KATRINA BACK IN THE NEWS
Let's tally up a few things about Louisiana officials and their response to hurricane Katrina.
Gov. Kathleen Blanco:
Blocked Red Cross and Salvation Army aid from reaching New Orleans residents stranded in the Superdome and convention center.
Encouraged looting with an hour of the storm's passing, when neither starvation nor thirst were yet serious issues.
In the midst of the crisis, took 24 hours to decide on accepting federal assistance, even under pressure from President Bush and NO Mayor Ray Nagin. Resisted federal takeover of disaster response, then blamed the Bush administration when the relief efforts became dysfunctional.
Blocked the National Guard from entering NO when its presence would have been most helpful, in the hours immediately after the storm.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin:
Failed to use city-owned buses to evacuate indigent and poor citizens, leading to the loss of those buses as an asset after the storm and to the stranding of thousands of residents.
Encouraged looting within an hour of the storm's passing, long before hunger and thirst were serious issues. This decision led directly to the perception that law and order had entirely broken down, a perception that dramatically slowed rescue and relief efforts.
Spread rumors that 10,000 had been killed. The actual number is one-tenth Nagin's baseless estimate.
Spread rumors of lawlessness and mayhem gripping the city, rumors that slowed rescue efforts and painted the city as a free-fire zone. The rumors Nagin and his police superintendent spread have since proven to have been mostly baseless.
Encouraged residents to seek shelter in the New Orleans Convention Center, but failed to provide basic food and water to them and failed to notify FEMA that the convention center had become a designated shelter. Spread rumors of lawlessness, rapes and murders taking place at the convention center. Those rumors turned out to be false.
Blamed FEMA and the Bush administration for his own multiple failures before and after the storm, painting a picture of an administration not caring about New Orleans' black and poor residents because they are black and poor.
And now...Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard.
Evacuated essential personnel from parish pumping stations to a site 100 miles from their stations. This evacuation left the pumps unmanned and turned off as the hurricane approached the area and made landfall. Without the pumps running, *sections of the parish on the edge of New Orleans flooded, destroying most structures within and leading to some loss of life. The US taxpayer will end up footing most if not all of the bill for the effects of Broussard's decision.
It should be noted that there were safe structures within a few miles of the parish. The 100-mile evacuation was not necessary. It should also be noted that the pump employees were evacuated 24 hours before the storm struck, and did not return until 24 hours afterward. For 48 hours Broussard's parish, which was built on drained swampland, was not pumped out. It should also be noted that Broussard has already been caught lying about the death of a friend's mother, a death he blamed on the Bush administration.
The Times-Picayune, one of the many news outlets that initially blamed FEMA for most if not all of the storm's disastrous effects, has shifted its attention to Broussard and other local officials who failed their citizens. And rightly so. That's where the lion's share of the blame should finally rest.
*I had originally overstated the extent of the flooding in Jefferson Parish. It has been corrected, and the sentence links to a map showing the extent of the New Orleans flood.