Reading thru pre-storm news reports..

[Karmakaze]

Sometimes we can forget what happened only a few days ago when so much has happened in the meantime, so I like to go back over reports from before an event to refresh my memory of what went on. Hindsight may be 20/20 but sometimes it can also be misleading.

What sent me on this little excursion was the thread about the buses not being used to evacuate NO. I wanted to see what exactly was happening around the time of the evacuation order.

Firstly what I found was not the best for ANY of the parties involved. For example:

Acknowledging that large numbers of people, many of them stranded tourists, would be unable to leave, the city set up 10 places of last resort for people to go, including the Superdome.

The mayor called the order unprecedented and said anyone who could leave the city should. He exempted hotels from the evacuation order because airlines had already cancelled all flights.

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-18/1125239940201382.xml&storylist=louisiana

So it seems the Mayor suspected it was going to be bad - real bad - but he doesnt seem to have made any effort to evacuate those who couldn't leave themselves, although I have to wonder, even if they had planned ahead, whether an evacuation of that size could even be possible with the 24 hours or so notice they had.

Then I came to this quote:

"We're not evacuating," said Julie Paul, 57. "None of us have any place to go. We're counting on the Superdome. That's our lifesaver."

She said they'd spent the last couple of hurricanes there. They would wait for a friend who has a van to take them, because none has cars.

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/louisiana/index.ssf?/base/news-18/1125239940201382.xml&storylist=louisiana

This raises another issue that has not really been discussed - even if some of these people WERE able to evacuate themselves, WHERE would they go? None of the articles I have seen mentions evacuation centres OUTSIDE New Orleans having been set up BEFORE the storm. Mayor Nagin had no power to do anything about that. What about Governor Blanco? Should she hae done more to have places for people to go? Possibly. But the whole state was a target where could she be sure to send people where they would be safe?

So what I have found is that UNAVOIDABLE mistakes may have been made by the people of New Orleans (some truly didnt leave not because they couldn't but becuase they really didn't believe something REALLY bad was going to happen.), the Mayor or New Orleans (more effort to help those that couldn't help themselves may have saved a few lives), and the Governor of Lousiana (more help relocating evacuees may have saved some lives).

But there is one area where mistakes were made that are seemingly senseless:

Federal Emergency Management Agency teams and other emergency teams were in place to move in as soon as the storm was over, FEMA Undersecretary Michael Brown said.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/08/28/hurricane.katrina/

So Brown said BEFORE the storm that FEMA was already in place ready to go after the storm hit. So WHY did it take so long for them to actually GO????

Everything I have read says that FEMA and the Federal government were ready, prepared to rush in to help those who had become victims of the storm. Yet they didn't. Nothing I have read suggests any earthly reason why they didn't. It is senseless ESPECIALLY as Brown was making proclamations of being ready.

If I had found quotes from Brown saying "we are rushing to get prepared" or words to that effect, I could perhaps understand if they had not gotten prepared in time, but he is saying "we are ready" he is saying "The federal Government is here to help as soon as you need it" but it didn't.

I truly don't believe even incompetence could explain that. If they WERE ready, how do you ACCIDENTALLY not go and help? If they WEREN'T ready how do you ACCIDENTALLY say you are? The ONLY possible explanations are they werent ready and LIED, or they WERE ready, and STOOD DOWN.

Either way the effect is the same - people died when MANY could have been saved - no matter what mistakes they made BEFORE the event.

[stillcool]

1. this may help ...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4618468

[Mr_Spock]

2. Thanks for taking some time to research some of the facts

...as opposed to the 20/20 opinion of some here. There is plenty of blame to go around - it's perfectly understandable that people would not believe that this was the "one" hurricane that would destroy the city. We all have experienced these false alarms on hurricanes (yes, even up here in the Northeast) and nobody can tell the future. Even then, once the extent of the storm was known, it still wasn't a 20/20 situation - the damage from the storm didn't seem so bad in NO until the levees broke. THEN, and only then, people who KNEW VERY WELL what devastation would be unfurled when the levees broke, namely FEMA, didn't do much of ANYTHING in the critical period while the water was rising. Not only that, they didn't do much of ANYTHING for TWO DAYS AFTERWARD!!!!!!!!! Criticize the evacuation all you want, FEMA had plenty of time to warn about the potential levee break and could have gotten efforts underway sooner to get people out or AT LEAST PROVIDE FOOD AND WATER drops!! Brown fucked up more than anybody else in this disaster and he should be FIRED IMMEDIATELY - along with his boss.