Difference between the fires and Katrina

[What the Heck]

So: A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of FEMA. Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was known to be one of the top three risks in the country. FEMA was deliberately downsized as part of the Bush administration's conservative agenda to reduce the role of government. After DHS was created, FEMA's preparation and planning functions were taken away.

Actions have consequences. No one could predict that a hurricane the size of Katrina would hit this year, but the slow federal response when it did happen was no accident. It was the result of four years of deliberate Republican policy and budget choices that favor ideology and partisan loyalty at the expense of operational competence. It's the Bush administration in a nutshell.

—Kevin Drum 1:33 PM Permalink | Trackbacks | Comments (0)

Comments

Gee, this didn't happen under previous presidents. Oh wait, yes it did:

http://archive.newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/6/235212.shtml
Raymond 'Buddy' Young, whom her husband appointed to the post of Southwest Regional FEMA Director in 1993.

Mr. Young, a former Arkansas state trooper, won the promotion after heading up efforts to discredit other state troopers whose allegations fueled the Troopergate scandal.

Had Katrina struck during the 1990s, Young would have had jurisdiction over disaster relief efforts for New Orleans.

 

[What the Heck]

In a nutshell, What the Heck:
You don't give your enemies or your opponents ammo to use against you. If this disaster would have happened on September 2004 instead of 2005, GWB administration's slow response would have cost him the 04 election. How this situation was handled was one of the reasons for the decline of GWB and his poll numbers.

We are singing the same tune. What I have a problem with, though, are the 24% who blame Bush for everything. Oh they give a little of the blame to Nagin and to Blanco, but Bush should have had troops in, Bush should have delivered water, Bush should have been running everything.

What Bush did wrong is, in my opinion, exactly what you outlined - it was political, not actual. He made mistakes that I know his predecessors would not have made, especially former president Clinton. But the things he is blamed for is beyond ridiculous.

 

[NotUrsula]

One thing I'd like to note is that the Coast Guard was the ONLY federal agency that didn't have its hands tied by the change of structure that made FEMA a subunit of the Dept. of Homeland Security. The USCG could act while no other agency could. The extra layers of bureaucracy made the bad situation worse.

The truth is that the federal agency that REALLY fell down on the job in Louisiana wasn't so much FEMA; it was the Corps of Engineers. They have about 90 years of bad decisions to answer for.

The failure of the levees wasn't just about hurricane-force winds. It was about MRGO, and the pipeline channels, and erosion on the barrier islands. It was about the wrong kind of houses and apartments in New Orleans East and St. Bernard where no suburbs ought to be. The eventual levee failure *was* predicted, but all of the possible solutions that would have prevented it cost WAY more money than the state had or probably ever will have. Essentially, the only preparedness plan for a major levee failure that local government had was prayer. As in "pray that it doesn't happen, and if it does happen, pray that anyone caught in it dies quickly and doesn't suffer too much." Local news stories had been telling people for years that it was a good idea to store an axe and a crowbar in the attic in case the levee broke, and a lot of people actually were able to save themselves because they remembered that.

 

[Chicago526]

I don't understand some of the responses on this thread. I may not be the sharpest knife in the kitchen, but even I can see there's plenty of blame to go around.


You got the residents of N.O, some of who should have taken more responsibility in preparing for the worst and evacuated, if they had the means to do so.

You also had a thug element who took advantage of the disaster to cause even more problems and mayhem than usual.

You had a incompetent local and State government who should of did more and really dropped the ball. Nagin and Blanco are synonymous with the words failure and incompetency.

You have the Federal government and an agency that's sole purpose is to provide relief in disasters, made sure everyone clearly saw how incompetent and slow they were as well. The words of: "Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job." will be always known as sarcastic slang for things done/ performed very poorly and half *****.


You have a President and his staff who waited way too long to take action, regardless of who they thought should be doing the relief work, they should have done more sooner. There's no reason in the age of communication why the administration didn't see what we all did on our TV's. As the CEO of the country, the POTUS should have realized that his popularity and poll numbers would be affected by this. Him flying over the affected areas in Air Force One and looking out the window, really hurt his image. I can still remember the political cartoons blasting him over that. Those kind of mistakes usually end most political careers.


To me it seemed like there's more than enough blame to go around and it's more than just one person. I think as a nation, lessons were learned from that disaster. I think California is proving that.

Well said, and I totally agree. We as a nation failed on an individual level (lack of personal responsibility) as well as city-county-state-federal level. Bush wasn't even mostly responsible for the poor response. But he had a chance to step up to the plate and lead and he didn't, and neither did Nagan and the LA govenor (not sure of the name, I have a poor memory for names).

Fortunatly so far, SoCal seems to be avoiding NO's fate, hopefully that will continue.

 

[Tink&SquirtsMom]

I don't think Californian learned from Katrina at all.

I live in CA and I think if what had happened in NO happened here we would have had mass chaos, maybe not on the same level but MUCH greater than we are seeing with the wildfires.

