1. Don’t call president Bush sleeze after all do i have to mention MONICA , CHINA ! CLINTON SOLD US OUT!!

2. The mayor of New Orleans stopped F.E.M.A. , RED CROSS, and SALVATION ARMY from delivering food and water to the superdoom because they wanted everyone out of the city not to create a hub for refugees.

3. Public transportation was available to people who did not have vehicles but New Orleans government did not impliment there plan for disaster before it happened. One officiall stated get GREYHOUND BUS LINES here instead of the school busses.

4. I am SICK of hearing OHHHH the poor BLACK people and that the WHITE people including President BUSH dosen,t care. WHATEVER! MR. rapper west hates WHITE people and the BLACK community is turning this into a racial issue. THEN call WHITE people racisit come on give me a break.

5. MY CONCLUSION is this, its not President BUSH’s fault its the MAYOR of New Orleans and its government. Why were’nt those leveys updated? why did’nt they go pick up these people who could’nt travel on their own in the busses that were available before the hurricane hit? Why didnt they impliment the emergency plan already in place for such a disaster hmmmm. BECAUSE the Louisianna government really dropped the ball. NOT OUR NATIONS GOVERNMENT and people who are complaining “YOU” the VOTER put them there!

so go on liberals and demoncats “OOPS” i meant democrats keep holding out your hand and expecting help you will get. Dont get off youre own coutch and help youselfs just blame someone else.

Matching displaced families with people who are high functioning with behavior disorders who will heal with a supportive family, based on a research project Dr. Mosher from California did when he started Setoria House. He had none professional people, trained to listen and be kind to people who were ill and did not need medications. They had a supportive family like setting, and they improved and were functioning people in society unlike many people on medications.

People with these illnesses usually have SSI, which would allow to help pay for a residential home, apartment or condo. There is lots of government grant money for purchasing a home too.

By matching the families with the person abandoned by his or her family, it is a win win situation. Social workers should learn all the government available programs for grants for housing, and rents. Since the Katrina families will be getting government benefits, there is no reason why this can not be put together quickly. There are often family funds as well, and the families would welcome a family caring for their loved one as they no longer can.

People with behavior problems have many resources for getting jobs that the family could take advantage of. This is not only combining benefits in place, and new ones for the families, but the family would be helped as they help a very lonely and need person who does not have families.

I hope someone reads this and start putting this together in any state the family wants to live in.

I stil wish the Debit card was not scraped and in a very simple way, unlike a direct deposit into an account, when people don’t have accounts, if given one, they may move, and lose it, and cashing checks when you are homeless is not easy. Ask the President to get the program out of Texas only, and get a big bank involved and the process will be instant. If some people take advantage of what, so what’s new. That’s how this world is.

Kind regards,

Ayala Karsh
Founder
Stop Calling Us Mentally Ill
http://stopcallingusmentalllyill.org
ayala@stopcallingusmentallyill.org

1. The Mayor
2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security (a political appointee
of the Governor who reports to the Governor)
3. The Governor
4. The Head of Homeland Security
5. The President

What did each do?

1. The mayor, with 5 days advance, waited until 2 days before he
announced a mandatory evacuation (at the behest of the President). Then
he failed to provide transportation for those without transport even
though he had hundreds of buses at his disposal.

2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security failed to have any plan
for a contingency that has been talked about for 50 years. Then he
blames the Feds for not doing what he should have done. (So much for
political appointees)

3. The Governor, despite a declaration of disaster by the President 2
DAYS BEFORE the storm hit, failed to take advantage of the offer of
Federal troops and aid. Until 2 DAYS AFTER the storm hit.

4. The Director of Homeland Security positioned assets in the area to be
ready when the Governor called for them

5. The President urged a mandatory evacuation, and even declared a
disaster State of Emergency, freeing up millions of dollars of federal
assistance, should the Governor decide to use it.

