Factcheck.org Examines Katrina

[tso-d_chris 0]

One of the more interesting things discovered was Louisianna Governor Kathleen Blanco declared a State of Emergency three days prior to Katrina making landfall on the Gulf coast. She requested President Bush do the same two days prior to landfall.

She did seem oblivious to the fact that the flood waters would soon be toxic.

Mayor Nagin apparently failed to accept Amtrak's offer to use unsold train seats to evacuate some residents, and later even denied the offer was made. Evacuation orders were issued by the city too late too be fully effective, although the numbers that remained behind were within the levels predicted by the hurricane Pam excercise.

As Katrina passed through, Bush said, from Rancho Cucamonga, California, "It's a storm now that is moving through, and now it's the time for governments to help people get their feet on the ground. . . . For those of you who are concerned about whether or not we're prepared to help, don't be. We are. We're in place. We've got equipment in place, supplies in place."

http://factcheck.org/article348.html

http://factcheck.org/article344.html

[TheAnvil 0]

A few more factoids for factcheck.org to ponder.

Jack Kelly: No shame

The federal response to Katrina was not as portrayed

Sunday, September 11, 2005

It is settled wisdom among journalists that the federal response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina was unconscionably slow.


Jack Kelly is national security writer for the Post-Gazette and The Blade of Toledo, Ohio (jkelly@post-gazette.com, 412-263-1476).

"Mr. Bush's performance last week will rank as one of the worst ever during a dire national emergency," wrote New York Times columnist Bob Herbert in a somewhat more strident expression of the conventional wisdom.

But the conventional wisdom is the opposite of the truth.

Jason van Steenwyk is a Florida Army National Guardsman who has been mobilized six times for hurricane relief. He notes that:

"The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne."

For instance, it took five days for National Guard troops to arrive in strength on the scene in Homestead, Fla. after Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992. But after Katrina, there was a significant National Guard presence in the afflicted region in three.

Journalists who are long on opinions and short on knowledge have no idea what is involved in moving hundreds of tons of relief supplies into an area the size of England in which power lines are down, telecommunications are out, no gasoline is available, bridges are damaged, roads and airports are covered with debris, and apparently have little interest in finding out.

So they libel as a "national disgrace" the most monumental and successful disaster relief operation in world history.

I write this column a week and a day after the main levee protecting New Orleans breached. In the course of that week:

More than 32,000 people have been rescued, many plucked from rooftops by Coast Guard helicopters.

The Army Corps of Engineers has all but repaired the breaches and begun pumping water out of New Orleans.

Shelter, food and medical care have been provided to more than 180,000 refugees.

Journalists complain that it took a whole week to do this. A former Air Force logistics officer had some words of advice for us in the Fourth Estate on his blog, Moltenthought:

"We do not yet have teleporter or replicator technology like you saw on 'Star Trek' in college between hookah hits and waiting to pick up your worthless communications degree while the grown-ups actually engaged in the recovery effort were studying engineering.

"The United States military can wipe out the Taliban and the Iraqi Republican Guard far more swiftly than they can bring 3 million Swanson dinners to an underwater city through an area the size of Great Britain which has no power, no working ports or airports, and a devastated and impassable road network.

"You cannot speed recovery and relief efforts up by prepositioning assets (in the affected areas) since the assets are endangered by the very storm which destroyed the region.

"No amount of yelling, crying and mustering of moral indignation will change any of the facts above."

"You cannot just snap your fingers and make the military appear somewhere," van Steenwyk said.

Guardsmen need to receive mobilization orders; report to their armories; draw equipment; receive orders and convoy to the disaster area. Guardsmen driving down from Pennsylvania or Navy ships sailing from Norfolk can't be on the scene immediately.

Relief efforts must be planned. Other than prepositioning supplies near the area likely to be afflicted (which was done quite efficiently), this cannot be done until the hurricane has struck and a damage assessment can be made. There must be a route reconnaissance to determine if roads are open, and bridges along the way can bear the weight of heavily laden trucks.

And federal troops and Guardsmen from other states cannot be sent to a disaster area until their presence has been requested by the governors of the afflicted states.

Exhibit A on the bill of indictment of federal sluggishness is that it took four days before most people were evacuated from the Louisiana Superdome.

The levee broke Tuesday morning. Buses had to be rounded up and driven from Houston to New Orleans across debris-strewn roads. The first ones arrived Wednesday evening. That seems pretty fast to me.

A better question -- which few journalists ask -- is why weren't the roughly 2,000 municipal and school buses in New Orleans utilized to take people out of the city before Katrina struck?


(Correction/Clarification: (Published 9/12/05) -- Hurricane Andrew struck Florida in 1992, not 2002.)

Vinny the Anvil
Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL
JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

[tso-d_chris 0]

Quote

A few more factoids for factcheck.org to ponder.

You may not be aware of this, but unlike editorializing columns, which often pick and choose from the facts to elicit a prescribed response from the target audience, Factcheck.org is one of the most unbiased websites available for news without spin. (They are not a traditional news source, more like a media watchdog.) They do not offer opinion. Did you read the two articles? If so you would have noticed how well documented everything is.

Quote

"The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne." --Jason van Steenwyk is a Florida Army National Guardsman who has been mobilized six times for hurricane relief

Here's the thing. We knew what was going to happen if a Cat 3 (or higher) storm hit New Orleans. A state of emergency had already been declared by the state governor. The federal government was not prepared. They did not have equipment or supplies in place, as claimed.

There was plenty of time after the ball was in the federal government's hands to stage supplies and eqipment nearby. The civilian infrastructure was still fully functional at that point. There was power everywhere, and communications were up.

