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the majority of new orleans evacuated. why don continually ignore that? from all indications a vast majority of people evacuated... I guess 85-90% isn't good enough mr. 'mistakes happen'..
Nice diversion...
You're right Blanco declared a state of emergency on the 26th, well before landfall.
However, we're talking about the evacuation order and emergency declarations don't always include an evacuation order, though, in this case it probably should have. Both Max Mayfield, with the NOAA, and President Bush had to plead with Governor Blanco to order an evacuation before, finally, it was done.
the majority of new orleans evacuated. why don continually ignore that? from all indications a vast majority of people evacuated... I guess 85-90% isn't good enough mr. 'mistakes happen'..
This isn't about the evacuation order. It's about how Nagin and Blanco were playing politics and, then, when their mistake became apparent -- started pushing blame onto the feds.
There's a whole lot more that was wrong with Louisiana that made Katrina a horrible disaster than just Nagin and Blanco.
Decades of Louisiana politicians diverting money, intended for upgrading the levee system, into pork projects is probably at the top of the heap. I don't know all their party affiliations but, being that Louisiana has been, in the past a largely Democratic stronghold, It's a safe bet they were Democrats.
Then you have the fact that unbridled growth in an area -- geographically below sea level -- is just plain stupid. Personally, I think trying to rebuild there is just as stupid.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/08/2...ina/index.html
New Orleans braces for monster hurricane
Crescent City under evacuation; storm may overwhelm levees
Monday, August 29, 2005; Posted: 12:10 a.m. EDT (04:10 GMT)
Manage Alerts | What Is This? NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- New Orleans braced for a catastrophic blow from Hurricane Katrina overnight, as forecasters predicted the Category 5 storm could drive a wall of water over the city's levees.
The huge storm, packing 160 mph winds, is expected to hit the northern Gulf Coast in the next nine hours and make landfall as a Category 4 or 5 hurricane Monday morning.
The National Hurricane Center reports that conditions are already deteriorating along the central and northeastern coast. (Watch video to see the worst case scenario)
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared a state of emergency Sunday and ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city. (Watch video of mayor's announcement)
"This is a threat that we've never faced before," Nagin said. "If we galvanize and gather around each other, I'm sure we will get through this."
He exempted essential federal, state, and local personnel; emergency and utility workers; transit workers; media; hotel workers; and patrons from the evacuation order.
About 1.3 million people live in New Orleans and its suburbs, and many began evacuating before sunrise. (Watch video to see who's staying and who's leaving)
Nagin estimated that nearly 1 million people had fled the city and its surrounding parishes by Sunday night. (Watch time lapse video of the evacuation)
Between 20,000 and 25,000 others who remained in the city lined up to take shelter in the Louisiana Superdome, lining up for what authorities warned would be an unpleasant day and a half at minimum.
City officials told stranded tourists to stay on third-floor levels or higher and away from windows. (See video from New Orleans, a city below sea level)
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said that New Orleans could expect a complete loss of electricity and water services as well as intense flooding.
"We know we're going to have property damage," she told CNN's "Larry King Live." "We know we're going to have high wind damage. We're hoping we're not going to lose a lot of lives."
About 70 percent of New Orleans is below sea level, and is protected from the Mississippi River by a series of levees. (Full story)
Forecasters predicted the storm surge could reach 28 feet; the highest levees around New Orleans are 18 feet high.
Hurricane-force winds extend 105 miles from the center of the mammoth storm and tropical storm-force winds extend outward up to 230 miles. It is the most powerful storm to menace the central Gulf Coast in decades.
Isolated tornadoes are also possible Sunday across southern portions of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and the Florida Panhandle, forecasters said.
Federal Emergency Management Agency teams and other emergency teams were in place to move in as soon as the storm was over, FEMA Undersecretary Michael Brown said.
Katrina is blamed for at least seven deaths in Florida, where it made landfall Thursday as a Category 1 hurricane. As much as 18 inches of rain fell in some areas, flooding streets and homes. (See video of the damage floodwaters left in one family's new house)
At midnight ET, Katrina was centered about 90 miles south of the mouth of the Mississippi River. It was moving to the northwest at about 10 mph.
