precisely the sort of troops that have been deployed most heavily -- military police to keep order and engineers to clear debris.

"It's not just how many, it's who, and what kind of skill sets they have," said Maj. Gen. David B. Poythress, Georgia's commander. "When both my MP companies are gone, I don't have any MPs to put on the street."

In Mississippi, the unit designated as "first responders" to repair hurricane damage, the 223rd Engineer Battalion, was deployed for the past year to Iraq. It has come home, said Maj. Gen. Harold A. Cross. But, he added, "they left the equipment in Iraq." He has been told that by hurricane season he will be given the gear belonging to another unit being deployed. He also noted that he has sent 21 helicopters to Iraq, leaving just five for post-storm rescues and transport of cargo and troops."

link (6/04)



"The U.S. Army National Guard, battered by its major role in the Iraq war, announced Thursday it would increase enlistment bonuses to attract new recruits and seek $20 billion to replace arms and equipment.

The commander of the Pentagon?s National Guard Bureau said it must replace equipment destroyed in Iraq and Afghanistan or left there for other Guard troops, so that units would have enough equipment to also use at home in emergencies. "

link (12/04)



"The Pentagon, by changing the National Guard's mission, leaves governors with fewer forces to fight fires or handle disasters

Pentagon officials gained 10 helicopters and hundreds of extra soldiers when they ordered two Montana National Guard units into Iraq late last year.

But they undercut Montana's wildland firefighting force, leaving a state with millions of acres of trees critically low on manpower and aircraft as it enters fire season.

"We have two Chinooks," Gov. Brian Schweitzer said of his remaining helicopter fleet. "But I don't have flight crews for them. They're all in Iraq."
....
"When I first became adjutant general, 90 percent of the mobilizations were to support the state," said Maj. Gen. Paul Monroe, recently retired commander of the California National Guard. "Now, 90 percent are to support the federal government. That was never envisioned."

Governors generally have supported the mobilizations of their Guard units, saying they understand wartime needs and want to do their part. But support has begun to wane as it becomes clear that military planners are demanding a larger share of the Guard, and will for years to come.

Washington Gov. Christine Gregoire attended a National Governors Association meeting in Arizona this spring to hear a military briefing on the future of the Guard. What she heard shocked her.

"The long-term strategy for national defense is to rely on the National Guard," the first-term governor said. "We sent a message that they'd better rethink their long-term strategy.

"The National Guard is not, in my estimation, prepared to do that," she said. "We need them at home for natural disasters." "

link (6/05)

Well done. Nice counter-balance to the OP.

 

[Engineer]

Originally posted by: mc6809e

$2.5 billion to shore up the levies seems like a bargain, doesn't it?

Why should the federal government pay for New Orleans' levees?

I guess Democrats should have a new slogan: "Can't someone else do it?"

The Louisiana Superdome Cost $163 million to build in 1975. The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, a state entity, was built in 1985. It was expanded in 1999, and the state just completed negotiations for a new 500,000 square foot expansion. The state signed a contract for the new expansion on Aug. 17, just 12 days before Katrina hit. The price: $315 million. Construction would have begun years ago, for a cost of $275 million, but for some delays. There was a legal dispute over the contract in 2003, then in 2004 Gov. Kathleen Blanco tried to combine the expansion with a new stadium to replace the Superdome.

Seems to me New Orleans and the State of Louisiana were more interested in providing people with circuses instead of better levees.

Regardless who should pay, the 2.5 billion pales in comparision to what the federal government "WILL" pay to help rebuild the area. $10.5 billion already approved and billions more promised by Bush himself (this is just a start). (which pales in comparison to the Iraq money which pales in comparison to the deficit which pales in comparison to the budget which pales in comparison to the GDP...and so on). It's all relative!

Blame goes everywhere on this one. But the real blame goes to the hurricane, which nobody could have predicted what would have done. Even experience hurricane folks tell stories of staying behind to ride it out.

I've come to the conclusion that it's time to help NO, regardless of resources and where they come from, and forget the partisan sniping.

Thanks yllus. I really like the last statement and the big

 

[SarcasticDwarf]

Originally posted by: rchiu

Originally posted by: yllus
With an extraordinarily high amount of misinformation circulating about the crisis in New Orleans, I thought I might try to do something helpful for once and write out a consolidated question and answer post about what's gone on in Louisiana lately.


