Ed Reams, WDSU Channel 6, New Orleans, talking to Aaron Brown on CNN (I typed while he talked — he was very good.): The pumps in one area can’t handle the water anymore and won’t work. Another levee is about to break because the Army helicopter that was supposed to bring sand bags never showed up…. it was diverted to search & rescue.
Superdome is being handled by 200 National Guard members but there are more and more people streaming in, over 10,000 now. Conditions deteriorating. No sewer, no running water. Superdome was a “special needs” shelter — people on dialysis, ventilators — they should be in special care centers, not a dome where “there’s chaos inside.” It “will be hard” to evacuate that many people.
Authorities are overwhelmed. Communications are out. Cell phones can’t be used. Radio towers non-functional. Police can’t communicate. TV station lost transmitter; station management felt the TV station’s employees’ lives were in danger. Police have been up for days, have no access to food and water, and are overwhelmed.
He saw caravan of Nat’l Guard, utility trucks, but if they get in place anytime soon remains to be seen.
Update [2005-8-30 23:30:3 by susanhu]: The Mayor of New Orleans told Aaron Brown that the people at the Superdome will be there at least another week, then will be moved (although where, they’re not sure — perhaps another parish).
Update [2005-8-30 23:40:57 by susanhu]: DIGNITY and PRIORITIZATION. Concepts that Fox and Rita Cosby and her ilk might consider. I was so furious after listening to an MSNBC bubble-head anchor repeatedly quiz some official about the looting, that I fired off e-mails to MSNBC — news@msnbc.com and editor@msnbc.com. IN CONTRAST, Aaron Brown has not concentrated on the looting angle. I hope you’ll write MSNBC too. CNN as well, if they’ve been guilty. FOX is a lost cause.
QUESTION: Where will the refugee camps be built to house these people for up to a year, or more?
I too am watching Aaron Brown right now. Susan…did you here his sarcastic remark earlier about Bush going down there on Friday? Something to the effect that he need to at least make an appearance of caring. Wonder when CNN puts transcripts up so we could get the exact quote.
I got that one too Leezy…it was rather obvious wasn’t it?
Oh good Brenda…I was hoping someone else caught it. I have a tendency to hear what I want to hear when it comes to the Shrub.
I htink it was not the words he sad so much as how he said it. the implication is what I noted more so.
Exactly…the tone of disgust was there.
yes,,,,and you know I am wondering if the press will ever wake up to the kind of man they have in this president..It has been said that it will be Friday when he finally flies over the whole mess. FRIDAY, now mind you!!!! not that he has not been flying any place lately!! for gods sake what is wrong with the press…
I missed that, damn! BUT! He’s on again at 10pm PT/1am ET.
I’ll ask Crooks & Liars to capture it…. do you think it happened at around 7:20pm or so?
C&L also captured Cafferty’s snarling about Bush on vacation.
it was in my estimation about 15 – 20 mins ago.
THX! I try not to bug him too much. he’s an incredibly sweet guy. And thank god for his abilities and his mass of equipment!
not sure about the times. Got a link to the C&L capture of McCaffrey? He is usually so prowar when I hear him.
Something to the effect that he need to at least make an appearance of caring.
Yes, it was something to the effect that Bush had cut his vacation short by 2 days and that many people would be comforted by this appearance of concern…
Most unusual for Brown.
The news is very difficult to watch; one wants to be there to help and I’ve never been able to shake off a feeling of dread since before the storm when I heard they were putting all those people in the dome.
I cannot help but think that there weren’t any evacuation plans for the poor. none. And this is a major metropolitan area and then there’s Mississippi. God, the news coming out of there makes me weep.
absolutly…is is just horrifying
Yes, I heard it, too. He said it was always complicated logistically to get the president into a disater area but that he was sure the people in the region would be glad to know that the White House was paying *some* attention.
He’s not even flying back to D.C. till tomorrow afternoon where he’s going to ‘sit on’ on some planning session for what to do…please everyone feel free to add your own cuss words, I’ve used my alloted ones up for the next few weeks.
