Now more than ever...

Larry Gude

Larry Gude

Strung Out
Let me make this PERFECTLY clear...

When an adult, fully functioning human being, some 100,000 of them, know the FACTS, know the danger and then are TOLD in no uncertain terms in plenty of time of the danger they are in, when they CHOOSE to live in a city that is BELOW EFFING SEA LEVEL AND THE BIGGEST HURRICANE IN HISTORY IS PREDICTED, ALMOST GUARANTEED to DESTROY their homes and likely KILL THEM AND THEY CHOOSE TO STAY ANWAY then they get what they get, including DEATH.

There is no way in hell in a free country that we can or should EVER plan to run a police state and FORCE people to eat right, get enough sleep or leave their homes in an emergency.

It has been one week. 7 damn days, and things are in pretty good shape, especially when compared to past disasters, including Andrew and the four hurricanes that hit Florida last fall.

What do you think this is? A universal Emergency 7-11, a catastrophe convenience store? My cousins lost there freaking roof and just got it fixed about 10 months after it got ripped off. 10 months of blue tarp. 10 months.

So, in RR's world we, from now on, have at least 100,000 helicopters and crews ON CALL, standing by, every time the wind blows.

And water. And food and shelter. And medics. And boats and all the people it takes to make it all go. And a place for them. And then all that goes with that. We set up entire seperate lives for everyone who MIGHT get caught in a bad scrape. Hell, we give them MY house.

What if it was a cat 5 and we needed 200,000 helo's? 300,000? What the hell is YOUR standard for catastrophe rescue? 5 minutes? 1 day? 10 seconds?

What about all the other people who didn't make it on CNN''s camera and into your heart? What about the man who refused to be rescued, even now, saying he made it this far he'll make it all the way?

You have no business minimizing the magnitude of this thing and insulting every single person responsible, from the people too stupid to leave, to the mayor, the guv, the President because they all failed you and your expectations of absolute safety for any and all, always.

So, what did you want to see happen?
 
F

Fuzzy Bean

Hello
Ken King said:
Jeez oh flip Rraley, do you think that the government should have had a scenario for what happens when New Orleans gets hit by a category 4 hurricane? Should we have one for what happens when the level 8 earthquake hits San Francisco? What about the lately popular meteor collision, should we have a plan for that too?

What programs should we cut or eliminate to pay for the necessary pre-staging of stockpiles and equipment? Not to mention the on call personnel that we will need should we have to activate the plans. What should be done when the Governor or Congress fails to provide exactly what they need to the US Government? Does Bush (or whomever the President might be) just cut them a blank check and say go for it with no accountability?

I've seen the scene, we all have and what we see is a tremendous task that is getting done the best it can. Anyone can sit back in the comfort of their home and second-guess every decision that has been made, but do any of us know all the many bureaucratic obstacles that states demanded to have from interference from the Federal Government?
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Ken makes some great points. How do you prepare for any disaster (not knowing when, where or what) and how do you fund it?
 
Larry Gude

Larry Gude

Strung Out
You...

Fuzzy Bean said:
Ken makes some great points. How do you prepare for any disaster (not knowing when, where or what) and how do you fund it?
Click to expand...


...just do. Magically. Snap fingers, kiss boo boo.
 
BuddyLee

BuddyLee

Football addict
Larry Gude said:
ANWAY
Click to expand...
Sorry Lar, this wasn't PERFECTLY clear.:roflmao:

Larry Gude said:
When an adult, fully functioning human being, some 100,000 of them, know the FACTS, know the danger and then are TOLD in no uncertain terms in plenty of time of the danger they are in, when they CHOOSE to live in a city that is BELOW EFFING SEA LEVEL AND THE BIGGEST HURRICANE IN HISTORY IS PREDICTED, ALMOST GUARANTEED to DESTROY their homes and likely KILL THEM AND THEY CHOOSE TO STAY ANWAY then they get what they get, including DEATH.

There is no way in hell in a free country that we can or should EVER plan to run a police state and FORCE people to eat right, get enough sleep or leave their homes in an emergency.

It has been one week. 7 damn days, and things are in pretty good shape, especially when compared to past disasters, including Andrew and the four hurricanes that hit Florida last fall.

What do you think this is? A universal Emergency 7-11, a catastrophe convenience store? My cousins lost there freaking roof and just got it fixed about 10 months after it got ripped off. 10 months of blue tarp. 10 months.

So, in RR's world we, from now on, have at least 100,000 helicopters and crews ON CALL, standing by, every time the wind blows.

And water. And food and shelter. And medics. And boats and all the people it takes to make it all go. And a place for them. And then all that goes with that. We set up entire seperate lives for everyone who MIGHT get caught in a bad scrape. Hell, we give them MY house.

What if it was a cat 5 and we needed 200,000 helo's? 300,000? What the hell is YOUR standard for catastrophe rescue? 5 minutes? 1 day? 10 seconds?

What about all the other people who didn't make it on CNN''s camera and into your heart? What about the man who refused to be rescued, even now, saying he made it this far he'll make it all the way?

