September 11, 2005
Must Read on Katrina response: Media knows no shame
Columnist Jack Kelly tells it like it is on the Katrina response:
No shame--The federal response to Katrina was not as portrayed
It is settled wisdom among journalists that the federal response to the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina was unconscionably slow.
[All this week when the MSM kept saying this, I was asking, "Slow, as compared to what?"--Jen]
"Mr. Bush's performance last week will rank as one of the worst ever during a dire national emergency," wrote New York Times columnist Bob Herbert in a somewhat more strident expression of the conventional wisdom.
But the conventional wisdom is the opposite of the truth.
Jason van Steenwyk is a Florida Army National Guardsman who has been mobilized six times for hurricane relief. He notes that:
"The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was
For instance, it took five days for National Guard troops to arrive in strength on the scene in Homestead, Fla. after Hurricane Andrew hit in 2002. But after Katrina, there was a significant National Guard presence in the afflicted region in three.
[Note: Response to Andrew may have been "slow," also due to the fact that the Florida Gov. at the time, Lawton Chiles, was also a Dem hotdog who saw working with the feds as a "power grab" not a rescue. The MSM made President Bush 41, the father, suffer almost as much as his son is now for their "slow response."]
Journalists who are long on opinions and short on knowledge have no idea what is involved in moving hundreds of tons of relief supplies into an area the size of England in which power lines are down, telecommunications are out, no gasoline is available, bridges are damaged, roads and airports are covered with debris, and apparently have little interest in finding out.
So they libel as a "national disgrace" the most monumental and successful disaster relief operation in world history.
I write this column a week and a day after the main levee protecting New Orleans breached. In the course of that week:
*More than 32,000 people have been rescued, many plucked from rooftops by Coast Guard helicopters.
*The Army Corps of Engineers has all but repaired the breaches and begun pumping water out of New Orleans.
*Shelter, food and medical care have been provided to more than 180,000 refugees.
Journalists complain that it took a whole week to do this. A former Air Force logistics officer had some words of advice for us in the Fourth Estate on his blog, Moltenthought:
"We do not yet have teleporter or replicator technology like you saw on 'Star Trek' in college between hookah hits and waiting to pick up your worthless communications degree while the grown-ups actually engaged in the recovery effort were studying engineering.
"The United States military can wipe out the Taliban and the Iraqi Republican Guard far more swiftly than they can bring 3 million Swanson dinners to an underwater city through an area the size of Great Britain which has no power, no working ports or airports, and a devastated and impassable road network.
"You cannot speed recovery and relief efforts up by prepositioning assets (in the affected areas) since the assets are endangered by the very storm which destroyed the region.
"No amount of yelling, crying and mustering of moral indignation will change any of the facts above."
"You cannot just snap your fingers and make the military appear somewhere," van Steenwyk said.
Guardsmen need to receive mobilization orders; report to their armories; draw equipment; receive orders and convoy to the disaster area. Guardsmen driving down from Pennsylvania or Navy ships sailing from Norfolk can't be on the scene immediately.
Relief efforts must be planned. Other than prepositioning supplies near the area likely to be afflicted (which was done quite efficiently), this cannot be done until the hurricane has struck and a damage assessment can be made. There must be a route reconnaissance to determine if roads are open, and bridges along the way can bear the weight of heavily laden trucks.
And federal troops and Guardsmen from other states cannot be sent to a disaster area until their presence has been requested by the governors of the afflicted states.
[It's still unclear when--or even if--Louisiana Gov. Blanco has signed this order for her state.
She has retained some degree of state controll, which is why our military has never had "shoot-to-kill" orders in New Orleans and is instead deployed as an "humanitarian force."]
Exhibit A on the bill of indictment of federal sluggishness is that it took four days before most people were evacuated from the Louisiana Superdome.
The levee broke Tuesday morning. Buses had to be rounded up and driven from Houston to New Orleans across debris-strewn roads. The first ones arrived Wednesday evening. That seems pretty fast to me.
A better question -- which few journalists ask -- is why weren't the roughly 2,000 municipal and school buses in New Orleans utilized to take people out of the city before Katrina struck?
[The now-famous photo of those 200 school buses apparently shows only 1/10 of the fleet Mayor Nagin had at his disposal.--Jen]
The MSM has a lot to answer for, but their coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina took them all the way into the lethal sludge and stink of the Big Easy itself, using it as an occasion to engage in not only bashing President Bush (their very favorite pastime), but to play the race card, too.
When told by the Feds not to show the dead bodies of Katrina's wrath, CNN sued and won for that "privilege," oblivious to the indignity of either those deceased persons or their families, yet up through today of all days (the 4th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks), the networks still refuse to show the pictures of the victims of the 9/11 attacks, especially those of the jumpers from the WTC, because it's too "upsetting" to the American people.
Not only was the federal response quick and decisive in getting recovery and rescue underway, but I have been amazed at the incredibly small number of deaths and casualties and quite astonished that our troops have saved thousands of elderly victims, as well as babies, children and the sick and even a lot of New Orleanians' pets, too, in addition to all the other "normal," able-bodied victims!
I will say this for the media: they have helped rescue workers find trapped victims and they also helped evacuee family members find each other when they've been split up and put in shelters scattered all over the country.
They should stick to this helpful role as much as they can...but they probably won't.
I also think that TV meteorologists should take a bow; the weatherguys called Katrina almost perfectly--I personally watched Katrina coming on my desktop radar for days-- and it wasn't their fault if Blanco and Nagin didn't pay attention and move into action.
