Bush was told levies could break ....

[kc10family]

Many people knew of the “It could happen” but not much was done at ANY level. The cities, state and federal level failed the people. The PEOPLE themselves failed! Wolf, Wolf, Wolf. We cry wolf when we think we should and then “WE” get so sick of hearing it that when the wolf does come we get ticked off that we had no idea. The flat of it is, we know it could and at some point will happen, but choose not to see it coming. So, it is ALL who are at fault for Katrina, not just one.

 

[LoraJ]

I think there might be some reading comprehension problems on this thread. No one is saying that the levees being breached is/was his fault. What people have a problem with is him saying he was unaware that it was a possibility when in fact he was aware. Huge difference folks!

Thank you!
I was about to post the same thing.

 

[MAKmom]

I think there might be some reading comprehension problems on this thread. No one is saying that the levees being breached is/was his fault. What people have a problem with is him saying he was unaware that it was a possibility when in fact he was aware. Huge difference folks!

I thought the point was after the storm hit & the levees did breech...knowing they would they were so slow to stop everything & get help to New Orleans.

Laugh at me... but I would think this storm would STOP everything. I know I was glued to the TV. You would think a "war room" type thing would be going on. IMO

PS: I know The President has more to do than me.

 

[DawnCt1]

It must be a slow news day for the AP. Lets not forget when and who released the video. The White House did....on August 28th.

 

[tarmand]

I think there might be some reading comprehension problems on this thread. No one is saying that the levees being breached is/was his fault. What people have a problem with is him saying he was unaware that it was a possibility when in fact he was aware. Huge difference folks!

I understand what the original thread was about, but I think we've just kind of morphed into the old I like Bush, I hate Bush debate.

 

[What the Heck]

I thought the point was after the storm hit & the levees did breech...knowing they would they were so slow to stop everything & get help to New Orleans.

Laugh at me... but I would think this storm would STOP everything. I know I was glued to the TV. You would think a "war room" type thing would be going on. IMO

PS: I know The President has more to do than me.

You are right in one respect - there should have been a war rooom. And the proper place for it would have been in Baton Rouge. The first 5 days after Katrina hit, the state government was in charge of disaster relief. The only way Bush could have been in charge was if he had relieved the state government of their duties. He doesn't have that power, nor should he. The thought of that much power being with the President scares the hell out of me, no matter who is president.

 

[toto2]

Agreed - completey. Not to mention the failure of the people involved. Who missed the fact that they live BELOW sea level in some areas? Who missed the fact that they live in a hurricane prone region? If you need levees to keep water off of your street and out of your home you know you're in a rough spot. That anyone chooses to live like this is insanity to me. However, you are of course well within your right to do so. Just stop bemoaning the inevitable when it happens.

Erin

So I guess most of Californians should be blame when the big one arrives and recive no help !

 

[Puffy2]

Bringing up the Republican controlled Congress and Senate is opening up another can of worms. Apparantly, according to some, they can do no wrong either, so who exactly is going to take responsibility for our problems?

It certainly won't be the "tax and steal republicans".

 

[FergieTCat]

Therefore, we have two options:

August 28th -- The White House releases the video to show they are on top of things. They know the levees will break. I guess it's a stretch to assume they would try to have some damage control. Send some people down to the area BEFORE the levees break.

September 2nd -- President Bush claims he didn't know the levees would breach. This mess isn't his fault, no one could predict the levees would be compromised. (Except for The Weather Channel, National Geographic Magazine in 2004, New Orleans in the summer of 2005, a few citizens interviewed on camera saying they were worried about the levees, and probably my cat if she could speak, etc.)

Which one is it?

It must be a slow news day for the AP. Lets not forget when and who released the video. The White House did....on August 28th.

 

[eclectics]

So I guess most of Californians should be blame when the big one arrives and recive no help !

I was thinking the same thing. Kind of a crazy statement for the poster to make when a good portion of us live with the threat of a natural disaster right in our backyards.