New Orleans had 500,000 people right? 80% evacuated.
How are they going to get 100,000 people out of that flooded city? With helicopters? Hello, the water is still rising! This could get far worse then it even is now. There are 10,000 people trapped in the superdome with no running water think of the restrooms. What about disease? My God its a humanitarian catastrophe and he’s coming back tomorrow?
That good for nothing piece of shit needs to be back in DC NOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Still had one cuss in me choc and I usually try to refrain.
I heard this too just now. I am so so so sorry for those ppl :o( I can tellyou if sometihing is not done and done very soon, they will find lots of dead in the dome. This can not go on much longer…not at all. The levee integrity is so sad. It reminds me of a movie I saw not so long ago about an earthquake in California and the situation there. Such turmoil and no co-ordination. It is such a dangerous situation. The human waste is bad enough but the other toxic things that will be in the water is not good at all. It is just beyond belief….
exactly. a week? those people need to be out of there by tomorrow. don’t they have any amphibious vehicles? or are those in Iraq too?
HEAR not here Leezy…spellcheck is my friend…lol
became dire. There was time between the severe warnings and the flooding of the airports to get thousands of people out. It’s been done before. You could have done it America if you had real leadership in the White House.
Don’t miss Alohaleezy’s diary.
It’s a great idea that can be spread far and wide…. I’m sending it to the mailing lists I’m on (‘cept the raccoon lists -:))
the man talking now is so right on..everything is so confusing….no one seems to know what to do or where to go. It is so sad….my heart goes out to them so much…what a helpless feeling these ppl have..
Drudge:
NAVY SHIPS AND MARITIME RESCUE TEAMS SENT TO REGION
About fucking time.
Drudge:
US Coast Guard Katrina Site. They didn’t waste any time, but then they never do.
…we were half a million strong.
Jeebus if they’d just mobilized support services for a large rock concert they’d have made a serious dent in the first 2 days’ problems.
There should be a floatilla of portapotties heading that way among other things.
Last count I read was 33,000 in the dome. If they had brains they’d distribute freeplay (hand crank) radios & flashlights. Available from other suppliers everywhere, but they’re the only ones with chargers.
By now they should have set up an emergency radio network on frequencies reserved for the purpose. None of this is right.
Satellite phones don’t go down.
RBA, I think we need to send YOU to Washington, D.C. so you can deliver this news to FEMA, etc.
How can 200 soldiers guard, let alone help, 33K people? Jesus.
What the locals always leave out is the process of declaring an emergency (State), then getting the Governor to ask the President to declare a national emergency. Nobody moves until that declaration. Declaration was issued yesterday, so actually pretty fast.
It’s the first 72 hours that kill.
you have a point on that one! I am wondering more now too.
I agree — none of this is right at all. Most of this stuff was known last night. When the governor did the press conference this afternoon, she basically said the people were on their own. But all day there’s been talk about the sandbags plugging the levee and, now? it was a miscommunication? oops, it went to rescue?
What the hell is going on? Is there only one helicopter there? Where are the rescuers? Did you guys hear Aaron Brown ask David Mattingly if ANY entities were recuing anyone? and say something like the help FEMA “claims” to be sending?
Coast Guard choppers and cutters have been there, and are deploying more – but they’re “first responders” and have responsibility for all waterways.
Oh gawd .. trying to remember … someone on the radio (?) said that there was some satellite that was supposed to be launched but that the U.S. didn’t do it because of budget cutbacks … or something to that effect. Don’t quote me. I hope someone else heard it.
Susan, Hon, I haven’t a clue as to what you are refering to…sorry…
Why does it seem like absolutely everybody was caught with their pants down on this? Didn’t anyone have any plans in place? Where are all of those stockpiles of food? And Susan, you’re right… 200 to guard 33,000? Not enough heavy helicoptors to work on levee repair AND search/rescue? Oh, the Mayor says they’re not overwhelmed? Dear God.
If this gets worse before it gets better, the question will be, what else could they have done to prevent so many tragic deaths? They declared a mandatory evacuation, but many tourists and people without cars had no choice but to stay. Should they have sent in buses?
