Former state legislator puts blame directly on Nagin and Blanco

[Carrie]

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007219
AFTER THE STORM
Blame Amid the Tragedy

Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin failed their constituents.

BY BOB WILLIAMS

As the devastation of Hurricane Katrina continues to shock and sadden the nation, the question on many lips is, Who is to blame for the inadequate response?

As a former state legislator who represented the legislative district most impacted by the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, I can fully understand and empathize with the people and public officials over the loss of life and property.

Many in the media are turning their eyes toward the federal government, rather than considering the culpability of city and state officials. I am fully aware of the challenges of having a quick and responsive emergency response to a major disaster. And there is definitely a time for accountability; but what isn't fair is to dump on the federal officials and avoid those most responsible--local and state officials who failed to do their job as the first responders. The plain fact is, lives were needlessly lost in New Orleans due to the failure of Louisiana's governor, Kathleen Blanco, and the city's mayor, Ray Nagin.

The primary responsibility for dealing with emergencies does not belong to the federal government. It belongs to local and state officials who are charged by law with the management of the crucial first response to disasters. First response should be carried out by local and state emergency personnel under the supervision of the state governor and his emergency operations center.

The actions and inactions of Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin are a national disgrace due to their failure to implement the previously established evacuation plans of the state and city. Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin cannot claim that they were surprised by the extent of the damage and the need to evacuate so many people. Detailed written plans were already in place to evacuate more than a million people. The plans projected that 300,000 people would need transportation in the event of a hurricane like Katrina. If the plans had been implemented, thousands of lives would likely have been saved.

In addition to the plans, local, state and federal officials held a simulated hurricane drill 13 months ago, in which widespread flooding supposedly trapped 300,000 people inside New Orleans. The exercise simulated the evacuation of more than a million residents. The problems identified in the simulation apparently were not solved.

A year ago, as Hurricane Ivan approached, New Orleans ordered an evacuation but did not use city or school buses to help people evacuate. As a result many of the poorest citizens were unable to evacuate. Fortunately, the hurricane changed course and did not hit New Orleans, but both Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin acknowledged the need for a better evacuation plan. Again, they did not take corrective actions. In 1998, during a threat by Hurricane George, 14,000 people were sent to the Superdome and theft and vandalism were rampant due to inadequate security. Again, these problems were not corrected.
The New Orleans contingency plan is still, as of this writing, on the city's Web site, and states: "The safe evacuation of threatened populations is one of the principle [sic] reasons for developing a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan." But the plan was apparently ignored.

Mayor Nagin was responsible for giving the order for mandatory evacuation and supervising the actual evacuation: His Office of Emergency Preparedness (not the federal government) must coordinate with the state on elements of evacuation and assist in directing the transportation of evacuees to staging areas. Mayor Nagin had to be encouraged by the governor to contact the National Hurricane Center before he finally, belatedly, issued the order for mandatory evacuation. And sadly, it apparently took a personal call from the president to urge the governor to order the mandatory evacuation.

The city's evacuation plan states: "The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas." But even though the city has enough school and transit buses to evacuate 12,000 citizens per fleet run, the mayor did not use them. To compound the problem, the buses were not moved to high ground and were flooded. The plan also states that "special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific lifesaving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedures as needed." This was not done.

The evacuation plan warned that "if an evacuation order is issued without the mechanisms needed to disseminate the information to the affected persons, then we face the possibility of having large numbers of people either stranded and left to the mercy of a storm, or left in an area impacted by toxic materials." That is precisely what happened because of the mayor's failure.

Instead of evacuating the people, the mayor ordered the refugees to the Superdome and Convention Center without adequate security and no provisions for food, water and sanitary conditions. As a result people died, and there was even rape committed, in these facilities. Mayor Nagin failed in his responsibility to provide public safety and to manage the orderly evacuation of the citizens of New Orleans. Now he wants to blame Gov. Blanco and the Federal Emergency Management Agency. In an emergency the first requirement is for the city's emergency center to be linked to the state emergency operations center. This was not done.