Oh and by the way, the levees that broke were the responsibility of the
local landowners and the local levee board to maintain, NOT THE FEDERAL
GOVERNMENT.

The disaster in New Orleans is what you get after decades of corrupt
government going all the way back to Huey Long.

“all of the best laid plans of mice and men” have component of not having been prepared for the exact need of the moment or more often the element of poor leadership.

It is nice to put the blame on the White House for global warming and for not having moved fast enough. When the governor of the State of Louisianna can’t get her act together long enough to call for help just how does it work to have the Federal government roll over her authority?

Many of the people who stayed might have left IF they had had transportation. However, if they had left and the storm had diverted as Charlie did last year what would have been the cost and the blame for extravagance?

This disaster has and will continue to teach a lesson of thinking and planning and taking action which is sorely needed by this nation. The only problem is that with everyone expecting Washington to do it the bill is going to be even more substantial than what Home Land Security is now costing.

The fact that the party of the Seditious & Sleazy have been in charge of New Orleans/state for sixty plus years and just looked how they folded like cheap envelopes when the crunch time came…

Why were the idiotic, asinine, liberal scum whining for federal help and calling Bush names? These scum are part of the entitlement generation of parasitic slugs who can’t do a thing for themselves and need a socialist father figure to call the shots for them…

You’re a useless slug. Close your insipid yap.

Tell me, who is in charge here?

Also, is Cheney still alive?

The federal government has a plan. A lot of nice words, implemented in Dec 2004. Following the plan, however, is simply too much to ask of Bush and friends…

And the DHS has actually practiced around NOLA for this exact scenario, Operations Purple Crescent I and II. They brag about their preparedness here.

Yet with 5 days of warning, and the State of Emergency declared 2 days before the storm hit, the agencies tasked to protect us did nothing.

I know a lot of problems existed on the local level, more with the governor that the mayor, from what I see, but anyway. The evacuation was ordered. How a mayor and 1300 cops are supposed to force the remaining poor and infirm onto school buses, I don’t know. And the stubborn, right.

This is what we know on Sunday the 28th:
…DEVASTATING DAMAGE EXPECTED…
MOST OF THE AREA WILL BE UNINHABITABLE FOR WEEKS…PERHAPS LONGER.
AT LEAST HALF OF WELL CONSTRUCTED HOMES WILL HAVE ROOF AND WALL FAILURE. ALL GABLED ROOFS WILL FAIL…ALL WOOD FRAMED LOW RISING APARTMENT BUILDINGS WILL BE DESTROYED…ALL WINDOWS WILL BE BLOWN OUT.
THE VAST MAJORITY…OF TREES WILL BE SNAPPED OR UPROOTED. ONLY THE HEARTIEST WILL REMAIN STANDING…BUT BE TOTALLY DEFOLIATED.
POWER OUTAGES WILL LAST FOR WEEKS…AS MOST POWER POLES WILL BE DOWN AND TRANSFORMERS DESTROYED. WATER SHORTAGES WILL MAKE HUMAN SUFFERING INCREDIBLE BY MODERN STANDARDS.

But it took 4 days of excuses before FEMA/DHS showed up. They actually prevented other help from getting into NO. They had the nerve to tell us that they thought everything is fine on Tuesday, that NO dodged a bullet. No one there pciked up a fucking newspaper? Turned on CNN or Fox?

They didn’t know anyone was at the convention center until Thursday?

Are you kidding me?

Why is it that the Federal government is always the bad guy with you Righties unless they actually f**k up?

I say this: blame will be affixed. And I for one will not defer just because black Democrats constitute the halls of power in New Orleans.

The corrupt politicians who botched the evacuation of that city will not be allowed to get away with it.

Thousands, perhaps tens of thousands, of New Orleans’ most vulnerable citizens were left to drown while state officials evacuated to Baton Rouge. Upwards of 30,000 people were sent to a Superdome that state and city officials knew from having sent them there during Hurricane Ivan was ill prepared to house them.