National Hurricane Center Director Max Mayfield said: "There's certainly a chance it can weaken a bit before it gets to the coast, but unfortunately this is so large and so powerful that it's a little bit like the difference between being run over by an 18-wheeler or a freight train. Neither prospect is good." (Watch Mayfield's assessment of Katrina)
Bush issues disaster declarations
President Bush announced Sunday that he had issued disaster declarations for Louisiana, Mississippi and parts of southern Florida. The declaration for Miami-Dade and Broward counties in Florida will allow residents there to apply for federal disaster aid.
"We'll do everything in our power to help the people and communities affected by this storm," he said.
The president urged anyone in the storm's path "to put their own safety and the safety of their families first by moving to safe ground."
Jesse St. Amant, the emergency management chief for Louisiana's southernmost Plaquemines Parish, said nearly 95 percent of the parish's 27,000-plus residents had fled by Sunday afternoon. Those who remained were being told that they are "gambling with their own lives."
"I think they just don't believe something of this nature can ever happen in their lifespan, and I think they're going to be wrong," he said.
As far east as Mobile, Alabama, 118 miles away from New Orleans, authorities warned of storm surges approaching 20 feet.
"I'm afraid most people look at the map and say, 'It's going to New Orleans, we're all right,'" said Mobile Mayor Mike Deal. "We're in harm's way with the current path of this storm."
Hurricane warnings are posted from Morgan City, Louisiana, eastward to the Alabama-Florida state line, including New Orleans and Lake Pontchartrain. This means winds of at least 74 mph are expected in the warning area within the next 24 hours.
A tropical storm warning and a hurricane watch are in effect from the Alabama-Florida state line eastward to Destin, Florida, and from west of Morgan City to Intracoastal City, Louisiana. A tropical storm warning is also in effect from Intracoastal City, Louisiana, west to Cameron, Louisiana, and from Destin, Florida, eastward to Indian Pass, Florida.
A tropical storm warning means tropical storm conditions, including winds of at least 39 mph, are expected within 24 hours. A hurricane watch means hurricane conditions are possible, usually within 36 hours.
Category 5 is the most intense on the Saffir-Simpson scale. Only three Category 5 hurricanes have made landfall in the United States since records were kept. Those were the Labor Day hurricane of 1935, 1969's Hurricane Camille and Hurricane Andrew, which devastated the Miami area in 1992. Andrew remains the costliest U.S. hurricane on record, with $26.5 billion in losses.
Camille came ashore in Mississippi and killed 256 people
Sunday. A full two days after federal authorities had started calling for the evacuation.
as of the following monday nobody was sure where the storm was heading?
The Louisiana Superdome, normally home of professional football's Saints, became the shelter of last resort Sunday for thousands of the area's poor, homeless and frail. Among those who lined up for blocks as National Guardsmen searched them for guns, knives and drugs were residents who hobbled to safety on crutches, canes and stretchers.
"We just took the necessities," said Michael Skipper, who pulled a wagon loaded with bags of clothes and a radio. "The good stuff — the television and the furniture — you just have to hope something's there when you get back. If it's not, you just start over."
so Nagin did have a back up plan for the city's poor folk... of course mistakes happen and no one knew that it would take 3 or 4 days to get basic supplies..Terry Ebbert, New Orleans director of homeland security, said more than 4,000 National Guardsmen were mobilizing in Memphis and will help police New Orleans streets
Bottom line. Nagin and Blanco played politics while the citizens of New Orleans drifted with inadequate leadership.
2 years later, Yoni continues the smoke&mirrors of trashing the mayor + governor while ignoring, hiding the disastrously incompetent and indefensible FEMA.
Exactly the same tactic as the Repugs blaming 9/11 on Clinton, while ignoring the total deafness of the dubya and head to 9/11 warnings and Al Qaida, sniffed at as a "Clinton thing".
Doesn't work with intelligent people. Part of the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy, Yoni's playing to the dumb red-state sheeple and rabble.
you're doing a heckuva job, yoni
Yoni cracks me up.
Happy to amuse.
