Blanco fails to act decisively to protect New Orleans citizens

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

Though Mayor Nagin has done the right thing and called for a mandatory evacuation of his city (9 days too late but better than nothing), Governor Blanco is trying to over-rule his wise decision.

4 People in Mississippi alone have already died from water-bourne illnesses.  The floodwaters in New Orleans have 10 times acceptable levels of toxins.

But Democrat Governor Blank-o insists that she, in her infinite indecisiveness, has to sign off on such evacuations and has not yet made the decision to do so.  It certainly appears that Blanco has not forgotten Mayor Nagin's wise endorsement of Bobby Jindal.  Perhaps Clinton hack James Lee Witt has not yet given her permission to make any decisions.

I am absolutely sick of the anti-Bush and anti-Nagin piling on around here.  If we're going to play the blame game, we should realize that Blanco deserves her fair share of the blame.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Though Mayor Nagin has done the right thing and called for a mandatory evacuation of his city (9 days too late but better than nothing), Governor Blanco is trying to over-rule his wise decision.

4 People in Mississippi alone have already died from water-bourne illnesses.  The floodwaters in New Orleans have 10 times acceptable levels of toxins.

But Democrat Governor Blank-o insists that she, in her infinite indecisiveness, has to sign off on such evacuations and has not yet made the decision to do so.  It certainly appears that Blanco has not forgotten Mayor Nagin's wise endorsement of Bobby Jindal.  Perhaps Clinton hack James Lee Witt has not yet given her permission to make any decisions.

I am absolutely sick of the anti-Bush and anti-Nagin piling on around here.  If we're going to play the blame game, we should realize that Blanco deserves her fair share of the blame.

Nagin called for a mandatory evacuation before the hurricane. The thing is, he didn't have the resources to evucuate all the poor people.

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

Though Mayor Nagin has done the right thing and called for a mandatory evacuation of his city (9 days too late but better than nothing), Governor Blanco is trying to over-rule his wise decision.

4 People in Mississippi alone have already died from water-bourne illnesses.  The floodwaters in New Orleans have 10 times acceptable levels of toxins.

But Democrat Governor Blank-o insists that she, in her infinite indecisiveness, has to sign off on such evacuations and has not yet made the decision to do so.  It certainly appears that Blanco has not forgotten Mayor Nagin's wise endorsement of Bobby Jindal.  Perhaps Clinton hack James Lee Witt has not yet given her permission to make any decisions.

I am absolutely sick of the anti-Bush and anti-Nagin piling on around here.  If we're going to play the blame game, we should realize that Blanco deserves her fair share of the blame.

Nagin called for a mandatory evacuation before the hurricane. The thing is, he didn't have the resources to evucuate all the poor people.

Well actually.....

But I think he was overwhelmed and couldn't shoulder the burden alone. He was courageous to ask for the "mandatory" evacuation, but said evacuation should have been as mandatory as it is now - meaning "leave.... or else".  Of course, Governor Blanco would have had to sign off on that, and she was too numb to act.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Though Mayor Nagin has done the right thing and called for a mandatory evacuation of his city (9 days too late but better than nothing), Governor Blanco is trying to over-rule his wise decision.

4 People in Mississippi alone have already died from water-bourne illnesses.  The floodwaters in New Orleans have 10 times acceptable levels of toxins.

But Democrat Governor Blank-o insists that she, in her infinite indecisiveness, has to sign off on such evacuations and has not yet made the decision to do so.  It certainly appears that Blanco has not forgotten Mayor Nagin's wise endorsement of Bobby Jindal.  Perhaps Clinton hack James Lee Witt has not yet given her permission to make any decisions.

I am absolutely sick of the anti-Bush and anti-Nagin piling on around here.  If we're going to play the blame game, we should realize that Blanco deserves her fair share of the blame.

Nagin called for a mandatory evacuation before the hurricane. The thing is, he didn't have the resources to evucuate all the poor people.

Well actually.....

But I think he was overwhelmed and couldn't shoulder the burden alone. He was courageous to ask for the "mandatory" evacuation, but said evacuation should have been as mandatory as it is now - meaning "leave.... or else".  Of course, Governor Blanco would have had to sign off on that, and she was too numb to act.

Some people were evacuated by school bus, but he didn't have enough drivers. He also probably didn't have places for them to go.

FEMA was supposed to be in charge starting Saturday August 27th.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2005/9/8/15026/41914

[Ben.]

Nagin’s blunders have cost lives, there where long standing failures on the part of Blanco and her predecessors and on the part of the administration… but Nagin could have ferried people out of the city he didn’t, he could have coordinated the defence of levees he did not, he could in general have had a better plan than simply telling everyone to go to the super dome and wait he did not… Nagin then spent nearly 10 days blaming everyone but himself, and still is, before sending fire-fighters and cops on holiday and ordering an evacuation of the city… the man’s dereliction of duty and incompetence is breath taking IMHO.

