"The responsibility of government for the public safety is absolute and requires no mandate. It is in fact, the prime object for which governments come into existence."
Winston Churchill (cribbed from Keith Olbermann)
1 week ago
Tuesday, September 06, 2005
BUSH TO NEW ORLEANS: DROP DEAD
Excerpts from A Failure of Leadership by BOB HERBERT in New York Times, subtitled "Bush to New Orleans: Drop Dead":
Neither the death of the chief justice nor the frantic efforts of panicked White House political advisers can conceal the magnitude of the president's failure of leadership last week. The catastrophe in New Orleans billowed up like the howling winds of hell and was carried live and in color on television screens across the U.S. and around the world.
Hospitals with deathly ill patients were left without power, with ventilators that didn't work, with floodwaters rising on the lower floors and with corpses rotting in the corridors and stairwells. People unable to breathe on their own, or with cancer or heart disease or kidney failure, slipped into comas and sank into their final sleep in front of helpless doctors and relatives. These were Americans in desperate trouble.
The president didn't seem to notice.
Death and the stink of decay were all over the city. Corpses were propped up in wheelchairs and on lawn furniture, or left to decompose on sunbaked sidewalks. Some floated by in water fouled by human feces.
Viewers could watch diabetics go into insulin shock on national television, and you could see babies with the pale, vacant look of hunger that we're more used to seeing in dispatches from the third world. You could see their mothers, dirty and hungry themselves, weeping.
Old, critically ill people were left to soil themselves and in some cases die like stray animals on the floor of an airport triage center. For days the president of the United States didn't seem to notice.
He would have noticed if the majority of these stricken folks had been white and prosperous. But they weren't. Most were black and poor, and thus, to the George W. Bush administration, still invisible.
After days of withering criticism from white and black Americans, from conservatives as well as liberals, from Republicans and Democrats, the president finally felt compelled to act, however feebly. (The chorus of criticism from nearly all quarters demanding that the president do something tells me that the nation as a whole is so much better than this administration.)
Like a boy being prepped for a second crack at a failed exam, Mr. Bush has been meeting with his handlers to see what steps can be taken to minimize the political fallout from this latest demonstration of his ineptitude. But this is not about politics. It's about competence. And when the president is so obviously clueless about matters so obviously important, it means that the rest of us, like the people left stranded in New Orleans, are in deep, deep trouble.
From Keith Olbermann commentary on msNBC, transcribed at dkos:
But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq, and defy its citizens not to stand up and cheer. Yet they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans — even though the government had heard all the "chatter" from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern... a group called The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological.
It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.
Mr. Bush has now twice insisted that, "we are not satisfied," with the response to the manifold tragedies along the Gulf Coast. I wonder which "we" he thinks he's speaking for on this point. Perhaps it's the administration, although we still don't know where some of them are. Anybody seen the Vice President lately? The man whose message this time last year was, 'I'll Protect You, The Other Guy Will Let You Die'?
For many of this country's citizens, the mantra has been — as we were taught in Social Studies it should always be — whether or not I voted for this President — he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I suspect a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to '08, are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define his government — our government — "New Orleans."
As we emphasized to you here all last week, the realities of the region are such that New Orleans is going to be largely uninhabitable for a lot longer than anybody is yet willing to recognize. Lord knows when the last body will be found, or the last artifact of the levee break, dug up. Could be next March. Could be 2100. By then, in the muck and toxic mire of New Orleans, they may even find our government's credibility.
Excerpts from A Failure of Leadership by BOB HERBERT in New York Times, subtitled "Bush to New Orleans: Drop Dead":
Neither the death of the chief justice nor the frantic efforts of panicked White House political advisers can conceal the magnitude of the president's failure of leadership last week. The catastrophe in New Orleans billowed up like the howling winds of hell and was carried live and in color on television screens across the U.S. and around the world.
Hospitals with deathly ill patients were left without power, with ventilators that didn't work, with floodwaters rising on the lower floors and with corpses rotting in the corridors and stairwells. People unable to breathe on their own, or with cancer or heart disease or kidney failure, slipped into comas and sank into their final sleep in front of helpless doctors and relatives. These were Americans in desperate trouble.
The president didn't seem to notice.
Death and the stink of decay were all over the city. Corpses were propped up in wheelchairs and on lawn furniture, or left to decompose on sunbaked sidewalks. Some floated by in water fouled by human feces.
Viewers could watch diabetics go into insulin shock on national television, and you could see babies with the pale, vacant look of hunger that we're more used to seeing in dispatches from the third world. You could see their mothers, dirty and hungry themselves, weeping.
Old, critically ill people were left to soil themselves and in some cases die like stray animals on the floor of an airport triage center. For days the president of the United States didn't seem to notice.
