Demand accountability for Katrina

G

GPV

Member
Messages
10
Reaction score
0
Points
0
[font=Verdana, Arial] Americans, here are some places where you can quickly fill out email forms and send some notices to your Senators and Representatives and the media in a hurry. If you need a letter to send you can use the example below (note you may also want to ask why there are so many no-bid sweetheart contracts being handed out to companies like Kellogg, Brown, and Root and Halliburton.):

http://moveon.org/

http://www.workingforchange.com/act...fm?itemid=19560

http://capwiz.com/fconl/issues/aler...8002046&type=CO

Below is a sample letter that you can use as a model to send either to the Congress or to the media.

At no time should a person who is accused of wrongdoing investigate himself, yet this is exactly what George W. Bush is proposing to do in light of the terrible recovery and assistance response after hurricane Katrina. And bipartisan efforts to investigate are also out of order, since bipartisan committees oversaw Homeland Security, which oversaw the now-gutted and crippled FEMA which had been folded into it.

Homeland Security is the first responder in national disasters, why was it one of the last groups to show up? The media was able to get in there, as were celebrities, surely rescue teams could as well. And as for shots fired, our National Guard comes under heavier fire every day in Iraq, surely they could manage the small amounts of gunfire from hysterical people trying to get their attention?

Why did the president not act sooner when implored by the Gulf State governors to send assistance both for evacuation and rescue efforts? (The famed flooded New Orleans school buses were useless to the mayor for evacuation purposes without drivers and federally-approved destinations; responsibilities that fall squarely in FEMA’s lap.) A single phone call from the president from the Oval Office, or Air Force One, or the Senator’s birthday party in Arizona, or the Naval Base Coronado after he finished strumming the guitar he received would have sufficed. NorthCom was in place and ready to serve, but the president did not request their aid. He knew that a disaster of this magnitude was possible based on the test scenario called “Hurricane Pam”, the warnings from the under-funded Army Corps of engineers about the levees in New Orleans, and the alerts explaining the dire consequences of Katrina from NOAA; he cannot claim ignorance of the impending calamity.

Why did the president hand out positions like Head of Homeland Security and the three top positions in FEMA to people who had no disaster management experience that would make them valuable in such placements? Are former political campaign managers and horse association attorneys who embellish their résumés the best the President can muster for these all-important jobs? What good are emergency officers who were so out of touch with the situation on the ground that they didn’t find out for DAYS that there were thousands of people trapped at the New Orleans Convention Center? Some “heck of a job”. Mr. Bush had nothing but high praise for former director James Lee Witt, why didn’t he keep the man on the job?

Why did the president stall on the acceptance of or flat out refuse international assistance? Why was the U.S.S. Bataan sent to the gulf only to sit there and watch helplessly from the waters as it awaited the call to action? FEMA and the Department of Homeland Security appear to have been instructed to reject help from people all over the United States. For what? Pride? Red tape? A misunderstanding of how very bad the situation in the gulf turned out to be?

Now the president is rumored to be thinking of passing more tax cuts. It was bad enough to do it during a time of war, but with the Gulf disaster stacked on top of that there is no justification—none—for cutting taxes at this time.

But there is every justification to demand an independent investigation. After 9/11/2001 we were promised that our nation would be made safer, our emergency responses made more efficient and streamlined. They weren’t. Someone dropped the ball and it landed smack dab on the Gulf Coast.
[/font]
 
GPV

I do not want to offend our American friends here.... But there is something seriously
Different in the value system.

I would compare Katrina with Tsunami , to eloborate my point, although tsunami was a much bigger natural catastrophy as compared to Katrina, and with two days it devoured over 150,000 living beings, Katrina too was a natural disaster involving Water.....so I think we can compare the two.

Tsunami stuck without a warning, and suddenly more then 7-8 Nations in the poor part of the world , found their citizens , DEAD .... But then I want to compare the reaction to it,...... it did not stuck deep like Katrina which nearly submerged the whole city..... Yet after the News that tsunami has stuck, people from the neighbourhood , in all the countries all seven or eight of them, immediately tried to reach them and offer help .... and in some places they managed to provide at least a hot meal to the affected peoples....... and the comendable thing was , those people who helped themselves can be classified as among the most poors.... But then there was a sense of sharing, and feeling the pain , every body helped every One.