         

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

Nagin’s blunders have cost lives, there where long standing failures on the part of Blanco and her predecessors and on the part of the administration…

All of the above are responsible for the loss of life.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Was he supposed to personally drive every bus?

You must be logged in to read this quote.

And after bussing out 100,000 people, then he could have been filling sandbags!  This is the City of New Orleans, not the Corps of Engineers here.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Before the flood, residents were asked to go to ten "Refuges of last resort" if they failed to get out of dodge.  The Super Dome is a large building in the area of town that is higher than low-lying areas like the 9th ward.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Now this I will fault him for, as he should never have laid the blame at the foot of President Bush.  However, it is clear that he was very angry and under severe emotional stress.  Given the circumstances, I simply cannot blame him for that.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

The cops and firefighters have worked without sleep, and in many cases without food or water, in extreme circumstances, for over a week.  The Mayor had no other choice but to order these guys to take a break while the National Guard and federal agencies were able to handle the situation.  I wouldn't exactly call this situation a vacation for anyone.

[Bleeding heart conservative, HTMLdon]

Unbelievable.  I'm watching an interview on TV where Governor Blank-o continues to insist that they are "still testing" the water (despite numerous tests already done by the feds and media agencies) and she just won't decide to allow a mandatory evacuation.

Hopefully the Mayor will ignore her "authority" and get the job done anyway.

[MODU]

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that Blanco's political future is over.

[J. J.]

Nagin’s blunders have cost lives, there where long standing failures on the part of Blanco and her predecessors and on the part of the administration…

All of the above are responsible for the loss of life.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

Was he supposed to personally drive every bus?

On the 27th and 28th NOLA had a working mass transit system.  Those buses did not drive themselves; the were not fuels by gumbo fumes!!!!

I'm much less optimistic that 30,000 could have been evacuated, because:

1.  A number of people that stayed behind were disabled and their care givers and could not use buses.

2.  As can be seen, a number of people wouldn't evacuate.  Fats Domino is an example.  He was famous for tooling around NOLA in a Pink Cadillac.  He had the funds and the means to escape; he didn't want to leave.

Most of those people that got to the Superdome before the storm were those people that could have gotten out on buses and were too poor to get out any other way.  Figure that, if Nagin had used those buses, which he discussed prior to Katrina hitting, 9,000-12,000 people, mostly poor and mostly Black, could have gotten out.

[J. J.]

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that Blanco's political future is over.

The NOLA police chief is not currently enforcing the order.

[??????????]

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that Blanco's political future is over.

The NOLA police chief is not currently enforcing the order.

Good for him. The government doesnt have the right to force people from their homes if they don't want to go.

[Blue Rectangle]

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that Blanco's political future is over.

The NOLA police chief is not currently enforcing the order.

I thought a few days ago that Blanco would go down because, unlike Bush, who has Brown to be a fall guy, Blanco couldn't dodge responsibility.  But now it seems that Blanco just might survive by pointing fingers at Nagin, who deserves much of the blame anyway.  In any case, this infighting is good for Bush.

By the time the Congressional investigations determine that Brown, Blanco and Nagin (and maybe Chertoff) were to blame, Bush will have already fired Brown and the Democrats will bear the brunt of the blame.

[Sam Spade]

In this case, the Mayor is clearly right and the Governor is clearly wrong.

Normally, I would be totally against removing people by force for almost any reason, but the reason here is clear.

It's a public health emergency and by having people stay there, they are endangering other people's health by their continued residence there.

I expect some to disagree with me here, that there's no endangerment of public health, and people who want to live there and risk potential death should be allowed to. 

But the fundamental public health risk in my mind trumps that argument. (legally, there is clearly basis on those grounds also)

[RBH]

Blanco could make it in 2007, provided her opponent isn't a protestant white male from Northern Louisiana.

Granted, 2007 depends on how many New Orleans residents return and how many people in the rest of the state are angry over the hurricane.

If Blanco's going to lose, it will be on something other than the hurricane.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that Blanco's political future is over.

The NOLA police chief is not currently enforcing the order.

I thought a few days ago that Blanco would go down because, unlike Bush, who has Brown to be a fall guy, Blanco couldn't dodge responsibility.  But now it seems that Blanco just might survive by pointing fingers at Nagin, who deserves much of the blame anyway.  In any case, this infighting is good for Bush.

By the time the Congressional investigations determine that Brown, Blanco and Nagin (and maybe Chertoff) were to blame, Bush will have already fired Brown and the Democrats will bear the brunt of the blame.

Bush appointed Brown, a horse lawyer who had been fired from his previous job for gross incompetance. The President can over-rule FEMA, and Bush had the responsibility to fire the FEMA director after it was clear that their response was a joke. Bush instead said that there were no problems in the response, and "Brownie, You're Doing A Heck Of A Job". The fall guy is George W. Bush.

