Finally some people are coming to their senses.
The governor of Louisiana should now step down as well, and probably the mayor of New Orleans.
Next should be the mayor of the neighboring town who cut off the escape route out of NO.
But Brownie was doing such a heck of a job!
And wait, the mayor of NO? I’m just curious why you think he needs to step down.
I think the failures were all up and down the chain of command. I’m not super happy with the fact that Nagin said “everyone get the heck out” and then bailed on those who he knew couldn’t get out.
A day after the hurricane was predicted to hit NO the Governor declared a state of emergency and called in FEMA. Isn’t it FEMA’s job to get people out of the city?
I would say “no.” I would say that disaster preparedness needs to go from the city level out. First the city should do everything it can, then the state should do what it can, and then, as a last resort, call in the Feds.
Did the city do everything it could? I dunno, it doesn’t seem like they did anything. Where were the cops and doctors pre-stationed at gathering points like the convention center and Superdome?
What I simply don’t understand is why Nagin didn’t have a 1000-page document in his vault that says “what to do when a Cat-5 storm is going to hit NO.”
Everything that happened seemed so last minute and unplanned.
Other things I want to know:
- Why was the city completely unprepared for a flood? Everything important, like emergency communications, emergency power, relief supplies, etc. apparently depended on the city staying dry, despite the fact that everyone and their mother knew that the city would NOT stay dry in the case of a CAT-4+ storm. Where was the backup plan in case the power went out?
- Why was there no plan for the hundreds of thousands of people who could not evacuate? I don’t care about the people who chose not to get out, screw them, but the sick, the old, the infirm, the poor - they were completely on their own.
- Why weren’t supplies and personell pre-positioned at the points of evacuation like the Superdome and Convention Center? By the time cops got to the convention center there were already thousands of people inside and they had not been screened, so the cops didn’t dare enter for fear of getting shot. They contained the perimeter but didn’t enter.
Local needs to have a plan, but it is very hard for local resources to respond when they are the ones that are directly affected. Federal resources would be outside the disaster zone and thus in theory should be able to respond far better than local resources to a disaster of this level. Expecting the local resources to be able to handle an event where the local resources are destroyed is not practical.
I agree, and that’s why I say the failures are up and down the line.
Is there any more info on the mayor who shut down the evacuation route?
Nagin probably should resign; not that he bungled his job as badly as the feds, or that his continuance as mayor would be a bad thing for the city, but just because I’m sure plenty of mistakes were made and it’s the right thing to do.
Plus, it’s not like he really has a job anymore anyway.
Some food for thought that reaffirms my belief that Nagin probably shouldn’t get as much flak as some of the other players in this tragedy.
In particular, the part of that post discussing Contraflow is what has me thinking that at least Nagin was an improvement upon his predecessors. It’s not like he stood by and did absolutely nothing. Imagine if Contraflow had worked so poorly that the people with the means to leave NO still had to ride out Katrina the way they did Ivan after being unable to leave in time.
So does anyone else think the exposure of Brown’s history is going to have any impact on Bush’s future appointments?
I realize that Roberts has largely been vetted by the press, but can anyone (and I don’t mean those of us who didn’t before) really trust Bush’s judgement after this, especially with respect to two seats (one being Chief Justice) of the USSC?
Bush can’t staff cronies in the real important positions like SC justice. It’s all the intermediate jobs that don’t have Senate approval or any sort of oversight. One Presidential memo to HR and Dickhead McIncompetent has a cushy $80K/yr “job.”
What incompetent will take Brown’s place? It’s not like Dubya will actually learn anything from this…
Newest headline on MSNBC:
White House taps top fire official David Paulison to head FEMA
What’s this? Put someone with some experience in the field of disaster management in charge of FEMA? What a crazy idea.
Good thing Bush has a scapegoat now. “I been done lied to about from Brownie! It’s not my fault!!!”
I may be the only Democrat who actually doesn’t think it’s Bush’s FAULT.
It is, however, his responsibility.
He got rid of Brown pretty quickly and put in Honore to head up the Army efforts, so I do think he was simply caught off guard by how badly Brown screwed things up.
I’m sure the press will dig deep on this guy… Paulison.
“I been done lied to about from Brownie! It’s not my fault!!!”
“Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job!”
Who lied to him there?
I actually agree with your post, but I should point out that he didn’t remove Brown until last Thursday, ten days after the hurricane and long after it was obvious to every sentient life form with access to a TV that Brown was completely and totally incompetent.
So, first, I think it’s Bush’s fault that he put a blatantly unqualified political appointment in charge of FEMA. Second, I think it’s Bush’s fault that he allowed Brown to continue fucking up for more than a week before removing him because he wanted to avoid political blowback.