The federal government does not have the authority to intervene in a state emergency without the request of a governor. President Bush declared an emergency prior to Katrina hitting New Orleans, so the only action needed for federal assistance was for Gov. Blanco to request the specific type of assistance she needed. She failed to send a timely request for specific aid.
In addition, unlike the governors of New York, Oklahoma and California in past disasters, Gov. Blanco failed to take charge of the situation and ensure that the state emergency operation facility was in constant contact with Mayor Nagin and FEMA. It is likely that thousands of people died because of the failure of Gov. Blanco to implement the state plan, which mentions the possible need to evacuate up to one million people. The plan clearly gives the governor the authority for declaring an emergency, sending in state resources to the disaster area and requesting necessary federal assistance.

State legislators and governors nationwide need to update their contingency plans and the operation procedures for state emergency centers. Hurricane Katrina had been forecast for days, but that will not always be the case with a disaster (think of terrorist attacks). It must be made clear that the governor and locally elected officials are in charge of the "first response."

I am not attempting to excuse some of the delays in FEMA's response. Congress and the president need to take corrective action there, also. However, if citizens expect FEMA to be a first responder to terrorist attacks or other local emergencies (earthquakes, forest fires, volcanoes), they will be disappointed. The federal government's role is to offer aid upon request.

The Louisiana Legislature should conduct an immediate investigation into the failures of state and local officials to implement the written emergency plans. The tragedy is not over, and real leadership in the state and local government are essential in the months to come. More importantly, the hurricane season is still upon us, and local and state officials must stay focused on the jobs for which they were elected--and not on the deadly game of passing the emergency buck.

Mr. Williams is president of the Evergreen Freedom Foundation, a free market public policy research organization in Olympia, Wash.

[Nickatilynx]

Lets see...

Rabidly right wing...

Hates the education system.

LOL , no wonder you LOVE him!!!! ;-))

He formed a funded right wing "think tank" after no one would elect him cause he was a tad "out there" even for the Republicans LOL

I'd rather ask my cat for political opinion.

Fuck it , I shall.




The cat says he's an old pussy

[ThrobX]

Consider the source.

[XxXotic]

i love how only current officials are to blame. We've been receiving money to fix the levees and better prepare new orleans since Andrew hit... Never mind Morial or Foster who were in office during those times redirecting emergency management funds into developing casinos. This goes a lot deeper then just the current administrations.

[JR]

ok... let me preface this by saying BUSH SUCKS!










.... then i would like to say that i fail to see why people don't understand that these are state issues (preparedness, evacuation plans and their execution etc). the federal government is not responsible for thier failures. furthermore, the federal government can only assist states upon request... they can't just jump in with troops and start marching down the street all willy nilly with machine guns and rocket launchers. thats how our country is designed.

XxXotic, "current officials are to blame" because the current officials are the current officials. who should bare the blame? the French? Christopher Columbus? The Puritans? Julius Ceasar? regardless of what happened 5 years ago, 10 years ago or 300 years ago, its the obligation of the current state and city administration to deal with these threats and protect the people. as governor, you can't say "this should have been dealt with 40 years ago, so its not my problem or responisibility"

[Dravyk]

Originally Posted by JR

i fail to see why people don't understand that these are state issues (preparedness, evacuation plans and their execution etc). the federal government is not responsible for thier failures. furthermore, the federal government can only assist states upon request...

Ok, first I want to say, generally speaking, you are correct.

And, that you are all also correct in that plenty blame goes to the states involved, and that they have not until recently got their share of it, and they certainly should and will.

That said ... however, here's the rub. (Unfortunately, I only have one item handy as example at the moment.) When the governor of one state wanted to send their guard to Louisiana, and the LA governor also accepted their help, the bullshit request got postponed in WASHINGTON for four days and they are not allowed to move without the federal OK.