CA HAS actually learned a ton from Katrina and Arnold has talked alot about that in his speeches in 2006. For 1, where were the worst levees outside of LA... Yep, they were in CA, in a less than 100 year flood plain that had been recently (and rapidly) developed with hundreds and hundreds of homes. Did we have a plan for a citywide flood in that area? Not until after Katrina. Post Katrina, suddenly repairs for the Sacramento levees are funded (after years of everyone voting them down) and disaster plans are in place. This would not have happened without Katrina.

 

[LuvDuke]

You know I miss the old threads when you would provide quality responses, even if I didn't agree with them. This calling anyone who stands up for the President for a situation and turning it into they must be standing up for him no matter what the sitatution is really getting old.

War on Iraq and the evidence to get there? Blast away. Just because he is wrong on one doesn't make it his fault for everything. I have stood my ground on Katrina since 2005. And no one from the left, not even the staunchiest of that 24% has ever answered this question:

If you think Bush is such an idiot, why do you want to give him dictotorial powers over the entire United States? The powers those from the left blast him for not using are powers that he is not allowed to use in the Constitution. You would have, in effect, given him powers to federalize and declare martial law for any situation that should be handled by local authorities - any situation, such as a traffic light going out. I've been waiting for an answer on that one for 2 years.

That's funny but the "24%" have no problem giving Bush carte blanch to torture, invade countries, and wiretap, but then have a real problem when it comes to helping victims of a natural disaster. And that's what this is all about and it's coming through loud and clear.

 

[LuvDuke]

Perhaps if the thousands of others who COULD have left did, she would have been helped sooner. The world will never know.

Of course, it IS easier to just blame someone else.

FYI, over 80% of the people who were told evacuate in NO did just that.

 

[LuvDuke]

What the Heck, let me try and answer your question and clarify my position a little.



I believe that every President and politicians in general, only have so much capital or goodwill built up with the American people. It's like a one time cash loan and once you spend it, it's gone and not coming back. That's why it's very important to make sure you eliminate and prevent any missteps if possible. When a POTUS is low in poll numbers it affects his ability to properly lead and push his agenda through, especially if members in his party are scared of being tainted by associating with him. It's hard to get re elected when your own President is dragging you down.

It was pretty clear after a day or so that the situation in N.O was turning into a big bag of crap. I was watching the same news channels as everyone else was and thinking what a "cluster (insert profanity) it was turning into. If I was the POTUS and essentially the CEO of America, I would have been on the scene. I would have applied pressure and force needed on those to get the job done, ball rolling, etc. I would have rather been slammed for doing too much and being too hands on, then be portrayed as doing too little or appear to not care. I would have put Blanco and Nagin on the spot, in front of the cameras for all the America to see. I would have tried to make sure made sure men like Lt. Gen. Russel Honore were on the scene sooner. When Gen Honore got off that helicopter and took charge, things started to get done and I will always remember the image of him and what good he did. To me, he made me proud of our military and my Country. He should have been on the ground much sooner, IMO.

In a nutshell, What the Heck:
You don't give your enemies or your opponents ammo to use against you. If this disaster would have happened on September 2004 instead of 2005, GWB administration's slow response would have cost him the 04 election. How this situation was handled was one of the reasons for the decline of GWB and his poll numbers.

And lest we forget, Bush was told that the levees had been topped on the Monday morning when Katrina hit.

 

[LuvDuke]

We are singing the same tune. What I have a problem with, though, are the 24% who blame Bush for everything. Oh they give a little of the blame to Nagin and to Blanco, but Bush should have had troops in, Bush should have delivered water, Bush should have been running everything.

What Bush did wrong is, in my opinion, exactly what you outlined - it was political, not actual. He made mistakes that I know his predecessors would not have made, especially former president Clinton. But the things he is blamed for is beyond ridiculous.

The "24%" are the people who still support Bush, not the ones who blame him. Unbelievably, 24% still think he's doing a good job.

 

[Hound 109]

Our home and area took a hit from Isabel. We had 80 mile per hour winds here. Not nearly what hit NOLA. They told us to fill our tubs with water etc. I was home alone. I watched the news, filled my tub with water for flushing the toilet, stored other water, had previously bought Ice for the freezer and fridge and water for me to drink, I had my propane tanks filled and food that I could grill. I also own a generator and had all the gas cans full of gas. I knew it was coming and I was prepared. All of the stuff I bought was used when the power went out or later after everything was back to normal. DH and I knew that we could be hit by a hurricane, so we built our home with hurricane ties (only cost about $50 for the entire house) and installed them ourselves. Other than an object puncturing our siding our home was untouched. Not all of our neighbors could say the same. I also called our neighbors and told them to come here if they needed to. Some neighbors said they should have. We lost almost 10 30 foot trees in our yard and our pet was so scared she injured her eye. I called the vet and they said to bring her in the next morning. I was driving in fields etc. to avoid the downed trees in the road. She was blind in her eye so the vet removed it. Then we made the long trip home. That afternoon the neighbor and I pulled down all the trees and put them in our woods. When DH got back from his business trip he said that we must not have gotten it bad. He quickly realized that was not true. I never had any help from anybody but my neighbor. I did not need FEMA or the state to help. I took matters into my own hands.

