more on "United States of Shame"

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

Begin forwarded message:

From: Norman MacLeod <gaelwolf () waypt com>
Date: September 3, 2005 5:41:58 PM EDT
To: dave () farber net
Subject: RE: [IP] "United States of Shame"



Certainly an interesting read.  Once again, it's all the fault of the  
Bush
administration.

Let's see...1953...more than 1,800 Dutch citizens die when a massive  
storm
hits The Netherlands.  They respond by completing the Deltawerk in  
about ten
years.  Do we build a levee system around New Orleans that will  
protect the
city against a Category 5 hurricane?  We didn't then, and 52 years  
later the
answer remains no.

We know the technology that would have prevented a substantial  
portion of
this disaster existed more than 50 years ago.  After all, a nation only
eight years out of being completely trashed by WWII was able to use  
it to
protect its citizens.  Nine successive U.S. administrations and multiple
Congresses dominated by both of our major parties at one time or another
failed to come up with a similar project as a priority in the wealthiest
nation in the world.

Where were the primary leadership lapses that exacerbated the scope  
of the
disaster in New Orleans?  In New Orleans and Baton Rouge.

If a Category 5 hurricane has its sights on your city, and you know  
that it
will take three days to accomplish a reasonably complete evacuation  
of your
citizenry, should you wait until the morning before that hurricane  
hits to
get the mandatory evacuation under way?  Probably not...but that's what
happened in New Orleans.  The city also now has a fleet of ruined school
buses sitting in their parking lots.  Why were they not used in  
evacuating
the city?  They could have been used to get thousands out of harm's  
way, and
they would still be on the road, helping accomplish the needed relief
missions.

When you are the governor, and the governors of the two other states the
hurricane are going to hit are federalizing their National Guard  
resources,
why do you wait for the President to call you and urge you to do what it
takes to allow the federal government to start prioritizing resources in
your direction?  I don't know whether Governor Blanco will ever  
provide us
with an adequate answer for that one.

Once it's apparent that you need every resource at hand to help get  
the rest
of a city's people out of the catastrophe zone, should you tell the Red
Cross that they can't put resources into your city?  Up to last  
night, at
least, the Red Cross was being held out of New Orleans.  Certainly they
should not be setting up shelters in New Orleans itself, but they  
should be
allowed in to help coordinate the evacuation.

The federal government's disaster response responsibilities generally  
ramp
up after the initial local and state responses are overtaken by  
events.  The
federal government's responsibility is to sustain the recovery  
operations
over the long haul.

One of the things that bothers me the most is that the same  
challenges that
New Orleans faced in evacuating the city on this occasion happened  
only a
year ago in the run-up to Hurricane Ivan.  Fortunately, Ivan spared  
the city
a serious blow.  Katrina was not as kind.  How come the leadership in  
New
Orleans and Baton Rouge didn't fix the problems after the preview  
they had
last year?

There was serious destruction in Mississippi and Alabama.  That both of
those states are coping better than Louisiana points to the  
impression that
there are some serious leadership problems in Louisiana, and that you  
can't
blame it all on the administration in Washington.

    Norman




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