Monday, September 12, 2005

911 - Katrina


911-Katrina

Monday, September 12, 2005

To Whom It May Concern;
I found some of this information on the internet, to the best of my knowledge it is true.

Chain of Responsibility

In case you are not familiar with how our government is SUPPOSED to work:

The chain of responsibility for the protection of the citizens in New Orleans is:

1. The Mayor
2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security
(a political appointee of the Governor who reports to the Governor)
3. The Governor (ME - In case of emergencies each state is autonomous.)
4. The Head of Homeland Security
5. The President

What did each do?

1. The mayor, with 5 days advance notice, waited until 2 days before he
announced a mandatory evacuation (at the behest of President Bush).
Then he failed to provide transportation for those without transport even though he had hundreds of buses at his disposal.

2. The New Orleans director of Homeland Security failed to have any plan for a contingency that has been talked about for 50 years. Then he blames the Feds for not doing what he should have done.
(So much for political appointees)

3. The Governor, despite a declaration of disaster by the President 2 DAYS BEFORE the storm hit, failed to take advantage of the offer of Federal troops and aid. Until 2 DAYS AFTER the storm hit.

4. The Director of Homeland Security positioned assets in the area to be ready when the Governor called for them .
5. The President:
(ME- Because of each State's autonomy, can not just move troops & assets into an area without first being asked.)
President Bush urged a mandatory evacuation, and even declared a disaster State of Emergency, freeing up millions of dollars of federal assistance, should the Governor decide to use it.
The levees that broke were the responsibility of the local landowners and the local levee board to maintain, NOT THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT.
[...]
Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.

The ball was placed in Mayor Nagin's court to carry out the evacuation order. With a 5-day heads-up, he had the authority to use any and all services to evacuate all residents from the city, as documented in a city emergency preparedness plan. By waiting until the last minute, and failing to make full use of resources available within city limits, Nagin and his administration [messed] up.
Mayor Nagin has displayed lethal, mind boggling incompetence before, during and after Katrina.
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(I apologize for making changes, to whomever wrote the original piece. I have been unable to "track" the "author" down. But as a Christian I can not report facts that I am unable to confirm
and there was also originally profanity in the piece, which I deleted.)
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(Onetruth)
As a resident of Florida I was glued to Fox News before, during & after hurricane Katrina hit.

In interview after interview you could see the total lack of leadership in both the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor or Louisiana.
They should both be immediately replaced for the protection of their own people!

Compare the disaster of Katrina with the terrible attack of 911.

Katrina was forecasted well in advance. The leader's in charge of New Orleans and the fine State of Louisiana had adequate time to prepare and react to the problem. In every interview of both the Mayor & the Governor before and immediately after they said that everything was under control.

As the media began to report all the "problems" the hurricane had caused from no electricity to the breaking of the levees, both the Mayor and the Governor, rather then stepping up to "bat", so to speak, seemed to go into what can only be described as a catatonic state.

As I said earlier, let's compare one disaster with another.

Everyone knew Katrina was going to hit and yet no local authorities reponded until about 48 hrs. later.

While 911 was completely by surprise and yet Mayor Gulianni and the men & women under his authority took care of the problem in stride, reacting immediately.
There was never a time when The Mayor of New York was interviewed and he did
not know exactly what was happening and would happen, as far as his control extended.

With Katrina, many people interviewed on the news said that things went so adly because there was actually two disasters in New Orleans, a hurricane and a flood.
(Both of which were forecasted before they happened.) (Emphasis mine.)

During 911 there was also two disasters, neither was known ahead of time.
One was the planes hitting the building, but the second was, the collapse of the buildings. Yet the Mayor and the Governor of New York handled both with competence.