There Are No Words...

[Weg Cory]

Originally Posted by Raven

America is my adopted country.

This is not one of those times when I am proud to have been taken in by this country, whose current behaviour during this horrid disaster is so atrocious.

I love how so many supported not helping them because of a few people with guns. They used it so make sweeping generalizations about New Orleans, now likely 10,000 people are dead.

In contrast, once the military moved in, they confirmed what reporters were saying all along, they just needed help. Of course there were risk in moving in. Of course there is crime. Would they not move into Los Angeles after a quake? You think a some people would act lawless?

Funny, everyone had to focus on the looting. Last night, it was reported that officials needed more footage of people dying and that the focus on looting was actually counterproductive.

I am from Louisiana but I would not care where in the world this was happening, I would be so dissapointed.

How on earth is Harry Conick Jr and a Photojournalist for NBC walking around the convention center unscathed yet we couldn't get any military help in?

[Rolo]

Originally Posted by Weg Cory

How on earth is Harry Conick Jr and a Photojournalist for NBC walking around the convention center unscathed yet we couldn't get any military help in?

Very good question... I do not think it was the military holding back, I´m sure they can be deployed within hours to almost any place in the USA, and within days to the rest of the world.

Anyone know, if there are any other people/institutions but the Governor or the President that can decide that the military needs to be activated?

[Raven]

Originally Posted by Rolo

Very good question... I do not think it was the military holding back, I´m sure they can be deployed within hours to almost any place in the USA, and within days to the rest of the world.

Anyone know, if there are any other people/institutions but the Governor or the President that can decide that the military needs to be activated?

My husband, when he was in the Army....and I admit this was a long time ago, was on call constantly, no matter where he was stationed...whether it was for a potential 'action' somewhere in the world....or a disaster waiting to occur in the States.

Since the President is the ultimate head of state and the Commander in Chief, one would think he'd be apprised of the information available....such as topography, path of hurricane....statistics...the fact that Louisianna has been hit before...that NO is beneath sea level....I believe they are called advisors....

I also know that phone service works between the White House staff and government agencies and Mr. Bush's vacation house.....communications have come a long way...

I also realise I'm being a bit sarcastic and it's not directed at you....

But, damn it....We had notice. Enough notice to get something, anything prepared for this. I'm not a meteorologist...and, even I knew Katrina was going to hit the Gulf. Tracking hurricanes is far more sophisticated, these days, than ever before.

[sarettah]

If even most of this is true:

http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/0830/p01s02-ussc.html (article from Tuesday morning outlining what preparations had been made prior to the storm)

"FEMA, the federal disaster-response agency, moved its search-and-rescue teams - as well as stockpiles of ice, water, and food - as close as safety would permit."

"Such early deployment of relief is unusual in disaster-aid work. But damage projections had been so severe - and New Orleans deemed so vulnerable in its dependence on a network of levees, canals, and pumps to keep dry - that President Bush on Saturday went ahead and declared an emergency in the states of Louisiana and Mississippi, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to mobilize ahead of the storm."

"FEMA, meanwhile, had moved generators, ice, water, and food into the region for deployment after the storm. FEMA also brought in urban search and rescue teams from Tennessee, Missouri, and Texas, and set them up in Shreveport, La. Similar teams from Indiana and Ohio were staged in Meridian, Miss.

FEMA also deployed 18 disaster medical assistance teams to staging areas in Texas, Alabama, and Tennessee.

Louisiana deployed 3,500 Army National Guardsmen to help hurricane victims, and another 3,000 were on standby as of Monday morning, according to a Guard spokesman."

"The US Coast Guard shut down and evacuated its Gulf coast facilities, even as it sent more than 40 aircraft from the Eastern seaboard, and at least 30 small vessels, to the surrounding area. The units will be used for search-and-rescue operations and repairs of damaged waterways."


************************

Then there should have been no reason for it to take until Friday to get the shit in there.

[Dravyk]

Originally Posted by sarettah

Then there should have been no reason for it to take until Friday to get the shit in there.

We were posting at the same time, Sare.

I suspect what you said above and what I said about the reserves might be connected. I'm not sure how or why, but I am sure a year from now when there's an investigation we're going to find out that troops, supplies, etc that were near by were held up. Be in lack of communication, lack of coordination, lack of leadership, or (I hope not) for reasons unknown that were purposeful.

[sarettah]

This is fine today, now that the National Guard has made it's presence felt. But keeping the Red Cross out earlier in the week, when the Guard was not going in themselves is wrong.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05246/565143.stm

Homeland Security won't let Red Cross deliver food
Saturday, September 03, 2005

As the National Guard delivered food to the New Orleans convention center yesterday, American Red Cross officials said that federal emergency management authorities would not allow them to do the same.

Other relief agencies say the area is so damaged and dangerous that they doubted they could conduct mass feeding there now.

"The Homeland Security Department has requested and continues to request that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans," said Renita Hosler, spokeswoman for the Red Cross.

"Right now access is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities. We have been at the table every single day [asking for access]. We cannot get into New Orleans against their orders."

[MorganGrayson]

My father was career military. Growing up, I thought everybody's dad wore fatigues and combat boots. When I was young, he was full time National Guard. In 1968, he switched to the US Army and did the first of two tours in Vietnam.

He was always on call.
I remember sitting around the table by candlelight during the blackout of 1965...waiting. He was called in, he went, and the entire Connecticut National Guard was out to protect frightened people in the dark. He was also in downtown Hartford, CT, for the riots of 1965.

In the Army, he was frequently "on alert." Something somewhere would happen, and everyone got ready.

He was with the Army Corps of Engineers for a while, which gave him some of his greatest pleasure of his military career, because they built things. He was involved with building a school and a bridge. He was very, very proud of that.

To hear the US Military described as "not going in because it was too dangerous" would cause my father to have one of his loud, verbose shitfits.

[Dravyk]

As I posted in another thread, I saw a news report (think it was the CNN roundup but not sure) a few days ago where some idiot was holding on the reserves in Baton Rouge because "it was too dangerous to send them in"!!!

Of all the stupidest pieces of crap that's come out of this affair -- and there's been plenty of them -- that one floats at the top of the list!!!

I'd love to find that article again and see who said that, but there's too much info and changing info on the web right now for me to be able to find it again. It's also very possible the person who said that probably did without being named, as in "one high-goverment official" or something.