Evacuees being turned away from Houston's Astrodome

[blatz]

That's a damn good question. None of the obvious choices fit, and Mayor Ray Nagin, who I voted for, needs to toss in his badge like the scared deputy who crumbles under pressure in all good westerns. He is a business man who wanted to stamp out corruption, and has done as admirable job as possible, but he is so out of his league here, it would be funny, if people were not dying.

The best I can think of is take whoever is the top military strategist in Iraq, give him a 12 hour briefing and give him a post as special commander to Katrina Relief. He would know how to deal with chaotic situations like this, and would have to be respected by the bumblers who were now below him.

[ligastar]

[ QUOTE ]
Who should be leading this effort? Probably the governor, right? But we have the FEMA people, director of homeland security, the mayor, the president, etc. making statements. Presumably they are all making decisions. Or not making decisions, which actually seems to be the case. Who do you think should take over?

[/ QUOTE ]

The state and the feds should be working in conjuction. State and local authorities supposedly gameplan for things like this. They pay universities millions to do studies, crunch numbers, do analysis, gameplan. Even my simple idea of placing National Guardsmen in NO before Katrina hit would solve many issues. I'm just Joe Six Pack and I was paid nothing but it just seems logical to me. We are talking about a city of hundreds of thousands that could become paralyzed should the levee system break. Let's show some leadership and have boots on the ground should the worst case scenario happen.

I've seen no leadership from the Mayor, the Governor, FEMA or Bush. Also, Bush is a fool for visiting the destruction zone tomorrow. That's just going to piss people off more. We don't need images of that clown hugging a black child tomorrow (btw, I'm black, FWIW). Stay in Washington and work on the problem and the solutions that are needed for the months ahead. In fact, if I was a NO citizen and I ran into Bush I'd ask him one question: Why did you slash the NO Corp of Engineers budget by 20% to $71M when we've been asking Washington for assistance for years to shore up our levee system? We spend $1B a day in Iraq but can't appropriate funds to protect American citizens and infrastructure.

Sorry to rant, and I know this is the wrong forum, but some of you need to take a step back because much of this could have been avoided with proper leadership from top to bottom.

Greg H.

[OtisTheMarsupial]

[ QUOTE ]
Who should be leading this effort? Probably the governor, right? But we have the FEMA people, director of homeland security, the mayor, the president, etc. making statements. Presumably they are all making decisions. Or not making decisions, which actually seems to be the case. Who do you think should take over?

[/ QUOTE ]

I've worked emergencies (7 forest fires and 1 oil spill). There is protocol. First responder is in charge... until someone comes along with higher status. So, yeah, right now it's the President. He's in charge and if you're mad about what's goiing on, it's our fuckhead president who's at fault.

They just keep saying they can't navigate because the phones are down and everything is in water. Well, people have been living in swamps and canals for thousands of years. Get a [censored] boat and figure it out.
And the phones? Hello??? short wave? CB? what the [censored] is going on?

Sorry this is so emotional. I'm mad as hell.

[Edge34]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So let me get this straight - they are supposed to just let everyone into the Astrodome? What do you think would happen if they didn't control how many people were let in there?

[/ QUOTE ]

No, everyone can't be let into the Astrodome. The fire marshall and local authorities understand that X number of people can be sustained there. A few posters have touched on one of the main issues here ... THERE IS NO LEADERSHIP. None. Zip. Unacceptable. No gameplan. No logistics. No communication. Not enough National Guard, Airborne, Marines, Infantry in NO. This hurricane was bringing menace. National Guard (at least 5,000) should have been stationed in NO BEFORE Katrina hit land. One poster stated its too early to tell how the relief effort is going. Ummm, come again. I heard the director of FEMA say tonight that he didn't realize people were at the convention center until today. I knew this information yesterday. Lack of foresight. Lack of leadership.

I am pissed that people are dieing as I type this. I am pissed that American citizens have gone 72 hours without food and water. What are you missing people. American citizens have gone without food and water for 3 days. Hello. I'll go out on a limb and say we'll hear our first canabilism report tomorrow.

Greg H.

[/ QUOTE ]

I just had to think about this...sending 5000 troops to NO before the storm hit, when literally EVERYBODY in NO knew that it was coming and were being told to leave...that just seems counterproductive. They can do no good DURING the storm, and they can no more force people to leave than local police could.

I think this situation is FAR more complex than you give it credit for being. Yes, its a tragedy, and I'm as saddened that people have and may still lose their lives over this. But the shelters are filling to beyond max capacity, and there's only so much that can be done at once.

