RACE CARD!!!! (puking)

becausre surely if the city was full of POOR white people, the city would have been evacutated three days ago! there are more poor black people in new orleans than poor white people. that is true. The people that are in the city right now are there because they are poor and had no means to get out. Correct? your race will not save your life in this situation when you are poor to begin with. To all the news channels...GIVE THE RACE CARD A REST!!

[cardcounter0]

True. Bush hates the poor equally no matter what color they are.

[ QUOTE ]
True. Bush hates the poor equally no matter what color they are.

[/ QUOTE ]

Very true...but what about the original question?

[cardcounter0]

This is the only question I could find in your post. The rest was statements.

[ QUOTE ]
The people that are in the city right now are there because they are poor and had no means to get out. Correct?

[/ QUOTE ]

And the answer is YES. The people are there because they are poor and had no means to get out.

[ QUOTE ]
This is the only question I could find in your post. The rest was statements.

[ QUOTE ]
The people that are in the city right now are there because they are poor and had no means to get out. Correct?

[/ QUOTE ]

And the answer is YES. The people are there because they are poor and had no means to get out.

[/ QUOTE ]

New revised question(for those who read dont read between the lines)! --- does race have anything to do about how quick these people are being saved like everyone on tv makes it out to seem?!!!

[ThaSaltCracka]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
This is the only question I could find in your post. The rest was statements.

[ QUOTE ]
The people that are in the city right now are there because they are poor and had no means to get out. Correct?

[/ QUOTE ]

And the answer is YES. The people are there because they are poor and had no means to get out.

[/ QUOTE ]

New revised question(for those who read dont read between the lines)! --- does race have anything to do about how quick these people are being saved like everyone on tv makes it out to seem?!!!

[/ QUOTE ]Yes. Politicians care about the people that vote for them.

[tek]

[ QUOTE ]
True. Bush hates the poor equally no matter what color they are.

[/ QUOTE ]

That's right. Bush only loves the "Haves and the Have Mores".

On the other hand, the city is full of dumfuks who didn't keep the levees in good shape, didn't leave when they had a chance (by walking a couple miles to higher ground at the very least) and most are just a bunch of evil animals who stayed around just to loot and rape and kill. They all deserve to be wiped out.

Tek... I've given you grief in other threads... i love that above post.

Even the poor can walk a few miles.

I mean hell... why didn't they loot BEFORE the storm and steal a bike or car to get out of harms way?

[Lestat]

<font color="red">I mean hell... why didn't they loot BEFORE the storm and steal a bike or car to get out of harms way? </font>

These are not the people to feel sympathy for. What you don't seem to realize is that many of the non-crimminal poor people couldn't get out. Most had no money, no transportation, and sick family members to care for. How were THESE people supposed to get out? So you've got 3 little kids, an elderly mother who can't walk, no money, and the mayor says, "Get out now!".

You know what's funny is that for the most part I'm a conservative republican. But the ignorance some of you guys show has me swaying to the left.

[New001]

Walk a few miles? Yeah, they're going to outrun a HURRICANE? Do you realize how far inland the flooding extended? Do you realize how large of a storm it was? It's not as simple as just escaping the city and everything will be fine. It's not like the movie Twister where you can just strap yourself to a piece of piping and everything will be okay.

But you don't care about all of that.

[cardcounter0]

They got wheels, they could have gone a couple hundred miles inland if they weren't so lazy

http://www.bartcop.com/katrina-wheelchair.jpg

If I had two days notice that the biggest earthquake ever was going to hit Los Angeles... myself... and yes, even poor people could get out of here.

[ QUOTE ]
<font color="red">I mean hell... why didn't they loot BEFORE the storm and steal a bike or car to get out of harms way? </font>

These are not the people to feel sympathy for. What you don't seem to realize is that many of the non-crimminal poor people couldn't get out. Most had no money, no transportation, and sick family members to care for. How were THESE people supposed to get out? So you've got 3 little kids, an elderly mother who can't walk, no money, and the mayor says, "Get out now!".