FTW. Blaming the ACoE while ignoring this is pretty damned funny.Decades of Louisiana politicians diverting money, intended for upgrading the levee system, into pork projects is probably at the top of the heap.
Wow... I'm gone a few days, and this thread gets started and huge.
It's simple. The first responders and the local governments are competent in California, and a joke in Louisiana.
You lefties can blame president Bush all you want for the failures of Nagen and Blanco. You guys are so clear. So clear, you cannot see your hatred yourself.
It has nothing to do with the rest of the country learning from the mistakes of New Orleans... no couldn't be. Couldn't be that cities started to review their disaster planning and refining it.. No, no couldn't be. No one learns from others mistakes... doesn't happen. I mean after 9/11 not one city decided to organize and plan for a major terrorist attack... Your wrong again.
No problem. Harry, the realtor, Reid has it all figured out.
Global warming caused it all. And Boxer has announced if they
had just had the troops from California back out of Iraq along
with their equipment everything would be okay.
How many troops do you have to throw into a fire to put it out.
I really thought you had to be able to put water or re ant on
it to put it out. But , a U.S. Senator knows best. Throw
those troops on the fire. Or we could just follow old Harry's
lead in Iraq. Obviously the fire is winning so re-deploy all those
firefighters and get them out of harms way. Even if they beat
it down this time, it will just blow up again. Obviously we are
losing the fight on the fire in California.
Me personally, I have to congratulate those folks in San Diego.
They took their own safety seriously and did something about
it and are taking care of each other. Just hope they get their
homes back in record time and get their elected officials on
the ball so they can keep the brush and dead wood out of
the burned areas.
Well, let's review.
New Orleans, Louisiana is a coastal city, built below sea level, dependent upon a levee system to keep them from drowning. No reason to develop a plan BEFORE a ing hurricane struck.
California, as the old joke goes (and I do mean old -- going back decades to before the global cooling era of science even), has four seasons; earthquake, fire, flood, and drought.
I suspect California's response had more to do with their previous experience with fires than with Louisiana's failure to properly formulate or execute their own disaster plan.
Ouch!
Oh, and Dingy immediately retracted his assinine statement when asked by a reporter if he really meant it.
Drudge is running a banner now that one of the bigger fires is an arson.
Terrorism?
I heard on the news today a report that a witness saw a motorcyclist making a getaway from a fire. I think that's the source of the arson theory. Coincidence or not? As for terrorism, I hear there was I think a 1993(?) account as a plan for such an attack. That too doesn't make it so. I think if it was terrorist related, they would have already taken responsibility.
Besides, it cannot be arson. That would prove Harry Reid wrong...
Wildfires get personal for lawmakers“One reason why we have the fires in California is global warming,” Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) told reporters Tuesday, stressing the need to pass the Democrats’ comprehensive energy package.
[QUOTE]
or katrina could have been a wake up call for the country..
It's sick that a arsonist would want more fires....
A suspected arsonist was shot and killed by San Bernardino police last night, authorities said.
LA TimesThe man was spotted in a remote, brushy area behind Cal State San Bernardino, said Lt. Scott Patterson of the San Bernardino Police Department.
University police called in San Bernardino officers. When officers approached the suspect, he jumped in a car and fled, Patterson said. The man drove north on Waterman Avenue, then up a dirt fire road into the foothills, he said. When officers tried to stop him, he rammed their vehicles with his car, Patterson said.
"The officers fired their weapons in self-defense, and the suspect was struck and died as a result of his injuries," Patterson said.
New Orleans, LA also has a per capita income level roughly half that of San Diego, CA. I'm guessing they had more resources at their disposal and are not as dependent on the Feds as the Big Easy.
It's easier to drive a Tahoe to Qualcomm than to walk to Baton Rouge.
Have their power, water and supplies and exits from the building been cut off yet?
They showed video of some of the Qualcomm 'victims' getting massages....are you kidding me?!?
Actually, it's about $5,000.00 less per year.
And, you're right, dependency on the feds is a huge part of the problem.
Yep, when you have a population waiting for someone to change your diapers, and it doesn't happen...
All breaks loose!
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