He would have noticed if the majority of these stricken folks had been white and prosperous. But they weren't. Most were black and poor, and thus, to the George W. Bush administration, still invisible.
After days of withering criticism from white and black Americans, from conservatives as well as liberals, from Republicans and Democrats, the president finally felt compelled to act, however feebly. (The chorus of criticism from nearly all quarters demanding that the president do something tells me that the nation as a whole is so much better than this administration.)
Like a boy being prepped for a second crack at a failed exam, Mr. Bush has been meeting with his handlers to see what steps can be taken to minimize the political fallout from this latest demonstration of his ineptitude. But this is not about politics. It's about competence. And when the president is so obviously clueless about matters so obviously important, it means that the rest of us, like the people left stranded in New Orleans, are in deep, deep trouble.
From Keith Olbermann commentary on msNBC, transcribed at dkos:
But, nationally, these are leaders who won re-election last year largely by portraying their opponents as incapable of keeping the country safe. These are leaders who regularly pressure the news media in this country to report the reopening of a school or a power station in Iraq, and defy its citizens not to stand up and cheer. Yet they couldn't even keep one school or power station from being devastated by infrastructure collapse in New Orleans — even though the government had heard all the "chatter" from the scientists and city planners and hurricane centers and some group whose purposes the government couldn't quite discern... a group called The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.
And most chillingly of all, this is the Law and Order and Terror government. It promised protection — or at least amelioration — against all threats: conventional, radiological, or biological.
It has just proved that it cannot save its citizens from a biological weapon called standing water.
Mr. Bush has now twice insisted that, "we are not satisfied," with the response to the manifold tragedies along the Gulf Coast. I wonder which "we" he thinks he's speaking for on this point. Perhaps it's the administration, although we still don't know where some of them are. Anybody seen the Vice President lately? The man whose message this time last year was, 'I'll Protect You, The Other Guy Will Let You Die'?
For many of this country's citizens, the mantra has been — as we were taught in Social Studies it should always be — whether or not I voted for this President — he is still my President. I suspect anybody who had to give him that benefit of the doubt stopped doing so last week. I suspect a lot of his supporters, looking ahead to '08, are wondering how they can distance themselves from the two words which will define his government — our government — "New Orleans."
As we emphasized to you here all last week, the realities of the region are such that New Orleans is going to be largely uninhabitable for a lot longer than anybody is yet willing to recognize. Lord knows when the last body will be found, or the last artifact of the levee break, dug up. Could be next March. Could be 2100. By then, in the muck and toxic mire of New Orleans, they may even find our government's credibility.
Killed By Contempt
Several recent news analyses on FEMA's sorry state have attributed the agency's decline to its inclusion in the Department of Homeland Security, whose prime concern is terrorism, not natural disasters. But that supposed change in focus misses a crucial part of the story.
For one thing, the undermining of FEMA began as soon as President Bush took office. Instead of choosing a professional with expertise in responses to disaster to head the agency, Mr. Bush appointed Joseph Allbaugh, a close political confidant. Mr. Allbaugh quickly began trying to scale back some of FEMA's preparedness programs.
But the downgrading of FEMA continued, with the appointment of Michael Brown as Mr. Allbaugh's successor.
Mr. Brown had no obvious qualifications, other than having been Mr. Allbaugh's college roommate. But Mr. Brown was made deputy director of FEMA; The Boston Herald reports that he was forced out of his previous job, overseeing horse shows. And when Mr. Allbaugh left, Mr. Brown became the agency's director. The raw cronyism of that appointment showed the contempt the administration felt for the agency; one can only imagine the effects on staff morale.
by Paul Krugman New York Times: excerpts, emphasis added (full column here)
Each day since Katrina brings more evidence of the lethal ineptitude of federal officials. I'm not letting state and local officials off the hook, but federal officials had access to resources that could have made all the difference, but were never mobilized.
Here's one of many examples: The Chicago Tribune reports that the U.S.S. Bataan, equipped with six operating rooms, hundreds of hospital beds and the ability to produce 100,000 gallons of fresh water a day, has been sitting off the Gulf Coast since last Monday - without patients. Experts say that the first 72 hours after a natural disaster are the crucial window during which prompt action can save many lives. Yet action after Katrina was anything but prompt.Several recent news analyses on FEMA's sorry state have attributed the agency's decline to its inclusion in the Department of Homeland Security, whose prime concern is terrorism, not natural disasters. But that supposed change in focus misses a crucial part of the story.
For one thing, the undermining of FEMA began as soon as President Bush took office. Instead of choosing a professional with expertise in responses to disaster to head the agency, Mr. Bush appointed Joseph Allbaugh, a close political confidant. Mr. Allbaugh quickly began trying to scale back some of FEMA's preparedness programs.