My friend just asked that very question tonight. Makes one wonder, doesn’t it?
Should they have sent in buses?
It’s pretty clear that plans for a mandatory evacuation in a major metropolitan area should include the means for people without their own vehicles to leave and, for that matter, places for them to go to.
Many people who live in cities don’t have cars. Indeed, one of the benefits of living in a city is not having to have a car.
I’ll agree that when they made the decision to mass evacuate, almost certainly all the busses etc. should have been commandeered if they weren’t.
But I think many were in service taking the poor to the dome.
Problem was that there was barely 30 hours’ notice that the storm had a good chance to hit, and only 18-20 or so that it would be so severe. I think their disaster planning needed 72 hours’ notice.
Of course there’s the big picture about the poor, which we need to be hearing–and loud–from our leadership:
-ML King, “Beyond Vietnam”
The problem isn’t how we deal with the poor. It’s that we make them in the first place.
I’ve been going crazy all day. I’m not a scientist or an engineer and last night I understood the problem about the levee and that this would be devastating and catastrophic.
All of the doomsday predictions about the hurricane were all based on this: it hits the city, the levee is breached, that causes all this bad stuff. In other words, the danger of the hurricane hitting the city head-on was basically that the levee would be breached.
Okay, so it veered somewhat and everyone was relieved yesterday. But then the levee was breached anyway. Happening after instead of during made no difference. LAST NIGHT THEY KNEW THIS!
Sorry, I didn’t mean to yell, but I feel like I’ve gone through the looking glass here (not on BooTrib, in the “real” world). I was so upset last night and I posted a comment about it and went to bed. I FULLY expected to wake up this morning and find that the situation would be… not under control, but understood. If I understood it, surely the powers that be would grasp it in 8 hours.
So perhaps I’ve seemed alarmist or unreasonable in my comments today, I don’t know, but I couldn’t believe I woke up to news of looters and the GDP. The news should have been informing people. The leaders should have had some semblence of a plan. The country should have been galvanized. There should have been boats and choppers and… I don’t know. But resources should not have been wasted guarding WalMart.
Sorry if I sound pedantic or strident or whatever, I just needed to get this off my chest. It seems to me they’re acting confused to cover up the fact that they flat-out don’t have the resources they need for this.
Your story is my story. I’ve been sitting here for the last hour thinking the exact same thing that you have posted here. This is all fucked up. Every bit of it – starting with the focus on looting when they should have been attempting to get people the fuck out of there.
Yeah, you and me and Brinnainne have been raging all day!
Thank god for Susan and Booman and this site. Really. You guys have saved what’s left of my sanity today. I love you guys, man… <sniffle>
It seems to me they’re acting confused to cover up the fact that they flat-out don’t have the resources they need for this.
I think they are dumbfounded and shell-shocked, and truly are confused. Their decisions are partly responsible for what will surely by a heart-wrenching number of deaths. Not something I would want to have on my conscience. (Obiously, the conscience thing won’t be an issue for Dear Leader, as he hasn’t got one.)
On another note, even our local newscasters in PA are showing their annoynace at the lack of response to the disaster at the federal level.
When the mayor of New Orleans mentioned nonchalantly to Aaron Brown that they produce 25% of the nation’s oil and gas … my heart sank. I didn’t know it was that much. Or are there workarounds to it?
And i heard on the radio today that there’s been one formal request to release the strategic reserves.
But, you know, that’s got to be a bad idea. We should just tighten our belts. 700 million barrels is NOTHING in this country, and it’ll take a lot of time to get out!
700 million barrels is NOTHING in this country, and it’ll take a lot of time to get out!
Besides what is in the Strategic Reserve is raw oil. The immediate problem on the Gulf Coast is the refining capacity that has had to be shut down. Dallas Morning News describes the oil problem.
At least nine refineries shut down. It could take weeks or longer to inspect each piece of equipment and fully assess the impact. At the moment this is without electricity. No telling when that will be up. Refinery workers have to return home and find a place to stay before they can start work. And then, getting a refinery back up and operating is slow and difficult under the best of circumstances, one reason they are shut down so rarely. And all of this will be done with the human problems going on around them.