Q: Was FEMA meant to head up this relief effort?
A: The typical role of the agency is to take a secondary role and provide assistance, specialized equipment and financial aid to local and state agencies. In case of a disaster local and state authorities are supposed to start reeling off orders out of a playbook drawn up years in advance. FEMA then coordinates cross-state or city efforts and the like. I think a lot of people put an unholy amount of trust and credit to the federal government of the United States, but there are clearly drawn up lines of authority that it simply is not allowed to cross. On an immediate basis, this is a local and state issue. (Source: Chicago Tribune)

I am wondering how you draw the conclusion that FEMA's role is to take a secondary role and provide assistance. From the article you quoted:

FEMA's typical role in a disaster is to augment local and state response, but in a case this big the federal agency takes over.

It is considered a secondary role as FEMA is not supposed to be a rapid reaction force.

 

[3chordcharlie]

Originally posted by: yllus
Q: Why the hell do people live in a city below sea level that's at constant threat of hurricanes anyways? Why didn't they leave when warned?
A: To answer this, I'm going to quote in its entirety an article from the Toronto Star entitled, 'Why we place ourselves in harm's way'.

Good article - I read that one in the Star this morning. It does a surprisingly good job of not butchering the layman's explanation of judgement heuristics, availability, etc.

 

[TastesLikeChicken]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
I sincerely hope this goes a long way in waking the sheeple up from their stuper and realize the degree of incompetence they allowed to be in power.

Yep.

Nagin and Blanco knew from a year before that evacuation was a problem, also knew evacuations to the Superdome were a problem, and obviously didn't learn one single lesson from it or make any plan changes to address the situation as they claimed they would. Here's an article from last year:

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/091904ccktWWLIvanFlaws.132602486.html

Ivan exposes flaws in N.O.'s disaster plans
05:09 PM CDT on Sunday, September 19, 2004

By KEVIN McGILL
Associated Press

Those who had the money to flee Hurricane Ivan ran into hours-long traffic jams. Those too poor to leave the city had to find their own shelter - a policy that was eventually reversed, but only a few hours before the deadly storm struck land.

New Orleans dodged the knockout punch many feared from the hurricane, but the storm exposed what some say are significant flaws in the Big Easy's civil disaster plans.

Much of New Orleans is below sea level, kept dry by a system of pumps and levees. As Ivan charged through the Gulf of Mexico, more than a million people were urged to flee. Forecasters warned that a direct hit on the city could send torrents of Mississippi River backwash over the city's levees, creating a 20-foot-deep cesspool of human and industrial waste.

Residents with cars took to the highways. Others wondered what to do.

"They say evacuate, but they don't say how I'm supposed to do that," Latonya Hill, 57, said at the time. "If I can't walk it or get there on the bus, I don't go. I don't got a car. My daughter don't either."

Advocates for the poor were indignant.

"If the government asks people to evacuate, the government has some responsibility to provide an option for those people who can't evacuate and are at the whim of Mother Nature," said Joe Cook of the New Orleans ACLU.

It's always been a problem, but the situation is worse now that the Red Cross has stopped providing shelters in New Orleans for hurricanes rated above Category 2. Stronger hurricanes are too dangerous, and Ivan was a much more powerful Category 4.

In this case, city officials first said they would provide no shelter, then agreed that the state-owned Louisiana Superdome would open to those with special medical needs. Only Wednesday afternoon, with Ivan just hours away, did the city open the 20-story-high domed stadium to the public.

Mayor Ray Nagin's spokeswoman, Tanzie Jones, insisted that there was no reluctance at City Hall to open the Superdome, but said the evacuation was the top priority.

"Our main focus is to get the people out of the city," she said.

Callers to talk radio complained about the late decision to open up the dome, but the mayor said he would do nothing different.

"We did the compassionate thing by opening the shelter," Nagin said. "We wanted to make sure we didn't have a repeat performance of what happened before. We didn't want to see people cooped up in the Superdome for days."

When another dangerous hurricane, Georges, appeared headed for the city in 1998, the Superdome was opened as a shelter and an estimated 14,000 people poured in. But there were problems, including theft and vandalism.

This time far fewer took refuge from the storm - an estimated 1,100 - at the Superdome and there was far greater security: 300 National Guardsmen.

