Katrina's POLITICAL aftermath (keep the political discussions HERE)

Anyway, since my richness allows me to get the WSJ, I hereby piss on copyright laws. But seriously, I'm sure some genius over at DailyKos or Democratic Underground or MoveOn.org has already diaried this article into "accuracy."

Blame Amid the Tragedy
By BOB WILLIAMS
September 6, 2005; Page A28

As the devastation of Hurricane Katrina continues to shock and sadden the nation, the question on many lips is, Who is to blame for the inadequate response?

As a former state legislator who represented the legislative district most impacted by the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, I can fully understand and empathize with the people and public officials over the loss of life and property.

Many in the media are turning their eyes toward the federal government, rather than considering the culpability of city and state officials. I am fully aware of the challenges of having a quick and responsive emergency response to a major disaster. And there is definitely a time for accountability; but what isn't fair is to dump on the federal officials and avoid those most responsible -- local and state officials who failed to do their job as the first responders. The plain fact is, lives were needlessly lost in New Orleans due to the failure of Louisiana's governor, Kathleen Blanco, and the city's mayor, Ray Nagin.

The primary responsibility for dealing with emergencies does not belong to the federal government. It belongs to local and state officials who are charged by law with the management of the crucial first response to disasters. First response should be carried out by local and state emergency personnel under the supervision of the state governor and his/her emergency operations center.

The actions and inactions of Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin are a national disgrace due to their failure to implement the previously established evacuation plans of the state and city. Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin cannot claim that they were surprised by the extent of the damage and the need to evacuate so many people. Detailed written plans were already in place to evacuate more than a million people. The plans projected that 300,000 people would need transportation in the event of a hurricane like Katrina. If the plans had been implemented, thousands of lives would likely have been saved.

In addition to the plans, local, state and federal officials held a simulated hurricane drill 13 months ago, in which widespread flooding supposedly trapped 300,000 people inside New Orleans. The exercise simulated the evacuation of more than a million residents. The problems identified in the simulation apparently were not solved.

A year ago, as Hurricane Ivan approached, New Orleans ordered an evacuation but did not use city or school buses to help people evacuate. As a result many of the poorest citizens were unable to evacuate. Fortunately, the hurricane changed course and did not hit New Orleans, but both Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin acknowledged the need for a better evacuation plan. Again, they did not take corrective actions. In 1998, during a threat by Hurricane George, 14,000 people were sent to the Superdome and theft and vandalism were rampant due to inadequate security. Again, these problems were not corrected.

The New Orleans contingency plan is still, as of this writing, on the city's Web site, and states: "The safe evacuation of threatened populations is one of the principle [sic] reasons for developing a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan." But the plan was apparently ignored.

Mayor Nagin was responsible for giving the order for mandatory evacuation and supervising the actual evacuation: His office of Emergency Preparedness (not the federal government) must coordinate with the state on elements of evacuation and assist in directing the transportation of evacuees to staging areas. Mayor Nagin had to be encouraged by the governor to contact the National Hurricane Center before he finally, belatedly, issued the order for mandatory evacuation. And sadly, it apparently took a personal call from the president to urge the governor to order the mandatory evacuation.

The city's evacuation plan states: "The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas." But even though the city has enough school and transit buses to evacuate 12,000 citizens per fleet run, the mayor did not use them. To compound the problem, the buses were not moved to high ground and were flooded. The plan also states that "special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific lifesaving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedures as needed." This was not done.

The evacuation plan warned that "if an evacuation order is issued without the mechanisms needed to disseminate the information to the affected persons, then we face the possibility of having large numbers of people either stranded and left to the mercy of a storm, or left in an area impacted by toxic materials." That is precisely what happened because of the mayor's failure.