You know what's funny is that for the most part I'm a conservative republican. But the ignorance some of you guys show has me swaying to the left.

[/ QUOTE ]

So you guys haven't seen a single "able boded" person on the news that could have easily escaped pre-flooding and not added to the problem / sucked up limited rescue resources?

Let's just say 25% more people would have properly evacuated / not "rode this one out" on their roofs. Can you imagine how much easier it would be to help those that are actually in need?

[bisonbison]

bicycles after 9/11:

"The people who stayed in the second tower after the first got hit deserved to die."

[ QUOTE ]
bicycles after 9/11:

"The people who stayed in the second tower after the first got hit deserved to die."

[/ QUOTE ]

Bison... grow up... I said no such thing... that was an event that unfolded in less than 90 minutes. LA residents had days to plan for this.

Come with a real arguement and more than 5,000 posts of BS.

[bisonbison]

Bison... grow up... I said no such thing...

Yeah, it was sarcastic hyperbole, meant to point out the absurdity of your position in blaming the victims. It's not a factual argument, I'm making an appeal to scorn.

Many people left New Orleans. Some stayed because they couldn't afford to leave, felt they had to stay, or decided the danger was not that great. None of those people deserve to suffer and die. None of them.

I'm not saying anyone deserves to die... but let's not do the un-American thing as claim that is everybody except the individuals responsibility to better their own situation.

You, me, the guy next door... we can truly only count on ourselves. Help is great... and I hope the government steps in and does a lot... but it's important that American's also have a return to individual resourcefulness.

[bisonbison]

Ok, but where does that leave us?

The American government cannot and will not abandon those who failed to extricate themselves from the affected area. Putting aside any moral obligation, it would be politically untenable.

So why engage in blaming them? What does that accomplish? The marginal cost to any of us observers is minimal. The cost to themselves has been massive and potentially fatal. Whether or not anyone in the area deserved what they got, they've been punished. They're suffering now. What does heaping additional scorn on them accomplish?

These are not public officials, who need to be judged for fitness of future service. These are just people to whom something tragic has happened.

I currently re-reading "our" posts... at this point the "noise" in these posts are so "loud" I can't even pinpoint what we are arguing and/or what your point is.

I'll summarize mine... Local Authorities didn't do enough; it's the Federal Governments job to step in once local Government is tapped out; I don't think it's Bush's (nor Kerry's if he was president) fault that response has been weak.

[ChipWrecked]

I see lots of these 'poor' people who are morbidly obese. If this is America's 'poor', we pwn.

[ QUOTE ]
I see lots of these 'poor' people who are morbidly obese. If this is America's 'poor', we pwn.

[/ QUOTE ]

I agree... and if you didn't have a car... or toll money to buy your way out of the city... how are you providing for your five kids you are now trying to push out in a shopping cart.

I would wager that more people staying in the LA area was out of choice... not as victims of penniless poverty.

And I'm sad to say I believe a lot of them are now hanging around solely because they know hand-out are on their way.

[Lestat]

I'm sure a portion of the people who got trapped "could've" gotten out if they really wanted to. But I also have a little empathy for them.

How many previous times have they been told to evacuate because the "big one" is on it's way, only to have it fail to materialize or be catastrophic? It must be one big pain in the ass (not to mention costly), to pick up and evacuate leaving everything behind. I know I certainly wouldn't want to do it unless I was close to 100% sure I had to, and I can well afford the travel and lodging expenses for my family.

So you have a point and I understand it. But I also think you're having some difficulty putting yourself in other people's situation. You're arm-chair quarterbacking, which is always easier than the real life thing. Especially after the score is in.

[texaspimp]

This is a very good post.

This is also why the FEDERAL government should get a little slack in this situation. There is no way that the feds could "win" in this situation.

One of the unanswered questions that I have: Why didn't the STATE or LOCAL government use these before the storm?

http://img36.imageshack.us/img36/927/buses3nk.jpg (http://imageshack.us)

For the very reason that Lestat mentioned,"We've been able to ride it out before"

Don't get dragged down in this racism crap. The situation could have absolutely been handled better, both before and after the storm.

