At least I’m saying something instead of using this tragedy to further my personal political agenda. At least MY CONCERN is about my city.
And you have the nerve to call ME an asshole.

Right, I addressed the issues of Louisiana’s corruption (how many times have I mentioned Edwin Edwards name?) and how the state AND the nation ignored the problem. It has only been recently, through the efforts of the media (the Times Picayune) and the young batch of Senators that serious attention has been given to the wetlands.

And are you kidding about that article. There are some gross misrepresentations in there. Talking about unrelated wetland projects. That’s bullshit. They’re all related to saving the wetlands! Not all are aimed at protecting commerce. Many are aimed at saving the thousands of acres of land lost to the Gulf each year. That’s not freakin pork.

The political bias of the Post notwithstanding, there wasn’t anything in that article that suggested something bad was happening. What you need to realize is the problem is way bigger than that. Did you even check out the links I posted? They’re not political in nature.

I recommend you seek today’s edition of the Washington Post and look at the article about the pork barrell spending by the state of LA. They are hardly free from criticism for the failure to fund the levees, they had the money, they just spent it elsewhere.

And I agree with you, Tyree is right. Maybe you should reread both his posts and stop defending your LA government at all costs.

This failure in New Orleans is NOT Blanco’s fault and NOT Nagin’s fault and it’s not even Bush’s fault. Its the fault of DECADES of neglect by the federal government and it’s failure to realize the national importance of the environment.

Well, the alarm is going off, it’s time to wake up and go to school.

i can’t tell you how mad I am. I know I’ve been blasting off but that doesn’t begin to describe how I feel.

FYI, for info about the River and it’s impact if it changes course, which will happen if this warning from Katrina is not heeded:

http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/08/29/005318.php

http://www2.sjsu.edu/faculty/watkins/oldriver.htm

http://users.stlcc.edu/jangert/oldriver/oldriver.html

September 7th, 2005 at 12:43 pm
For those who would still like all the blame to be placed on the Democrats:

Angelos…
I think very few want to “blame Democrats”. Most reasonable people are upset that so much time and energy has been spent blaming anyone. We are upset that the MSM started blaming the Administration without informing their viewers of the local/state/federal chain of command when responding to natural disasters. There was a massive attempt to turn this into a big anti-Bush event. Read the history of the reponse to any disaster, it take three days, all the time. The media burned Clinton over the Northridge earthquake here in California. It took three days for the help to start arriving in massive quantities. As a country we used to respond to natural disasters by pulling together. Now we are letting the media and hate based politics pull us apart.

September 6th, 2005 at 4:31 pm
The administration says that they have to concentrate on the survivors and now is not the time for criticism. Wasn’t it criticism that eventually brought in the help?

No, Robert.. the criticism brought no help at all, it only made things worse. The professionals and volunteers who responded before, during and after the hurricane were overwealmed by an area of devastation the size of Great Britain. Three to four days is the standard response time for much smaller disasters. When the history is written we shall see what it says, but the people who do the work were not sitting on their hands waiting for criticism to stir them into action. We need better organisation at the local, state and federal level, but if the Mississippi River levee broke we would be looking at a death toll that would rival that of the tsunami. No amount of planning can fix that after the fact.

You don’t know what your’re talikng about and you’re using little bites of media to further your political agenda. You stink.

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.}

http://nightlight.typepad.com/nightlight/2005/09/whats_so_fkin_g.html

We keep hearing from the Republican excuse makers that the problems in New Orleans are the fault of its Mayor, and of Louisiana’s Governor. So how are things in their state, the one with a former GOP party chairman as Governor and two greasy insiders as Senators? Hint: not so great.

I’m not opposed to laying blame where it lay on its own, but now is not the time. I know you all think that now that most people are out of the city and the National Guard is there that it’s business as usual. Maybe it is for you, but that’s not how it is for the Gulf Coast.

And comparing New Orleans to the other states hit??? And using the happy accident that Louisiana and New Orleans are the only ones with Democratic leadership to seperate the two different types of tragedies? Yes, the other states got scrubbed. But there is no standing water, festering with typhoid fever, rotting bodies, and what have you. None of that compounding the situation. For them, the worst is over. That’s not the story in New Orleans. And Democratic leadership had nothing to do with it. We’re talking DECADES of neglect by corrupt governors (thank you Edwin Edwards) and feds who’d rather spend money on I don’t care what than protect it’s own vagina, the mouth of the Mississippi.

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,373590,00.html

My hometown has lots of people who are going in and around New Orleans trying to get communication, etc, online. You don’t hear about that in the media, all the work the locals are doing to assist the government and the volunteers. They’re telling stories about working on phone lines and seeing cars full of drowned families, caught in their cars trying to escape. They’re telling stories, mad as hell at FEMA. They’re seeing the barges of supplies waiting in the river (remember, my hometown is on the Mississippi River), etc.

I’m here, spitting bombs I’m so mad because the people there CANNOT speak for themselves! My parents, while have electricity and phone do not have their internet. Lots of those people closest to the city cannot communicate on the internet right now, but they’re calling and they’re talking.

Out of curiousity, where are you posting from? You said you are a native from New Orleans, but where are you now? I agree that this finger pointing blame game is pretty fickle and pointless (and I am not innocent in that regard), but I hate to tell you this, it’s going on everywhere now. Turn on the national news, listen to the talk radio shows, and that’s all you will hear. You’re going to have to take your criticisms to almost every blog on the internet because they’re all doing the same thing too.

Why would you have more knowledge of the scope of this then say those of us who have been following all the news reports? Who does know what they are talking about?