Instead of evacuating the people, the mayor ordered the refugees to the Superdome and Convention Center without adequate security and no provisions for food, water and sanitary conditions. As a result people died, and there was even rape committed, in these facilities. Mayor Nagin failed in his responsibility to provide public safety and to manage the orderly evacuation of the citizens of New Orleans. Now he wants to blame Gov. Blanco and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In an emergency the first requirement is for the city's emergency center to be linked to the state emergency operations center. This was not done.

The federal government does not have the authority to intervene in a state emergency without the request of a governor. President Bush declared an emergency prior to Katrina hitting New Orleans, so the only action needed for federal assistance was for Gov. Blanco to request the specific type of assistance she needed. She failed to send a timely request for specific aid.

In addition, unlike the governors of New York, Oklahoma and California in past disasters, Gov. Blanco failed to take charge of the situation and ensure that the state emergency operation facility was in constant contact with Mayor Nagin and FEMA. It is likely that thousands of people died because of the failure of Gov. Blanco to implement the state plan, which mentions the possible need to evacuate up to one million people. The plan clearly gives the governor the authority for declaring an emergency, sending in state resources to the disaster area and requesting necessary federal assistance.

State legislators and governors nationwide need to update their contingency plans and the operation procedures for state emergency centers. Hurricane Katrina had been forecast for days, but that will not always be the case with a disaster (think of terrorist attacks). It must be made clear that the governor and locally elected officials are in charge of the "first response."

I am not attempting to excuse some of the delays in FEMA's response. Congress and the president need to take corrective action there, also. However, if citizens expect FEMA to be a first responder to terrorist attacks or other local emergencies (earthquakes, forest fires, volcanoes), they will be disappointed. The federal government's role is to offer aid upon request.

The Louisiana Legislature should conduct an immediate investigation into the failures of state and local officials to implement the written emergency plans. The tragedy is not over, and real leadership in the state and local government are essential in the months to come. More importantly, the hurricane season is still upon us, and local and state officials must stay focused on the jobs for which they were elected -- and not on the deadly game of passing the emergency buck.

posting because it actually made me laugh- I'm sure whoever they replace Brown with at FEMA is going to be barely better. Assuming that Bush & folks do replace him, as Ned noted earlier they don't seem to like firing folks around there.

wasn't this changed post-9/11?

The primary responsibility for dealing with emergencies does not belong to the federal government

POSTED UPTHREAD:

BUSH'S OWN PLAN: The 2004 National Response Plan explicitly states that, at times of
any natural or manmade incident, including terrorism, that results in extraordinary levels of mass casualties, damage, or disruption severely affecting the population, infrastructure, environment, economy, national morale, and/or government functions, the federal government pre-empts local and state government in its responsibility to act quickly

President Bush declared an emergency prior to Katrina hitting New Orleans, so the only action needed for federal assistance was for Gov. Blanco to request the specific type of assistance she needed. She failed to send a timely request for specific aid.

i have a hard time believing that gov. blanco didn't send a "timely request" (wtf is that anyway?!?).

xpost hurting could you please repost the wsj article?

again, this was declared a disaster zone BEFORE THE HURRICANE HIT.

Someone (gypsy, I believe) said he wasn't incompetent. I say the jury is out on that. I agree with the rest of your post, though.

xpost - Don - as I pointed the guy doesn't know what he's talking about.

This is a really ludicrious excuse. Red tape should not be par for the course in disasters. Again, the question stands: what the hell is the government (FEDERAL, not STATE) going to do in the face of a trickier disaster, a terrorist attack, biological warfare, a fucking EARTHQUAKE--ie disasters that you aren't aware are coming for days prior?

I mean, why am I paying so much in federal taxes? Why can't I elect to just pay all of it to my state if this is the response that exists? Oh right, because we have to pay for the overseas pay for kids in Iraq, and military contracting all over the goddamn place...right. Homeland security.

2 xpost

I will, right after someone gets done defending Cindy Sheehan's affiliations. Oh wait, nobody gives a fuck about her anymore.