[BeerMoney]

Do you think things would have been handled better if the people stranded were blondes with nice tits?

[Lestat]

[ QUOTE ]

Do you think things would have been handled better if the people stranded were blondes with nice tits?

[/ QUOTE ]

Worse. Once the first few men got there, no one would have called for back up.

[newfant]

[ QUOTE ]
And I'm sad to say I believe a lot of them are now hanging around solely because they know hand-out are on their way

[/ QUOTE ]

Either that or because FEMA ordered the National Guard to shoot them if they tried to leave.

[tek]

[ QUOTE ]
How many previous times have they been told to evacuate because the "big one" is on it's way, only to have it fail to materialize or be catastrophic?

It must be one big pain in the ass (not to mention costly), to pick up and evacuate leaving everything behind.

[/ QUOTE ]

This was labeled category 5, the highest they go. Only a moron would think it's a false alarm. They had a few days to evacuate sick and crippled people with all the buses that are sitting in a flooded parking lot plus the regular city transit buses.

Healthy single poor people in N.O. should have been long gone. I'm 45 and can still run a ten minute mile and with a few days head start I'd have found dry land before the storm hit...

The city is at the 40% poverty level from reports I've read. What exactly were they going to leave behind?

[Triumph36]

Wow, you really are something.

Where are healthy, single poor people going to go? They're going to flee New Orleans by running? What are they, Forrest Gump?

I know this board is filled with people who have simple-minded solutions for everything, but this one's really the best I've seen so far.

[tek]

How about anywhere?

Even Forrest Gump would have left and he had a lower I than most New Orleans poverty residents.

The point is, able bodied people who stayed behind created their own problem, as well as problems for others by adding to the number of people who now need help.

The people living BELOW sea level should not have stayed there. How difficult is that concept to comprehend /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[Triumph36]

Because it's overly simplistic and misses the point. You really expect able bodied people to leave all their possessions and simply run away from New Orleans?

Should the mayor have ordered that? "Everyone who can, run. You'll be safer that way."

It's not even something I can argue against, it's so preposterous. Should people have gotten out? Sure, but they are not going to run away to do it, especially when they have no money and nowhere to go. That actually sounds like the most irrational thing to do.

[OtisTheMarsupial]

[ QUOTE ]

The point is, able bodied people who stayed behind created their own problem, as well as problems for others by adding to the number of people who now need help.

The people living BELOW sea level should not have stayed there. How difficult is that concept to comprehend /images/graemlins/confused.gif

[/ QUOTE ]

First off, hurricanes change direction. The predictions are not perfect. Thus, it's a gamble if you stay AND a gamble if you leave. These were people who have had experiences evacuating for nothing when the threrat dosn't materialilze. Or evacuating into the direction of the threat instead of away from it because the storm changed direction.
Also, these are people who are used to some flooding and some power outages. They know how to get through a few days without power - if they stay home with food and water.

Let me ask you, have you ever been evacuated? I have. And it's [censored] scary. When it happens, you just hope you're doing the right thing because it really does seem to happen so quickly that you can't think much about it and you just do it or don't do it and it's too late. If you have kids or pets or anything valuable, it makes evacuating even harder. It's extremely stressful.

During stressful times, some people make poor decisions. I believe there is a poker term for that - tilt?
These people simply made a poor decision. They shouldn't be further punished for that decision. They've had enough.

Moreover, yes, they had 2 days notice. But not everyone has a television or radio. Not everyone is informed about what's going on around them. When I was evacuated (from a fire) luckily the area they evacuated was small so the police could go door to door and tell people to leave. NOLA couldn't do that. A two-day warning might well have ammounted to a few hour warning for some people.

And about all this talk of busses - they circulated city busses to take people to the Superdome before the hurricane hit.

[BCPVP]

[ QUOTE ]
These were people who have had experiences evacuating for nothing when the threrat dosn't materialilze.

[/ QUOTE ]
No one in New Orleans has EVER receieved a MANDATORY evacuation. Ever. You would think such an order might dispell any doubts as to the ferocity of the impending hurricane.