 

[MrsKreamer]

Agreed - completey. Not to mention the failure of the people involved. Who missed the fact that they live BELOW sea level in some areas? Who missed the fact that they live in a hurricane prone region? If you need levees to keep water off of your street and out of your home you know you're in a rough spot. That anyone chooses to live like this is insanity to me. However, you are of course well within your right to do so. Just stop bemoaning the inevitable when it happens.

Erin

I know where I live. As does everyone else who lives here. Unfourtunatly the Federal govt has refused for decades to give us the proper funds we need to build our levees properly and rebuild and protect our wetlands(which also helps reduce damage in hurricane), and our local govt has been crooked for centuries, so I am not completely shocked as to why the Feds do not...

I never really chose to live here, I was born here. I had to live somewhere else and hated it, I missed my family and my culture. Why on earth I have to justify where I want to live is beyond me. If no one lived here the US wouldn't have the second largest port up and running. Think about that when you drink your coffee in the morning or eat a tomato on your sandwich at lunch. Next time you go on a cruise, maybe you should go to Galvestin or Mobile Bay to hop on the cruise liner...of coarse the bigger and more elborate ships usually dock here. When you turn on your radio half of the songs wouldn't exist without the influence Jazz and Blues which was allowed to be nurtured and grow in our city. Eat your bland food, and I'll enjoy mine with some taste.
Oh I don't hear anyone down here bemoaning, I do hear rebuilding and people getting on with their lives.

 

[MrsKreamer]

I still think there is a difference in being told they levees won't hold and then, after the storm moves to the east"sparing the city", and the levees break when the weren't supposed to...saying he "didn't anticipate" it happening. It doesn't matter though...even if the governor was receiving emails about how she was to be dressed down and in tennis shoes, to show she was a people person, and the fact that the mayor waited until Sunday to call for a mandatory evac, and then not have the Dome and Convention Center as prepared as they should have been, and even though tens of thousands of people decided against every warnign to stay(and yes many able bodied people stayed) without preparing themselves, it all comes down to the Federal govt(who never helped us before, in preparation) not sending in help until 2 and 3 days later(when the city was underwater, and people had paniced and started looting for food, guns, and plasma tvs).

 

[Boater]

Exactly the same thing. Sorry if you expected us poofy brokeback liberals to say something else.

I doubt that very much for 2 reasons.
1. The liberal media wouldn't have made a story out of it.
2. You'd be defending him with the same logic I used. Except Bill wouldn't have known about it.

Again I'm not defending Bush as President, because he pretty much sucks.
I'm sorry I voted for him.

 

[toto2]

I know where I live. As does everyone else who lives here. Unfourtunatly the Federal govt has refused for decades to give us the proper funds we need to build our levees properly and rebuild and protect our wetlands(which also helps reduce damage in hurricane), and our local govt has been crooked for centuries, so I am not completely shocked as to why the Feds do not...

I never really chose to live here, I was born here. I had to live somewhere else and hated it, I missed my family and my culture. Why on earth I have to justify where I want to live is beyond me. If no one lived here the US wouldn't have the second largest port up and running. Think about that when you drink your coffee in the morning or eat a tomato on your sandwich at lunch. Next time you go on a cruise, maybe you should go to Galvestin or Mobile Bay to hop on the cruise liner...of coarse the bigger and more elborate ships usually dock here. When you turn on your radio half of the songs wouldn't exist without the influence Jazz and Blues which was allowed to be nurtured and grow in our city. Eat your bland food, and I'll enjoy mine with some taste.
Oh I don't hear anyone down here bemoaning, I do hear rebuilding and people getting on with their lives.

Thank you for this answer.Some people dont seem to understand what "home " is and it is usually a lot more than just a building. Here in Québec , when we complain about the treatment french people recieved for many years , we were told by the rest of Canada "well go back to France , we won the war anyway" But this is home , not France . My first ancesters arrived here in 1650... this is my home ! So I trully hope that your home will be back to normal soon with all the help the different levels of governement !

