I just read a transcript of Ray Nagin’s interview where he lashed out at the abysimal relief efforts for his city. If the relief efforts were turned over to his control, New Orleans would be on the mend already. The guy’s a real leader.
I just read a transcript of Ray Nagin’s interview where he lashed out at the abysimal relief efforts for his city. If the relief efforts were turned over to his control, New Orleans would be on the mend already. The guy’s a real leader.
Deosn’t he have more to worry about NOW than the delay in the instigation of the relief effort? Do your name-calling later, we will still listen. But, keep in mind that his little slice of the world is now the recipient of the most MASSIVE relief effort the country has ever seen…Yes it was begun poorly, but, I assure you that there are no playbooks for a relief effort to cover 400 square miles, a million-plus indigent populus over a largely remote area. He needs to count his blessings and thank the lord for what he is getting. The rest of the country will remember when it is time to cast blame….LATER, Ray! we understand your frustration…but now is time to LEAD your people, not remind them of how victimized and abandoned the early relief effort left them…I’m sure they get enough of that every day that a hurricane didn’t take what little they did have.
a real Rudy Giuliani this guy is!
***BREAKING NEWS***
In a true sign that the EMT and relief workers are doing the impossible, the flow of the lifeblood of the bayou (fire water) has been reestablished in true Nawlins fashion.
On a boat trip Monday, through the flooded Canal St. neighborhood to survey his family home, musician Harry Connick, Jr. may have coined the Quote du force majure:
“When I was looking through the old neighborhood, I saw a BAR on Bourbon St. open for business…if that isn’t a sign that New Orleans is coming back I don’t know what is…”
HAH!!! How Apprapoe. I love these people.
I saw this post from a resident….
I agree in large part with what you say Jo but Mr. Nagin has blown several calls himself. He ordered a Mandatory evac only 10-12 hours before tropical storm force winds were being felt in NOLA> He also did not facilitate transportation to either the superdome or out of the city as the emergency evac plan called for. As late as Sat. night he was announcing that all that can should leave but stopped short of saying that everyone must go. His exact words were”I’ll be a little more forceful in the morning” The evac and contraflow plan calls for staged evacs STARTING 50 hours before TS winds are forecast. He called for evacs well after it was either safe or prudent to do so. Also the pic of all the school buses sitting flooded in their parking lots will do little to show how he used all means at his disposal to transport people out of the city. Mr. Nagin has some responsiblity for the outcome of this disaster, though not all. Another point Mr. Nagin fails to mention is that he announced Monday night that NOLA had dodged major damage. He stated that the flooding was much less than was feared. By Tues. Morning it was clear that the Levee had failed and flooding was occuring. At that point he had about 9-12 hours to mobilize and evac. people from both the superdome and the convention center. He did not order such an emergency evac.
Our dear (sarcasm) Gov. Blanco has much more responsiblity in my opinion. She was much more concerned with political posturing and crying on the morning talk shows than makeing critical decisions and implementing disaster plans. She was extremly hesitant in bringing in the National Guard and asking formally for Federal Help. She got in front of TV cameras and cried and begged for help but did not send the necessary paperwork to washington to federalize the emergency management. She still has not allowed President Bush to take control of this disaster on the Federal Level. I fault her and only her for this gross negelect for our great state and its citizens. I will provide a link a the end of my post to verify what I am saying about gov. Blanco and her refusal to allow the Federal Govt. to take over and manage this collosal Cluster F##. Sorry for the strong language but that is exactly how I feel. The first real relief our citizens, left abandoned in NOLA ,saw was friday when Active Duty Military units and National Guard units mobilized from other states by President Bush began rolling into town. I know it was late but this tardiness was a direct result of Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin being indecisive and not taking action. In this case the disaster overwhelmed the resources available to the STate of Louisiana and our leaders did not either realize it or did not want to relinquish control to outside agencies. either way it cost American Lives and there will be hell to pay if I have anything to do about it. I am currently interested in either starting or participating in a recall drive to get Gov. Blanco out of office NOW not later. She has proven that she is incapable of leading our state in a time or crisis and that she is incapable of making decisions in a timely and practical manner.
TIm
I concur. The mayor is just a jr. political figure at best…afterall, he is a foremer cable tv executive who worked for an old friend. The gov. holds much of the blame. I guess that we should ahve anticipated a Lacskidasical response from the Big Easy, anything less would have been astonishing. But, the governor and the mayor (as well as Lousiana’s federal elected officials) seem like the most disfunctional group of politicos I have ever seen from the same region in office at the same time. At times it looks like Jesse Helms serving the same people as Ted Kennedy down there…really! Anyway, no matter how heavy my heart is for them, I think they should stop posturing in front of every tv camera and microphone and help the people that elected them. There is plenty of blame for everyone:
federal (mike Brown, FEMA, bueaucracy, mary landrieu)
state (Gov. Blanco)
local (Ray Nagin)
I think they should have Gen. Russell Honore run the [place, he is the only one calling it right down there).
Anyway, if this stuff happens in NYC, there is a command post set up to run the ball game within 4 hours…the yankee game goes off as planned. The paperwork is not an issue.
In san francisco the political action committees and civic groups have already begun repair and memorializing the event, and blaming it on the republicans…they are planning the memorial and taking submissions on the design so long as it is from a female, minority, physically challenged, veteran, midget artist or firm.
in Raleigh a referendum is issued for the council to review and vote on what to do…then tabled for chamber discussion and brought before the council again before it is circulated to the area municipalities for concurrance, then submitted to the governor’s office for review and pending approval…yadda, yadda, until it is determined that more investigation needs to happen prior the the actual vote at next month’s meeting.
In NOLA, things are gotten to in due time…what have we ever seen from that region to ever indicate a sense of urgency about anything? this disaster was a disaster of many things:
mother nature
civic planning
coordinated response
emergency preparedness
disaster recovery
municipal continuity
chain-of-command
bureaucracy and talent
lethargy and lack of foresight
intelligence…they did not use what they had to get the job done as best as possible.
The real heroes: Meteorologists who gave NOLA 4 days (96 hours)!!!! to get their stuff together and NEVER did one of them say that you should not take this one lightly. They were simply ignored.