As Closed Cafeteria noted, these flooded school buses in a lot, Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005, in New Orleans, LA., will not be used in the evacuation of residents from the city. (AP)
Hat Tip to Larwyn
Powerline, Michelle Malkin, Instapundit, etc. are gathering data on the political storm that is brewing in the south and heading east. The Democratic Governor Blanco is blaming the Feds for the big disconnect. Mayor Nagin ,you knew, didn’t have a grip on the situation after about the third time you saw him on TV. You really wanted him to! You were hoping for at least a few “Rudy Giuliani” moments, anyway. The city was (is) filling up with water like a tub and what did Mayor Nagin do? What? If New Orleans Mayor Nagin would have gone fishing in Minnesota or rock climbing in Nevada would anyone have missed him?
For that matter if Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco had taken a cruise out of New Orleans before Katrina showed up and just popped up today, except for the tan she was sporting, would anyone know she had been AWOL except for the captain on the cruise ship?
And, the Anchoress (Nola.com) reports today that:
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.
This is after the president already declared a state of emergency in Louisiana before the storm hit. (via DJ Drummond at Polipundit)
So, today, of course, the only logical thing to do to save any face you have left (note: Mayor Nagin now needs body guards to wade through the streets of the “Big Slurpy” !) is to put the blame squarely and firmly on George W. Bush!
Powerline is asking readers to respond to the “Blame Bush for Global Warming, Hurricanes & Shootings on Bourbon Street” Band Wagon that’s about to leave port and head towards Ted Kennedy off Nantucket. You know he’s getting primed for a few good verbal blasts.
Jim Ouly had this to say:
I was a firefighter with a volunteer fire department in southeast Florida. The town is located on barrier island and our sop requires us, when there is a mandatory evacuation of flood zones during a hurricane, to relocate our fire engines and firefighters to a safe area until after the storm passes. At first blush it seems a little callous to leave when we know a certain percentage of the population will refuse to evacuate, but high winds and flooding could destroy the rescue equipment and turn first responders into victims.
Once the storm has passed we can move in and start rescue operations. We make sure we have the ability to operate for at least 72 hours on our own without having to rely on any of the surrounding communuties, county, or state.
I bring this up because I saw a lot of ambulances, police cars, and fire equipment flooded in the Katrina footage. It will be interesting to see what the NO preplanning was since their director of emergency response is all over the tv blaming Bush. We went through Frances (cat 4) and three weeks later Jeanne (cat 3) last year and I think Palm Beach County and Jeb Bush did a pretty good job.
It’s up to local and state people to tell the feds what they need and to run the emergency command centers, not just throw their arms up in the air and start blaming everyone else.
John Galvin added:
The blame for the New Orleans disaster is 100% on New Orleans and Louisiana. This was NOT unforeseen. A cat 4-5 Hurricane has been expected for DECADES.
Finally, this is what I had to say:
Last night as I watched TV and the flustered local officials who still did not look like they had a grasp on the situation, and it didn’t look like they were going to get a grasp anytime soon, I couldn’t help but think of the movie line “Man, get hold of yourself!”
Then the reporters interviewed Representative Bobby Jindal, who was calm, positive and confidant, even though his house had been lost in the hurricane! You can’t help but think, “What if?” What if it were Bobby was in the Governor’s Mansion? So, as I did a bit of research and I did find out that Bobby pushed some legislation through Congress earlier this year that will help those suffering in the floods of Louisiana today as they recover tomorrow.
I have more on Bobby HERE
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2005/09/bobby-jindals-actions-helping.html
At least one Louisiana politician will come out not smelling like raw sewage after this disaster!!
I was sent to some team training (why they picked me, I do not know!) for the company I worked for and was put in the same group with a real-life rocket scientist from NASA. The first couple of days of training my “team” and myself sat around and just looked at the rocket scientist, thrilled. Lucky us! We just knew this guy was going to lead us to “Team Utopia!” The first couple of days he didn’t move. He didn’t speak. And, he had no ideas. He had a perpetual raccoon in the headlights look on his face. It did not go away. He was not going to lead us to “team nirvana”. Finally, we pushed him out of the way and got some things done. We built our own little “dream team” with him as participant not leader.
That’s what New Orleans has to do! Ship Mayor Nagin to Garden of the Gods! Put Governor Blanco on The Norwegian Queen! And, go down to the local Wendy’s and grab the manager. He knows how to handle a crisis. He knows how to operate when you’re short-handed. He knows how to keep the place running when supplies are low. He knows how to put out fires! Go get him!
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