Now coming back to Katrina, they were monitoring it for at least a week, with hourly update from its level one to level five , every thing was , every minute of its existence was monitored , observed and its possible route, possible impact all calculated and accessed.... But when it stuck , every thing got hay wired, and all the calculations and accessments proved wrong or worthless,........every one got in a state of shock and paralized, unable to move.........and they started a waiting game...
President waited for the official cry for help, the Mayor and other citiy official waited for Federal response..... and people waited to be evacuated.....and every one just waited.....
I am sorry to say...... but the neighbouring STATES and cities ...........too waited...and waited.....and their citizen watched all on their TV sets, yet no one came forward to help at least at the crucial initial stage ...when the help was most needed....

Mean while situation in New Orleans detoriated, every thing broke down, and it was Inhumanity all the way, within two days, Street looter took over, and they made Crimnal GANGs willing to Kill over a bottle of water.... it was a mayhem.....people were shooting and disrupting what little relief efforts were tried...... and I have heard over 60% of the relief workers refused to work...... Admitidly their own life was their main concern.
and for over a week, it was nothing but a Jungle , with the Jungle Law....

Some question...... why didn't the population itself evacuated from the impeding disaster...?

The answer lies in the economic conditions of the resident.... New Orleans is among the poorest of America..... and evacuation ..... was then a commerical Bussiness.... and you needed atleast $40 to get a chance to be evacuated in what little Buses that were available .... Incidently all the emergency busses like school vans were left rotting in their garages.....and were not even considered to be used.
now back to the point.......... these poor people did not even had those $40 with them.....and did not wanted to leave what ever little property of valuable stuff to be left behind..

.......... I would blame the whole American people for not comming to help to their own fellow citizens in their time of Need... Yes every One can do all the relief effort after ward like they are doing now...... But No one reacted On time.......true in such a natural disaster you cannot do much..... But that would atleast shown that Other Citizens of America do CARE.....

And another NOT LIKED face of America that I witnessed ....was the Bais.... the racial bais.....that still seems to exist.... even in their hour of distress....even in the supposedly neutral media...

I wont say anything....just see this


http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/09/01/photo_controversy/index_np.html


where under similiar cirumstances .... a black man wading through water with his belonging is pronouced a looter and two white citizens ( man and women ) are said to be struggling through....


I am sorry..... But I am really appalled as this weird sense of Civility , and distorted value system our american friends have shown.....

and though it may look cynic ... but maybe that is why..... Abu Gharaib, Gutunama Bay and Other incidents in Afghanistan happened......

... My intention is not to hurt any one's feeling ... but rather to point out .....some thing DIFFERENT in the VALUE SYSTEM of a NATION which supposedly prides itself in terms of Human rights....yet failed by a very large margin on that .... even when their own citizens were involved...
 
My understanding is that Katrina had passed and New Orleans was relatively unscathed, and that the order to stand down was given becauise of that. It wasn't apparently for some few hours after Katrina passed that the levees broke.

As for choice of personel for positions of responsibility, etc - it's general politics. It happens everywhere. Who actually has disaster management experience on the scale of the Katrina devesation?
 
I often wonder how many large cities could actually, practically evacuate even given 24 hours notice. And usually the notice would be much less for a natural disaster or act of war.

Think about the grid-lock during a normal rush hour afternoon, when everyone knows what to expect and is in the routine and the onset of travel is staggered over a couple or three hours. Add to that evacuating the hospitals and nursing homes and schools. oy.

Not that we couldn't always strive to be better prepared, and the above have a point about poverty aggravating the situation exponentially.

lunamoth
 
I said:
Who actually has disaster management experience on the scale of the Katrina devesation?
Click to expand...

Cuba evacuates millions of people throughout hurricane season. China recently moved 750,000 people out of the path of a typhoon.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2005/090305Y.shtml

It can be done. We need to look to other nations who do it better, I guess, and learn what we can from them.
 
Aquaris,

You are right on a lot of that. But there is something you aren't aware of which is that people tried desperately not just from nearby states but all over the country to go and help on the gulf. Department of Homelaand Security wouldn't allow them to do it!

So it wasn't that they will and love were lacking, but that that homeland security wasn't willing to allow them to assist.
 
Well, let's put it in perspective that this was a major and unexpected disaster - it's really easy to play the blame game *after* the fact of the matter.

Certainly there are lessons to be learnt - don;t you think that's how Cuba and China are learning their lessons? However, anyone placing themselves on a moralistic high-ground on the basis of hindsight I should not expect to be a wise move at all.
 