There is a reason why oil prices spiked to over $70 a barrel. This will effect the oil industry world wide.
The news on the gas prices is here. [Free Registration required.]
Susan, I hadn’t heard they produce that much, but then again every time I’ve heard them start on the oil, the blood rushing to my head and pulsing in my ears tends to hamper my listening skills.
But I have heard it’s not just the production, but also the refining and transport, so it’ll have a huge effect.
Was his calm, slow way of talking, rather generally, a good thing? Well, it drove me nuts.
From a new diary at Kos:
“
Frank Annaloro, Jr. and his dog “Tina” wait to load a bus for Thibodaux, La., a staging area on I-10 in New Orleans, La., Tuesday, Aug. 30, 2005.
AP Photo/The Advocate, Paul Rutherford
Godspeed, Frank and Tina.
It is much better than CNN. It has to be viewed on IE.
http://www.wwltv.com/perl/common/video/wmPlayer.pl?title=beloint_khou&props=livenoad
How do you do it, Sybil?! You always get the best new info to contribute! I love it.
oops, they were good while they lasted but
KHOU quit at 8:40 pm PDT to go to CNN.
It’s amazing that CNN has to repeat so much of their
coverage when there is so much material that they could go
24 hours a day without repeating themselves. They are so
overproduced.
National Geographic channel had a show on about disasters two nights ago. They talked about the levees and laid this whole scenario out. Bigger and stronger 25 ft levees were one plan they talked about. Guess you need tax money to build something like that. Oh sorry thats not pc anymore. Will we ever get our priorities straight? Another disaster with an incompetent idiot as our president. I don’t know how many we can take.
What do you suppose the response would be if dozens of foreign nations offered to send people to assist us in protecting our people as we recover from this disaster?
What if it happened to outnumber the “coalition of the willing”?
Unnecessarily abroad so we won’t be able to protect at home?
How many nations are left that would sympathize with our plight? We’ve threatened everyone, we don’t pay our bills their probably ecstatic watching this.
Where the are the feds?
I was at work did shitface even address the nation today?
Canada will be assisting there is no doubt.
As for GWB, check below to see what he was doing today.
Official response (link):
We’re going to supply ya’ll with some of our third world medicines … if needed.
Here’s a list of other responses via kos.
Thank you. And that’s probably faster response then our so called president.
That is good news.
Do you think the administration will refuse the medical aid? Because, you know, there is just plain no telling where those “Canadian” drugs come from. Its just not safe, right? </FDA warning>
Republicans, taking hypocrisy to a whole new level
Third world medicines might be okay in emergency situations though …
I think they’d take all the aid they could and then forget Canada ever gave it in the first place, especially when they publically thanked their very good friends and close neighbours of the world.
Of course, they might remember a couple years later when they wanted to force the Cdns to sign on to some missile defense system.
Just sayin’…
while we were so distraught we could hardly concentrate on anything else?
Yes it is real. It has been checked out on DKos. The presidential seal cannot be used without permission from the White House.
Bush fiddles while New Orleans sinks.
Look at these side-by-side pics from Think Progress. I am thoroughly disgusted with this man…again.
Very well done too. Bitter and yet very true.
Thank you.
WOW! That is powerful … we should pass this forward.
Your kidding right? That’s not from today?
he was “presented” that guitar from country music singer Mark Wills. Link to AP picture via Yahoo news with caption
Everyone who clicks on that dam picture link from Yahoo should rate it up so it becomes widely circulated and popular. Let that picture sink into the publics awareness-I hope. Think any news channels will show that picture, any bets?(and the Daily Show doesn’t count besides their off this week)
Clever idea!
The Day of the Great Flood.
He is a jerk!
My god what an ass. I absolutely can’t take this guy anymore. Right when I think I cannot feel more contempt for someone he proves me wrong.
and give people ‘air hugs.’
I’ve been dying inside all day.
And now I see this.
How much better of a parallel could you hope (despair) for?
Nero fiddles. Rome burns.
