Lest We Forget
As I wrote last year: the response was screwed from the beginning.
In the map below, the area in yellow are those parishes included in the 08/27/2005 FEMA emergency declaration:
The area in red are the parishes actually at risk from hurricanes – they got it exactly reversed, which prevented aid from being pre-positioned in northern Louisiana.
The USS Bataan followed the storm north through the Gulf and was immediately available to render assistance to New Orleans, but was never used.
The military personnel at NAS Pensacola, Whiting Field, Hurlburt Field, Eglin AFB, and Fort Rucker waited days to be called upon. After finally being allowed to do their job, the RED HORSE engineers and Combat Air Controllers from Hurlburt had the New Orleans airport accepting traffic within hours. They were slower than normal because they had been waiting days on alert to be sent.
Most of the “gunshots” in New Orleans were probably electrical equipment shorting out from the flooding. The “rioting” that was reported did not happen and the “looting” was the result of no aid being allowed into the city. People died as a direct result of the rumors that were reported as news.
They keep saying they have to spy on the American people to make us safe. Well the American people had a better idea of what was happening in New Orleans from watching the news, than this administration with all of its illegal wiretaps. It doesn’t matter how much data you collect if the people at the top don’t know what they are doing.
Corruption, cronyism, and incompetence – those are the hallmarks of everything this White House has done.
2 comments
Not only did they get it exactly reversed, but apparently they failed to realize that hurricanes originate over WATER. For one to get to northern Louisiana, it would have to smear southern Louisiana FIRST. Any idiot who’s passed the first grade knows that. But apparently nobody in the Bush regime does.
I couldn’t believe it when I read it because they list every parish/county in the declaration and they get the list from the state. The state declaration lists the parishes in red. Not only did they screw up, but they had to work to do it by looking up the names of the unaffected areas.