[ QUOTE ]
Moreover, yes, they had 2 days notice. But not everyone has a television or radio. Not everyone is informed about what's going on around them.

[/ QUOTE ]
The city of New Orleans is supposed to be in charge of warning everyone within the city.

[BaggyAnt]

Bear in mind that there would not have been anywhere near as much criticism of the people staying in the city - if the levee had not broke - After all the possiblity of that was mentioned in no official warnings that I saw. I would contend that there were far more people killed by the actual hurricane itself outside of New Orleans - Yet these people escape criticism...

[BCPVP]

[ QUOTE ]
Bear in mind that there would not have been anywhere near as much criticism of the people staying in the city - if the levee had not broke - After all the possiblity of that was mentioned in no official warnings that I saw.

[/ QUOTE ]
If this is true, then the local government really has some things to answer for.

[BigBaitsim (milo)]

I have no doubt whatsoever that our gov't would have acted faster had the faces of the stranded been white. This was not intentional, however. Nobody decided, "hey, we can ignore those people, they are black." It's just that when the faces are black, the gov't reacts more slowly.

[tek]

There were two guys on Meet the Press this weekend who wrote about the levee problems 4-5 years ago. The state of Loserana and the feds ignored the levee problem for many years.

That being said, each person still has choices to make in their lives and responsibility for those decisions.

The people of NO decided to stay and they should not act like victims. They chose their course of action. They gambled that a Cat 5 hurricane and a mandatory evacuation order were no big deal. They lost, so they should STFU.

The only people who should moan are elderly, handicapped or in hospitals--those who were at the mercy of others to get them out.

[DVaut1]

[ QUOTE ]
Bear in mind that there would not have been anywhere near as much criticism of the people staying in the city - if the levee had not broke - After all the possiblity of that was mentioned in no official warnings that I saw. I would contend that there were far more people killed by the actual hurricane itself outside of New Orleans - Yet these people escape criticism...

[/ QUOTE ]

I think I've lost the continuity of this thread, yet I think it seems to fair to point out that the possibility of the levees breaking was well-known to many involved (at least Tim Russert thinks so). I bolded the important points about the levees, yet I think the whole interview deserves a good reading:

Transcript from the Sept. 4th Meet the Press: (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9179790/)

MR. RUSSERT: Now, let's turn to Hurricane Katrina. Joining us is the man in charge of the federal response to the disaster, the director of Homeland Security, Michael Chertoff.

Mr. Secretary, this is yesterday's Daily News: "Shame Of A Nation." And I want to read it to you and our viewers very carefully. It says, "As for Chertoff, if this is the best his department can do, the homeland is not very secure at all. It is absolutely outrageous that the United States of America could not send help to tens of thousands of forlorn, frightened, sick and hungry human beings at least 24 hours before it did, arguably longer than that. Who is specifically at fault for what is nothing less than a national scandal... It will never be known exactly what a day could have meant to so many unfortunates whose lives came to an end in those hopelessly tortured hours--on scorching roadsides, for lack of a swallow of water, in sweltering hospital bads, for lack of insulin. But what is already more than clear is that the nation's disaster-preparedness mechanisms do not appear to be in the hands of officials who know how to run them."

Mr. Secretary, are you or anyone who reports to you contemplating resignation?

SEC'Y MICHAEL CHERTOFF: You know, Tim, what we're contemplating now is the fact that we are very, very much in the middle of a crisis. There's a bit of a sense that you get that some people think it's now time to draw a sigh of relief and go back and do the after-action analysis, and there'll be plenty of time for that. We obviously need to look very closely at things that worked well, and many things did work well, and some things that didn't work well, and some things did not work well.

But we have to remember that we have an enormous challenge ahead of us, and there's not a lot of time to get ahead of it. We have basically moved the population of New Orleans to other parts of the country, or we're in the process of doing so. We've got to feed them. We've got to shelter the people. We've got to get them housing. We've got to educate their children. We have to dewater the city. We have to clean up the environment. We're going to have to rebuild. Those are enormous, enormous tasks, and we can't afford to get those messed up.