You wanna know about failure? Let’s talk about 90,000 square miles of complete and total black out. No electricity, no phones, no cell towers, no water, no gas. Nothing, nada, but people stuck and dying.

My mother told me on the phone that my cousin, a New Orleans city police officer, had to break into a resturant to get meat, then break into a Lowes to get a BBQ pit and they had to cook themselves something to eat because they hadn’t eaten in THREE days.

The Chief of Police had NO communication with his officers. It was GONE. No way to direct them and no way to care for them. They’ve been out there trying to do their jobs with no food and no water. They’ve been forced to scrounge while still trying to maintain some semblence of order. They are as much victims as the poor people on the roof or at the Superdome or at the Convention Center.

And if you look to the local newspapers: http:\www.nola.com and http:\http://2theadvocate.com/ you will see little finger pointing and nothing but support for the efforts of the local government.

And you people, you don’t know what the HELL you are talking about. You have NO idea about the scope of this. Like Aaron Broussard said on Meet the Press, “Shut up and send us somebody!” Get off your fingerpointing asses and go HELP.

http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html

Hurricane Katrina: Why is the Red Cross not in New Orleans?

“Acess to New Orleans is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities and while we are in constant contact with them, we simply cannot enter New Orleans against their orders.

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.

The Red Cross has been meeting the needs of thousands of New Orleans residents in some 90 shelters throughout the state of Louisiana and elsewhere since before landfall. All told, the Red Cross is today operating 149 shelters for almost 93,000 residents.

The Red Cross shares the nation’s anguish over the worsening situation inside the city. We will continue to work under the direction of the military, state and local authorities and to focus all our efforts on our lifesaving mission of feeding and sheltering.

The Red Cross does not conduct search and rescue operations. We are an organization of civilian volunteers and cannot get relief aid into any location until the local authorities say it is safe and provide us with security and access.

The original plan was to evacuate all the residents of New Orleans to safe places outside the city. With the hurricane bearing down, the city government decided to open a shelter of last resort in the Superdome downtown. We applaud this decision and believe it saved a significant number of lives.

As the remaining people are evacuated from New Orleans, the most appropriate role for the Red Cross is to provide a safe place for people to stay and to see that their emergency needs are met. We are fully staffed and equipped to handle these individuals once they are evacuated.”

And that’s a fact.

* More than half never received as much as $1 in inheritance.

This refers to the responsibilities of the RTA, but I also include the NOPD:
C. New Orleans Police Department

* Ensure orderly traffic flow.

* Assist in removing disabled vehicles from roadways as needed.

* Direct the management of transportation of seriously injured persons to hospitals as needed.

* Direct evacuees to proper shelters and/or staging areas once they have departed the threatened area.

* Release all public information through the ESF-14, Public Information.

D. Regional Transit Authority

* Supply transportation as needed in accordance with the current Standard Operating Procedures.

* Place special vehicles on alert to be utilized if needed.

* Position supervisors and dispatch evacuation buses.

* If warranted by scope of evacuation, implement additional service.

Those evacuation buses were to take evacuees to shelters (Superdome), not to locations outside the city. Obviously, that’s how many people made it to the shelter. The service was available, but did everyone take advantage of it? Apparently not, partly because many people don’t trust shelters and would rather take their chances at home. The Superdome, in case you didn’t know, survived the hurricane.

Further:

“Multiple sites shall be identified and geographically positioned to serve the impacted populations without placing burdens upon those who may have lost their private transportation resources as a result of the disaster. Regional Transit Authority may be called upon to provide free transit to recovery centers located along existing bus routes. Recovery center staffing patterns shall be developed along accepted state and federal guidelines and provided from city, state and private agencies.”

Regarding special needs persons:

http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=4
“Contact your support system and begin to implement the evacuation portion of your disaster plan. If you have no transportation or none is available to you, the Emergency Evacuation Assistance Program (see enclosed application) has been designed for people with disabilities who require assistance with activities of daily living in an evacuation center, or people who cannot use public transportation or require transportation for evacuation purposes due to age, medical condition, or disability. Evacuation centers are available as a last resort for people who have no other place to go. If you need to evacuate, you should first contact your support system and seek shelter with relatives, friends, community organizations or in hotels/motels.”

Please note you have to pre-apply and pre-qualify for this transportation service, just like in FL. This makes sense, since that tells the city where to find you. They city doesn’t cruise around the neighborhood, looking for them, they don’t have time for that. Now from the film footage I was seeing from the Superdome, there were lots and lots of special needs folks that had been moved there. Remember them? They were the folks dying from heat exhaustion and lack of medication in their wheelchairs.

One last thing:
“Feeding and food and supply distribution sites shall be established following a disaster in geographically distributed sites across the Parish. Feeding sites shall be established by ESF?6, Mass Care, in conjunction with ESF?11, Food and Water. The Southeast Louisiana Chapter of the American Red Cross and the Salvation Army shall provide the lead in establishing and operating these sites.”

As the Red Cross tells us on their own website, FEMA would’t allow the Red Cross into the city to perform their designated function. So the food supply chain that was set up to handle the feeding and distribution of food was disrupted for some unknown reason by the Feds. I don’t know about the Salvation Army, but I would suspect they had the same problem.

The New Orleans Emergency Plan is comperable to any of the other emergency plans I’ve spent my time looking at today. In fact, not all communities offer any kind of special needs evacuation service at all (like Waveland MS - yur on your own, kid).

http://www.theconservativevoice.com/articles/article.html?id=8113

I don’t care who did it! Fix it, goddamnit!