But the downgrading of FEMA continued, with the appointment of Michael Brown as Mr. Allbaugh's successor.
Mr. Brown had no obvious qualifications, other than having been Mr. Allbaugh's college roommate. But Mr. Brown was made deputy director of FEMA; The Boston Herald reports that he was forced out of his previous job, overseeing horse shows. And when Mr. Allbaugh left, Mr. Brown became the agency's director. The raw cronyism of that appointment showed the contempt the administration felt for the agency; one can only imagine the effects on staff morale.
Why FEMA Was Missing in Action
· Most of the agency's preparedness budget and focus are related to terrorism, not disasters.
By Peter G. Gosselin and Alan C. Miller, LA Times Staff Writers [{excerpts]
But the government's stumbling response to the storm that devastated the nation's Gulf Coast reveals that the federal agency singularly most responsible for making good on Washington's expanded promise has been hobbled by cutbacks and a bureaucratic downgrading.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency once speedily delivered food, water, shelter and medical care to disaster areas, and paid to quickly rebuild damaged roads and schools and get businesses and people back on their feet. Like a commercial insurance firm setting safety standards to prevent future problems, it also underwrote efforts to get cities and states to reduce risks ahead of time and plan for what they would do if calamity struck.
But in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, FEMA lost its Cabinet-level status as it was folded into the giant new Department of Homeland Security. And in recent years it has suffered budget cuts, the elimination or reduction of key programs and an exodus of experienced staffers.
They've taken emergency management away from the emergency managers," complained Morrie Goodman, who was FEMA's chief spokesman during the Clinton administration. "These operations are being run by people who are amateurs at what they are doing."
Under the law, Chertoff said, state and local officials must direct initial emergency operations. "The federal government comes in and supports those officials," he said.Chertoff's remarks, which echoed earlier statements by President Bush, prompted withering rebukes both from former senior FEMA staffers and outside experts.
"They can't do that," former agency chief of staff Jane Bullock said of Bush administration efforts to shift responsibility away from Washington. "The moment the president declared a federal disaster, it became a federal responsibility…. The federal government took ownership over the response," she said.
Bush declared a disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi when the storm hit a week ago."What's awe-inspiring here is how many federal officials didn't issue any orders," said Paul C. Light, an authority on government operations at New York University.
Evidence of confusion extended beyond FEMA and the Homeland Security Department on Sunday.Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said that conditions in New Orleans and elsewhere could quickly escalate into a major public health crisis.
But asked whether his agency had dispatched teams in advance of the storm and flooding, Leavitt answered, "No.""None of these teams were pre-positioned," he told CNN's "Late Edition." "We're having to organize them … as we go."
· Most of the agency's preparedness budget and focus are related to terrorism, not disasters.
By Peter G. Gosselin and Alan C. Miller, LA Times Staff Writers [{excerpts]
But the government's stumbling response to the storm that devastated the nation's Gulf Coast reveals that the federal agency singularly most responsible for making good on Washington's expanded promise has been hobbled by cutbacks and a bureaucratic downgrading.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency once speedily delivered food, water, shelter and medical care to disaster areas, and paid to quickly rebuild damaged roads and schools and get businesses and people back on their feet. Like a commercial insurance firm setting safety standards to prevent future problems, it also underwrote efforts to get cities and states to reduce risks ahead of time and plan for what they would do if calamity struck.
But in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, FEMA lost its Cabinet-level status as it was folded into the giant new Department of Homeland Security. And in recent years it has suffered budget cuts, the elimination or reduction of key programs and an exodus of experienced staffers.
They've taken emergency management away from the emergency managers," complained Morrie Goodman, who was FEMA's chief spokesman during the Clinton administration. "These operations are being run by people who are amateurs at what they are doing."
Under the law, Chertoff said, state and local officials must direct initial emergency operations. "The federal government comes in and supports those officials," he said.Chertoff's remarks, which echoed earlier statements by President Bush, prompted withering rebukes both from former senior FEMA staffers and outside experts.
"They can't do that," former agency chief of staff Jane Bullock said of Bush administration efforts to shift responsibility away from Washington. "The moment the president declared a federal disaster, it became a federal responsibility…. The federal government took ownership over the response," she said.
Bush declared a disaster in Louisiana and Mississippi when the storm hit a week ago."What's awe-inspiring here is how many federal officials didn't issue any orders," said Paul C. Light, an authority on government operations at New York University.
Evidence of confusion extended beyond FEMA and the Homeland Security Department on Sunday.Health and Human Services Secretary Mike Leavitt said that conditions in New Orleans and elsewhere could quickly escalate into a major public health crisis.