So what I'm focused on now and what I want my department--in fact, what the president has ordered all of us to be focused on now--is: What do we need to do in the next hours, in the next days, in the next weeks and the next months to make sure we are doing everything possible to give these people succor and to make their lives easier?

MR. RUSSERT: Mr....

SEC'Y CHERTOFF: We will have time to go back and do an after-action report, but the time right now is to look at what the enormous tasks ahead are.

MR. RUSSERT: Well, many Americans believe now is the time for accountability. The Republican governor of Massachusetts said, "We are an embarrassment to the world." The Republican senator from Louisiana, David Vitter, said that you deserve a grade of F, flunk. How would you grade yourself?

SEC'Y CHERTOFF: You know, Tim, again I'm going to--the process of grading myself and grading everybody else is one that we will examine over time. I will tell you that my focus now is on what is going to go forward. What would really be--require a grade of F would be to stop thinking about the crisis we have now so that we can start to go back and do the after-action analysis. There are some things that actually worked very well. There are some things that didn't. We may have to break the model that we have used for dealing with catastrophes, at least in the case of ultra-catastrophes.

And let me tell you, Tim, there is nobody who has ever seen or dealt with a catastrophe on this scale in this country. It has never happened before. So no matter what the planning was in advance, we were presented with an unprecedented situation. Obviously, we're going to want to learn about that. I'll tell you something I said when I--a month ago before this happened. I said that I thought that we need to build a preparedness capacity going forward that we have not yet succeeded in doing. That clearly remains the case, and we will in due course look at what we've done here and incorporate it into the planning. But first we are going to make sure we are attending to the crisis at hand.

MR. RUSSERT: So no heads will roll?

SEC'Y CHERTOFF: Tim, in due course, if people want to go and chop heads off, there'll be an opportunity to do it. The question I would put to people is what do you want to have us spend our time on now? Do we want to make sure we are feeding, sheltering, housing and educating those who are distressed, or do we want to begin the process of finger-pointing? I know that as far as I'm concerned I have got to be focused on, and everybody else in this government, and the president has made this very clear, we have got to focus on moving forward to deal with some very real emergencies which are going to be happening in the next days and weeks because of the fact that we have to deal with an unprecedented movement of evacuees.

MR. RUSSERT: Senator Vitter, the Republican from Louisiana, said the death toll could reach 10,000 because of the lack of response. Do you agree with that number?

SEC'Y CHERTOFF: You know, I understand first of all, Tim, that--and I'm clearly including myself among this group--many, many people are frustrated and very distressed by what happened here. Obviously, every minute matters in a situation like this. I think I said that we are racing the clock. But even with that sense of frustration and being upset, I don't think that I'm in a position to start to speculate and guess about what the numbers will be.

I will tell you one thing I know, that when we come to the point that we've completed the evacuation, we're going to start dewatering the city--in fact, it's under way now--we're going to confront some very, very ugly pictures. Many people may have been trapped when that levee broke, and the lake basically became, you know, part of the city of New Orleans. People were trapped in their houses and couldn't get out. Some of those people fortunately apparently were able to be safe and are coming out now.

We rescued 10,000 people, the Coast Guard did. That's three times as many as in any prior year. Think about that. That's an--that is compressing in three days the rescue efforts of--three times the rescue efforts of any prior year. There were some extraordinary actions that were taken by people at all levels, including people at the Department of Homeland Security where the Coast Guard is. So we have worked very aggressively, but we got to tell you, we have to prepare the country for what may be some very, very difficult pictures in the weeks to come.

MR. RUSSERT: People were stunned by a comment the president of the United States made on Wednesday, Mr. Secretary. He said, "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees." How could the president be so wrong, be so misinformed?