After the storm, when the world saw the trouble our citizens, responders and supplies, both foreign and domestic were kept out or delayed unnecessarily.

This was a monumental storm, but the federal response was anything but. I certainly would not claim success.

Our national resources appear to be severely misallocated.

[kallend 2,175]

Quote

Jack Kelly is national security writer for the Post-Gazette and The Blade of Toledo, Ohio

Ohhh - that's impressive.

...

The only sure way to survive a canopy collision is not to have one.

[TheAnvil 0]

And the onus lies with the federal government because...

I won't hold my breath for an answer.

Vinny the Anvil
Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL
JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

[Gravitymaster 0]

Quote

And the onus lies with the federal government because...

I won't hold my breath for an answer.

Ohhh.... pick me, pick me...........

It's all Bush's fault?

Did I win?

[tso-d_chris 0]

Quote

And the onus lies with the federal government because...

No one said it did, exclusively. Mayor Nagin did a poor job in my opinion. He waited a couple days after the Governor declared a state of emergency to order a mandatory evacuation.

That does not mitigate the federal governments responsibility.

Frome The Office of the (White House) Press Secretary, Aug 27, 2005, two days prior to Katrina's landfall:

Quote

The President today declared an emergency exists in the State of Louisiana and ordered Federal aid to supplement state and local response efforts in the parishes located in the path of Hurricane Katrina beginning on August 26, 2005, and continuing.

The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the parishes of Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Caldwell, Claiborne, Catahoula, Concordia, De Soto, East Baton Rouge, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Franklin, Grant, Jackson, LaSalle, Lincoln, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Pointe Coupee, Ouachita, Rapides, Red River, Richland, Sabine, St. Helena, St. Landry, Tensas, Union, Vernon, Webster, West Carroll, West Feliciana, and Winn.

Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency. Debris removal and emergency protective measures, including direct Federal assistance, will be provided at 75 percent Federal funding.

Representing FEMA, Michael D. Brown, Under Secretary for Emergency Preparedness and Response, Department of Homeland Security, named William Lokey as the Federal Coordinating Officer for Federal recovery operations in the affected area.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050827-1.html

Quote

For those of you who are concerned about whether or not we're prepared to help, don't be. We are. We're in place. We've got equipment in place, supplies in place. --Pres. Bush, Aug. 29 4:40pm

Quote

"[T]he federal government did not even know about the Convention Center people until today." --Michael Brown, DIRECTOR, FEDERAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY

Quote

"Later, Brown will say he was wrong and that FEMA actually knew about the victims at the Convention Center 24 hours earlier but was unable to reach them until Thursday."

http://factcheck.org/article348.html

Quote

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government. And to the extent that the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility."-- President Bush

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/09/20050913-5.html

I think much of the onus lies with the federal government because they agreed to take on the responsibility, failed to act on that responsibility, acknowledged the failure, and then the President accepted personal responsibility for those federal failures.

[sfc 1]

Quote

And the onus lies with the federal government because...

I won't hold my breath for an answer.

Can't resist this one

because I (and many others) pay a shitload of taxes to the federal government, way more than I do to the state and I expect that money to be used for our good, which includes helping out for internal emergencies (FEMA) as well as funding the armed forces. The government is there to serve us, not the other way round, we pay for them I expct value for that money, I don't think we got it in the case of Katrina because they couldn't get their act together, partly because the head of FEMA was not up to the job and most of the other execs knew jack shit about disaster management, if they worked for a commercial organisation they would have had their asses fired by now.

BTW, did that belly rub a byron have a happy ending

[Duckwater 0]

Christ people.......

Our Government is better at rescuing and helping the ignorant masses than any government in the world.

Everyone blames FEMA for a slow response. How about being greatful for any response at all?????? Does India have a FEMA?? Nagin is a corrupt idiot, Blanco is incompetent, and Bush probably truly feels like the a lot of us.....that they were too stupid to help themselves and with thir murder rate, welfare and lack of morals...that they were a drain on society anyway.

This was a storm of epic proportions. I label it under "shit happens". The fact that it hit a bunch of worthless pieces of shit too stupid and morally corrupt to help themselves (in turn decided to hurt themselves) makes it seem all the worse for the liberals.

I think of the event like a modern day Gamorrah.

Even the fucking cops showed their true colors, go looting instead of saving lives.

I am pissed that so many of my tax dollars are going to be spent to rebuild another worthless strain on my tax dollars.....Another welfare state.

--

[TheAnvil 0]

No. Lany teased and teased by beginning to rub my belly, but never finished.

Vinny the Anvil
Post Traumatic Didn't Make The Lakers Syndrome is REAL
JACKASS POWER!!!!!!

[juanesky 0]

Hey Vinny, You know the Bush bashers don't mind the actual facts, you know that this is not about responding within 72 hours, (I was also included in the pool of military police arriving on scene in less than 24 hours after the WO came on Wed. 08/31. We were downtown NO, convention center on Sept 1st.)

What you don't include in your comment is the fact that by that very day we arrived in the convention center, there were no more displaced/refugee/people around, and by the time we got to the Superdome, (Saturday Sept. 3rd) there were about 2000 left there, who were promptly evacuated in less than 48 hours after that day.

Ignorance is a blessing, they don't really know how hard is to mobilize reserves, but I'm proud that we were ready overnight....

Blue skies my friend, and lets have some Tequila sometime soon ...

"According to some of the conservatives here, it sounds like it's fine to beat your wide - as long as she had it coming." -Billvon