Nagin and the rest of the LA government are not without blame

[qanda]

I feel like there is plenty of blame to go around for this fiasco and we lose credibility when we absolve those responsible of the blame that they should hold. Clearly, Bush should have done more. As soon as it was forecasted that Hurricane Katrina could be the big one, he should have cancelled his vacation and all events and gathered every single person necessary to make sure New Orleans and the Gulf Coast were being evacuated.

However, Mayor Nagin waited until less than 24 hours before the storm hit and even hours after it had gone to Cat 5 to issue a mandatory evacuation order and that is unacceptable. He could have and should have taken this threat more seriously and many of us said it before the storm and if he were a Republican, we would still be saying it. I refuse to hold my criticism of someone because of the party that they belong to and this event has been a colossal failure from the bottom up and the top down.

Now, when we get to what happened after the storm, that is a different ballgame. Clearly FEMA should have been in there and in charge because local and state governments did not have the necessary resources to handle the aftermath of this storm and the responsibility lies squarely with Bush and his minions.

[Canuckistanian]

1. Remember, it wasn't absolutely certain Katrina would hit NO

A 24 HR prediction can be 'way off.

Still, after it hit, he wasn't sitting on his ass, unlike some people...

[speedoo]

2. I agree with much of what you say.

My biggest problem with Nagin is that he apparantly did not have an effective evacuation plan in place.

CNN reported a little while ago that Gov. Blanco actually called Bush early Wednesday to complain about the Federal Govt. response. Up until that point, Bush had done nothing.

[spuddonna]

7. I dunno about that...

I watched a report on WWL today... They were saying the local/state govt had done drills with FEMA, and that they knew people would be trapped, possibly as many as 100,000 and that was something FEMA should have expected, and been ready to deal with...

I'm not sayingyou are wrong, but this is what I heard...

[speedoo]

8. As Mayor, I believe it is his responsibility to implement an effective...

evacuation plan.

FEMA totally screwed this up, but we can't lay all the blame on them (much as i'd like to)

[spuddonna]

9. Honestly, I don't know what the deliniation should be...

I've seen so many conflicting stories - local officials say this, FEMA and feds say that...

Who's responsible for busing the people out? I don't know. Randi Rhodes said the Gov had a request in last week for $5 million to fund rescue and evac ops, but the money didn't come. Is that accurate? I don't know.

I know I watched Mayor Nagin come with a list to WWL on Monday night of important things that needed to be done. He was very blunt about the damage, but seemed fully in control, and was asking then for assistance from the feds/FEMA/Army Corp of Eng. to fix the levee. Every day I watched him beg for help, till he went ballistic and was crying last night (Thur). That's the mpeg on AAR, dailykos that circulating...

I'm watching WWL right now - the Mayor of Kenner, Phil Capitano (sp?) is saying the only relief that has shown up is Walmart with water (WTF?!) and the city workers that have stayed to help...

So, when I see people beating on the Mayors and the GOV., my gut reaction is to say, at least they are THERE and they are helping these people, they are cutting trees and moving the rescued people...

They still have very few buses, there's no fuel in NO, and I can't believe that that's the local govt responsibility... The mayor of St Bernard says FEMA hasn't, and this was 3pm today, hasn't even contacted him!!

Ok rant done... sorry...

[JerseygirlCT]

12. I agree

Unfortunately, there's plenty of blame to go around. It starts at the city level and goes all the way up. This is a major mess and lots and lots of elected officials have contributed to it.

[RamboLiberal]

14. I just posted a story from Raw on LBN

on a Times-Picayune story in July saying the local govt was making a DVD in that was to be distributed to pastors and community leaders that basically told the poor they were on their own and they had to find their way out of town on their own resources.

They were going to distribute the DVD before hurricane season in September. Whoops.

I think there's plenty of blame to go around among all the govt officials from local, state to the Big Kahunah himself.

I also remember reading that 3 LA emergency resource management people were released prior to this for skimming Hurricane Ivan money.

[speedoo]

15. That's unacceptable.

The poor are on their own? Aren't there something like 30% of the NO population in poverty?

If what you say is true, I don't see how people can support that Mayor.

[Horse with no Name]

3. When he gave an address to the citizens of NO on Saturday night

He explained.
He COULD NOT issue a mandatory evacuation because the City's Attorneys were looking to exempt the hospitals.
If they could not exempt the hospitals, they could not issue it.
Mandatory evacuation means you have to be prepared to move EVERYONE and they couldn't.
However, he did say that although he couldn't say it was mandatory, he strongly suggested that everyone heed notice and leave town.
Many that didn't leave would be killed.
There wouldn't be alot of help for those left because of the flooding.
He said those things.
Apparently their city by-laws prevented him from doing it Saturday.
He said in no uncertain terms--"He had talked to the National Hurricane Center and that this is "THE BIG ONE". The one they had feared for all these years.
I heard that with my own ears.

[qanda]

6. I heard that on the NO feed I was listening to

However, if Nagin were treating it as a de facto mandatory evacuation, they should have had buses in the poorest neighborhoods evacuating the people on Saturday. I just don't think it was handled, on Nagin's end, with the same urgency that I heard in his voice in last night's radio call. There were many threads about this before the storm hit and that criticism seems to have been forgotten around here.

[FloridaPat]

4. Someone said there was a reason why he waited so late for the

mandatory evacuation. There was something that had to be set up and actually wasn't even set up at the time. As for mandatory evacuations - you still have the right to stay in your home. Mobile homes are a little different I think, but for a regular homeowner - they can stay.

There was a story about the NG too this week. Yes, 40% of their NG is in Iraq. But, there are 2 levels of NG - active and inactive. 60%-70% of their active NG is in Iraq. Right now everyone is tickled there is 7,000 NG in NO. If they had the complete active NG at home, they could have had 6,000 on Monday helping out.

It also took 2 days for the mayor to get the White House on the phone. Every disaster we've ever had, the NG was called up immediately and showed up. Not this time. Because there is too little NG in the country.

And why couldn't they get food and water in? Where are the boats? Where are the helicopters (Iraq)? Where are busses? They are not allowing food and water in until today. They are not allowing private boats in to look for people still in attics. Someone is jamming the short wave radios. Something is going on here.

[vi5]

5. I thought Nagin was a republican.....

When they had a clip of him on it said (R) next to his name.

[Tyranny_R_US]

10. Well bigger kudos to him for taking a stand against those in his party...

[Jersey Devil]

16. He was a Repub and flipped to Dem

I have no idea if he ran for office as a Repub or a Dem but I know he changed to Dem and I think fairly recently

[LibDemAlways]

11. I saw an interview with Nagin the day before the

storm hit, and he was smiling and joking that people should take a look around because NO could be destroyed. I don't think he had any idea what the city was in for. Formerly a repuke, he became a Dem before running for Mayor in 02. He is a former Cox Communications executive who supported the repuke against Blanco and supported the chimp in 2000.

[eleny]

13. Fema knew the levees couldn't hold but still cut the funding

Back up and focus on the real cause of why the levee funding was deeply cut. There may still have problems but not a breech. FEMA not being there as they should started back in the smoke filled rooms of Washington DC where the gouls cut the budget and bet the wad on small hurricanes in the Gulf of Mexico.