In an ideal world, people would have been sent to N'awlins 3 or 4 days before the storm and FORCED people out of their homes. But that was no more logical than the plan that has been taken. The authorities are clearly doing everything in their current capacity to remedy this situation, to think otherwise is shortsighted and not fully informed.

[cbfair]

[ QUOTE ]

I am pissed that people are dieing as I type this. I am pissed that American citizens have gone 72 hours without food and water. What are you missing people. American citizens have gone without food and water for 3 days.

[/ QUOTE ]

If I may add, I'm also pissed that these same Americans are wallowing around in horribly toxified water and in several days or a week many will wish they had died of dehydration. Small lacerations will lead to gangrene, cholera will be rampant, mosquitos will breed bearing countless diseases only known to 3rd world countries in our lifetime.

By the way, none of this is a surprise. I posted a link to this article on Sunday night when someone wondered if the concern was all hype. Again, I don't know when this article was written, but it doesn't matter as this scenario has been contemplated for some time. Here's a little excerpt:

[ QUOTE ]
"Filling the bowl" is the worst potential scenario for a natural disaster in the United States, emergency officials say. The Red Cross' projected death toll dwarfs estimates of 14,000 dead from a major earthquake along the New Madrid, Mo., fault, and 4,500 dead from a similar catastrophic earthquake hitting San Francisco, the next two deadliest disasters on the agency's list.

The projected death and destruction eclipse almost any other natural disaster that people paid to think about catastrophes can dream up. And the risks are significant, especially over the long term. In a given year, for example, the corps says the risk of the lakefront levees being topped is less than 1 in 300. But over the life of a 30-year mortgage, statistically that risk approaches 9 percent.

In the past year, Federal Emergency Management Agency officials have begun working with state and local agencies to devise plans on what to do if a Category 5 hurricane strikes New Orleans.

Shortly after he took office, FEMA Director Joe Allbaugh ordered aides to examine the nation's potential major catastrophes, including the New Orleans scenario.

"Catastrophic disasters are best defined in that they totally outstrip local and state resources, which is why the federal government needs to play a role," Allbaugh said. "There are a half-dozen or so contingencies around the nation that cause me great concern, and one of them is right there in your back yard."

[/ QUOTE ]

And despite countless articles and NOVA and PBS specials about this particular disaster scenario over the years, Our dear leader went on the Today Show this morning and said "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

edited to fix the movie link.

[Matty]

[ QUOTE ]
And despite countless articles and NOVA and PBS specials about this particular disaster scenario over the years, Our dear leader went on the Today Show this morning and said "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees." [img]/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

[/ QUOTE ]There are many more smoking guns to this particular piece of bullshit from Dear Leader. No major media outlets will cover it yet, but dailykos.com (although even there it's only found in the individual diaries) among other blogs are compiling a lot of stuff and it's just plain disgusting.

I guess the free market was supposed to save New Orleans.

[mackthefork]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So let me get this straight - they are supposed to just let everyone into the Astrodome? What do you think would happen if they didn't control how many people were let in there?

[/ QUOTE ]

No, everyone can't be let into the Astrodome. The fire marshall and local authorities understand that X number of people can be sustained there. A few posters have touched on one of the main issues here ... THERE IS NO LEADERSHIP. None. Zip. Unacceptable. No gameplan. No logistics. No communication. Not enough National Guard, Airborne, Marines, Infantry in NO. This hurricane was bringing menace. National Guard (at least 5,000) should have been stationed in NO BEFORE Katrina hit land. One poster stated its too early to tell how the relief effort is going. Ummm, come again. I heard the director of FEMA say tonight that he didn't realize people were at the convention center until today. I knew this information yesterday. Lack of foresight. Lack of leadership.

I am pissed that people are dieing as I type this. I am pissed that American citizens have gone 72 hours without food and water. What are you missing people. American citizens have gone without food and water for 3 days. Hello. I'll go out on a limb and say we'll hear our first canabilism report tomorrow.

Greg H.

[/ QUOTE ]

The worst thing that could happen is that people start drinking off the streets, if they don't get water in soon then that will happen, and then what you have now is gonna look like a teddy bears tea party.

Mack

[Edge34]

[ QUOTE ]
I think a reporter this evening summed it up best...

We're in Iraq under the pretense that we are defenders of peace and helping the oppressed citizens.....

And this is how we handle the suffering in our own country.
What must the world think now?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yeah, because people aren't honestly doing their damnedest to get this thing taken care of. Obviously nobody gives a [censored].

We're the guys that get out and raise a ton of money for tsunami victims and stuff, and what does "the world" give back to us?

That's right.

[ThaSaltCracka]

this whole situation is a huge clusterfuck.

[samjjones]

[ QUOTE ]
this whole situation is a huge clusterfuck.

[/ QUOTE ]