F.E.M.A. failings:
Yes, people keep saying..stop laying blame. Thing is, if we listen to that we will be lulled into forgetfulness and this administration will get away with yet another travesty. So yes..do what you can to help the victims but don't forget WHY it was/is neccessary for private citicizens to do so much.
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/09/01/fema-director-we-did-not-know-new-orleans-convention-center-was-a-hurricane-shelter/
Here’s what the FEMA director said to Paula Zahn tonight on CNN:
Michael Brown, director of FEMA: People who were unable or chose not to evacuate are suddenly appearing. And so this catastrophic disaster continues to grow. I will tell you this, though, every person in that convention center, we just learned about that today and so I have directed that we have all the available resources to get to that convention center to make sure that they have the food and water, the medical care that they need.
Paula Zahn: Sir, you’re not telling me –
Brown: To care of those bodies that are there –
Zahn: you’re not telling me that you just learned that the folks at the convention center didn’t have food and water until today, are you? You had no idea that they were completely cut off?
Brown: Paula, the federal government did not even know about the convention center people until today.
Apparently, the media knew the New Orleans Convention Center was a shelter for hurricane victims before the Bush Administration did. Meanwhile, victims at the convention center are facing “horrible, horrible conditions” where people are lying sick and dead on the streets.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/11877
A visibly angry Mayor Daley said the city had offered emergency, medical and technical help to the federal government as early as Sunday to assist people in the areas stricken by Hurricane Katrina, but as of Friday, the only things the feds said they wanted was a single tank truck. That truck, which the Federal Emergency Management Agency requested to support an Illinois-based medical team, was en route Friday.
"We are ready to provide more help than they have requested. We are just waiting for their call," said Daley, adding that he was "shocked" that no one seemed to want the help.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he would call for congressional hearings into the federal government's preparations and response. "The response was achingly slow, and that, I think, is a view shared by Democrats, Republicans, wealthy and poor, black and white," the freshman senator said. "I have not met anybody who has watched this crisis evolve over the last several days who is not just furious at how poorly prepared we appeared to be."
The South Side Democrat called FEMA's slow response "baffling." "I don't understand how you could have a situation where you've got several days' notice of an enormous hurricane building in the Gulf Coast, you know that New Orleans is 6 feet below sea level. ... The notion that you don't have good plans in place just does not make sense," Obama said. Obama said he expects his counterparts in Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama will call for congressional hearings, but he is ready if they do not. "It's heartbreaking and infuriating and, I think, is embarrassing to the American people.''
Daley said the city offered 36 members of the firefighters' technical rescue teams, eight emergency medical technicians, search-and-rescue equipment, more than 100 police officers as well as police vehicles and two boats, 29 clinical and 117 non-clinical health workers, a mobile clinic and eight trained personnel, 140 Streets and Sanitation workers and 29 trucks, plus other supplies. City personnel are willing to operate self-sufficiently and would not depend on local authorities for food, water, shelter and other supplies, he said.
Some more
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-04-2005/0004099925&EDATE=
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/09/07/fema/index.html
Pres.Bush failed his people.
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/09/01/fema-director-we-did-not-know-new-orleans-convention-center-was-a-hurricane-shelter/
Here’s what the FEMA director said to Paula Zahn tonight on CNN:
Michael Brown, director of FEMA: People who were unable or chose not to evacuate are suddenly appearing. And so this catastrophic disaster continues to grow. I will tell you this, though, every person in that convention center, we just learned about that today and so I have directed that we have all the available resources to get to that convention center to make sure that they have the food and water, the medical care that they need.
Paula Zahn: Sir, you’re not telling me –
Brown: To care of those bodies that are there –
Zahn: you’re not telling me that you just learned that the folks at the convention center didn’t have food and water until today, are you? You had no idea that they were completely cut off?
Brown: Paula, the federal government did not even know about the convention center people until today.
Apparently, the media knew the New Orleans Convention Center was a shelter for hurricane victims before the Bush Administration did. Meanwhile, victims at the convention center are facing “horrible, horrible conditions” where people are lying sick and dead on the streets.
http://www.outsidethebeltway.com/archives/11877
A visibly angry Mayor Daley said the city had offered emergency, medical and technical help to the federal government as early as Sunday to assist people in the areas stricken by Hurricane Katrina, but as of Friday, the only things the feds said they wanted was a single tank truck. That truck, which the Federal Emergency Management Agency requested to support an Illinois-based medical team, was en route Friday.
"We are ready to provide more help than they have requested. We are just waiting for their call," said Daley, adding that he was "shocked" that no one seemed to want the help.
Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he would call for congressional hearings into the federal government's preparations and response. "The response was achingly slow, and that, I think, is a view shared by Democrats, Republicans, wealthy and poor, black and white," the freshman senator said. "I have not met anybody who has watched this crisis evolve over the last several days who is not just furious at how poorly prepared we appeared to be."
The South Side Democrat called FEMA's slow response "baffling." "I don't understand how you could have a situation where you've got several days' notice of an enormous hurricane building in the Gulf Coast, you know that New Orleans is 6 feet below sea level. ... The notion that you don't have good plans in place just does not make sense," Obama said. Obama said he expects his counterparts in Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama will call for congressional hearings, but he is ready if they do not. "It's heartbreaking and infuriating and, I think, is embarrassing to the American people.''
Daley said the city offered 36 members of the firefighters' technical rescue teams, eight emergency medical technicians, search-and-rescue equipment, more than 100 police officers as well as police vehicles and two boats, 29 clinical and 117 non-clinical health workers, a mobile clinic and eight trained personnel, 140 Streets and Sanitation workers and 29 trucks, plus other supplies. City personnel are willing to operate self-sufficiently and would not depend on local authorities for food, water, shelter and other supplies, he said.
Some more
http://www.prnewswire.com/cgi-bin/stories.pl?ACCT=104&STORY=/www/story/09-04-2005/0004099925&EDATE=
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/09/07/fema/index.html
Pres.Bush failed his people.
Comments
sick, sad and amazing.
I just have a hard time swallowing the load of crap that is being spooned out to everyone by the supposed leaders in charge of this--- before and after Katrina.
this is a tragedy.
thanks for this post and the links.
hugs,
Karen