Katrina's Aftermath
In light of recent comments on this blog and the news media, I just want to know what the government should have done better with regard to this disaster?
Yes, there are lots of national guard troops in Iraq. Yes Bush was at his ranch when the storm hit. But what do you folks want done?
This is the first time that I can remember that a city of this size was completely evacuated. 80-90% of the city is underwater. Most people are not even in the city right now.
I realize it has not been a perfect relief effort, but what else could have been done?
I am sure FEMA would love to have a new director with knowledge levels as high as some of you all have.
Maybe we can prevent this from happening again.
Yes, there are lots of national guard troops in Iraq. Yes Bush was at his ranch when the storm hit. But what do you folks want done?
This is the first time that I can remember that a city of this size was completely evacuated. 80-90% of the city is underwater. Most people are not even in the city right now.
I realize it has not been a perfect relief effort, but what else could have been done?
I am sure FEMA would love to have a new director with knowledge levels as high as some of you all have.
Maybe we can prevent this from happening again.
posted by GOPHokie @ 11:29 AM
5 Comments:
At 9/02/2005 3:17 PM,
Anonymous said…
regarless of poltical preferences some people will use a tragedy unfortunatly for poltical gain - see bush's misuses of 9/11, or the current criticizm of bush because of katina - this is just a fact of life.
unfortunaly we live in a very partisian atomosphere, and to this I seem to remember that bush was the "uniter not a divider" - i as a moderate, who voted for bush in 2000 do not find this true about Bush- if he truely would have been a bipartsian president, so many people wouldn't be ready to jump his Sh*t because of katrina, other than the usual customers - therefore bush has made his fiercly partsian bed, now he can lay in it.
At 9/05/2005 4:32 PM,
Anonymous said…
Please see articles out today about how Certoff and DHS wanted to work on power sharing agreements rather than get the Aid in place. I find your post extremely naive and stupid. How about prepositioning materials? Not cutting the levee budgets year after year? Sending the National Guard in 5 days earlier?
At 9/05/2005 7:37 PM,
GOPHokie said…
Anon 1, please elaborate on what Bush specifically has done to divide the country that was not presupposed by an act of the left.
Anon 2, are you supporting Bush's response or criticizing it?
At 9/06/2005 8:57 AM,
Anonymous said…
While Bush does not deserve all the blame for the pathetic effort to respond to this crisis, he does deserve some.
1. He, along with administrations back to at least Carter, failed to fund efforts to strengthen the levee system that could have prevented this. Once again short term goals outweighed long term planning.
2. His statement that noone would have thought the levees would break is an outright lie. For a week leading up to the Hurricane the experts had predicted that the levees could break if New Orleans suffered a direct hit. Not only that but 1 year prior the local, state and federal agencies around New Orleans ran a mock disaster where a Hurricane breached the levees and determined that they were woefully underprepared.
3. With the knowledge that the levees might break and that the Hurricane would be sever regardless, National Guad troops and FEMA should have been prepositioned to respond the next day. They were not even activated until after the city had been underwater for a day.
4. First responders were simply overwhelmed. Bush has consistently favored increased defense spending to increased first responder spending for homeland security. More and better equip fire, rescue and police would have helped.
5. By all reports, consolidation of FEMA under the new Dept. of Homeland Security has decreased efficencies not increased them. What the hell are we spending all this money on anyway.
6. Scientist almost universally agree that global warming is contributing to the number and severity of hurricanes. Not only does Bush deny global warming exists, but what steps has he taken to deal with the consequences.
7. The wetlands of the gulf coast continue to errode. The area outside of New Oleans has lost 30 miles in the last 50 years. Those wetlands provide a buffer that takes the brunt of the storm surge. What effort has been made to reverse or even slow the destruction of this zone?
8. The Alabama and LA National Guards are depleted because of Iraq. To protect the homeland. But far more people are dead from this that were killed on 9/11. Maybe we are misusing the National Guard.
These aren't even all the problems long-term and short-term that were in Bush's control. I will concede that the state governments did no better, but that does not render Bush blameless. The Buck never stops here in this administration and his supporters never are willing to accept his failings even when they are plastered all over the TV.
At 9/07/2005 11:41 AM,
GOPHokie said…
Oh I think there were certainly mistakes made from everyone's perspective on this. I mean our 9/11 response wasn't perfect either, but we got through it.
I am just sick of every single thing that happens being Bush's fault. We ned to try to fix problems, not make more by pointing the finger at someone.
Why is a natural disaster anyone's fault?
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