Who is responsible? Let’s see…

This is direct from the FEMA/Homeland Security “National Response Plan” of 2004: ———————————————-

“As a State’s chief executive, the Governor is responsible for the public safety and welfare of the people of thatState or territory. The Governor:

■ Is responsible for coordinating State resources to address the full spectrum of actions to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from incidents in an all-hazards context to include terrorism, natural disasters, accidents, and other contingencies; ■ Under certain emergency conditions, typically has police powers to make, amend, and rescind orders and regulations; ■ Provides leadership and plays a key role in communicating to the public and in helping people, businesses, and organizations cope with the consequences of any type of declared emergency within State jurisdiction; ■ Encourages participation in mutual aid and implements authorities for the State to enter into mutual aid agreements with other States, tribes, and territories to facilitate resource-sharing; ■ Is the Commander-in-Chief of State military forces (National Guard when in State Active Duty or Title 32 Status and the authorized State militias); and ■ Requests Federal assistance when it becomes clear that State or tribal capabilities will be insufficient or have been exceeded or exhausted. Local Chief Executive Officer A mayor or city or county manager, as a jurisdiction’s chief executive, is responsible for the public safety and welfare of the people of that jurisdiction.

The Local Chief Executive Officer:

■ Is responsible for coordinating local resources to address the full spectrum of actions to prevent, prepare for, respond to, and recover from incidents involving all hazards including terrorism, natural disasters, accidents, and other contingencies; ■ Dependent upon State and local law, has extraordinary powers to suspend local laws and ordinances, such as to establish a curfew, direct evacuations, and, in coordination with the local health authority, to order a quarantine; ■ Provides leadership and plays a key role in communicating to the public, and in helping people, businesses, and organizations cope with the consequences of any type of domestic incident within the jurisdiction; ■ Negotiates and enters into mutual aid agreements with other jurisdictions to facilitate resource-sharing; and ■ Requests State and, if necessary, Federal assistance through the Governor of the State when the jurisdiction’s capabilities have been exceeded or exhausted.

I worked for FEMA from 1996 to 2002 and as a FEMA and HUD contractor from 2002 to 2004. During that time I became a Supervisor Case Reviewer and Supervisor Field Inspector for FEMA, and had the same positions as a contractor. I worked in New Orleans both while at the agency and while an independent contractor. I have been in literally thousands of residences in Orleans Parrish, and have interacted with local politicos several times. So, I say this with a bit of an immediate perspective.

This tragedy is in no way any fault of FEMA’s. This is a cultural failure on the part of the political system in LA generally, and New Orleans speciffically. All this finger-pointing and all of these recriminations by the Mayor of N.O. is just so much poppycock and absolutely positively nothing other than a lame CYA attempt being facilitated by the MSM.

While I was with the agency, a cat 4/5 direct strike on New Orleans was one of the few doomsday scenarios FEMA kept warning us about (Along with a mag 8/9 EQ in LA or SF). All of this was predicted: The looting, the shooting, the raping, the pillaging, and the massive lingering death. All_of_it. And that was a WORST CASE scenario with a 30 foot surge that would have simply overrun the levee system without needing to breech it’s structural integrity. Katrina was not that storm.

That things are this bad with a cat 4 without the worst possible approach angle and targeting is simply the fault of the local government and only the local government.

FEMA is first and foremost a R-E-C-O-V-E-R-Y program. The onus lies with the locals for pre-planning and first response.

I was once a liberal. Then I was a conservative. Thanks to FEMA, I am now a libertarian. A big federal government is not the solution for this kind of thing - at least not in the immediacy of the aftermath - a strong and intelligent local government is. New Orleans simply had no clothes by my standards. And those standards are based on deep personal experiences.

I am ill with nausea watching all of this. Listening to all the idiotarians who haven’t got a clue and their enablers in the media.

This disaster happened long before Katrina’s eyewall hit LA. And the blame can only be placed at the feet of the local politicos. Period. Exclamation point.

I wonder why the alcohol addicts were not accosting folks at gun point?

You know I heard there was once alcohol prohibition in America. Who could believe such a thing?