Then again, I could just wait for you to refute that column, point by point, and the discussion might gain some insight instead of ignoring what the mayor did not do.

Conservatives respond by attacking ... the outspoken mother of a dead soldier.

goes along with turning away the water from the nearby Walmart, diesel from the Coast Guard, and severing the emergency communication links in one of the parishes.

say, how did Sean Penn get in there, anyway?

well shit, man, if you got a boat and a chopper and some medpacks, ain't nobody gunna spit on that help, unless you're under control of a former-cabinet-level department absorbed into a bloated superbureaucracy by those who preach "less government" or some shit

And, again, the article is based upon a false premise to begin with, ie that they didn't ask for assistance. Dredge up an article not based upon that that addresses your points and maybe someone will argue the points with you in depth.

Don - why don't you refute my point, then - if you're so interested in insightful debate?

2xpost

Explain to me, Don.. explain to me why the burden of these people's safety should fall on the municipal gov't when Bush's own emergency plan states that it is federal?

And then I would please like to see you explain to Ally about how pinning the blame on some bus bungling mayor is in the best interest of the U.S. - allowing FEMA to continue operating in the same manner when they are the ones who would be responding if there should ever again be such a disaster (natural or terrorist).

xpost - shit!

Q: Yes, but you're telling us today there will be time for that somewhere down the road. Well, what if it happens tomorrow?

MR. McCLELLAN: We can engage in this blame-gaming going on and I think that's what you're getting --

Q: No, no. That's a talking point, Scott, and I think most people who are watching this --

MR. McCLELLAN: No, that's a fact. I mean, some are wanting to engage in that, and we're going to remain focused --

Q: I'm asking a direct question. Is he confident --

MR. McCLELLAN: We're going to remain focused on the people.

Q: -- that he can secure the American people in the event of a major terrorist attack?

MR. McCLELLAN: We are securing the American people by staying on the offensive abroad and working to spread freedom and democracy in the Middle East.

Q: That's a talking point. That's a talking point.

MR. McCLELLAN: No, that's a fact.

Go ahead.

Q: No, it's not.

It strikes me that this identification issue, btw, is an argument in favor of some kind of nationalized health care. I mean at the very least you'd have a greater chance of scoring dental records that way...

xpost ok that is a great interview.

Why are we talking about the "blame game" - there are thousands of people dead because government officials failed to do what they're supposed to be doing. That's criminal behavior. I mean, that's no game. There are poeple dead in the city of New Orelans and up and down the gulf coast because people charged with seeing to their welfare failed to do that. I don't understand this relecutance to say, Mr. Brown, you failed in your assignment. You're out of here. Go away. Go back to Colorado and go back to working for the Arabian Horse Association that we got you from.

And that hierarchical role is not just symbolic. It is conscribed by the Constitution, of course -- it has limits. But it is still the single most powerful governmental position in the country, and it carries enormous expectations. People don't expect the president to personally dam a river or pluck people off rooftops, but they expect him to respond quickly and strongly when a crisis hits that is clearly beyond the capacity of local communities to deal with. That's the whole point of having a chief. This is basic tribal code. A chief who fails to respond to his people when they're in danger, who neither protects nor rescues them, is going to be a chief with an unhappy tribe. So sure, the mayor and governor are going to have to answer to their particular constituencies, and they should.

But here's the real thing, Part II: If New York gets hit by a bomb or an earthquake or a crippling drought tomorrow, I'm not concerned about how Ray Nagin and Kathleen Blanco are going to respond. I'm not going to be calling them for help. Their level of competence and preparation are not going to be an issue for me. The same is sadly not true of Mssrs. Winkin, Blinkin and Nod down at FEMA and Homeland Screwity. Those guys are the ones I'm going to have to count on, just like the people in New Orleans did. So there's a reason for all Americans outside Louisiana to be a lot more worried about the federal response than the state and local, and it's not just about party politics. It's about who's going to be there when we need them.