Blame lies not with Bush, but with Nagin and Blanco
Blame Amid the Tragedy
Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin failed their constituents.
[...]Many in the media are turning their eyes toward the federal government, rather than considering the culpability of city and state officials. I am fully aware of the challenges of having a quick and responsive emergency response to a major disaster. And there is definitely a time for accountability; but what isn't fair is to dump on the federal officials and avoid those most responsible--local and state officials who failed to do their job as the first responders. The plain fact is, lives were needlessly lost in New Orleans due to the failure of Louisiana's governor, Kathleen Blanco, and the city's mayor, Ray Nagin.
The primary responsibility for dealing with emergencies does not belong to the federal government. It belongs to local and state officials who are charged by law with the management of the crucial first response to disasters. First response should be carried out by local and state emergency personnel under the supervision of the state governor and his emergency operations center.
[But nooooooo.
Gov. Blanco was too busy crying and Mayor Nagin turned his attention to screaming and cussing and giving news conferences to be heading up their state and local response.--Jen]
The actions and inactions of Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin are a national disgrace due to their failure to implement the previously established evacuation plans of the state and city. Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin cannot claim that they were surprised by the extent of the damage and the need to evacuate so many people. Detailed written plans were already in place to evacuate more than a million people. The plans projected that 300,000 people would need transportation in the event of a hurricane like Katrina. If the plans had been implemented, thousands of lives would likely have been saved.
In addition to the plans, local, state and federal officials held a simulated hurricane drill 13 months ago, in which widespread flooding supposedly trapped 300,000 people inside New Orleans. The exercise simulated the evacuation of more than a million residents. The problems identified in the simulation apparently were not solved.
A year ago, as Hurricane Ivan approached, New Orleans ordered an evacuation but did not use city or school buses to help people evacuate. As a result many of the poorest citizens were unable to evacuate. Fortunately, the hurricane changed course and did not hit New Orleans, but both Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin acknowledged the need for a better evacuation plan. Again, they did not take corrective actions. In 1998, during a threat by Hurricane George, 14,000 people were sent to the Superdome and theft and vandalism were rampant due to inadequate security. Again, these problems were not corrected.
The New Orleans contingency plan is still, as of this writing, on the city's Web site, and states: "The safe evacuation of threatened populations is one of the principle [sic] reasons for developing a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan." But the plan was apparently ignored.
Mayor Nagin was responsible for giving the order for mandatory evacuation and supervising the actual evacuation: His Office of Emergency Preparedness (not the federal government) must coordinate with the state on elements of evacuation and assist in directing the transportation of evacuees to staging areas. Mayor Nagin had to be encouraged by the governor to contact the National Hurricane Center before he finally, belatedly, issued the order for mandatory evacuation. And sadly, it apparently took a personal call from the president to urge the governor to order the mandatory evacuation.
The city's evacuation plan states: "The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas." But To compound the problem, the buses were not moved to high ground and were flooded. The plan also states that "special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific lifesaving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedures as needed." This was not done.
The federal government does not have the authority to intervene in a state emergency without the request of a governor., so the only action needed for federal assistance was for Gov. Blanco to request the specific type of assistance she needed. She failed to send a timely request for specific aid.
[To this day, Gov. Blanco has yet to cede control of National Guard troops to the feds.
The White House obviously figured out a way to work around the Empress of Louisiana and rescue their beleaguered citizens anyway.--J.T.]
In addition, unlike the governors of New York, Oklahoma and California in past disasters, Gov. Blanco failed to take charge of the situation and ensure that the state emergency operation facility was in constant contact with Mayor Nagin and FEMA. It is likely that thousands of people died because of the failure of Gov. Blanco to implement the state plan, which mentions the possible need to evacuate up to one million people. The plan clearly gives the governor the authority for declaring an emergency, sending in state resources to the disaster area and requesting necessary federal assistance.
[...[...It must be made clear that the governor and locally elected officials are in charge of the "first response."
[...]...if citizens expect FEMA to be a first responder to terrorist attacks or other local emergencies (earthquakes, forest fires, volcanoes), they will be disappointed. The federal government's role is to offer aid upon request.
[Obviously, Nagin and Blanco weren't working with Michael Brown and his team, either, and kept standing in the Fed's way to respond to the disaster.
The Louisiana Legislature should conduct an immediate investigation into the failures of state and local officials to implement the written emergency plans. The tragedy is not over, and real leadership in the state and local government are essential in the months to come. More importantly, the hurricane season is still upon us, and local and state officials must stay focused on the jobs for which they were elected--and not on the deadly game of passing the emergency buck.
IMO, Blanco should be impeached and Nagin should resign.
Every bit of the vitriol that has been turned on President Bush (and FEMA director Michael Brown) should be placed where it properly belongs: on Nagin and Blanco.
Maybe it will happen, but it probably won't because Nagin and Blanco are Democrats and better yet for him, Nagin, no matter incompetent, is one of the Dems' rising black stars.
(Notice Shrillary Clinton took Sen. Obama with her to the Astrodome last week? He's another of the Dem plantation's African-American up-and-comers. Where was Harold Ford, Jr.?)
Nagin has a lot of 'splainin' to do and hopes that by cussing, yelling, acting "cool" and pointing the blame at anyone but himself, he'll escape his responsibility.
Meanwhile, sightings of Gov. Blanco has been as scarce as hen's teeth this week and while the Left was clamoring for Michael Brown's head, Her Honor's new hire--Clinton FEMA director James Lee Witt--was MIA, also.
What does a crying lady gov do with a disaster chief when the disaster's over and the aftermath has been taken out of her hands by the very competent feds?
