video of the chaos in New Orleans

[Lowprofile]

I

Do you think it has anything to do with blood relatives??

Dont want to offend anyone so i wont even comment

God Forbid, The Guy did a Good Job. That just couldn't be right? Naw.

BTW, No offence taken. This is America. Feel free to speak your mind. Its all good.

[derailed]

I



God Forbid, The Guy did a Good Job. That just couldn't be right? Naw.

BTW, No offence taken. This is America. Feel free to speak your mind. Its all good.

hey if everyone saw it that way i would but this isnt the place for it.

[Steve P.]

[quote
Do you think it has anything to do with blood relatives??

I mean that GW Bush and JEB Bush are brothers. When Jeb needs something he just makes a call..

Really, Jeb Bush for the most part, does a very good job here.. I don't agree with everything he does but, I think we would have seen a very different attack on getting help into the area to help right away..

I also watched on FOX News this morning, many reporters from other countries saying that they cannot believe the way our government has been acting. Rather the creep of the action.. One said that, ( it's as though the US. government is wearing clay shoes).

[Troy]

The Federal Government waits on the local and state government to ask for help - they can't just send it. Therefore, the governor of *every* state has to ask. There are procedures for all of this but probably not a proper "Disaster Recovery" scenario since this one is a bit unique.

There is so much bureaucracy and red tape involved in getting these things moving that it's rediculous. The local guy has to ask the governor who has to ask the feds who have to forward the request to a central command who has to ask the Pentagon who has sign an order and forward that to the commander in charge of the operation who has to organize a task force who has to deploy and wait for instructions from the local/state guys once they get there. I think I missed a few steps too.

This is being called the "worst natural disaster in history" (but I think they mean *America's history*). The area affected, 90,000 square miles, is almost as large as the entire UK and affected more than 5 million people. There were more than 1 million people who had to be evacuated due to the hurricane and flooding. Damage due to the storm was reported in 12 states. Remember that people in other nations are only seeing what's on the news and the spectacular reporting that goes along with it. I know for a fact that there were military units in the area within 24 hours from the time they were called. The Red Cross was there almost immediately (and had helped over 70,000 people through Thursday). The emergency funds were ok'd without even calling a session of Congress. The Army Corps of Engineers were tackling the levy problems within 2 days if I remember correctly. Many relief teams were in the area within 72 hours. The ships that were on the way obviously couldn't hang out in the Gulf during the hurricane so they still had to travel around Florida to get there. Remember, it hasn't even been a week (August 29 for Katrina and August 30 for the levies breaking) and the conditions for mobility and rescue are less than ideal (flooding, debris, NO communications, armed resistance, etc.). There were some Tsunami victims who didn't see help for months and I'm tired of seeing comparisons to that.

Could certain things have been accomplished differently or possibly faster? Yes, but I'm sure we'll learn about all of it once the congressional hearings start. It's a tragedy and there are many things that won't be handled perfectly. This is going to take months to clean up and probably years to recover from.

Some info (from September 1st):
http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/interapp/press_release/press_release_0721.xml

Troy

[last426]

There is so much bureaucracy and red tape involved in getting these things moving that it's rediculous. The local guy has to ask the governor who has to ask the feds who have to forward the request to a central command who has to ask the Pentagon who has sign an order and forward that to the commander in charge of the operation who has to organize a task force who has to deploy and wait for instructions from the local/state guys once they get there. I think I missed a few steps too.

My point exactly and that is where Bush failed so miserably.  By presidential edict he would have easily avoided all the levels of bureacracy and directed action.  He didn't step up but rather loomed in the shadows hiding behind his cabinet waiting for those bureacrats to make the decisions.  And, as you point out, those decisions take a long time to come.  Meanwhile, people are suffering.  C'mon, the head of homeland security telling Nightline that his agency first found out about people at the convention center on Wednesday (it might even have been Thhursday, I can't remember).  That's unacceptable. 

As I said in my other post, the power needed to be consolidated in one person, the president.  Then he needed to make decisions -- not blind decisions but ones that relied on his advisors.  Believe me that there are a lot of civil service career people (not the political appointees that he is surrounded with) who knew what to do, just like the career people in the fbi who were shot down by political appointees' vetos in the 911 thing. Kim

[Troy]

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't the power shift to FEMA as soon as the President declares a national emergency (ie. via a Presidential edict)? I haven't researched it much but I can't remember a time where the President has assumed all decision making power in an emergency. Maybe there has been some precedent but I honestly don't know.

Troy

[Steve P.]

I think it's great that so many of us care about this and I'm sure very many changes will be made in light of this catastrophe. I just wish our leader would, (and I think should), make an immediate appearance and show these people that America cares and will be there for them.. It looks terrible to the entire world that he takes so long to move his feet... 

Chain of command starts at the top.. If the PRESIDENT says move, I'm sure everything starts moving at that point. Regardless of who else is where!!

At least that is what my military training taught me...