People Could have been Airlifted from NO before Hurricane Struck..

[KoKo]

National Guard Delay Likely to Be Examined

By SHARON THEIMER, Associated Press WriterSat Sep 3, 2:45 AM ET

Several states ready and willing to send National Guard troops to the rescue in hurricane-ravaged New Orleans didn't get the go-ahead until days after the storm struck — a delay nearly certain to be investigated by Congress.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco help from his state's National Guard on Sunday, the day before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Blanco accepted, but paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn't come from Washington until late Thursday.

-snip-

In fact, when New Orleans' levees gave way to deadly flooding on Tuesday, Louisiana's National Guard had received help from troops in only three other states: Ohio, which had nine people in Louisiana then; Oklahoma, 89; and Texas, 625, figures provided by the National Guard show.

-snip- ( CHECK THIS OUT...THESE PEOPLE COULD HAVE BEEN EVACUATED!!!!!)


In addition to Guard help, the federal government could have activated, but did not, a major air support plan under a pre-existing contract with airlines. The program, called Civilian Reserve Air Fleet, lets the government quickly put private cargo and passenger planes into service

The CRAF provision has been activated twice, once for the Persian
Gulf War and again for the Iraq war.

READ MORE....of this confusing article from AP
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/katrina_national_guard

[abluelady]

1. What's Wrong With Buses

Why couldn't Blanco on Saturday and Sunday put all the school busses in the surrounding parishes to work taking people out of New Orleans? It did not even need all the bureaucracy of aviation.

[Spazito]

2. Do you realize how many buses would be needed to evacuate

the hundreds of thousands that remained in all those parishes??? There are people still stranded in those surrounding parishes as well. I love how 'some', after listening to right wing radio are out there trying to blame the Mayor and Governor for what is clearly a criminal failing of the federal Government.

[bushisanidiot]

5. Blanco asked for federal help and got ignored by vacation AWOL Bush!!

i'm sick of freeptards spinning to try to blame blanco when she asked for help before the storm ever hit!! AWOL bush wouldn't be bothered with a little storm!! he didn't want to disrupt his vacation just like in August 2001!!!!!!!!

when there's trouble, President PUSSY runs away!!!

[WilliamPitt]

7. There are a million people in/around New Orleans

That's quite a few busses.

[abluelady]

10. There Were Many Able to Make it Out on Their Own

Wouldn't it have been better to have tried to save 10,000 more than that many dead? Nothing was done to try to help people evacuate. Being told to evacuate isn't enough.

[WilliamPitt]

13. Plan that for me

Plan an evacuation of an unknowable number of people while under extreme duress and facing a deadline. "Just do it" does not count as a plan.

My mom was a city planner for years, and worked in the municipal government of the town I grew up in. I remember her having to deal with the Blizzard of '78. You have no idea how hard it is to do the kind of thing you're talking about.

I'm not at all saying this whole thing wasn't bungled. It was, but from the top down. Massive emergency actions like the one you propose take a lot of money, a lot of drivers, and a lot of pros to handle the logistics. Thanks to budget cuts from above, and a war that has a lot of the needed money along with the drivers and pros occupied, these were in small supply.

[muriel_volestrangler]

15. But easier by bus than by plane

There are more people qualified to drive buses than fly large planes, and it's a lot easier to load a bus. The drivers would be, in the first instance, those who normally drive them. They get paid overtime, and the chance to maybe save a few lives. Given that this was a predicted disaster, a basic plan should have been in place. If that plan was the one that said get everyone to the Superdome and conference centre, then it should have included water and food for them.

[abluelady]

17. There are Disaster Plans that Should be in Place

I worked in hospital administration for many years. We had plans for all sorts of contingencies and we "practiced" them a couple of times a year. Just a false fire alarm going off had us in preparation stage 1.

But the bottom line is what has happened has happened. We must now try to do the best we can. I hope it is not too late.

[WilliamPitt]

19. Totally, totally agree

[KoKo]

16. Many folks stranded in the Ritz-Carlton and other hotels could have been

evacuated, though on cargo planes. We didn't even know about thousands of tourists stranded in NO until Thursday. Maybe we couldn't have gotten all out in the Super Dome and Convention Center but when the hurrican strength was known days in advance it seems more could have been done to recognize the emergency. :shrug: Most of those folks in the SuperDome had jobs and connections to family...and should have been offered the choice of air lift or Super Dome.