The main safety measure - getting people out of town - raised its own problems.

More than 1 million people tried to leave the city and surrounding suburbs on Tuesday, creating a traffic jam as bad as or worse than the evacuation that followed Georges. In the afternoon, state police took action, reversing inbound lanes on southeastern Louisiana interstates to provide more escape routes. Bottlenecks persisted, however.

Col. Henry Whitehorn, head of state police, said he believes his agency acted appropriately, but also acknowledged he never expected a seven-hour-long crawl for the 60 miles between New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

It was so bad that some broadcasters were telling people to stay home, that they had missed their window of opportunity to leave. They claimed the interstates had turned into parking lots where trapped people could die in a storm surge.

Gov. Kathleen Blanco and Nagin both acknowledged the need to improve traffic flow and said state police should consider reversing highway lanes earlier. They also promised meetings with governments in neighboring localities and state transportation officials to improve evacuation plans.

But Blanco and other state officials stressed that, while irritating, the clogged escape routes got people out of the most vulnerable areas.

"We were able to get people out," state Commissioner of Administration Jerry Luke LeBlanc said. "It was successful. There was frustration, yes. But we got people out of harm's way."

 

[CaptnKirk]

Overall a thoughtful post.
However there are still many Points and Counterpoints that can be made.

Jane, you ignorant slut . . .

 

[yllus]

Back home - it was too nice a day outside to spend in front of a keyboard. Other than the, "Did the state suffer because..." question I think everything is pretty solid? It is a pretty central question in this whole affair that I really can't help but take a stand on one way or the other when it comes to an answer. We do seem to have a fairly even-tempered debate about that part of the post happening in the thread for anyone to read.

My mistake on repeating the built below sea level thing, I knew that and put it in anyways for no good reason. Will correct in a sec.

I do believe I'm correct on the National Guard response time issue, as SarcasticDwarf has been able to fill in some info on that end (thanks both for the info and your real-life contributions). In a disaster of this scale, that rapid reaction force from even a bunch of states is going to be pretty insignificant when you consider ~100,000 people remained in the city.

I think that the televised impression people got of the authorities was markedly different than that of 9/11, which to be quite honest is a lot easier to bluster about: "We will seek out the assailants and shove our boot up their @sses." But something four to five times bigger that can't be solved with jets and artillery and shows exactly what humanity's limits are when tested? I tend to think that this would make any president or governor or mayor look weak. They still should have been better prepared, but I think a lot of people might have overlooked that if the media facade had proven to be a little better.

 

[Michael]

OS,

Thanks for the post. It doesn't show that LA National Guard units were in Iraq instead of being available to help, but it does point out the increased risk of an extended deployment of the Guard units. It certainly was a much better response than what Zebo threw out.

In many ways, this is a no win situation. If the area's "first responders" were not activated and moved out of NO before the storm, then they would have not been available to help and you would have been calling on neighbouring states that were not hit by the storm.

The main need wasn't for 500 or so Guardsmen, it was for a massive delivery of food and water to the two main places where people had fled to enmasse - the Superdome and the Convention Center. The other need was to get into the city proper and rescue people trapped in houses and other buildings (who also probably did not have food and water as I bet most stored that in their kitchens which were quickly flooded). News reports showed locals and the Coast Guard pulling people out of houses pretty quickly.

So, unless there was a ready store of food and water already set aside, it would take time to get that together. It would require a fair amount of trucks and other transport and troops to protect the supplies once it became known that there was at least some real threat of armed thugs. The fact that there was no food and water prestaged at the places where the local government moved so many people is a huge act of folly.

What I don't understand it why some water couldn't have been rushed to those two locations via helicopter. A couple of loads of bottled water would have made a big difference. There might have been distribution problems (fights over the water), but one bottle will keep someone alive for days.

It will be interesting to see just home many people really died at both of the mass evacuation places. I would expect that most who died were in high risk groups - sick, old or very young and would have required almost immediate attention to stop. In a population of 40K or so, a certain amount of deaths over a week's time would have been normal as well, without even accounting for the weather extremes they were going through.

