New Orleans current problems are the Federal Government's fault. More specifically, George Bush's fault.
Huh? What?
I've been hearing this for days now, and I'd like to present a few facts to consider towards these statements:
1) The response to Katrina, by the federal government, was faster than the federal response to "Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne." A quote from this Jack Kelly opinion piece in the Post-Gazette:
For instance, it took five days for National Guard troops to arrive in strength on the scene in Homestead, Fla. after Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992. But after Katrina, there was a significant National Guard presence in the afflicted region in three.
The difference in the previous hurricanes? Local and state governments did THEIR job in protecting THEIR citizens.
2) What is the latest news on the rest of the disaster area? Mississippi? Alabama?
As devastating as it was to those areas, could it be that they are doing their jobs? Prior to the storm making landfall, Mississippi's Governor Haley Barbour was all over the news, warning his citizens to prepare for the storm and flee if they could. Louisiana's Governor Kathleen Blanco was nowhere to be found.
After the storm, I can't say I've seen or heard much from Governor Barbour, but I have seen and heard a lot from Governor Blanco. Personally, I think one of them is too busy doing their job to be heard from.
3) Finally, could someone explain this:
For those who have not seen this picture yet, these are New Orleans local school buses. They may have been funded from federal funds (maybe), but were under local control. From estimates of other pictures of this lot, there were 205 local buses in this lot. They were not in the control of the federal government, but local authorities had it in their power to rescue people with them.
The New Orleans Regional Transportation Authority had 364 buses under their local control. Again, much like this picture, no local authority thought to use these buses for evacuation either.
I have heard some local government defenders on the radio claiming that these 500+ buses could not have been used for evacuation due to no one announcing where they could go to. Gee, how about, oh, higher ground maybe? How about away from where you last saw the storm heading? Please, folks, I would have given the drivers of the buses a whole lot more intelligence than these defenders have.
--Colonel Steve
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