But asked whether his agency had dispatched teams in advance of the storm and flooding, Leavitt answered, "No.""None of these teams were pre-positioned," he told CNN's "Late Edition." "We're having to organize them … as we go."
FEMA: ADD TO THE BILL OF INDICTMENT...
"Can FEMA Do Anything Right?" asks DavidNYC at dailykos.
Just take a look at this list of stories:
FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations
FEMA turns away experienced firefighters
FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks
FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel
FEMA won't let Red Cross deliver food
FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans
Update [2005-9-5 17:10:50 by DavidNYC]:
FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid
FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board
FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck
FEMA turns away generators (See entry from 3:32 P.M. by Ben Morris, Slidell mayor)
FEMA: "First Responders Urged Not To Respond"
Think Progress quotes these examples from the Meet the Press interview Sunday:
Broussard then discussed the difficulties local authorities had with FEMA, including one case where they actually posted armed guards to keep FEMA from cutting their communications lines: Three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn’t need them. This was a week ago. FEMA, we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. When we got there with our trucks, FEMA says don’t give you the fuel. Yesterday — yesterday — FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards and said no one is getting near these lines…
Just take a look at this list of stories:
FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations
FEMA turns away experienced firefighters
FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks
FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel
FEMA won't let Red Cross deliver food
FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans
Update [2005-9-5 17:10:50 by DavidNYC]:
FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid
FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board
FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck
FEMA turns away generators (See entry from 3:32 P.M. by Ben Morris, Slidell mayor)
FEMA: "First Responders Urged Not To Respond"
Think Progress quotes these examples from the Meet the Press interview Sunday:
Broussard then discussed the difficulties local authorities had with FEMA, including one case where they actually posted armed guards to keep FEMA from cutting their communications lines: Three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn’t need them. This was a week ago. FEMA, we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. When we got there with our trucks, FEMA says don’t give you the fuel. Yesterday — yesterday — FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards and said no one is getting near these lines…
"I'm Not Interested in Photo Ops"
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
BATON ROUGE, La. - President Bush and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco kept their distance as both toured a relief center for storm victims Monday.
"I know I don't need to make any other introduction other than `Mr. President,'" Blanco said tersely, turning the microphone over to Bush after praising emergency management officials during a stop with Bush at an emergency operations center.
Blanco has refused to sign over control of the National Guard to the federal government and has turned to a Clinton administration official, former Federal Emergency Management chief James Lee Witt to help run relief efforts.
Blanco was not told when Bush would visit the state, nor was she immediately invited to meet him or travel with him. Blanco's office didn't know Bush was coming until told by reporters.
Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said the White House reached out to Blanco's office on Sunday, but didn't hear back. White House staff in Louisiana spoke with Blanco early Monday, he said.
During his stop at Bethany, several people ran up to meet Bush and get autographs as he and first lady Laura Bush wandered around the room. But just as many hung back and looked on.
"I need answers," said Mildred Brown, who has been there since Tuesday with her husband, mother-in-law and cousin. "I'm not interested in handshaking. I'm not interested in photo ops. This is going to take a lot of money."
By JENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
BATON ROUGE, La. - President Bush and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco kept their distance as both toured a relief center for storm victims Monday.
"I know I don't need to make any other introduction other than `Mr. President,'" Blanco said tersely, turning the microphone over to Bush after praising emergency management officials during a stop with Bush at an emergency operations center.
Blanco has refused to sign over control of the National Guard to the federal government and has turned to a Clinton administration official, former Federal Emergency Management chief James Lee Witt to help run relief efforts.
Blanco was not told when Bush would visit the state, nor was she immediately invited to meet him or travel with him. Blanco's office didn't know Bush was coming until told by reporters.
Bush spokesman Scott McClellan said the White House reached out to Blanco's office on Sunday, but didn't hear back. White House staff in Louisiana spoke with Blanco early Monday, he said.
During his stop at Bethany, several people ran up to meet Bush and get autographs as he and first lady Laura Bush wandered around the room. But just as many hung back and looked on.
"I need answers," said Mildred Brown, who has been there since Tuesday with her husband, mother-in-law and cousin. "I'm not interested in handshaking. I'm not interested in photo ops. This is going to take a lot of money."
Excerpts from Lethal chaos: Professor describes scene at New Orleans hospital by Jennifer Van Bergen in Raw Story
A first-hand account of the New Orleans devastation from leading human rights attorney, Loyola University law professor Bill Quigley, who volunteered at New Orleans Memorial Hospital where his wife was a nurse, and was marooned there when the flood waters rose.
The power went out early Monday. The sickest patients, roughly seventy or so, were evacuated by helicopter Sunday. Not until Wednesday morning did more helicopters appear. Quigley and other volunteers tried to get the attention of the numerous helicopters they could see hovering over the city. The sickest patients were brought up eight flights of stairs in sheet slings to the roof. Some patients were kept on the roof as long as 24 hours.