Bush strums. New Orleans drowns.
Where’s the bood dood? Please? Pretty please?
came here to see if anyone saw it too… and of course you all have.
I can’t begin to put into words just how much venom I feel for this …. this THING who can smile and strum while BODIES of Americans are floating…
How the fuck can anyone have seen anything good in this “person” is beyond me.
He was eating cake and fucking strumming a guitar today while we have been holding our breath…
Gawd, if I could, I’d be on a plane today to go to DC.
DJ he has a way of bringing out the worst. I’m going to have a heart attack when the fucker is leaning over his podium bobble heading and saying we are making progress in New Orleans 6 months or a year from now. Face it, your right, he absolutely does not give a flying fuck!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It just is mindboggling. I’m hearing, “Well what do you expect the President to do???”
Well uhhh how about show some fucking COMPASSION???
He’d get in the way in the disaster area – but at least get back to the office and start signing what needs to be signed to get help down there. Call back those amphibious humvees that are sitting in the DESERT.
I was mad as hell all day today knowing that this bastard was playing GOLF. GOLF while bodies were floating in water. While people were trying to find their wives and babies…
If I didn’t have kids… I might just give up.
DJ I’m with you. Unbelievable really. If we wanted to create a movie character about a self-centered pig as president we couldn’t do a better job.
Update [2005-8-30 23:40:57 by susanhu]: DIGNITY and PRIORITIZATION. Concepts that Fox and Rita Cosby and her ilk might consider. I was so furious after listening to an MSNBC bubble-head anchor repeatedly quiz some official about the looting, that I fired off e-mails to MSNBC
I saw that dimwit it also drove me nuts. They were looting Wal-Mart no less, looting doesn’t exactly make you indignant when people are drowning.
Superdome is being handled by 200 National Guard members but there are more and more people streaming in, over 10,000 now.
Sounds like the usual ratio of guardsmen to civilians… in Iraq, anyway.
You know what really bothers me about this whole thing — and by whole thing, I mean the last five years — ? It’s that the current regime seems to exist solely for people who don’t need any help whatsoever — the super-rich — and everyone else is supposed to shift for themselves.
Um, fuck that.
Sounds like you have been listening to Grover Norquist again.
Quit it.
Government matters, even when things are working smoothly. But when things DON’T work smoothly, then we need a functioning government already in place with leaders who know what they are doing.
Over at TPM Cafe Josh Marshall has posted a few emails he has read from TPM Readers in the Gulf Coast area. Here is quote from one that struck me with respect to government and Bush:
I don’t know about you, but I pay my taxes so that the government can provide services to me and to those like me who need it, when we need it.
I do NOT pay taxes so some idiot can hand money out to his friends and potential voters so he can be reelected!
A self-centered government is a contradiction in terms. But with Bush/Rove/Cheney, that is what we have. It is time for them to go!!
Sounds like you have been listening to Grover Norquist again. Quit it.
Huh? First of all, I confess that while I’ve heard the name, I don’t know who Grover Norquist is, though I gather he’s a political strategist for the enemy. Secondly, it sounds as if you misread my post to indicate support for the current regime, when in fact I was strongly disapproving.
For the sake of clarity, I’m an actual communist, so if it ever sounds like I’m speaking in favor of the wealthy or some other class of robber barons, odds are that you either misread me, or I’m being sarcastic. I don’t think wealth beyond a very modest point should be permitted to exist, much less be placed in a position of power where it can parasitize the needy.
The reference to Grover Norquist was sort of an inside joke. I sort of expected anyone who reads this blog to catch it. Sorry. I was definitly being sarcastic.
Norquist runs Americans for Tax Reform which has the major function of getting all Republican candidates for office to sign a “No new taxes” pledge and if they break it, they run candidates against the pledge-breakers in the Republican Primary.
Norquist is famous for saying that he hopes to shrink government so small by cutting its tax revenue that it can be drowned in a bathtub.
Real live Communist, huh? Here in Texas any existing Communists live in the basements of abandoned missile silos and have pizza shipped in and left on rocks outside. Romors are they sometimes step outside their silos after midnight, but only in the dark of the moon. Local vampires have more contact with the sun and with other people.