SEC'Y CHERTOFF: Well, I think if you look at what actually happened, I remember on Tuesday morning picking up newspapers and I saw headlines, "New Orleans Dodged The Bullet," because if you recall the storm moved to the east and then continued on and appeared to pass with considerable damage but nothing worse. It was on Tuesday that the levee--may have been overnight Monday to Tuesday--that the levee started to break. And it was midday Tuesday that I became aware of the fact that there was no possibility of plugging the gap and that essentially the lake was going to start to drain into the city. I think that second catastrophe really caught everybody by surprise. In fact, I think that's one of the reasons people didn't continue to leave after the hurricane had passed initially. So this was clearly an unprecedented catastrophe. And I think it caused a tremendous dislocation in the response effort and, in fact, in our ability to get materials to people.

And one last point I'd make is this, Tim. We had actually prestaged a tremendous number of supplies, meals, shelter, water. We had prestaged, even before the hurricane, dozens of Coast Guard helicopters, which were obviously nearby but not in the area. So the difficulty wasn't lack of supplies. The difficulty was that when the levee broke, it was very, very hard to get the supplies to the people. I-10 was submerged. There was only one significant road going all the way the way around. Much of the city was flooded. The only way to get to people and to get supplies was to have airdrops and helicopters. And frankly, it is very--and their first priority was rescuing people from rooftops. So we really had a tremendous strain on the capacity of--to be able to both rescue people and also to be able to get them supplies.

MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Secretary, you say prestaged. People were sent to the Convention Center. There was no water, no food, no beds, no authorities there. There was no planning.

SEC'Y CHERTOFF: My understanding is, and again this is something that's going to go back--we're going to go back over after the fact is--the plan that the New Orleans officials and the state officials put together called for the Superdome to be the refuge of last resort. We became aware of the fact at some point that people began to go to the Convention Center on their own, spontaneously, in order to shelter there. And I think it's for that reason that people found themselves without food and water and supplies. The challenge then became...

MR. RUSSERT: Well, Mr. Secretary, you said--hold on. Mr. Secretary, there was no food or water at the Superdome, either. And I want to stay on this because...

SEC'Y CHERTOFF: Well, my understanding--well...

MR. RUSSERT: I want to stay on this because this is very important. You said you were surprised by the levee being broken. In 2002, The Times-Picayune did story after story--and this is eerie; this is what they wrote and how they predicted what was going to happen. It said, and I'll read it very carefully: "...A major hurricane could decimate the region, but flooding from even a moderate storm could kill thousands. It's just a matter of time. ... The scene's been played out for years in computer models or emergency operations simulations... New Orleans has hurricane levees that create a bowl with the bottom dipping lower than the bottom of Lake Pontchartrain. ...the levees would trap any water that gets inside-- by breach, overtopping or torrential downpour--catastrophic storm. ... The estimated 200,000 or more people left behind in an evacuation will be struggling to survive. Some will be housed at the Superdome, the designated shelter for people too sick or inform to leave the city. ...But many will simply be on their own, in homes or looking for high ground. Thousands will drown while trapped in homes or cars by rising water. Other will be washed away or crushed by debris. Survivors will end up trapped on roofs, in buildings or on high ground surrounded by water, with no means of escape and little food or fresh water, perhaps for several days."

That was four years ago. And last summer FEMA, who reports to you, and the LSU Hurricane Center, and local and state officials did a simulated Hurricane Pam in which the levees broke. The levees broke, Mr. Secretary, and people--thousands...

SEC'Y CHERTOFF: Actually, Tim, that...

MR. RUSSERT: Thousands drowned.

SEC'Y CHERTOFF: Tim, I had...

MR. RUSSERT: There's a CD which is in your department and the White House has it and the president, and you are saying, "We were surprised that the levees may not hold." How could this be?

SEC'Y CHERTOFF: No, Tim, I have to tell you, that's not what I said. You have to listen to what I said. What I said was not that we didn't anticipate that there's a possibility the levees will break. What I said is in this storm, what happened is the storm passed and passed without the levees breaking on Monday. Tuesday morning, I opened newspapers and saw headlines that said "New Orleans Dodged The Bullet," which surprised people. What surprised them was that the levee broke overnight and the next day and, in fact, collapsed. That was a surprise.