If more people did this then the ones who really could not help themselves would get the help they needed faster.

& then the levy broke & our home was under 15 feet of water.

(rats....i must have missed that chapter in the "self preparedness" manual.)

 

[What the Heck]

The "24%" are the people who still support Bush, not the ones who blame him. Unbelievably, 24% still think he's doing a good job.

There are also 24% who will blame him because it rained today. And when he is blamed for things that aren't so, it dilutes the times when he should be blasted. No one is wrong 100% of the time, heck, even Clinton isn't/wasn't wrong 100% of the time. There are people who, if apportioning out the blame would go Nagin 1%, Blanco 1% and Bush 98%. I merely suggest that it should be closer to Nagin 30%, Blanco 60%, Bush 10%, for the reasons Disneyfan67 put down. No matter how much people claim it, he wasn't "the decider" during Katrina - Blanco was. And I, for one, would not want to give him or any other president that much power. If I wanted to live in that kind of dictatorship, I'd move to Russia.

 

[Hound 109]

The video clips they're showing of Qualcomm Stadium certainly paint a different picture than the Superdome. Everything is going smoothly, and the volunteer effort has been amazing. If only all evacuations could be like this. I'm proud to be in CA!!

Wasn't part of the problem at the Superdome that they were having trouble getting supplies / relief in because the roads were flooded? I'll never forget that utter chaos.

Check out this little guy. He is so unfazed by the evacuation...just happy to have a blankie!

The other problems (there were dozens) included the Superdome being indoors......in 95 degrees....in 99% humidity....& alot of the people were NOT AT the Superdome. Supplies & relief didn't get to the CONVENTION CENTER (which was miles away) for several days......because the relief agencies, the feds & many of the news reporters DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THEY WERE THERE.

People pay money to sit outside at Qualcomm on a breezy day......but the Superdome & the Convention Center & the rest of center city NO on Labor Day of '05 was hell.

(cute puppy in SD, btw.)

 

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

Wait I thought the government was not there, isn't that a military uniform on that guy? US Coast Guard helicopter? Damn, I keep hearing the government did nothing yet here is a picture of them rescueing someone the local and state governments abandoned.

Also, dosn't the Coast Guard work for...(wait for it..) The Department of Homeland Security? (Why, lets see.. YES they do!! Hmmmmm) Federal Government!

 

[eclectics]

Also, dosn't the Coast Guard work for...(wait for it..) The Department of Homeland Security? (Why, lets see.. YES they do!! Hmmmmm) Federal Government!

Post #203... First Paragraph.

 

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

Post #203... First Paragraph.

You SERIOUSLY don't expect me to read all these RANTS, do you?

 

[JennyMominRI]

The other problems (there were dozens) included the Superdome being indoors......in 95 degrees....in 99% humidity....& alot of the people were NOT AT the Superdome. Supplies & relief didn't get to the CONVENTION CENTER (which was miles away) for several days......because the relief agencies, the feds & many of the news reporters DIDN'T EVEN KNOW THEY WERE THERE.

There was live footage from the convention center almost immediately. There was footage long before any help arrived

QUALCOMM..It will always be the Murph to me

 

[yeartolate]

OK, here is one difference between Katrina and the California wildfires...Fox news didn't report that Al Quaeda could be responsible for fot the floods.

Fox announced today that a report from JUne this year said that this was a plan in the works by AL-Quaeda. Unfortunatly it was an unsubstantiated memo from 4 years ago tha thad to do with several other states, none of them California.

 

[LakeAriel]

OK, here is one difference between Katrina and the California wildfires...Fox news didn't report that Al Quaeda could be responsible for fot the floods.

Fox announced today that a report from JUne this year said that this was a plan in the works by AL-Quaeda. Unfortunatly it was an unsubstantiated memo from 4 years ago tha thad to do with several other states, none of them California.

and this will be repeated over and over as truth..

Well maybe not, you may have ended it before it started..thanks!

 

[Mr Man]

OK, here is one difference between Katrina and the California wildfires...Fox news didn't report that Al Quaeda could be responsible for fot the floods.

Fox announced today that a report from JUne this year said that this was a plan in the works by AL-Quaeda. Unfortunatly it was an unsubstantiated memo from 4 years ago tha thad to do with several other states, none of them California.

FOX news cracks me up sometimes.

Although I did see this news report about the Santiago fire.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/10/24/national/main3401265.shtml

I would like it noted for the record that this link is from CBS

I would hate to be one responsible for setting a fire maliciously. Like the guy in the Riverside fire a while back that killed all those fire-fighters......

Grr...

 

[Charade]

Well at least the Dems are consistent. Harry Reid blames (Bush's policies) global warming for the fires and Bush's policies for Katrina.