Hurricane Katrina---Any blame?

by patio34 2 Replies latest social current

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  patio34

  This is from Meet the Press with Tim Russert yesterday:
  

  MR. RUSSERT: And we are back.
  Jefferson Parish President Broussard , let me start with you. You just heard the director of Homeland Security's explanation of what has happened this last week. What is your reaction?
  

  MR. AARON BROUSSARD: We have been abandoned by our own country . Hurricane Katrina will go down in history as one of the worst storms ever to hit an American coast, but the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will go down as one of the worst abandonments of Americans on American soil ever in
  

  It's not just Katrina that caused all these deaths in here. Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater area, and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now. It's so obvious. FEMA needs more congressional funding. It needs more presidential support . It needs to be a Cabinet-level director . It needs to be an independent agency that will be able to fulfill its mission to work in partnership with state and local governments around . FEMA needs to be empowered to do the things it was created to do. It needs to come somewhere, like , with all of its force immediately, without red tape, without bureaucracy, act immediately with common sense and leadership, and save lives. Forget about the property. We can rebuild the property. It's got to be able to come in and save lives.
  

  We need strong leadership at the top of right now in order to accomplish this and to-- reconstructing FEMA.
  
  MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Broussard, let me ask--I want to ask--should...
  
  MR. BROUSSARD: You know, just some quick examples...
  
  MR. RUSSERT: Hold on. Hold on, sir. Shouldn't the mayor of and the governor of bear some responsibility? Couldn't they have been much more forceful, much more effective and much more organized in evacuating the area?
  
  MR. BROUSSARD: Sir, they were told like me, every single day, "The cavalry's coming," on a federal level, "The cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming." I have just begun to hear the hoofs of the cavalry. The cavalry's still not here yet, but I've begun to hear the hoofs, and we're almost a week out.
  
  Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water . FEMA turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, "Come get the fuel right away." When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. " FEMA says don't give you the fuel. " Yesterday--yesterday-- FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, "No one is getting near these lines." Sheriff Harry Lee said that if --American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn't be in this crisis.
  
  But I want to thank Governor Blanco for all she's done and all her leadership. She sent in the National Guard. I just repaired a breach on my side of the canal that the secretary didn't foresee, a 300-foot breach. I just completed it yesterday with convoys of National Guard and local parish workers and levee board people. It took us two and a half days working 24/7. I just closed it.
  

  MR. RUSSERT: All right.
  
  MR. BROUSSARD: I'm telling you most importantly I want to thank my public employees...
  
  MR. RUSSERT: All right.
  
  MR. BROUSSARD: ...that have worked 24/7. They're burned out, the doctors, the nurses. And I want to give you one last story and I'll shut up and let you tell me whatever you want to tell me. The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night.
  
  MR. RUSSERT: Mr. President...
  
  MR. BROUSSARD: Nobody's coming to get us. Nobody's coming to get us. The secretary has promised. Everybody's promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For God sakes, shut up and send us somebody.
  
  MR. RUSSERT: Just take a pause, Mr. President. (This was as the man was crying L )

  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9179790/
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  TonyT

  As usual there is more than one opinion on who is responsible.

  http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2005/9/4/151327.shtml
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  patio34

  Thanks TonyT for that. I copied some of the text and highlighted some. It's certainly food for thought. I don't know if it can ever be clearcut, but maybe so.

  Tim Russert and the Blame Game

  The media would have you believe that this disaster was worsened by a slow response from President Bush and his administration, though the primary responsibility for disaster response has always been with local and state governments.

  It is true that federal response was not as fast as it could have been. The president himself has acknowledged that fact.

  But the press has focused on the first 48 hours of federal response, not uttering a word about the fact that New Orleans had 48 hours of warning that a major Category 4 or 5 would make landfall near the city, yet local officials apparently did little to prepare.

  Obviously, Gov. Blanco did not effectively deploy her state's National Guard.

  And New Orleans' city leaders did almost nothing to evacuate the portion of the population with no transportation. In failing to follow their own evacuation plan, these officials did little to pre-position food, water and personnel to deal with the aftermath.

  I was surprised Sunday to watch Tim Russert, on his show "Meet the Press," tear into Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff. During his encounter with Chertoff, Russert did not suggest once that local government had any role in dealing with the disaster. Russert also asked for Chertoff's resignation.

  It wasn't until after the first 29 minutes of his show – 29 minutes – that Russert raised the question of local responsibility. And when he did so with Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard, he did so in a passing way. Broussard brushed off his question with a non-answer.

  Broussard began his interview claiming that the nation had "abandoned" New Orleans.

  That is nonsense and a lie.

  Broussard, who was never identified by "Meet the Press" as a Democrat, spent much of his time attacking the Bush administration, as has Democratic New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin.

  Broussard then ended his performance as he collapsed in tears with a demand: "For God's sake, just shut up and send us somebody!"

  His tears didn't wash with me. My sympathies lie with the tens of thousands of people who have suffered or died because local officials like Broussard, Mayor Nagin and Governor Kathleen Blanco, also a Democrat, failed monumentally at their jobs.

  As former New Orleans Mayor Marc Morial told Russert, the disaster in New Orleans was "foreseeable."

  In fact, New Orleans has long known that such a disaster could take place if a major hurricane hit the city.

  The municipality even prepared its own "City of New Orleans Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan."

  The plan makes it evident that New Orleans knew that evacuation of the civilian population was the primary responsibility of the city – not the federal government.

  The city plan acknowledges its responsibility in the document: