With the long hours I have to spend at work, I wasn't aware of the enormity of the damage in New Orleans after the huricane. I got a chance last night to get cought up with what's going on and was appalled at what I saw. What strikes me most is, how can our government not react immediately. How can they let days go and expose thousands of people to such horrible conditions?
I read a transcript of a radio interview with Mayor Nagin and wondered again, what is Bush doing to this country? Why is our government letting us down yet again? When I asked Joseph yesterday why did it take so long for the national guard to get there, his answer was "she didn't ask for it. And don't say it's Bush's fault. It's the law, he can't do anything until the governor asks for it". Well, it seems to me that there are times when we need to assess a situation and take action. Like Mayor Nagin said in his interview "Well, did the tsunami victims request? Did it go through a formal process to request? You know, did the Iraqi people request that we go in there? Did they ask us to go in there? What is more important?"
Apparently not American lives.
Let me give you a fact check.
ReplyDeleteYes, government response was slow, but why? Here is the law:
First Response to a disaster is the job of local government's emergency services with help from nearby municipalities, the state and volunteer agencies. In a catastrophic disaster, and if the governor requests, federal resources can be mobilized through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) for search and rescue, electrical power, food, water, shelter and other basic human needs.
A governor's request for a major disaster declaration could mean an infusion of federal funds, but the governor must also commit significant state funds and resources for recovery efforts.
That didn't happen. The mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin, told people to evacuate the city, but he didn't provide the means to get them out. There are hundreds of buses mired in the flood. Instead of just ordering the evacuation, why didn't he organize it? Why didn't the mayor have disaster supplies prepositioned around the city?
State governor Kathleen Blanco, under the law, should have notified the federal government that she wanted the National Guard federalized and sent into the city. Two days before the hurricane hit, she knew there was a category five storm heading straight for her city, but she did nothing.
From Washington Post: Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday.The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law.
I think it's truly remarkable that once the local officials got off their duffs and requested help from the federal government, that it took only five days for convoys of food, water, medicine, troops, boats, aircraft, doctors, etc to get to the city. Some came from as far away as Los Angeles.
The President is not a dictator, he can't violate the sovereignty of a state by sending in troops unrequested.
I understand the president is not a dictator, and my disappointment and anger are not only directed at him. But when you say "it took only five days for convoys of food, water, medicine, troops, boats, aircraft, doctors, etc to get to the city", all I can think about is five days? Five days without food, without water, without medicine or doctors? Do you really think that's remarkable? I think it's unreasonble and sad.
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