[J. J.]

You don't have to be a rocket scientist to know that Blanco's political future is over.

The NOLA police chief is not currently enforcing the order.

I thought a few days ago that Blanco would go down because, unlike Bush, who has Brown to be a fall guy, Blanco couldn't dodge responsibility.  But now it seems that Blanco just might survive by pointing fingers at Nagin, who deserves much of the blame anyway.  In any case, this infighting is good for Bush.

By the time the Congressional investigations determine that Brown, Blanco and Nagin (and maybe Chertoff) were to blame, Bush will have already fired Brown and the Democrats will bear the brunt of the blame.

Bush appointed Brown, a horse lawyer who had been fired from his previous job for gross incompetance. The President can over-rule FEMA, and Bush had the responsibility to fire the FEMA director after it was clear that their response was a joke. Bush instead said that there were no problems in the response, and "Brownie, You're Doing A Heck Of A Job". The fall guy is George W. Bush.

When it comes to lives and the treatment of refugees, Nagin is major failure.  He had the resources to get 9k-12k people out and he chose not to.  He had the responsibility as the first responder (which neither the federal or state government are), and he failed miserably at communicating and coordinating.  At least the pilots of the helicopters decided that saving a few thousand people than getting the levee repaired 24 hours earlier, i.e. 6 days instead of 5 days, like Nagin wanted.

Blanco can be faulted for not activating the LANG prior to the storm; there are 8000 of them and she could get them to the staging areas (in most places), shortening the time when they could be deployed.  She could have been quicker in asking for federal aid, instead of waiting until the 28th.

Bush failed in not activating the civilian air contracts to bring troops and supplies in earlier.  He could have activated the contracts Tuesday morning.  FEMA was slow in responding after Katrina hit.

Still, neither Blanco nor Bush could have effectively deployed the troops or supplies until Nagin told them what he needed.  He was completely clueless from Saturday onward.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Bush had the authority and responsibiity starting either Friday August 26th or Saturday August 27th. It's unclear what day, since the relevant WH press release is dated the 27th and tries to make it sound like a disaster was declared by Bush on the 26th. Who knows what the  that means.

[ATFFL]

Bush declaring a disaster does not allow him to act unless he decides to also supercede the state and local government.  It does allow the state and local government to begin tapping federal resources and allows FEMA and other federal agencies to begin moving to locations they plan to use as staging areas if called on for help.

[J. J.]

And here is the link to her request for help, dated August 28, 2005.

http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf

She could have requested it 36-48 hours earlier, but I honestly don't believe it would have changed the situation in NOLA one bit.  There was no way to get anything or anyone there.

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Bush declaring a disaster does not allow him to act unless he decides to also supercede the state and local government.  It does allow the state and local government to begin tapping federal resources and allows FEMA and other federal agencies to begin moving to locations they plan to use as staging areas if called on for help.

Busted, Mr. 94%-correlation-can-never-be-statistically-significant.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

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

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

And here is the link to her request for help, dated August 28, 2005.

http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf

She could have requested it 36-48 hours earlier, but I honestly don't believe it would have changed the situation in NOLA one bit.  There was no way to get anything or anyone there.

Busted. She requested federal assistance on August 27th, 2005, and had already declared a state of emergency on August 26th, 2005.
http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=976

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Any more statistically impaired Republicans want to get busted?

[ATFFL]

Bush declaring a disaster does not allow him to act unless he decides to also supercede the state and local government.  It does allow the state and local government to begin tapping federal resources and allows FEMA and other federal agencies to begin moving to locations they plan to use as staging areas if called on for help.

Busted, Mr. 94%-correlation-can-never-be-statistically-significant.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

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

Yes, it says they can provide resources and coordinate actions.  Who do you think has to request such equipment to be used and coordinated?

[○∙◄☻¥tπ[╪AV┼cVê└]

Bush declaring a disaster does not allow him to act unless he decides to also supercede the state and local government.  It does allow the state and local government to begin tapping federal resources and allows FEMA and other federal agencies to begin moving to locations they plan to use as staging areas if called on for help.

Busted, Mr. 94%-correlation-can-never-be-statistically-significant.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

You must be logged in to read this quote.

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

Yes, it says they can provide resources and coordinate actions.  Who do you think has to request such equipment to be used and coordinated?

The feds. Anyways, this press release would have declared a disaster in the whole state of Lousiana, but it looks like they were stupid and only declared in it the northern part, which wouldn't be so affected by the hurricane. Ignoring that stupidity, it declared a disaster in all of Louisiana, and authorized the feds to do approiate actions for a massive hurricane hitting NOLA.

[ATFFL]

Every now and then I am amazed at you.   I must admit to admiring your perseverance.  One of these days you just might move that rubber tree plant.

Anyway, as to your response of "The feds."  the answer is in teh press release you linked:

You must be logged in to read this quote.