During my time in Texas, I lived in Tyler, very much above ground, although to be frank, it wasn’t the sort of place where I started very many political conversations. 😉
I very seldom purposely torture myself by going to whitehouse.gov and reading any speeches by bush…however I foolishly did a few minutes ago for the purpose of reading his speech on his Monday outing in Arizona to talk about the medicare drug prescriptions,(cause that’s surely more important than Katrina right) at that fancy Resort.
Now I have literally got a fucken migraine after reading that piece of crap.(and the 4 migraine pills have done nothing but make me a bit high) He was before his usual(I’m sure)hand picked audience and the subject of Katrina came up and he was of course saying how everything was being done, blah blah blah, and also asked about gas prices and he mentioned he’d like to just snap his fingers and make prices go down (laughter at that witty fucken remark)but since the problem was years in the making(not his fault ya know)..but his new energy bill is going to solve everything…yada yada yada. He seemed to be having a swell time(lots of laughter on transcript)but the he had the goddam fucken godamn nerve to talk about Iraq and how women’s rights were now being protected in this new constitution…godamnit godamnit. Half the country’s seems to be aware that women are losing rights not gaining and he’s actually spouting this godamn shit..I couldn’t finish reading the dam transcript.
Ok you guys, sorry about this but this was sorta on thread wasn’t it..I did go there to see if he mentioned hurricane. I am just about ready to get a wheelchair and go to D.C. and camp out under his fucken nose until the fucker is run out of town.
Thank you all for these posts. I feel exactly the same way and have been thinking these things all day.
1) why only one Army helicopter today and why didn’t it drop the sandbags?
2) why not immediate action to fix the levee on Monday when it first broke? why no plan?
3) why not a better evacuation plan, using public transportation, school buses, whatever, to get people out of the city?
4) why this Titanic situation of poor people becoming the victims?
5) why has Bush not gone back to DC before now?
6) where is the National Guard and why did they take their ‘amphibious vehicles’ and water pumps to Iraq?
6) why does the media focus on ‘looters’–who cares if people are stealing groceries, or even breaking into Walmart for heaven’s sake. The government basically left them to drown in the city and we’re supposed to get upset because they break windows?
I don’t know about the other questions, but I have lived on the Gulf Coast much of my life. Your number 3 — ” 3) why not a better evacuation plan, using public transportation, school buses, whatever, to get people out of the city?” I am familiar with.
The first problem is simply roads. There is no place on the Gulf Coast with enough roads to evacuate the number of people who live there in the time between when a decision can be made to evacuate and the time the hurricane hits. This couldn’t be done in the 70’s, and much of the Gulf Coast has seen its population more than quadruple since then with no corresponding increase in highways out.
The second problem is that predictions of hurricanes are unreliable. They are proud of this one – as they should be. We won’t see another one this good for a long time. So if you require an evacuation in time to get everyone out (see the first problem above) you will have a lot of false evacuations. About the third time people get told to evacuate and remember that there was no need the first two times, they just don’t go.
After that, when you do order an evacuation where do you get busses and such to get people with no vehicles of their own out? Commandeer busses? Forget it. Even if there were enough, they are in the wrong places. The equipment doesn’t exist to do the job.
Then there is the minor problem that evacuation planning is done mostly at the county/parish level. So, say I am planning to evacuate Plaquemines Parish south of New Orleans. Where do I send people? What roads can I plan on that planners in other nearby counties/parrishes are not also planning on? [Note the highway capacity problem listed above.] Note that the people from Plaquemines Parish will have to evacuate THROUGH NEW ORLEANS. Guess what those roads are going to look like by the time any decision is made to evacuate Plaquemines Parish. Galveston and Brazosport Texas have the same problem going through Houston. If you want to see this problem at work I suggest that you look at the death rate in Plaquemines Parish in about two weeks. It happened yesterday, it was predictable, and it was essentially insoluble.