City pumps have no backup generators. The police communication system backup generator ran on natural gas. Levee district funds were diverted to spending on 4-wheel drive SUVs for “officials.” City police abandoning their posts, or worse, looting the city along with their criminal buddies.

The sad tale of corruption and ineptitude has just begun.

And it will not be silenced.

Tens of thousands more were sent to the Convention Center, where there was no prepositioned food, water or adequate security. Left there to die of dehydration, disease and starvation.

There was a Hurricane Evacuation Plan in place. That plan was NOT FOLLOWED. City and school buses sit flooded in plain site of everyone who has access to Google.

And I will not allow the slippery politicians in the state of Louisiana to slither out of yet another example of their criminal negligence to their constituents.

And I find as I surf the web today that I am not alone in my condemnations. Recriminations? They have only just started. Because the only way, the only way we can prevent this from happening again is to immediately hold accountable those who hold power. Those who would attempt to shift blame from themselves to some invisible bureuacracy in Washington, D.C.

That is how they work. That method has always worked for them in the past. But today, we have the blogosphere. It will speak real truth to power because we are the humble citizens they govern.

We won’t let them get away with it.

Not this time.

I’m amazed that you, Jeff, have so little regard for the many, many hardworking Americans who were saving lives while cops were looting Wal Mart that you would say such a thing. You dishonor their service.

You have a lot to learn about how we need to change our government from officials who bitch and whine, to officials who take charge and DO.

It was painfully obvious to me, and to many other armchair critics who watched the situation in New Orleans unfold that federal officials were being stymied by state officials in attempting to evacuate that city BEFORE the storm, knowing full well what it takes to gear up a rescue operation that will involve tens of thousands of poor, infirm people.

I’m just astonished that you believe that Ray Nagin’s whining is what caused the entire apparatus that appeared the next day to appear.

My word man.

I miss the preview function.

This is quite possibly the dumbest, most ignorant thing you have ever written. To think that help would not have arrived or would have taken longer because blowhards like yourself were screaming is ridiculous. You should be ashamed.

The city’s disaster plan (the one they apparently never looked at) even refers to the use of those buses for an necessary evacuation.

Remember, this was not called a voluntary evacuation by NO officials. No, they called it a “mandatory evacuation”. Too bad for NO residents that they really didn’t mean it.

Realistically, blame can be affixed all around here. The governor still has not authorized federal control of the local troops. Why not? The mayor could/should have had school buses take people out of the city. Martial law can’t be declared without Congressional approval. Well, Congress isn’t in session right now–it would have taken a couple of days just to get them together to vote on such a resolution, not to mention all the inevitable political posturing bullshit that would have taken place. We’ve known since the 1920s that New Orleans is not safe from flooding–we could blame every Presidential administration since then for not building high enough levees. Last year, Florida faced two huge hurricanes. Jeb Bush had everyone from southern to central Florida evacuate (my Mom was one of them). Well, both storms bypassed southern Florida–& he was subjected to much harping & politically motivated criticism from media for being too “alarmist.” Hmmm–maybe after reviewing things now, we can all realize it perhaps wasn’t alarmist. Locals themselves were to blame for not heeding the warnings, some of whom could have gotten out. Even you, Jeff, & others are to blame for localizing this to New Orleans. One interesting newscast had an emergency worker from one of the surrounding parishes. He was very frustrated because he said everyone was focusing on New Orleans & turning it into a race situation–but people were “dying on the rooftops” (his exact words) in the parishes with no help in sight–& those folks were/are white. Another newscast pointed out that the area actually under water is bigger than Great Britain. I defy anyone to show me any country/political party anywhere that can effectively & immediately deal with a natural disaster affecting an entire country–which is the equivalent of what we’re seeing right now. (Should I mention the hideousness being seen on many Democratic blogs where posters are saying that blue staters should just plain let red staters die because they voted for Bush?)