“We were standing there waving a sheet to get their attention,” he said.
Quigley says they saw helicopters from the Red Cross, the National Guard, the Coast Guard and the Army. One Army helicopter, which the volunteers on the roof managed to “flag down” wouldn’t land and refused to take anyone, even those remaining critically ill patients, because “they were full with rescue workers and could only pick up individuals one at a time off of roofs, which they stated they had been doing all day.”
After that the helicopters never returned to Memorial Hospital.
Tulane University Hospital had been evacuated, Quigley heard, but those at Memorial “were left to die or get out as best they could.”
At least ten patients died while awaiting rescue workers. Many died because their life-sustaining medical treatment required electricity.
As the hours and days wore on and no help came, floodwaters continued to rise. Medication and supplies ran out. Quigley says he saw no National Guard, local or state police or security forces of any kind.
Around midday on Thursday, air boats operated by private volunteers began arriving and taking four or five persons at a time. The remaining hospital patients and staff – approximately 2000 people -- were evacuated by citizen volunteers.
“They made a LOT of trips, those boats,” he said.
The volunteers, however, could take the victims only so far because the water became too shallow for the boats. The hospital staff, along with volunteers, walked through the muddy water to the corner of Napoleon and St. Charles.
Quigley describes the shocking spectacle hundreds of mostly black survivors, gathered at this location, awaiting their next hope. A constant stream of people kept arriving, as though “up out of nowhere.” He describes an elderly man with a satchel and cane, and a man with a nine-day-old baby. People were milling about, having lost everything, in the rain, wet, cold, hungry and thirsty.
An old lawn company truck “maybe thirty years old with wooden slats,” pulled up and allowed roughly 100 people to board. The truck was an open flatbed, and it was still pouring rain.
Quigley sat beside a pregnant woman who had only thirty dollars and a bottle of antibiotics with her. She said she had been turned away from the Superdome twice.
“It was a scary ride,” he remarked. “We had to duck trees and power lines.”
When they got to the drop point, Bill said, “everyone gasped” because it was just an underpass at Interstate 10, where thousands of people were already waiting for buses. “It was pouring rain; there was mud, no portalets.”
Finally, Bill and his wife decided to give up trying to get on a bus, hoping instead to volunteer to help those in need of medical attention or simply just start walking toward Baton Rouge. They noticed several people with stethoscopes around their necks who turned out to be nurses, one of whom was about to drive to Lafayette, which happened to be near where Bill’s wife’s family resides.
Thus, the Quigleys managed to escape New Orleans Thursday night. They were among the last to be evacuated from Memorial Hospital, but there were thousands left behind at the drop point, waiting to be transported … somewhere. By the time the Quigley’s got out of New Orleans, Bill says the city had become a “Third World mass unit.”
He estimates that there were a quarter million people still in the city through Wednesday. By Thursday, he estimated “50,000, or maybe double that.” People from the poor neighborhoods didn’t want to go to the Superdome. They tried to stay home because, Bill said, they knew the Superdome was “dangerous and nasty.”
A first-hand account of the New Orleans devastation from leading human rights attorney, Loyola University law professor Bill Quigley, who volunteered at New Orleans Memorial Hospital where his wife was a nurse, and was marooned there when the flood waters rose.
The power went out early Monday. The sickest patients, roughly seventy or so, were evacuated by helicopter Sunday. Not until Wednesday morning did more helicopters appear. Quigley and other volunteers tried to get the attention of the numerous helicopters they could see hovering over the city. The sickest patients were brought up eight flights of stairs in sheet slings to the roof. Some patients were kept on the roof as long as 24 hours.
“We were standing there waving a sheet to get their attention,” he said.
Quigley says they saw helicopters from the Red Cross, the National Guard, the Coast Guard and the Army. One Army helicopter, which the volunteers on the roof managed to “flag down” wouldn’t land and refused to take anyone, even those remaining critically ill patients, because “they were full with rescue workers and could only pick up individuals one at a time off of roofs, which they stated they had been doing all day.”
After that the helicopters never returned to Memorial Hospital.
Tulane University Hospital had been evacuated, Quigley heard, but those at Memorial “were left to die or get out as best they could.”
At least ten patients died while awaiting rescue workers. Many died because their life-sustaining medical treatment required electricity.
As the hours and days wore on and no help came, floodwaters continued to rise. Medication and supplies ran out. Quigley says he saw no National Guard, local or state police or security forces of any kind.
Around midday on Thursday, air boats operated by private volunteers began arriving and taking four or five persons at a time. The remaining hospital patients and staff – approximately 2000 people -- were evacuated by citizen volunteers.
