Friday

the federal response to katrina

What if really good bombers had simultaneously dismantled NOLA's levee system and pump system, and the water had rushed in? Or what if there had been some other major terrorist attack on NOLA that had caused widescale devastation?

My point being this: would we really have been this unprepared in the event of a big terrorist attack? I guess the answer is yes.

I mean, four years after 9/11 and with Bush touting his Homeland Security success, THIS is the best response we can muster when a major American city is hit really hard with something catastrophic?

We simply don't seem prepared to respond to a catastrophic event on a major American city, even one where we had up to a week's notice.

Why did we not have 10,000 troops waiting on the outer edges of the storm region and ready to move in for search/rescue/law enforcement when the weather passed (Martial law doesn't make much sense when there are no personnel to enforce it)? Why not huge trucks of water ready to come directly into the storm regions? Floating military
hospitals offshore ready to be moved in and converted to temporary civilian use?

I actually think this and the gas crisis may hit Bush's approval rating (and the Republicans) harder than the war has. People actually seem emotionally engaged with this, as opposed to the bizarro, "anything goes" detachment the American public has with Iraq.

I am sick over it. The whole thing. We sent tens of thousands of poor black people to the Superdome and Convention Center and then left them there for 4 days with no food or water. Why can we not at least drop ready-to-eat meals and water like we do in Iraq?

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Louisiana state government and Blanco fucked this up at least as much as the feds and Bush did. There is tons of blame all up and down the line.

What does the idiot do, he sends in the army! We the people have a small problem with that

It seems completely obvious to me that the people stuck in New Orleans are pretty damn glad he finally sent in the troops.

- Steve K.

Anonymous said...

this thing is though, Katie and Dewi and their liberal cohorts NEVER MISS AN OPPORTUNITY TO DISS BUSH. you need to realize that just about anything that happens in this country that is not handled absolutely perfectly or took us by surprise or WHATEVER is an opportunity for they and thier ilk to bash Bush.

Anonymous said...

A whole bunch of people screwed up, and screwed up massively, one of them being Bush. I'm totally at a loss as to how anyone can't see that.

- Steve K.

The Wonderful Wonderful World Of Us! said...

I agree that there were lots of mistakes...one being that I saw on the news that Louisiana knew since the 80's that the levee's needed repairing...so why didn't they repair them??!!! Its always after the fact which is really sad because tons of people have lots their lives, lots their homes, and have nothing to go back to. I live in Houston and there are tons of Louisiana citizens here trying to find jobs.

Anonymous said...

the reality is people live in places they really shouldnt. I used to live in CA and it just amazed me how manypeople lived in mudslide prone areas and then they would REBUILD after their whole freakin house slid into the sea.

Anonymous said...

thanks