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WEAR-TV is reporting that someone found Plan A in a file cabinet.

A tent city for a thousand Hurricane Katrina refugees will be going up in the next week at the Northwest Florida Fairgrounds in Fort Walton Beach.

Eglin Air Force Base will oversee the set-up.

Commanders say forty-one tractor trailers full of air-conditioned tents, showers, latrines, and portable kitchens, are enroute from Holloman Air Force Base New Mexico.

Colonel Ed Keith, Eglin 96th Air Base Wing Commander: “Bottom line is we’re trying to stop the suffering and help as many people as we can and the military is good at this. And we’ve been asked to do it and we’re leaning as far forward as we can to make it happen.”

The Fairgrounds 65-thousand square foot building will also be put to use – housing two, two-hundred-fifty bed hospitals.

We are also hosting 50 families from Keesler AFB in Biloxi who have lost their housing.

This is the same plan that was used 30 years ago for Asian refugees, only this time the tents are air conditioned.

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Communications: I guess it would have been too hard to air drop hand-crank radios in New Orleans, like we did in Afghanistan, so people would know what to do and where to go.

Leadership: Michael Brown is dumber than mildew

Earlier on CNN, Brown was asked why authorities had not prepared for just such a catastrophe — given that the levees were designed to withstand only a Category 3 hurricane and Katrina was stronger than that.

“Government officials and engineers will debate that and figure that out,” he replied. “Right now, I’m trying to focus on saving lives. I think we should have that debate, but at an appropriate time.”

Brown said Katrina was unlike other hurricanes in which the magnitude of the disaster typically subsides after the initial blow. That was not the case Monday, when the Category 4 storm blew ashore.

“What we had in New Orleans is a growing disaster: The hurricane hit, that was one disaster; then the levees broke, that was another disaster; then the floods came; that became a third disaster.”

Brown said he had to be careful about getting rescue teams to the site earlier.

“Otherwise, we would have faced an even higher death toll,” he said.

You would think that the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency would be able to understand that the levees and flooding are a single event, i.e. the levees prevent flooding. He should also be aware that storm surge and flooding are the major causes of death in hurricanes.

You would think he would have heard of the National Weather Service, which could have told him that it was safe to fly and drive at least a day before his agency made any move at all. It may also surprise him that the military is capable of judging risk on its own, but can’t do anything without permission in the United States.

The military does weird things, like reconnaissance. The military would use satellite photos and flyovers to determine routes and doesn’t depend on paved roads. [He would probably be surprised at how many times an enemy fails to provide an army with paved roads on invasion routes.]

Based on his performance, I think that Mr. Brown might be qualified to round up carts in a parking lot. He shouldn’t apply at Wal-Mart though, the job would be too big for him.

[Editor: FUBAR is a technical military Acronym – the last part is Beyond All Recognition.]

Update: Because I’m really angry and would really like to tow him through the streets of New Orleans with his mouth open: Brown, did you ever hear of the Hurricane Hunters? They are in the military and their job is to fly through hurricanes. They spent most of a week flying through Katrina which is why we knew what a bad storm she was.

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There is a disinformation campaign in the media that everyone trapped by hurricane Katrina wanted to remain. Those trapped are being characterized as all being poor and minority.

Sorry, but that is not the reality.

The people who evacuated were those who had access to private vehicles, had enough cash to cover gas, whose vehicles could operate at 25mph or less for hours on end.

There are two daily trains from New Orleans, one to New York, the other to Chicago, and the Orlando to LA train that runs three times a week. They shut down early because the tracks have to cross the same bodies of water as the Interstates.

There aren’t that many buses still running, and bus service was cut off.

The airlines did not put on extra flights to get people out of New Orleans.

The rental car fleet exited the city.

There were hundreds of people who did not want to remain in New Orleans stuck in the Ritz-Carlton Hotel. These were people who didn’t live in the city, had platinum cards in their wallets, and a few whose cards really were platinum. There was no transportation.

When hurricanes hit everything reverts to cash. Nobody gives a damn how much money you have in your bank, or how big your credit line is, they want cash.

This was the end of the month. Many retirement checks and military checks are received on the first day of the month, and Social Security checks on the third.

Let’s stop blaming the victims, including those who are white, upper class Yankees.

Editor: Steve at The News Blog is reporting that elements from my neighbors at the 16^th Special Operations Wing have landed in New Orleans and their helicopters are staging out of Jackson.

They had to evacuate because of the hurricane and just flew back on Tuesday.

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[™ Kevin Drum]

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Ringo Hacking

One of these must turn it on.

[Editor: Ringo has entirely too much fun walking on keyboards.]

Friday Ark

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