So there are many things are so-called "state" issues, but in some way still need, require, whatever some kind of federal stamp on it, or which need to go to the feds for "alledged" coordination. In the end many of the state issues are actually not merely state issues and the feds are involved in many of those as well.

[PornoDoggy]

So lemme see ... from his vantage point 2,000 miles away, a former state legislator from a rural area of a reasonably wealthy state is going to pontificate on the problems faced by an urban area, in a state that has an annual income per citizen of approximately 10,000 per household lower than those in his state.

None of the local experts I have consulted agree. The checkout girl in the grocery store her in town is convinced that God allowed the hurricane to strike New Orleans because of the perversions of Mardi Gras. The guy who works for my brother-in-law (and he spent five days in New Oleans on his high school senior trip) is convinced that the breakdown in law and order is because they are almost all niggers down there, and a lot of the white people talk real goddamned funny too. The barista at the local coffee house is, like, really unsure because, like, all these people are living, like, below sea level anyway, and, like, couldn't they have just covered all those, like, pumps; and where is the relief effort for all the dogs and cats, anyway? Why aren't they being moved to shelters in other states? I was unable to reach Tony at his transmission shop for his opinion, but assuming he stayed consistant with his normal opinions, U.S. membership in the U.N. will have some bearing on it.

Look ... when it is all said and done, there is going to be more than enough blame to go around. Many of the citizens themselves paid little head to the warnings, figuring that this storm would pass them (as they have have for 40+ years). City officials probvably botched putting whatever plans they had into effect; I suspect that, as in most states, New Orleans is the red-headed stepchild when it comes to the state government. There are whole generations of state politicians who made the switch from nigger-baiting to urban baiting without missing a beat.

All of this will come out in the wash, because of (or in spite of) all the investigations that are sure to follow. I'm sure the Bush investigation of FEMA's problems will be amusing reading; the Senate's investigation may be a little more credible, as many Republicans think Snow is a Democrat, and a lot of Democrats wonder if Lieberman isn't really a Republican.

I think you'd be suprised at how many "2nd-tier" cities like NO would have just as many problems if faced with this kind of devistation. The money in many of these cities has fled to the 'burbs. The states, in many cases, can't committ the kind of resources that are necessary for day-to-day functioning without a backlash from suburban and rural areas.

When Mr. Williams says " I am not attempting to excuse some of the delays in FEMA's response," I think he lied. Even if he didn't, it should come as no suprise that it's been posted by a blatant apologist for the FEMA response. What the governor and the mayor did DOES NOTHING to mitigate the facts.

To borrow from a campaign slogan, compare the response of FEMA in September, 2001, to the response in September, 2005, and ask yourself this - "Are we better off today than we were four years ago?"

[XxXotic]

Originally Posted by JR

ok... let me preface this by saying BUSH SUCKS!










.... then i would like to say that i fail to see why people don't understand that these are state issues (preparedness, evacuation plans and their execution etc). the federal government is not responsible for thier failures. furthermore, the federal government can only assist states upon request... they can't just jump in with troops and start marching down the street all willy nilly with machine guns and rocket launchers. thats how our country is designed.

XxXotic, "current officials are to blame" because the current officials are the current officials. who should bare the blame? the French? Christopher Columbus? The Puritans? Julius Ceasar? regardless of what happened 5 years ago, 10 years ago or 300 years ago, its the obligation of the current state and city administration to deal with these threats and protect the people. as governor, you can't say "this should have been dealt with 40 years ago, so its not my problem or responisibility"

but that's not entirely fair to the current admin. Not saying they don't hold some blame, but if money that was sent to us 10 years ago got spent on what it was supposed to be spent on, current funding would not have been cut 40% by bush's administration and new orleans probably wouldn't have suffered such a fate.