What is certainly warranted is realistic examination, once the immediate crisis is over, of what happened & what can be done in the future. It is inevitable that there will again be a category 5 hurricane (& save me the bullshit about global warming–there have been category 5 hurricanes that have devastated Galveston, Massachusetts, & other places as long ago as the 20s.). Most of the Atlantic Coast is heavily populated, so a category 5 hitting Miami/FLL or NYC or New England or the DC region is bound to cause major major havoc. Certainly FEMA procedures need to be revisited & their ability to respond to 2 huge natural disasters at the same time. So do the procedures for bringing in martial law immediately. While it’s understandable that we don’t want to give a President (of any party) arbitrary authority to impose martial law without outside restrictions, maybe we need to rewrite procedures to allow a President to declare martial law under extraordinary circumstances like this–with the understanding that Congress & local governors would be allowed to review the situation within a few days. However, in a case like we currently have–where the governor is refusing to allow the President to do so–what should be done?

And yet again, there is the issue of what warnings do occur before a hurricane. Anyone who lives on the coast (again, I have a mother in South Beach, who’s been there since Andrew, so I have some familiarity with this) can attest that most alarms are false alarms. There is no 100% foolproof prediction of a hurricane’s path at the present time–the best we get are pretty good guesses. Mom has long said that she can tell folks who lived thru Andrew from those who’ve moved there since–the ones who lived thru Andrew freak out over any warnings & leave. The ones who’ve come since tend to be rather blase about the warnings since Miami hasn’t directly been hit with a big one since (& unfortunately, both big evacuations last year proved unnecessary for that area). You can bet that people in central Florida now take hurricane warnings seriously. People probably will take warnings more seriously for a while now that we’ve seen what Katrina did. (We flew Mom out both times last year, but had decided after both of them missing Miami that she was going to ride out hurricanes there. We’ve definitely changed our minds on that!) However, we’re bound to see more warnings that turn out to be “false.” What should be done? Should governors take Jeb Bush’s lead from last year & be cautious–knowing that a hurricane miss means that many people & businesses lose days & $$$, & that there will be inevitable criticism? Or should they wait until a path is more closely known, but realizing that a large city can’t be evacuated in time? That’s a very realistic scenario. Think of a huge category 5 churning towards NYC/Boston, & of all the surrounding low-lying communities in that region. Its exact path isn’t going to be known until probably a day or two ahead. Do we evacuate the entire region early enough to get everyone out–knowing that a large part of that area won’t be affected? Or do we wait until the path is known–realizing that by then, it’s going to be too late to get an entire city evacuated?

Yeah, give yourself a pat on the back for running around in circles screaming helplessly. The virtues of “blaming and anger” is just more magic New Age BS. Oh, and while you’re at it, why not give yourself a medal or something?

The most important thing when a Cat 5 is coming down on New Orleans is to get everyone out… letting them stay and trying to get stuff to them after the fact is a fools errand.

We have to find out who is responsible for not getting the poor out of NO. Why weren’t the buses used? People should demand answers to these questions ASAP.

WHY WEREN’T THE BUSES USED? WHY WERE PEOPLE LEFT IN THE CITY BEFORE THE HURRICANE HIT?

I seem to recall the hurricane passing over New Orleans around Monday, 6:30 am EST. I seem to recall believing that New Orleans had a near miss. It was thought Mississippi and Alabama bore the brunt of the storm. Although I am now told that the breech in the levys was known early on Monday, I first became aware of the breech on Brendan Loy’s blog at 3:30 am EST Tuesday (I had insomnia.) The flood waters rose steadily through the day on Tuesday.

50,000 troops positioned there by mid-week. And in one day, General Honore got 20,000 people evacuated from the convention center. I don’t think General Honore got his marching orders from the media.

What would have helped would be for NOLA officials to have followed their disaster plan, rather than whining and outraging about how they were not instantly being helped.

Why don’t you look at how little use they made of the USS Bataan, ready and able to evacuate thousands, but unasked.