You have no business minimizing the magnitude of this thing and insulting every single person responsible, from the people too stupid to leave, to the mayor, the guv, the President because they all failed you and your expectations of absolute safety for any and all, always.

So, what did you want to see happen?
Click to expand...
:clap:
 
vraiblonde

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
rraley said:
Right...I'm not sure where you are going with this.
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We'll get to that in a minute.

So FEMA was responsible for the initial money.

What day did the hurricane hit?
 
soul4sale

soul4sale

New Member
rraley said:
What is wrong with this? Why shouldn't we investigate? I mean come on vraiblonde.
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I'm going to agree with vrai on this one - MEMA and the N.O. gov fuct up bad on this, not the feds. The feds pour gazillions into state Emergency Management Agencies (like our own MEMA) with the idea that the state govs, who supposedly know the disaster risks they face and are more knowledgable about how to coordinate local resources, will be able to respond more quickly than a federal juggernaut like FEMA. This approach has been in effect for over a decade, ever since libertarian-minded people pointed out the frightening amount of power ceded to FEMA whenever it rolled into town.

N.O. has a HORRIBLE municiple structure and an even worse tax base (third of the pop under the poverty line, or something?). I doubt the people who stayed were there by choice. They probably didn't have the means to get out of town...or they were just "ignant." When I see pics of hundreds of school buses sitting a$$-deep in water and not full of people leaving town, I KNOW it was the locals who screwed it up. And, anyone who has ever been to N.O. knows that there is pure, undiluted craziness bubbling just under the surface in that town. Looting and violence were inevitable, not just possible.

No, I don't think this is a morality tale about the inept feds. I think they know they are inept and never expected to have to do so much work usually handled by state and local-level officials. This is a morality tale about the dangers of Southern-style low-tax, low-service governing. As much oil flows through that port, the state should have squeezed Big Oil's nuts until they had the money to build a Cat 5 levee.

"Mean old levee, taught me to weep and moan..."
 
Railroad

Railroad

Routinely Derailed
I wrote a very long input to this post this morning, hit the "submit" button, and my ISP's web server decided to roll over and die. In the interests of minimizing wasted time, here is a summary of what I said:

In its brief tenure, The Department of Homeland Security has doubtless been spending most, if not all, of its energies on airport and port security vis-a-vis terrorists, and it wouldn't surprise me if readiness for weather disasters has been rather far down their list of priorities because of public pressures regarding terrorism. It's not surprising that there's no new or revitalized national coordinated disaster network/plan.

We shouldn't forget that the 50 States, not the Federal Government, have the first responsibility for ensuring the safety of their citizenry from threats within their borders. At this level, weather-related disaster preparedness would certainly be a top concern. I doubt that many (if any) states fully shoulder this burden of responsibility, expecting the Federal Government to come running to the rescue for everything.

A fully-funded military is by definition more prepared for contingencies than a military that has been trying to do more with less for over a decade. In view of worldwide DoD commitments, the response by the Army and Air Force in particular has been commendable.

We should rightly be concerned that all the military resources which are stateside, and seem available as seen by the casual observer, were not poised to rush off and stop the pestilential scourge at a moment's notice like so many knights on white horses. It is shameful indeed to so seriously underfund our military that we cannot answer every call of contingency.

Of hurricane disasters suffered here in the continental United States, there have been no events of similar scope and impact in our recent history, and so the lack of direct and practical experience should be understood and should be taken into consideration.

We as a nation, and in particular the agencies involved, will learn from this disaster, without the negative and divisive influence of a Congressional witch hunt.
 
Larry Gude

Larry Gude

Strung Out
So you're happy...

....yes?

Millions of dollars will now be spent on the blame game. And you truly think some good will come of it...

The letters CYA mean anthing to you?

The final report:

"In the final analysis, all levels of government, from the Parishs to the Whitehouse did about as well as could be expected, and in some cases performed better, given the horrific nature of the storm, the reluctance of so many people to leave the target areas and the widespread impact that the storm had. A blue ribbon commission will be formed to recomend specific changes that may have helped in some instances."
 
vraiblonde

vraiblonde

Board Mommy
PREMO Member
Patron
rraley said:
Bush, Congress Plan Probes into Katrina Response
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This is one of the reasons I dislike Bush - he's a roll-over liberal in disguise. But instead of championing the RIGHT liberal causes, like gay marriage and letting heinous women kill their Future Felons of America, he takes up the causes of "we must do something", like some hormonal soccer mom while he lets every illegal immigrant in the world come waltzing into our country like they own it.
 
itsbob

itsbob

I bowl overhand
rraley said:
What is wrong with this? Why shouldn't we investigate? I mean come on vraiblonde. The federal response to Katrina was slow and disorganized. We have to, have to, learn from this situation so that it never happens again. In order to do that, there should be hearings and a commission established to discover what we can do better next time.
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One is we are in the MIDST of the CRISIS.. lets solve the problem FIRST then we can worry about what went wrong... Let her get off her ass and do something instead of sitting in her ivory tower complaining about how everyone ELSE screwed up.. BUT it's hard to screw up when you do nothing at all!!
 
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