“They made a LOT of trips, those boats,” he said.
The volunteers, however, could take the victims only so far because the water became too shallow for the boats. The hospital staff, along with volunteers, walked through the muddy water to the corner of Napoleon and St. Charles.
Quigley describes the shocking spectacle hundreds of mostly black survivors, gathered at this location, awaiting their next hope. A constant stream of people kept arriving, as though “up out of nowhere.” He describes an elderly man with a satchel and cane, and a man with a nine-day-old baby. People were milling about, having lost everything, in the rain, wet, cold, hungry and thirsty.
An old lawn company truck “maybe thirty years old with wooden slats,” pulled up and allowed roughly 100 people to board. The truck was an open flatbed, and it was still pouring rain.
Quigley sat beside a pregnant woman who had only thirty dollars and a bottle of antibiotics with her. She said she had been turned away from the Superdome twice.
“It was a scary ride,” he remarked. “We had to duck trees and power lines.”
When they got to the drop point, Bill said, “everyone gasped” because it was just an underpass at Interstate 10, where thousands of people were already waiting for buses. “It was pouring rain; there was mud, no portalets.”
Finally, Bill and his wife decided to give up trying to get on a bus, hoping instead to volunteer to help those in need of medical attention or simply just start walking toward Baton Rouge. They noticed several people with stethoscopes around their necks who turned out to be nurses, one of whom was about to drive to Lafayette, which happened to be near where Bill’s wife’s family resides.
Thus, the Quigleys managed to escape New Orleans Thursday night. They were among the last to be evacuated from Memorial Hospital, but there were thousands left behind at the drop point, waiting to be transported … somewhere. By the time the Quigley’s got out of New Orleans, Bill says the city had become a “Third World mass unit.”
He estimates that there were a quarter million people still in the city through Wednesday. By Thursday, he estimated “50,000, or maybe double that.” People from the poor neighborhoods didn’t want to go to the Superdome. They tried to stay home because, Bill said, they knew the Superdome was “dangerous and nasty.”
Monday, September 05, 2005
Bush Administration: "A Strange Paralysis"
Excerpts from the Newsweek report online here.
President Bush could have "federalized" the National Guard in an instant. That's what his father, President George H.W. Bush, did after the Los Angeles riots in 1992. Back then, the Justice Department sent Robert Mueller, a jut-jawed ex-Marine (who is now FBI director), to take charge, showing, in effect, that the cavalry had arrived. FEMA's current head, Michael Brown, has appeared over his head and even a little clueless in news interviews.
Up to now, the Bush administration has not hesitated to sweep aside the opinions of lawyers on such matters as prisoners' rights. But after Katrina, a strange paralysis set in. For days, Bush's top advisers argued over legal niceties about who was in charge, according to three White House officials who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
While Washington debated, the situation in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast deteriorated.
Excerpts from the Newsweek report online here.
President Bush could have "federalized" the National Guard in an instant. That's what his father, President George H.W. Bush, did after the Los Angeles riots in 1992. Back then, the Justice Department sent Robert Mueller, a jut-jawed ex-Marine (who is now FBI director), to take charge, showing, in effect, that the cavalry had arrived. FEMA's current head, Michael Brown, has appeared over his head and even a little clueless in news interviews.
Up to now, the Bush administration has not hesitated to sweep aside the opinions of lawyers on such matters as prisoners' rights. But after Katrina, a strange paralysis set in. For days, Bush's top advisers argued over legal niceties about who was in charge, according to three White House officials who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the negotiations.
While Washington debated, the situation in New Orleans and along the Gulf Coast deteriorated.
President Gore Brings Victims Home
(headline by susanhu Booman Tribune; story from The Daily Times in Maryville, Tenn. headlined Mission of Mercy: Gore brings storm victims to home state)
by Darren Dunlap
They were tired, weary and gracious.
Some needed medical care, and others simply wanted a shower. Many were elderly and fragile.
Rob Webb, director of Rural/Metro Ambulance Service in Blount County, said hospital patients and evacuees flown into Knoxville from New Orleans Saturday showed their gratitude as they left the plane.
``I welcomed them to Tennessee, told them they were going to be taken care of in a nice hospital,'' Webb said.
An American Airlines plane arrived at McGhee Tyson Airport at 3:10 p.m. Saturday with about 130 people from New Orleans.
Former Vice President Al Gore was on the plane, helping patients. He did not grant interviews to reporters Saturday.
``My understanding was that he made this happen, that he actually arranged for this aircraft,'' Webb said.
Ninety of the passengers were patients from Mercy Hospital in New Orleans, according to Knox County spokesman Dwight Van de Vate.