My expectations are that the vast majority of people would have died soon after the flooding started. This will be especially true in the lowest elevation areas where you would have had to get from the attic to the roof to be above water. If you didn't evacuate before the flooding started and didn't have a way of getting through the roof, it is quite possible to have drowned in your second floor or attic. I don't see how 500 or so first responders would have made much difference there.

I find much of the howling and finger pointing to be politically motivated. I'm worried that it'll descend into politically-charged blame shifting and witch-hunting instead of actually focusing on identifying what went wrong and what has to happen in the future.

As another comment, there is much being written about funding of the levees. First, anyone writing a funding request is going to detail all the dangers and other reasons why the funding is vital. That is a normal part of a funding request. The main levee that failed was fairly new and in very good condition and there is no proof at all that even if the full funding requests had been met that it would have made any difference. Once the levee failed to the huge extent it did, pumping would have made almost no difference.

Michael

The site address looks a little strange, but wiin posted this link and it has a decent timeline in it supported by outside sources:

Katrina Timeline

A few comments based on the link:

1) The LA National Guard did drop food and water off at the Superdome and the Mayor did tell people that were going there to bring their own and to treat it as a camping trip. This is not well reported and much of the mainstream media has been harping on how they had no food and water. True of the Convention Center (which was used as a collection point after the storm hit). Deaths in the Superdome are portrayed to be people who were already sick and frail before they went. Seems that I was wrong about no advance preparations being taken at the Superdome. Didn't seem to be lots of security there as major efforts to save lives were underway. Certainly bad living conditions in the Superdome due to heat but people were alive.

2) There were reasonably significant resources staged around the city and they were deployed as soon as the storm had passed over. This includes the US Army Corps of Engineers and the Coast Guard. The LA National Guard in the area were in the city almost right away. The ones that arrived in significant numbers later one were from nearby states.

3) Storm hit Monday morning. Looked like the city was spared the worst of what was expected. Some flooding from 17th street Canal, about 20% of city flooded. By Tuesday 80% was flooded and local officials were at a loss to explain why. I would guess most deaths occured here as people were trapped in their houses. Hard to see what could have been done to save them at this point. Efforts had already started on plugging the breaches but scale of breach and conditions in the city caused problems. Bush announced he was cutting short his vacation and had already made an announcement on the damage caused to the Gulf Coast.

4) Voluntary and then manditory evacuation orders issued by Mayor Nagin once the storm was upgraded to Cat 5. President Bush called and urged manditory evacuation. Seems to be good cooperation between Bush, Blanco and Nagin at this point.

5) Local resources appear to be overwhelmed from when the massive flooding started. Needed boats to get around many areas. Outside resources (National Guard) arrived about 2 days after storm hit, about 1 day after massive flooding and ramped up.

6) Looked like local and Federal efforts were not sufficient considering the scale of the flooding. Federal efforts were addressing Gulf Coast, not just NO. NO largest city and only area with lots of people to get very bad flooding.

7) Superdome evacuation ordered Tuesday night and started Wednesday night. Basically 2.5 days after the storm hit.

8) Gov. Blanco was asking Federal government to send more troops to free up National Guard for security purposes by Wednesday. Looting and violence had started soon after the storm hit and before the massive flooding. As it got worse, made it too hard to rescue people and keep security.

The timeline makes is clear that massive efforts started and results were happening almost right away. Disaster was so large that hard to make a dent early and civil order breakdown made it worse.

After reading timeline, I'm much less inclined towards anger at both local and Federal officials. Obviously there were screw-ups at all levels and some people should lose their jobs over it, but seems like political hatred and media circus is causing many of the perception problems.

- Michael

 

[imported_Condor]

Originally posted by: Zebo

Originally posted by: Michael
Zebo,

I have no idea why you're tossing that lionk into different posts and claiming it proves something. The article is about speculation about the potential risk everywhere in the USA because more "first responders" are in Iraq.

It doesn't explain or define "first reposnders". It doesn't list or prove that any from LA are there or that, if there are some, that there are enough gone to make any difference.

The bare facts on this are simple. National Guardsmen are drawn from the local population. The local population in the New Orleans area evacuated the area ahead of the storm. There is little evidence that the State government activated the National Guard before the storm to any real degree.

Even if they had, they would have been staged outside of the city. That area was hit by the hurricane after it left the coast. Sure, the storm lost a lot of punch as it went inland, but it was still bad enough to snarl air traffic. The roads were in bad shape as they were still full of people fleeing the storm.