 

[What the Heck]

Therefore, we have two options:

August 28th -- The White House releases the video to show they are on top of things. They know the levees will break. I guess it's a stretch to assume they would try to have some damage control. Send some people down to the area BEFORE the levees break.

Why, so they could be victims as well? (No, this thought isn't original, it was originally said by General Honore). Perhaps they should also have forced the people to put the troops up for the night as well? Maybe kicked themout of their houses for "their own good"? After all, if we are going to trample on the Constitution, lets really do it up right.

 

[FergieTCat]

I imagine you've never heard of a hotel in Baton Rouge?

Let's not get into a battle about the Constitution.

 

[What the Heck]

I imagine you've never heard of a hotel in Baton Rouge?

Let's not get into a battle about the Constitution.

Baton Rouge didn't flood (except with people). And the National Guard was prepositioned there to go in - but wasn't given their orders by their commander in chief (the governor) for a couple of days if I remember correctly.

It already is a battle about the Constitution. It is the separation of powers in the Constituation that is at stake. Who is to be the first responder? Should we have our military on every street ready to respond to any emergency? Should we federalize the police force? Should we federalize the hospitals, the EMT's, the local governments? To say that the federal government should have acted sooner is to say you wanted exactly that to happen.

It's called states rights - and states responsibilities. That is what truly failed here. That is why Florida fairs better during disasters (Katrina hit there first). They have had more to deal with, they have had more practice. Just my thoughts.

 

[kc10family]

So I guess most of Californians should be blame when the big one arrives and recive no help !

If the Californians are told "This is Comming! now get out" and they do not leave, and the city / state govt do not push the "GET OUT" worning, then the federal govt does the federal dance, then YES we are all to blame for not listening and taking care of ourselves and one another.
We need to listen to those who study / work in the fields that give us information for such things as these. But "it will never happen to me" comes out and that is the way we as humans seem to work. Sad, but true.

 

[tarmand]

I imagine you've never heard of a hotel in Baton Rouge?

Let's not get into a battle about the Constitution.

Good luck getting one. The hotels here were booked up about a week before the hurricane. Fortunately, we do have some people who watch the news and prepare ahead of time. I guess they could have cancelled the reservations of some of the people evacuating, but that wouldn't have been well accepted. Then we'd be debating about how the federal government put people out into the storm.

Guys, if you could have only been here before the storm. It was something else. A crazy New Orleans weather man was actually telling people that he understood that they had just evacuated for another hurricane that missed us and how they probably couldn't afford to do it again so he'd let them know the last possible hour that they could decide whether or not to evacuate. When he realized how bad the storm was going to be, he started saying things like, "Biloxi, you're gone." "That's the end of Grand Isle". The man had to have been on crack. By the time he told people to get out, it was pretty much too late. They weren't going to find a hotel room in a 300 mile radius at that point. Then soem of the people who couldn't afford to evacuate again, decided to DRIVE THEIR CARS to the Superdome to seek shelter. Now, if someone is telling me that a Cat 5 is heading my way and I have a car, why on God's green earth would I drive to a shelter that is still in the path? Why not drive to Baton Rouge to a shelter that is safer? Sometimes people need to take responsibilty for their own lives and not rely on the government to take care of them.

 

[tiberius]

Living in south Texas, I have seen my share of hurricanes and their problems. I remember watching the approach of Hurricane Katrina and listening to local radio discuss and wonder why New Orleans was not being evacuated as early as Thursday and Friday before it hit. They relaled a comparision as to how Houston would have already been under an evacuation order. (and this was before it ever hit New Orleans not after) Unfortunately, the New Orleans leadership weakness was shown when they finally issued the order too late to get everyone out.

A few weeks later we saw just how Houston handled an evacuation much better, although they have since had to work out many of their own problems with their plan.

The point is local leadership is where the solutions to these problems have to be handled. There is no one size fits all federal solution to a local problem. I sure would not want to see some federal official come down and try to tell us how to evacuate when they do not understand the area. Fortuantely for us, Houston's strong local leaders (of each Party) were up to the problem.