A dozen patients were taken to Blount Memorial Hospital. Ten were treated and released. Two were admitted to the hospital. Those not admitted to Blount Memorial Hospital will go to a shelter at Blount Christian Church in Maryville. Three people checked into the shelter on Saturday.
Several patients were diabetic, and some needed dialysis. Many patients had been without medication for ``several days,'' but were ``relatively stable,'' said Dr. Roger Brooksbank, an emergency physician with Team Health at Blount Memorial Hospital.
The remaining 40 passengers were evacuees who needed no ``acute medical care,'' according to Van de Vate. Regardless, all were taken to hospitals in Knoxville, Blount County, Oak Ridge and Jefferson County for evaluation. They were divided among the hospitals to prevent overwhelming them.
There were two children on board who were not ``chaperoned,'' said Van de Vate. The children were taken to East Tennessee Children's Hospital for evaluation. They would likely be placed in foster homes by Tennessee Department of Children's Services. Van de Vate said the shelters are not equipped to take children.
Many of the people not being hospitalized would be taken to a shelter at First Baptist Church in downtown Knoxville, he said.
East Tennessee hospitals and emergency services agencies learned Friday night the plane would be arriving Saturday. Planning began at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
Initially, the plane was scheduled to arrive at 1:10 p.m. Saturday, but arrived two hours later.
``It was originally supposed to go to Chicago, but it came here,'' Van de Vate said.
Vanderbilt physician Anderson Spicker went with medical crew to New Orleans to pick up the evacuees and patients. He said Saturday evening that they would have returned that night to pick up more people, but the lights at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport landing strip were not working.
``I want to emphasize how pleased we are, how we trusted this city to get resources together,'' Spicker said. ``We didn't even know what kind of patients we were going to have.''
Kelley Mure, Blount County Homeland Security Director, said the emergency assistance came through a mutual agreement between 16 counties in East Tennessee, including Knox and Blount counties.
(headline by susanhu Booman Tribune; story from The Daily Times in Maryville, Tenn. headlined Mission of Mercy: Gore brings storm victims to home state)
by Darren Dunlap
They were tired, weary and gracious.
Some needed medical care, and others simply wanted a shower. Many were elderly and fragile.
Rob Webb, director of Rural/Metro Ambulance Service in Blount County, said hospital patients and evacuees flown into Knoxville from New Orleans Saturday showed their gratitude as they left the plane.
``I welcomed them to Tennessee, told them they were going to be taken care of in a nice hospital,'' Webb said.
An American Airlines plane arrived at McGhee Tyson Airport at 3:10 p.m. Saturday with about 130 people from New Orleans.
Former Vice President Al Gore was on the plane, helping patients. He did not grant interviews to reporters Saturday.
``My understanding was that he made this happen, that he actually arranged for this aircraft,'' Webb said.
Ninety of the passengers were patients from Mercy Hospital in New Orleans, according to Knox County spokesman Dwight Van de Vate.
A dozen patients were taken to Blount Memorial Hospital. Ten were treated and released. Two were admitted to the hospital. Those not admitted to Blount Memorial Hospital will go to a shelter at Blount Christian Church in Maryville. Three people checked into the shelter on Saturday.
Several patients were diabetic, and some needed dialysis. Many patients had been without medication for ``several days,'' but were ``relatively stable,'' said Dr. Roger Brooksbank, an emergency physician with Team Health at Blount Memorial Hospital.
The remaining 40 passengers were evacuees who needed no ``acute medical care,'' according to Van de Vate. Regardless, all were taken to hospitals in Knoxville, Blount County, Oak Ridge and Jefferson County for evaluation. They were divided among the hospitals to prevent overwhelming them.
There were two children on board who were not ``chaperoned,'' said Van de Vate. The children were taken to East Tennessee Children's Hospital for evaluation. They would likely be placed in foster homes by Tennessee Department of Children's Services. Van de Vate said the shelters are not equipped to take children.
Many of the people not being hospitalized would be taken to a shelter at First Baptist Church in downtown Knoxville, he said.
East Tennessee hospitals and emergency services agencies learned Friday night the plane would be arriving Saturday. Planning began at 9:30 a.m. Saturday.
Initially, the plane was scheduled to arrive at 1:10 p.m. Saturday, but arrived two hours later.
``It was originally supposed to go to Chicago, but it came here,'' Van de Vate said.
Vanderbilt physician Anderson Spicker went with medical crew to New Orleans to pick up the evacuees and patients. He said Saturday evening that they would have returned that night to pick up more people, but the lights at Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport landing strip were not working.
``I want to emphasize how pleased we are, how we trusted this city to get resources together,'' Spicker said. ``We didn't even know what kind of patients we were going to have.''
Kelley Mure, Blount County Homeland Security Director, said the emergency assistance came through a mutual agreement between 16 counties in East Tennessee, including Knox and Blount counties.