Compound the problem with the fact that inital reports were that the storm was missing the city proper and that there was some wind damage but nothing like was expected. News of the flooding came hours later.

Trying to blame the problem on Iraq is stretching it and makes me think your agenda is an anti-Iraq war agenda, not a what went wrong on the Gulf Coast agenda. That's fine, but it is depressing that a better thread like this one would be muddled up with posts like yours citing at best a dubious source that doesn't even say or prove what you say it does.

Michael

That's cause thier indelibly linked. For every dollar spent in attacking iraq is one less dollar we are spending at home. For every soldier that's over there that's one less solidier that can be over here. The only question is how much effect it's having if any. Yllus, in his "unbias" assesment, quotes opinon pieces saying notta, for everyone he finds I can find one to the contrary. Least I admit a Bias.

Not an accurate synopsis. Neglects in total the theory of economics as well as the reality of economics. A large portion of the support for the war in Iraq is spent at home. Salaries, equipment manufacture, etc. People involved in the military industrial complex both here and deployed do pay a portion of their salaries back into the system through taxation. Much social money is diverted overseas into economies that perpetrate the drug culture and destroy communities while money from military expendature is rolled back into the local communities..

 

[imported_Condor]

Originally posted by: mc6809e

$2.5 billion to shore up the levies seems like a bargain, doesn't it?

Why should the federal government pay for New Orleans' levees?

I guess Democrats should have a new slogan: "Can't someone else do it?"

The Louisiana Superdome Cost $163 million to build in 1975. The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, a state entity, was built in 1985. It was expanded in 1999, and the state just completed negotiations for a new 500,000 square foot expansion. The state signed a contract for the new expansion on Aug. 17, just 12 days before Katrina hit. The price: $315 million. Construction would have begun years ago, for a cost of $275 million, but for some delays. There was a legal dispute over the contract in 2003, then in 2004 Gov. Kathleen Blanco tried to combine the expansion with a new stadium to replace the Superdome.

Seems to me New Orleans and the State of Louisiana were more interested in providing people with circuses instead of better levees.

Excellent post! Liberals are going to hate you for it. That makes it even better!

The hallmark of Democratic leadership is "Can't someone else do it?"

 

[imported_Condor]

Originally posted by: dmcowen674
Sadly another thread and posts of disinformation cleverly selected by the Apologists Machine.

Those so called "answers" by the Chicago Tribune are bumpkus.

I expect the local Times Picayune to counter the apparent Illinois Apologists.

I sincerely hope this goes a long way in waking the sheeple up from their stuper and realize the degree of incompetence they allowed to be in power.

I have some hope that the people of New Orleans will elect a straight Republican ticket next time too! Not that often that we agree on anything, Dave.

 

[imported_Condor]

Originally posted by: Spamela
legalistic & technical arguments about who had what responsibility
won't help.

after a disaster the public has to have the impression that
the authorities appreciate the magnitude of the problem &
that something's being done about it.

this impression has to come from the President who,
in this case, was slow on the draw.

No, I think that after the disaster, the people have to remember and to use the results to better select their leadership. Impressions are not for people who have suffere. This is not the same as selling used cars.

 

[imported_Condor]

Originally posted by: 1EZduzit

Originally posted by: mc6809e

You might also have needed a gun/bat or something to keep someone else from taking it from you. That is where the FEMA mucked it up. When the levee broke, the whole nature of the disaster changed.

FEMA didn't muck it up. The city of New Orleans mucked up since they knew the dome would be used as a shelter and didn't bother to put food and water in it.

Friday night before the storm, the National Hurricane Center had Kartrina going right through New Orleans. Yet no one in the city bothered to start moving water and food into the dome.

You can't expect FEMA to do all the thinking for you.

Besides, what could FEMA have done in this case? They don't have the power to tell the City of New Orleans how they must prepare for a storm. The Mayor and Governor are in charge. Not FEMA and not the Federal government.

In fact, the 3 star general running things right now, General Honore, doesn't even answer to Bush. He answers to governor Blanco.

You are so FOS it isn't even funny. Eveybody notice this clown, he is full of disinformation. If you can't talk about things woithout trying to misrepresent the facts then kindly STFU.

Good job of making yourself look even worse.