I'm by no means saying Blanco and Nagin aren't partially to blame, but Former Governor Mike Foster as well as Former Mayor Morial from New Orleans should share some of the blame as well. Had they done what they were supposed to, the current administrations may not have been put in this position. Blanco nor Nagin have held office for all that long, they could have both ordered complete overhauls of the levee system and it wouldn't have made much difference. There wasn't enough time to fix the fuck ups from the previous administrations.

My point was that Blanco and Nagin aren't the only ones to blame so they shouldn't shoulder 100% of the fault, nothing more then that.

[XxXotic]

Originally Posted by PornoDoggy

Look ... when it is all said and done, there is going to be more than enough blame to go around. Many of the citizens themselves paid little head to the warnings, figuring that this storm would pass them (as they have have for 40+ years). City officials probvably botched putting whatever plans they had into effect; I suspect that, as in most states, New Orleans is the red-headed stepchild when it comes to the state government. There are whole generations of state politicians who made the switch from nigger-baiting to urban baiting without missing a beat.

a lot of the people not leaving has to do with the whole cry wolf theory. New Orleanians get told to evacuate fairly often, every hurricane that hits the gulph has the potential to end new orleans, so if its projected to even come close they issue an evac order. In the 3 years I lived in new orleans we were told to evac 2 times, granted that's not a lot but if you're told 20 times to leave and nothing happens, chances are you're not leaving on the 21st evac order

[Dravyk]

To quote yesterday's The Daily Show ...

Bush: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job."

Stewart (doing Bush): "Although Blackie, quite frankly, I've seen you in better shape. Heh Heh heh Heh."

[Vick]

Originally Posted by PornoDoggy

So lemme see ...

None of the local experts I have consulted agree. The checkout girl in the grocery store her in town is convinced that God allowed the hurricane to strike New Orleans because of the perversions of Mardi Gras. The guy who works for my brother-in-law (and he spent five days in New Oleans on his high school senior trip) is convinced that the breakdown in law and order is because they are almost all niggers down there, and a lot of the white people talk real goddamned funny too. The barista at the local coffee house is, like, really unsure because, like, all these people are living, like, below sea level anyway, and, like, couldn't they have just covered all those, like, pumps; and where is the relief effort for all the dogs and cats, anyway? Why aren't they being moved to shelters in other states? I was unable to reach Tony at his transmission shop for his opinion, but assuming he stayed consistant with his normal opinions, U.S. membership in the U.N. will have some bearing on it.

: :

Assholes and opinions
Everyone has them and most of them stink

[Hell Puppy]

Part of the problem with this country is everyone is more worried about figuring out who to blame when something is fucked up than working on how to fix it.

[Dravyk]

Originally Posted by Hell Puppy

Part of the problem with this country is everyone is more worried about figuring out who to blame when something is fucked up than working on how to fix it.

Er, I could be mistaken but to fix something I believe one needs to know what's wrong with it first.

[Hell Puppy]

Originally Posted by Dravyk

Er, I could be mistaken but to fix something I believe one needs to know what's wrong with it first.

Agree.

But there's way to much focus on who instead of what.

[Dravyk]

Originally Posted by Hell Puppy

Agree.

But there's way to much focus on who instead of what.

I generally agree with that -- in a big way actually. Still, I think the two (what and who) are nearly inseperably tied together.

[Carrie]

Originally Posted by PornoDoggy

To borrow from a campaign slogan, compare the response of FEMA in September, 2001, to the response in September, 2005, and ask yourself this - "Are we better off today than we were four years ago?"

My knee-jerk response would be a resounding "NO", because of the state of affairs with New Orleans (which is taking center-stage at the moment).
But then I look at how aid was implemented in Mississippi and I think "well, hold on... they were in action pretty quickly there."

We've got something like 90,000 square miles of devastation spread out over multiple states with multiple heads of state and city officials each having to request or give permission for aid/troops/etc to come in.

Too many cooks in the kitchen? The process should be streamlined? If we do streamline it, do we risk opening loopholes for government takeover at some point in the far-off (and possibly never) future?