[Spazito]

3. The paperwork didn't arive FROM Washington until Thursday!

This now shoots down the current meme that the Governor is at fault. Where will the right wingers go now to try and shift the blame?

[snippy]

4. Lots could have been done before the hurricane hit. Compare what Bush did

in advance of Katrina with what he did in advance of two of the hurricanes which hit Florida last year. http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=132&topic_id=2056837&mesg_id=2057880

[Lindsay]

6. Yeah, but this isn't an election year,

and his brother isn't the governor.

[snippy]

12. Exactly. Last year Bush even had FEMA hire a political consultant

to devise political public relations strategies for FEMA and the Bush campaign.

. . .

But politics was foremost on the mind of FEMA consultant Glenn Garcelon, who wrote a three-page memo titled "Hurricane Frances -- Thoughts and Suggestions," on Sept. 2.

The Republican National Convention was winding down, and President Bush had only a slight lead in the polls against Democrat John Kerry. Winning Florida was key to the president's re-election. FEMA should pay careful attention to how it is portrayed by the public, Garcelon wrote in the memo, conveying "the team effort theme at every opportunity" alongside state and local officials, the insurance and construction industries, and relief agencies such as the Red Cross.

"What FEMA cannot afford to do is back itself into a corner by feeling it has to be the sole explainer and defender for everything that goes wrong," he wrote. "Further, this is not what the President would want. Plenty is going to go wrong, and his Department of Homeland Security does not want to assume responsibility for all of it."

Garcelon, a former FEMA employee, recommended that "top-level people from FEMA and the White House need to develop a communication strategy and an agreed-upon set of themes and communications objectives."

"Communication consultants from the President's re-election campaign should be brought in," he wrote. "Above all, everybody's got to understand that no amount of flogging DHS/ FEMA will insure that the recovery will go perfectly. This is going to be a huge mess. The public needs to be prepared for it."

. . .

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/sfl-fema23mar23,0,5144922.story?coll=sfla-news-utility

[KoKo]

8. I think the Bush Bots have forgotten there's a "paper trail" that will

catch up with them on this one. There are news reports and records and archives here on DU to news reports of the Florida Hurricanes and what was done. Bush Bot's can't claim "Official State Secrets" on these records...they are out there for all to see. Also how Clinton handled the hurricanes when he was President. The difference, when it all comes out will be startling...I think.

Bush Bots did Nothing for the Gulf Coast. And, I wonder how Haley Barbour is going to come out of this. Trying to blame this all on Democrat Blanco when the paper trail is there..just isn't going to work this time.

[maine_raptor]

9. The airlines stopped flying into NO on sunday.

What were the Mayor and Gov to do, stand on the runways and prevent the planes from taking off?

And as far as the freepers blaming the Gov of LA, how come they're not blaming the Gov of MS fo not getting the hundreds that now lie dead in Biloxi out before the storm struck?

Oh, that's right he's a Rethug.....nevermind.

[KoKo]

11. I think the article is saying that Cargo Planes could have been brought in

to transport People out before the storm struck. Remember when Bush commandeered Cargo Planes to transport troops into Iraq? We were all angry about it here on DU.

Cargo planes can hold alot of people..

[maine_raptor]

14. Yup and federalizing them is a Prez option, not a Moyor's or Gov's.

[Barack_America]

18. Insist on a FULL investigation!!!

Airplanes, buses, bicycles-built-for-two...whatever.

It's not that the evacuation plan didn't work, it's that there WAS NO EVACUATION plan!

Is this acceptable 4 years after 9/11? I don't think so.

Contact the Judiciary Committees and insist that they begin a full investigation of the Department of Homeland Security (includes FEMA) and everyone who oversees it (incl. Bush)!!!



Senate:
http://judiciary.senate.gov/subcommittees/technology109.cfm
(some heavy hitters on that one!)

House:
http://judiciary.house.gov/committeestructure.aspx?committee=6

Additionally, I suggest contacting John Conyers http://www.house.gov/conyers /
He's the ranking Dem Judiciary member, basically politically invincible and ALWAYS looking to stir things up! Oh and he's an old school civil rights activist.

edit:fixed links

[KoKo]

20. Sad thing is..that in "these times" we'd end up with botched "9/11" type

of crap/shit report where so much was left out...so much was classified, and the rest was "butt covering."

Never mind...this isn't the America we were taught to "BLIEVE IN" it's the America that's the "cruel/pragmatic" America which tends to trash anyone who stands in the way of whatever "Power that Be" is THE.."power that be."

:-(