I said:
Well, let's put it in perspective that this was a major and unexpected disaster - it's really easy to play the blame game *after* the fact of the matter.

Certainly there are lessons to be learnt - don;t you think that's how Cuba and China are learning their lessons? However, anyone placing themselves on a moralistic high-ground on the basis of hindsight I should not expect to be a wise move at all.
Click to expand...

It wasn't unexpected. It was on the radar screen for days. And for years climatologists warned about the dangers of a Cat 5 hurricane in New Orleans, and the mock "Hurricane Pam" where they prepared for such a disaster showed they had the information needed to determine a solid plan for getting people to safety as well as what the results of such a disastrous plan could be.

My point is we already learned our lessons without all those deaths, but no one at the top put the information to good use. And for that I will most certainly point my finger and say "SHAME on you for not acting on the information you had."
 
salaam aquaris,

thank you for the post.

aquaris said:
The answer lies in the economic conditions of the resident.... New Orleans is among the poorest of America..... and evacuation ..... was then a commerical Bussiness.... and you needed atleast $40 to get a chance to be evacuated in what little Buses that were available .... Incidently all the emergency busses like school vans were left rotting in their garages.....and were not even considered to be used.
Click to expand...

actually, this is not so.

the evacuation plan for the City called for the use of school buses to move the people from the inner city. for some reason, which i hope to understand, the Mayor of New Orleans didn't put that part of the plan into action.

now back to the point.......... these poor people did not even had those $40 with them.....and did not wanted to leave what ever little property of valuable stuff to be left behind..
Click to expand...

the buses in the citys plan were free of charge. they were never sent.

.......... I would blame the whole American people for not comming to help to their own fellow citizens in their time of Need... Yes every One can do all the relief effort after ward like they are doing now...... But No one reacted On time.......true in such a natural disaster you cannot do much..... But that would atleast shown that Other Citizens of America do CARE.....
Click to expand...

you must mean other than the people that were there helping folks, right? oh sure, it's easy to simply say "All Americans" which isn't even remotely true. of course, it makes for good international leftist politics but not much more than that.

And another NOT LIKED face of America that I witnessed ....was the Bais.... the racial bais.....that still seems to exist.... even in their hour of distress....even in the supposedly neutral media...
Click to expand...

"neutral media"??????

honestly.. there is not such a thing. what are you talking about. the media in America has an agenda and a point to its reporting. this isn't simply a "report of the facts" it is, rather, a selective report which is conveyed by television cameras and all of that. where there are no cameras... how can you know what happened?

metta,

~v
 
Yes, but as I tried to indicate earlier (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), were preparations not already made, but were stood down *after* the hurricane moved away from New Orleans?
 
I said:
Yes, but as I tried to indicate earlier (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong), were preparations not already made, but were stood down *after* the hurricane moved away from New Orleans?
Click to expand...

indeed, Brian, you have the right of it.

what is also overlooked is that the evacuation order had come down several times previously for New Orleans and nothing really materialized from it. a sort of "cry wolf" syndrome, to be sure, but there it is. people are sort of like that... and, there is certainly a point to be made that people, by and large, simply cannot board up and drive away without the means to do so.

this is a particular problem for places which lack the proper infrastructure to move large quantities of people in a short period of time, both of which New Orleans had in spades, as they say. oh.. and of course.. this was not a "mandatory" evacuation.

with regards to the air support... well... after the Hurricane passed and the levies broke, the storm was actually still ongoing. it had created something of a 'dome' around the area which prevented any aircraft from coming anywhere close, for several days.

the long and the short of it is that, a) things can always be improved upon with regards to evacuations of large amounts of people, b) some people died due to their inability to get aid in a timely fashion c) plans need to be implemented and then tested to ensure their viability.

not too beat a dead horse (pun intended) however, the President gave the go a-head for a State of Emergency for all three states on Saturday morning, it was not until Sunday afternoon that the Governer of LA decided to implement the State of Emergency.

oh.. and before you get sucked into all that silly National Guard stuff.. there were plenty of National Guard present. they, too, however, were equally as impacted as the various populace in the effected areas. only units outside the immediate region were in a mission capable state and they were moved in as soon as they could be, by truck or helicopter, where possible.

heck... and you may not believe this... but i've heard it asserted that George Bush has actually caused the bleedin' Hurricane, of all things!

one often wonders if the world knew ill before President Bush was elected.

metta,

~v
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top