Did I read that the Federal government cut the budget to the Corps of Engineers for planning and preparation for this kind of stuff for FY 2006? Seems like I did. Norquist – Bush at work. And as Bush is famous for saying repeatedly, “It’s HARD work.” For those of you not familiar with federal budget years, FY 2006 begins September 1, 2005.
As for your question number 6 — “6) where is the National Guard and why did they take their ‘amphibious vehicles’ and water pumps to Iraq?” the 256th Infantry Brigade which is the Louisiana National Guard is currently in Iraq. I doubt that they have any water pumps. That would be a (Civilian) Corps of Engineers mission. See Budget cuts above. And Army infantry brigades don’t have amphibious vehicles. That is a Marine Corps function.
The 256th didn’t have any amphibious vehicles when I last worked with them in the 70’s, and I seriously doubt they ever got any. Besides, military amphibious equipment would be useless. Those people need real boats, not armored floating semi-tanks. The Coast Guard is of a great deal more value. There just aren’t enough of them.
Regarding question 1 above, ” 1) why only one Army helicopter today and why didn’t it drop the sandbags?” I’d bet that the answer is that the 256th Brigade took all their helicopters and crews to Iraq. [As they should when sent!] Speculation, but Louisania is not a wealthy state. Send the national guard to Iraq and they probably have nothing with which to replace those assets. Sending the state’s national guard forces out of the country is an under the cover tax on that state.
Why didn’t they drop sand bags? Operations considerations and there simply wasn’t enough equipment. I’ll bet is was put to the commander unb charge as an issue of saving lives or supporting the Corps of Engineers. The fact that the Corps was trying to prevent the levee from breaking was not given to the commander who made the decision. (My bet) His career will not survive that failure to frame the question.
Being a GOOD commander isn’t all just listening as the band plays Hail to the Chief and taking salutes. What? That only applies to the President? Oh Gee. Still true, though, isn’t it?
Thank you for the thoughtful and knowledgeable response.
I hope you diary this, and more. Someone with your kind of knowledge is needed by all of us.
hope I’m not being too cynical, but I doubt any of the people in the Superdome gave money to the Bush campaign. that would seem to explain quite a bit to me.
“Bush scrambled to the top of a heap of dead bodies in the days after 911, saying that he was the guy to make America prepared again.”
Any way to make an image of that with a quote and contrast with Bush playing golf while people drowned?
This could make a great flyer.
Corps of Engineers:
“Within this plan, the Department of Defense has designated the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers as the primary agency for planning, preparedness and response under the Emergency Support Function #3, Public Works and Engineering. The type of assistance provided by the Corps includes restoration of critical public services and facilities, including supply of adequate amounts of potable water and ice, temporary restoration of water supply systems, provision of temporary emergency electrical power, temporary emergency housing, structural evaluation of buildings and damage assessment, and clearance, removal, and disposal of debris.“
This just in from the Times-Picayune
I hope Bush hears the screams of all the dying and homeless people while he spends his final vacation night in his ranch. Fucker.
As if that sociopath could feel empathy towards anyone who hadn’t sworn undying loyalty…
Its quiet in Crawford. George lies away listening to the screams of the dying in his head
“Deserved it… deserved it… gets to meet Jesus… deserved it… traitor to America… going home to Jesus…”
This is just getting more hideous by the hour and still no Nat. Guard although I did hear on CNN that there was some convoy on the way…for god’s sake where were they days ago?
King asked her if she’d talked to Bush. And did he plan to tour the area? I can’t remember what she said, exactly, but the short version was, he hadn’t scheduled any visits. And that ass King says something like, “Oh, well, it’s probably not a good time for him to come.” And Blanco says something to the effect of, “well…” And King repeats, “it’s probably not a good time for him to come, right?” And Blanco says, “Actually I think he should come and do a helicopter tour of the region so he can understand how bad this is.”
She was very controlled, very calm, but I think pretty pissed off.
There’s this spread in Texas, 1583 arcres of prairie, nice and dry, that should work just fine. It should handle a million people and their pets. Nothing much there now except 4 or 5 cows.
http://tinyurl.com/9g73n