I just don't get why more wasn't done BEFORE the storm hit...

[begin_within]

After Katrina went through Florida, it became apparent that it was a more powerful storm than all the computers, numbers and categorizations predicted. Why wasn't the entire gulf coast evacuated, with PUBLIC ASSISTANCE to evacuees who had no transportation or means of their own, and why weren't all hospitals, nursing homes, and institutions evacuated well before the storm? I don't understand why this wasn't done thoroughly and efficiently before the storm hit the gulf coast, when there were several days advance notice.?

[Proud2BAmurkin]

1. Because the National Guard was in Iraq

.

[Carla in Ca]

10. Guess where Rummy was Monday????

At a ballgame!

From Americablog:

While the Gulf Coast was being destroyed, Rummy was at a ball game
by Joe in DC - 9/06/2005 09:11:00 PM


No shit. Spamalot for Condi. The Padres for Rumsfeld who was at a baseball game on Monday night:
Baseball Hall of Famer Dave Winfield wasn't the only VIP who joined Padres President John Moores in the owner's box last night at Petco Park. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld, here to join President Bush at the North Island Naval Air Station today, took in the game, too.
Was anyone in the Bush administration paying attention to Katrina? ANYONE?

[Name removed]

12. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[opiate69]

2. Same here..I've been saying...

that if I was in charge of FEMA, on the sunday before landfall,I would have had every truckstop within a hundred miles of the Louisiana border full of trucks loaded down with water, food, emergency supplies etc.. and as soon as the tempest subsided, hammer the fuck down.

[FloridaPat]

8. That was done. The Red Cross was ready to go. They had food on

Monday. FEMA wouldn't let them in the city.

[ThoughtCriminal]

3. It wasn't an election year

In brother Jeb's state. Compare FEMA's response to Hurrican Charlie and Frances. In 2004 Florida they were pre-positioned with ample supplies and manpower.

[knowbody0]

4. because this is ameriKa and there is no PUBLIC ASSISTANCE

[kansasblue]

5. seems like everyone (rescue) could have moved as close to the

storm area as possible, ride out the winds, as the winds die you drive in. People open the door to there home, stumble outside.... ta da! The National Guard is already there, And there is a FEMA rep, and the extra policemen from Dallas, search and rescue from Virginia.

It's not like we expected it to turn away. We just had to wait to see which states it was going to hit.

This is who they've done it in the past.

pissed!

[FloridaPat]

6. Transportation is only half the issue. Where do they sleep?

Where do they even go? You have to get them far away from the storm. They can't afford hotels. In fact, all those people that did leave are in a real bind. How long can they stay in a hotel. What do they do. Where do they go. No jobs. Can't go home. Have bills and mortgages.

Someone also posted that at some point they turned the people who were leaving back to the city because there wasn't enough time.

The Super Dome was a good idea. They should have bused everyone to the dome. But the frisking may have stopped a lot of people going in. Who wants to stand in line in the rain for hours just to get frisked.

Logistically evacuating a city is a nightmare. Why roads have to be clogged up I'll never understand. But that stopped a lot of people from getting out.

[Sushi-Lover]

14. There were buses available to 10 locations, including the dome

Finally found links for this, so here they are:

http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWL082705nagin.b7724856.html

http://www.katc.com/Global/story.asp?S=3775049&nav=EyAzdqAx

[bpilgrim]

7. that COST too much MONEY

we are BANKRUPT and KATRINA is gonna be our CHERNOBYL

:scared:

peace

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. Consider the fact that this storm was hyped to the moon

DAYS before it hit land. There were "solid" predictions that it would hit land at cat 5. Yet, nothing was done to prepare for it.

[Carla in Ca]

13. And even if they were there

they had to wait until asshat got there. The WORST thing ever done by any 'president'...EVER!


?

[SheilaT]

11. Evacuating hospitals and nursing homes

can be a nightmare. You have people who basically can't be moved. So it wasn't such a stupid idea not to evacuate ahead of time.

And this storm actually moved rather quickly across the Gulf, and the initial storm track had it traveling pretty much straight up the Gulf Coast of Florida.

Because we don't live in a true police state, even a mandatory evacuation doesn't allow people to be forcibly removed from their homes. There were those who'd made it through various other storms, including Camille, and thought that this would simply be like any of those. Which isn't to say there haven't been lots of predictions all along that this was inevitable, given the geography of southern Louisiana.

There probably were not enough vehicles in the entire city, even if everyone had been obligated to fill up his or her personal car with as many others as could have been accommodated, even if that could have been done there probably were not enough vehicles to move everyone out. On Amy Goodman (Democracy Now) the other day someone said the New Orleans has the lowest car usage of any city in America, including NYC. Meaning a lower percentage of people actually own cars there than anywhere else.

There's a distant possibility that this catastrophe will get other cities to craft good evacuation plans, but I doubt it.

[Sushi-Lover]

15. Somewhere in the two links I posted above it says that

they the police were able to commandeer property and vehicles if they had to to provide shelter and transport. The hospitals and nursing homes (in my opinion) should have been evacuated by the people running them with any help that was needed from the officials, but of course there is still the problem of where they would/could have sent the people and whether that could have been done in time (especially because they had special needs). I think there was also an element of people still thinking/hoping it would not happen and so there was not enough time in the end for doing that sort of complicated evacuation once they realized it was very very serious.

[applegrove]

16. Because standing down & creating a vacuum created so much political

and philosophical opportunity for the neocons & the rovbots.