On Wed, 7 Sep 2005 09:19:41 -0400, John Hermanson wrote:
>It's wierd, these guys say they're Christians, but this is not Christian
>behaviour.
>He (Bush) wants to investigate himself to find out why the
>response to New Orleans was so bad. Hey buddy it's YOU!
FWIW, here's what a friend of mine from NOLA has to say on the matter:
Well, I've trod in here on this subject before and been heckled a bit for
it, but here's another try...
Two days before the storm, the president declared a state of emergency.
This allows the governors in affected areas to call up the National Guard
and get them staged and ready to move in. According to news reports I've
heard, Gov. Blanco did not do this. I hope that those news reports were
wrong. That, of course, led to some delays as it's hard to quickly mobilize
personnel and equipment to address such a large problem.
Mayor Ray Nagin is a decent, honest man. He is one of the first
uncorruptable mayors of NOLA in recent memory. He sought to move the city
from the 19th to the 21st century by computerizing records (formerly kept on
hand-written index cards in the case of property taxes, for example),
modernizing City Hall, repairing roads and related infrastructure, and
trying to fix the school system. I don't know if he had a plan for something
like this, if he thought his emergency manager had a plan for this, or what.
In retrospect, it looks like his plan was to rely on federal assets.
I also think that he had a too high opinion of the amount of personal
responsibility among the people in town - - who are now the majority of the
people who are stuck at the Convention Center - - and that they'd follow his
advice and secure 5 days food and water. Now, I'll agree that many may have
lost this stockpile in rapid flooding in the 9th Ward, but prior to his
opening the Superdome, he told people to come AND bring 5 days worth of food
and water for everyone in their group. This is the fifth day after the
storm; food and water started arriving in mass quantities Thursday and
Friday. Had people heeded his advice, there would be much less misery.
As for planning and coordinating a federal response, one reason NYC had
such a good handle on things is that they had prepared and done drills for
just such an emergency. Back-up communication plans were developed. People
knew how the chain of command worked, etc. You'd like to think that LA and
San Francisco do the same for earthquake preparedness, Seattle for volcanic
activity on Mount Rainier, DC for terrorists, etc. As far as I know, NOLA
didn't do such a thing. We were told to get out of town, if we couldn't get
out on our own steam to bum a ride, if we couldn't bum a ride, to get food
and water for five days since the city couldn't help us.
Mix into this lack of planning - - the police didn't even stockpile enough
food and water to feed and hydrate the police force!! - - the total loss of
electricity and cell phones, and that there were apparently no backup
provisions made, and you can see how the local civic response was
ineffectual. This left state leadership as the next link in the chain of
command.
Gov. Blanco must have thought Nagin had a plan and was executing it. I have
heard that Nagin had not been able to communicate with Governor Blanco about
the situation in NOLA. The feds apparently were thinking that Blanco had a
plan and were waiting for her to tell them where to go and what to do, but
apparently she didn't. So while she did go on the air and ask for a day of
prayer, she apparently didn't make specific requests for deployment of
federal assets - - e.g., MREs and water for 50,000 to be delivered to the
Dome and Convention Center.
When it became clearly evident - - Wednesday pm, Thursday am - - that the
Governor and Mayor were relying on the federal government to provide not
just relief but much of the planning as well, things at that level kicked
into high gear and we can see the results on the ground with troops, food,
water, and evacuation and the like. Thus Senator Landrieu's request for a
Cabinet-level person to do the recovery planning work - - state and
municipal leadership have demonstrated their inadequacy to the task.
As for the violence perpetrated on locals and tourists, here's my take as a
resident the past six years. There is just a staggering amount of drug
activity in NOLA among the undereducated and unemployed. This begets much
violence and human life isn't valued as it is in other places, apparently.
Recall the black on black crime discussion on this list earlier this year.
The drug pipline is deader than the gas pipeline, and addicts got desperate.
Mix in the dichotomy between the haves (predominantly white, but with a
large upper-middle class black component) and the have nots (predominantly
black), and there's a great deal of bitterness due to past injustices from
racism, civil rights, etc. My personal belief is that those involved in the
drug/thug culture in NOLA had been nursing real and imagined grievances
against the "haves" and seized this as an opportunity to settle a few old
scores. Sadly, they seem not to realize that they have hurt themselves as
much, if not more, than their innocent victims.
My $.02 worth, for what it's worth. I welcome debate, comments on this
important issue, but please let's not start name-calling.
--
Barry B. Bean
Bean & Bean Cotton Company
Peach Orchard, MO
www.beancotton.com
www.beanformissouri.org
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