Great article - Amen!

Everything in your article is spot-on, and this story has interested me from the very beginning (I’m the “Joe” that counted the 205 buses in the infamous Yahoo picture).

Having watched the blogosphere exhaustively examine the city’s failure in planning and implementation of existing plans, I am outraged that the MSM continues to interview Nagin, Compass and Blanco and simply cue them up to criticize the Bush administration. Not ONE hard question to any of those folks that I have seen.

This is beyond not reporting the “good news” out of Iraq. This is beyond spin. This is the MSM making a folk hero (the exact words a MSNBC reporter used this morning) out of the criminally negligent Nagin. This is the MSM leaving a lasting impression with the American people that FEMA is a federal organization with heavy equipment, emergency rations for millions, and an immediate responsibility for search and rescue operations. Its about lies, pure and simple.

They know better. Forget about politicians playing the “blame game”. The MSM is behaving as if this isn’t a Gulf Coast catastrophy, but rather a Washington scandal. Tim Russert all but called for Chertoff’s resignation Sunday.

Meanwhile, folk hero Nagin is left with a Cindy Sheehan style media platform to espouse crazy CIA asassination plot conspiracy theories and chum the water for the MSM’s feeding frenzy.

I am outraged, but I feel (almost) alone.

Hey Joe,

I’m the one that counted the 255 in the overhead shot for Bryan’s post. Nice to meet you.

You’re not alone. I’m more upset with Gov. Blanco though right now because of her post-hurricane actions. And we can’t forget about Ebbert.

Well, you’re not alone Joe—my email inbox proves it. I think I received a couple thousand emails of various kinds over the weekend, mostly from people who think as you do.

And thanks for counting those buses in that original photo. You have no idea how your little math exercise sparked me to figure out how much of a difference those buses could have made, then to look for more buses, and then for dozens of people here to keep looking for more buses (sorry I didn’t get to post all of those photos on the site, everyone, but we blew a bandwidth gasket around here on Saturday), dry exit routes for the buses, to examine the city’s and state’s disaster plans, etc. It all really got started with you counting those buses.

Well, I appreciate it. My “lamest 15 minutes of fame in history” peaked yesterday when Fred Barnes mentioned “205 buses” on Brit Hume’s round table while examining the photo. My resulting grin made my wife decide to finally burst my bubble:

“You know that you misspelled buses in that e-mail, it’s not b-u-s-s-e-s.”

groan May be no one else noticed.

Any way, keep up the good work. I find it to be amazing that blogs and their readers can find parking lots filled with unused resources, satellite maps of their locations, unused evacuation routes and the texts of regulations and legislation of ignored evacuation protocols, all while wearing their provervbial pajamas, while the vaunted MSM is reduced to scratching around for soundbytes that video footage that advance their narrow views.

Journalism used to be history’s first draft. It seems to have become conventional wisdom’s first draft as of late. In this case, it seems to be reduced to urban legends in the making.

Thanks guys.

All you say is true - but note that Governor Blanco requested/received a Federal Declaration of Emergency on Sat 8/27, and then a Federal Declaration of Major Disaster on Mon 8/29. The timing (prompted by President Bush’s urging, I gather) isn’t too horrible. It’s what she requested — money and help with debris clearing.

It looks to me like the Declaration of Emergency freed up money and allowed staging relief, but no actual “boots on the ground” — those were still first responders and National Guard all under State control.

The Declaration of Major Disaster activates some additional Federal capabilities and authority for “emergency protective measures” and “any other forms of assistance under the Stafford Act you may deem appropriate”. However it seems the Governor is still at the top of this chain of command: “William Lokey, of FEMA is appointed to act as the Federal Coordinating Officer for this declared disaster — that is, her liaison. It’s all here.

The time to push her aside is next November, 2007, when she is up for re-election.

The time to push her aside is November, 2007, when she is up for re-election.

The time to push her aside is November, 2007, when she is up for re-election.

