to the people in the path of the devestation Options

[PISTOFFBAD]

This situation is differant than the one when Andrew hit Florida. FEMA was able to come in to ground zero and set up tent cities and all things needed to support the homeless. You can't very well go into NO and set up anything. The people have to be brought out. The nature of this devistation makes it impossible to compare with Andrew and Florida.

[cypher]

This situation is differant than the one when Andrew hit Florida. FEMA was able to come in to ground zero and set up tent cities and all things needed to support the homeless. You can't very well go into NO and set up anything. The people have to be brought out.  The nature of this devistation makes it impossible to compare with Andrew and Florida.

I was comparing the preparation of the two disasters. If I were in charge of the situation, I would have staged C130 transports to take off every 30 minutes, getting people out of the area. I would also have moved a few wings of helicopter pilots to the next closest base, within 75 miles of the projected disaster area, able to move in at a moments notice. There really is no excuse for not being prepared for this, all of the world saw it coming.

The fact is that no matter what happens in this country we are burdened with a tremendous handicap because our commander in chief is incapable of pragmatic thought. It's just sad that people have to die because of that.

Cypher

[realdeal]

The fact is that no matter what happens in this country we are burdened with a tremendous handicap because our commander in chief is incapable of pragmatic  thought.  It's just sad that people have to die because of that.

Gimme a break Cy huh.

[cypher]

sorry man, don't kill the messenger.

Cy

[Bargod]

If I were in charge of the situation, I would have staged C130 transports to take off every 30 minutes, getting people out of the area. I would also have moved a few wings of helicopter pilots to the next closest base, within 75 miles of the projected disaster area, able to move in at a moments notice

Well, the airport was flooded until Thursday afternoon and bringing helicoptors within 75 mile would have put the choppers in danger of being destroyed since 90 thousand square miles were devestated by this hurricane. I now feel things moved too slow, but I think it was only because nobody could really believe that it would be this bad and when it was this bad it was nearly impossible to get people where they needed to be as quickly as they needed to be. Don't forget, the day of the flooding people were being rescued from flooded areas by helicopter. They were clearly prepared for that. They weren't prepared for less than half the population leaving the city when they were told it was a mandatory evacuation. I understand that not everyone could leave, but I think they were prepared to rescue those that couldn't leave. They weren't prepared for over 300,000 people staying behind in a city of just over 500,000. Hell, Fats Domino stayed behind. Don't tell me he couldn't leave. Harry Connick Jr. left, but he didn't take his family, and they needed to be rescued too.

There's an old parable about a religious man who finds himself in a flood. First he hears that the flood is coming. He tells himself that God will save him. Then the rains come. He tells himself that God will save him. Then the water rises to his front door and he tells himself that God will save him. Eventually he ends up on his roof with water all around him, but he tells himself that God will save him.
He spends the nite on his roof and is awakened the next morning by a man in a boat. The man offers to take him to safety. He tells the man "no, God will save me". Eventually the waters rise over the roof and the man drowns. When he gets to heaven he asks God why he wasn't saved. God tells the man, "I sent you news that the flood was coming. I thought you would get the hint when the water reached your front door. Heck, I even sent a man in a boat to get you. What the heck were you waiting for?"

[cypher]

I figured the local airport was flooded, but the same airports they are flying in and out of now could have been used, that is what I was inferring.

Cypher

[Undertow]

This was a forwarded e-mail to me. I thought i'd share it.


Maybe New Orleans Mayor Nagin would like to explain this picture before he and the rest of his democrat fellow travelers continue to blast the fed's.



Pass this around. They had plenty of means to get people out. Their claims of “we had no transportation” are, to be nice, suspect.



*** Thursday, Sept. 1, 2005: An aerial view of hundreds of flooded school buses in a lot in New Orleans, LA. The flood is a result of Hurricane Katrina that passed through the area last Monday.(AP Photo/Phil Coale) ***



As regards the National Guard troops and security, the Governor of the state of Louisiana always had the power to deploy the LA guard in the fashion that other state troops are being deployed today. It is her failure to do so that has prompted the President to get the help from other states.

The Mayor of New Orleans, who ordered all those people into the Superdome (yep, that was his big plan), had the power to bus them out of the city at the same time. The City of New Orleans moves many more children each day on school buses than were in the dome. Those buses were available and slated to be used for school the next day. He could easily have evacuated those people...but did not.



When ordering a mandatory evacuation you use what resources you have to move the people...he did not. If it was important and dangerous enough to order all citizens to leave, it was dangerous enough to help those people to leave. Yet, they did not. After they failed to do so...the busses ended up under water and useless.



Their evacuation plan was non-existent.

Their evacuation plan was get out on your own.

They know where every school in the state is. Most of them have gyms.

They could have bussed out 100-200 people to each of those gyms 100 miles inland and left the city empty.

The Mayor failed. The Governor does not appear to have put the National Guard on alert prior to the storm.

Both of them sat on their butts and waited for the feds to do it all.



In the end, it was FEMA, after the local and state government's failure, that had to get the job done...but now under much, much worse and dangerous circumstances.



No, it is not Bush's fault or the fed's fault. We must place blame squarely where it lies at the feet of the local and state executives who had neither the desire nor the will to make those calls, irrespective of their political stripe.

[cypher]

Can anybody else smell the lawsuits coming?

Time Magazine Article

Cypher

[Maj. H8Red]

How did he get his job you ask??? It's NOT who you know, it's who ya blow!