As to the larger point, there's no question that people have known for probably decades that New Orleans sits in a bowl surrounded by levees. This is a city built on the coast in an area that has hurricanes in it that is built below sea levels and that is a soup bowl. People have talked for years about, you know, whether it makes sense to have a city like that, how to build the levees. So, of course, that's not a surprise. What caught people by surprise in this instance was the fact that there was a second wave, and that, as The Times-Picayune article makes very clear, creates an almost apocalyptic challenge for rescuers.

The fact of the matter is, there's only really one way to deal with that issue, and that is to get people out first. Once that bowl breaks and that soup bowl fills with water, it is unquestionably the case, as we saw vividly demonstrated, that it's going to be almost impossible to get people out. So there is really only one way to deal with it, and that is to evacuate people in advance.

Michael Brown got on TV in Saturday and he said to people in New Orleans, "Take this seriously. There is a storm coming." On Friday there was discussion about the fact that even though this storm could fall anywhere along the Gulf, people had to be carefully monitoring it. We were watching it on Saturday and Sunday. The president was on a videoconference on Sunday telling us we've got to do everything possible to be prepared. But you know, Tim, at the end of the day, this is the ground truth: The only way to avoid a catastrophic problem in that soup bowl is to have people leave before the hurricane hits. Those who got out are fine. Those who stayed in faced one of the most horrible experiences in their life.

MR. RUSSERT: But that's the point. Those who got out were people with SUVs and automobiles and air fares who could get out. Those who could not get out were the poor who rely on public buses to get out. Your Web site says that your department assumes primary responsibility for a national disaster. If you knew a hurricane 3 storm was coming, why weren't buses, trains, planes, cruise ships, trucks provided on Friday, Saturday, Sunday to evacuate people before the storm?

SEC'Y CHERTOFF: Tim, the way that emergency operations act under the law is the responsibility and the power, the authority, to order an evacuation rests with state and local officials. The federal government comes in and supports those officials. That's why Mike Brown got on TV on Saturday and he told people to start to get out of there.

Now, ultimately the resources that will get people who don't have cars and don't have the ability to remove themselves has to rest with the kinds of assets a city has--the city's buses, the city's transportation. You know, there will be plenty of time to go back over what the preparation has been with respect to infrastructure in New Orleans, with respect to transportation, with respect to evacuation. To confront a situation that, as you point out, people have been aware of for decades--this is not something that just came on the horizon recently.

But I want to leave you with a very, very important marker which I'm going to put down now. At this particular moment, this is not over. There is a tremendous challenge. Whatever the criticisms and the after-action report may be about what was right and what was wrong looking back, what would be a horrible tragedy would be to distract ourselves from avoiding further problems because we're spending time talking about problems that have already occurred.

MR. RUSSERT: The...

SEC'Y CHERTOFF: We are going to have to feed--wait a second. We're going to have to feed, clothe, house and educate a city of people scattered across the country. We're going to have to do it in a way that doesn't disrupt the rest of the country. We're going to have to continue the work to restore our infrastructure. We're going to have to clean probably the greatest environmental mess we've ever seen in this country. And we're going to have to make important decisions about this in the next days and weeks and months. And I've got to tell you that for my money what I'm going to spend my time on is focusing on making sure we are getting on top of emergencies that are still under way.

MR. RUSSERT: This is hurricane season. Are you prepared for another hurricane in that region or, God forbid, a nuclear or biological attack, which we're told could happen at any time?

SEC'Y CHERTOFF: I'm going to tell you, Tim, you've put your finger on something which I said the day after this hurricane hit. As catastrophic as this is, we are still in hurricane season. And as much as we are working on desperately getting people out now, we've got to make sure we are holding in reserve and we are preparing for what could come next, whether it be a hurricane, whether it be a disease. I mean, we are challenged to make sure that at a moment when we have a current catastrophe and we have to be vigilant about other catastrophes that we do not lose focus and spend time dwelling on the past. I promise you we will go back and review the lessons that we have to learn, what went right and what went wrong. But I will tell you now we will be making a huge mistake if we spend the time in the immediate future looking back instead of dealing with, as you point out, what's going on now and what may yet come.

MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Secretary, as always, we thank you for joining us and sharing your views.