Joe—allow me to unburst your bubble. “Bus” is spelled with one s, but “buses” may be spelled with one s or two.

Buses.

Busses.

Both correct.

Bubble, unburst.

“I think a plan is just a list of things that aren’t going to happen.” — The Way of the Gun

The central problem with a ‘plan’ is that it needs to be implemented.

In effect a plan is like a constitution. A constitution is worthless without legislation to put people and institutions in place to actually carry out the intent of the constitution.

A plan is no different. NO had a plan but had no implementation.

An entirely different point - FEMA. Just why is FEMA a part of Homeland Security?

Yeah, there is some overlap there but is there a reason why firemen don’t work for the police commissioner?

I think combining disaster recovery and hunting “freedom fighters” is as stupid as combining those fighting fires and those catching “undocumented customers”.

Joe, Bryan, Chris— awesome job of connecting dots. I’m particularly interested in the related issue of how the alleged misappropriation of $30 mil in flood funds might be related.

An objective review of all levels of response needs to be made. It’s certain that the feds are not a model of efficiency, but it’s very disheartening to see that a critical analysis of all levels is not being made.

Krauthammer was right when he observed that we can choose to allow the executive branch to seize control if it deems that the situation warrants it. How many civil rights advocates want to relinquish individual and local/state rights even under the Patriot Act? Many have chosen the “red-tape be damned” tack when discussing the federal response— but do they want troops arriving to take control after every tornado, flood or sports riot?

Lisa, Me too, and while we are at it, perhaps we could find out how the $5,510,412 that the city of New Orleans received in a Dept. of Justice COPS Grant in September 2003 was spent.

I’m surly no expert in COPS, Grants or communications, but browsing the accompanying factsheet, it seems the primary purpose was;

Communications interoperability refers to the ability to talk across disciplines and jurisdictions via radio communications networks on demand, in real time. One of the major issues currently facing emergency services providers is the inability of first responders to communicate with each other. Effective emergency response requires coordination, communication, and sharing of vital information among numerous public safety agencies. Unfortunately, many emergency service providers rely on communications systems developed to meet their own unique needs that are often not compatible with those of neighboring agencies.

I wasn’t there, but.….….…. from the outside, it sure looked like communication kinda sucked and was the root in rapid civil disorder that followed the initial events.

Just was the hell did they spend the $$ on.

The time to push her aside is November, 2007, when she is up for re-election.

Am I the only one who thinks Nagin’s possible gubernatorial ambitions may have played a role in all this, from Blanco’s perspective?

I greatly enjoyed your NRO article and the links to the disaster plans you appended. I sure hope someone has copied those pages for posterity.

This week I read about the NYC transportation authorities and Office of Emergency Management drills, training, and implementation during the 9/11 disaster. MTA employees managed to clear a couple hundred thousand commuters out of the tunnels near WTC in the 73 minutes before they collapsed; the PATH operator withdrew her trains to the New Jersey end immediately, and workers went through the tunnels and stations to be sure they were evacuated. MTA moved railstock to Penn and Grand Central Stations and used it to evacuate over the LIRR and Metro North lines. The city busses looped to move passengers north. No fares were charged. Of course, lots of people simply walked out of Manhattan (oddly enough, they can do that; they’re fit).

That’s not even mentioning the orderly evacuation of the towers and other damaged buildings themselves.

New York clearly took the message of the WTC bombing to heart. Too bad New Orleans didn’t do the same. (Saving City Lifelines: Lessons Learned in the 9-11 Terrorist Attacks; September 2003. Brian Michael Jenkins, Frances Edwards-Winslow, Ph.D., CEM)

Bravo.

I’ve long since gotten tired of hack politians slinging about blame while the dead and dying pile up about their feet.

I sincerely hope other state (and local) governments are paying attention to this pathetic mess.

It is NOT unreasonable for me to expect my local authorities to do what is expected of them: maintain public order, and it’s attendent infrastructure. That’s what my taxes are (in theory…) for.

Failure to live up to that compact should not be tolerated.