Katrina relief question: OT

I know that hindsight is 20-20 (and that threads here can decay into
partisan mud-slinging (not that President Rove doesn't deserve it, mind
you)), but can anyone tell me why there weren't 10,000 national
guardsmen, the FEMA organization and a huge supply of relief goods
waiting in the wings in central Lousiana and Mississippi for the
aftermath of Katrina? We have known for years of the potential of
disaster from such an event as this, and we all knew for days that
Katrina had the very real potential of causing unprecedented mayhem.
The mayor of NO was astute enough to order a total evacuation well
enough in advance to get close to a million people out. FEMA should
have had a plan that could have been implemented to have relief ready
and waiting, prepared to descend on NO the very next morning.

As it stands, it sounds like it will take up to 7 days for the USNS
ship 'Comfort' to get on site, and several days even for the convoys of
vehicles to get organized to bring people out. The lack of supervisory
oversight after the fact makes me think that there was no previous plan
in place at all, and that they are making this up as they go along.

--riverman

"riverman" wrote in message
ups.com...
I know that hindsight is 20-20 (and that threads here can decay into
partisan mud-slinging (not that President Rove doesn't deserve it, mind
you)), but can anyone tell me why there weren't 10,000 national
guardsmen, the FEMA organization and a huge supply of relief goods
waiting in the wings in central Lousiana and Mississippi for the
aftermath of Katrina? We have known for years of the potential of
disaster from such an event as this, and we all knew for days that
Katrina had the very real potential of causing unprecedented mayhem.
The mayor of NO was astute enough to order a total evacuation well
enough in advance to get close to a million people out. FEMA should
have had a plan that could have been implemented to have relief ready
and waiting, prepared to descend on NO the very next morning.

As it stands, it sounds like it will take up to 7 days for the USNS
ship 'Comfort' to get on site, and several days even for the convoys of
vehicles to get organized to bring people out. The lack of supervisory
oversight after the fact makes me think that there was no previous plan
in place at all, and that they are making this up as they go along.

--riverman


There's a lot of truth to that, but as far as FEMA is concerned, a lot of it
is made up of various teams. Dayton's search and heavy rescue team, the
survivor/body dog team out of Columbus. A lot of these folks are various
home town teams. Their logistics are different.

john

riverman typed:
I know that hindsight is 20-20 (and that threads here can decay into
partisan mud-slinging ... snip

....or they can just start out that way. They'll be plenty of time for
placing blame later. How about you hold off making this a political issue
until after they finish fishing dead bodies from the aftermath?

BTW, for those trying to get through to make a donation to The Red Cross,
I've had no problems getting through first thing in the morning Eastern US
Time. My roffian friends who are still asleep will just need to get up a
little earlier. ;-)
--
TL,
Tim
------------------------
http://css.sbcma.com/timj/

Right on, Tim. Also FEMA is a reactive organization, not proactive.

wrote in news:1125665495.652434.256940
@g49g2000cwa.googlegroups.com:

Right on, Tim. Also FEMA is a reactive organization, not proactive.


Apparently, not reactive enough. Right now, there are diabetics going into
insulin shock, and cardiac patients going into congestive heart failure
because they can't get their meds. There are dialysis patients with no
hospitals. There are people with no food and water. There is no
communication to refugees. There's no place to put people. There's an
underwhelming military presence.

There's little evidence that the US can adequately handle an emergency of
this scale in a timely fashion in the 21st century. This has zero to do
with politics--I'm not sure any administration could have done better.
Certainly, every administration since Kennedy has done little to beef up
the levee system. That said, the underwhelming Guard presence can be traced
to current policy, and much of our other military services have their eyes
elsewhere.

It is comforting to know, though, that those flying commercial airlines to
go down and lend a hand, will not be able to clip their toenails while in
flight. Unfortunately, it takes a disaster to show us just how misplaced
our institutional priorities are. The irony is that the TSA is the result
of an overreaction to another disaster.

--
Scott
Reverse name to reply

riverman typed:
I know that hindsight is 20-20 (and that threads here can decay into
partisan mud-slinging ... snip

and Tim J. answered: ...or they can just start out that way. They'll be
plenty of time for placing blame later. How about you hold off making this
a political issue until after they finish fishing dead bodies from the
aftermath?

Thanks Tim..

Jack Barnett

Right on Jon.

Tim J. wrote:

BTW, for those trying to get through to make a donation to The Red Cross,
I've had no problems getting through first thing in the morning Eastern US
Time. My roffian friends who are still asleep will just need to get up a
little earlier. ;-)

you can make donations by internet at the red cross web site...no delays.

jeff

On 2 Sep 2005 13:21:13 GMT, (Jonathan Cook) wrote:

riverman wrote:

I know that hindsight is 20-20

I don't care about left-right politics, but I certainly wouldn't
lay this at the feet of the feds. The first line is the city and
the state, and it appears they had no real plan at all, just
crossing their fingers and hoping it would never happen. A city
half below sea level should have been prepared for this for years...

Jon.

agreed...

this area of destruction is 90,000 square miles! Not just NO

Around here the feds run the COE. I didn't know the locals had the
option of building levees, dreging channels etc. I thought there was
something about interstate commerece in the constitution. It's not
really a federal problem anyway. All those farmers who ship corn etc.
out of New Orleans could just as well truck it over to Baltimore or
somewhere.

Jonathan Cook wrote:
riverman wrote:

I know that hindsight is 20-20

I don't care about left-right politics, but I certainly wouldn't
lay this at the feet of the feds. The first line is the city and
the state, and it appears they had no real plan at all, just
crossing their fingers and hoping it would never happen. A city
half below sea level should have been prepared for this for years...

Jon.