I blame Republican Socialism: price supports for criminals.

I bet the problem was that the dope dealers didn’t get the no price gouging orders.

I blame the Mayor.

And Bush.

On the Levees of New Orleans

Not a word about the buses from Tim Russert on today’s Meet the Press. As with their negative reportage of the WoT I don’t understand what the MSM hopes to gain by promulgatingg rasict stereotypes.

The SF Bay Area NBC affifiate inteviewed black Oakland residents in churches this morning. The die is cast, whites allowed New Orleanians to suffer and die solely because they were poor and black.

No matter what is found later, that is what will be remembered. We’ve come very far in the last 40 years. I sit in a predominately black city surrounded by neighbors of all races, ethnicities and religions, but in the dark night of the soul we’ve made little progress.

I do not know how, if ever we will heal what slavery wrought. It does white America little good to protest for we are not judged by the content of our character, but by the color of our skin. The irony indeed stings.

Ok…I have a dumb comment here.… Has anybody thought about why people refuse to leave? I’m sure there are thousands of reasons - as many as there are individuals - but it seems to me that one I’ve heard with greatest frequency (other than personal disability) is not wanting to leave pets. Rational thought says that when you have to choose between your own life and your pet’s, you choose your own life, but NO has been through so many of these that I suspect people thought it would just be another like before. If they were evacuated, they couldn’t take their pets, and who knew when they’d return. It takes a hard heart to leave your family pet to starve to death if you can help it. I’m wondering if somehow they could make provision for pets, and offer as incentive “come now, take your pet. Come later, leave your pet behind” Guess if they could do that, they could also have water and food for 3-5 days in the superdome though, huh. Guess we’re all getting a civics lesson. The hard way. Have you looked at your community? What are your evacuation/emergency plans?

I AM SICK SICK SICK OF HEARING ALL THIS BANTER ABOUT WHO IS TO BLAME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! LET’S STOP THIS AND HELP THE FELLOW AMERICAN CITIZENS OUT!!!!!!!!!! THIS IS AMERICA AND EVERY FOREIGN COUNTRY IS LAUGHING AT US!!!!! IT IS NOT JUST NEW ORLEANS EITHER. WHAT ABOUT MISSISSIPPI??? ALABAMA??? TRY NOT TO PLAY THE BLAME GAME AND TRY TO OPEN YOUR HEARTS, WALLETS, ETC. AND THINK ABOUT HOW YOU WOULD FEEL IF YOU WERE PUT INTO THE SAME POSITION THAT THE CITIZENS IN THE SOUTHEAST WERE DURING THE HURRICANE!!!! WHAT IF IT HAD BEEN YOUR GRANDMOTHER THAT WAS COVERED UP AND LEFT DEAD AT THE CONVENTION CENTER LIKE A VICTIM OF WAR IN A 3RD WORLD COUNTRY???? OOPS!!! HAVE I SAID TOO MUCH?? HIT A NERVE??? MAYBE IT REALLY WAS NOT TRUE. MAYBE THE LIBERAL MEDIA PUT A DUMMY IN A WHEELCHAIR AND PUSHED IT AGAINST THE WALL TO EXPLOIT THEM. WHAT IS FUNNY IS THAT THE MEDIA WAS ABLE TO GET DOWN IN NEW ORLEANS, BUT THE LOCAL, FEDS, ETC COULD NOT SEEM TO DO IT. YOU CANNOT TELL ME THAT IF THE HURRICANE HAD IT THE NORTHEAST OR TEXAS, ETC. THAT HELP WOULD NOT HAVE ARRIVED EARLIER!!!!!!!!!!

Evacuation planning is not at all a no-brainer. You prove the previous sentence with the ‘cascading phone calls’. An excellent idea if moving people prior to Katrina’s landfall. However, after katrina hit the phones no longer worked. They still don’t, not really. Calling a 504 area code is next to impossible. Using your system prior to the landfall would have worked, but where would the buses and the 1,000s of people have gone? Remember, the Inn at the Astrodome had not yet started accepting overnighters.