Maxine Waters, Jesse Jackson and Louisiana Black Caucus Ride to the Rescue
excerpts from a story in salon by Stephen Elliot
with some interpolations from a diary at dkos (salon requires subscription)
I arrive at the [New Orleans] airport Saturday afternoon with a convoy of three air-conditioned buses, two SUVs, and a state police escort. I'm with U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters, her husband Ambassador Sydney Williams, chair of the Louisiana Black Caucus Cedric Richmond, Reverend Jesse Jackson, and State Senator Cleo Fields. Cleo Fields has a plan to bring people to England Air Force Base, a decommissioned base in Alexandria, Louisiana four hours northwest of New Orleans. The idea is to show up with hundreds of relief victims and force the federal government to open the empty buildings. They did not receive permission from anyone to take the evacuees there. On Saturday a U.S. Army spokesman said bases, including England, were being considering as shelters.
[After being turned away at a shelter by an angry administrator who accused them of being a bus load of "looters and rapists":]
Finally, at a calming moment, they are informed that there is another shelter five minutes away that could accommodate them with 150 beds. They go on to a facility that seems like heaven to many who sat in feces and urine for days. There are big-screen TVs, sanitary bathrooms with showers, food, cots. What is more, they are openly welcomed, especially by Leanne Murphy, CEO of the Central Louisiana chapter of the Red Cross.
"We've been waiting for folks for two days," [Police Chief Jay] Barber tells me. "We've been expecting people. I've been taking walk-ins."
I can't believe what he's saying. These people were lying in shit two days ago. We passed hundreds of empty buses on the way to the airport. How could a well-staffed, clean, secure, working shelter with 150 open beds in Louisiana sit half full for two days while people are being turned away at the Astrodome in Houston and bussed to Utah?
So these people won't have the wherewithal to return. A dispersed, displaced, demoralized population that is being dumped on other states.
Elliott, along with Jesse Jackson, finally makes it to England Air Force Base and gets a tour hosted by Bridgette Brown, vice chair of the Airport Board.
She tells us, "Today the board voted unanimously to accept people from New Orleans." She thinks it will cost $1.6 million to the community. I wonder where the federal government is in all of this. I also wonder whether the board would have moved to open the facility if it had not been for the Black Caucus's intervention.
excerpts from a story in salon by Stephen Elliot
with some interpolations from a diary at dkos (salon requires subscription)
I arrive at the [New Orleans] airport Saturday afternoon with a convoy of three air-conditioned buses, two SUVs, and a state police escort. I'm with U.S. Congresswoman Maxine Waters, her husband Ambassador Sydney Williams, chair of the Louisiana Black Caucus Cedric Richmond, Reverend Jesse Jackson, and State Senator Cleo Fields. Cleo Fields has a plan to bring people to England Air Force Base, a decommissioned base in Alexandria, Louisiana four hours northwest of New Orleans. The idea is to show up with hundreds of relief victims and force the federal government to open the empty buildings. They did not receive permission from anyone to take the evacuees there. On Saturday a U.S. Army spokesman said bases, including England, were being considering as shelters.
[After being turned away at a shelter by an angry administrator who accused them of being a bus load of "looters and rapists":]
Finally, at a calming moment, they are informed that there is another shelter five minutes away that could accommodate them with 150 beds. They go on to a facility that seems like heaven to many who sat in feces and urine for days. There are big-screen TVs, sanitary bathrooms with showers, food, cots. What is more, they are openly welcomed, especially by Leanne Murphy, CEO of the Central Louisiana chapter of the Red Cross.
"We've been waiting for folks for two days," [Police Chief Jay] Barber tells me. "We've been expecting people. I've been taking walk-ins."
I can't believe what he's saying. These people were lying in shit two days ago. We passed hundreds of empty buses on the way to the airport. How could a well-staffed, clean, secure, working shelter with 150 open beds in Louisiana sit half full for two days while people are being turned away at the Astrodome in Houston and bussed to Utah?
So these people won't have the wherewithal to return. A dispersed, displaced, demoralized population that is being dumped on other states.
Elliott, along with Jesse Jackson, finally makes it to England Air Force Base and gets a tour hosted by Bridgette Brown, vice chair of the Airport Board.
She tells us, "Today the board voted unanimously to accept people from New Orleans." She thinks it will cost $1.6 million to the community. I wonder where the federal government is in all of this. I also wonder whether the board would have moved to open the facility if it had not been for the Black Caucus's intervention.
Heartland Citizens Rescue When Washington Wouldn't
Excerpts from an article in the Door County Compass
STURGEON BAY, WI - Early on Friday morning Christie Weber watched the Mayor of New Orleans screaming on CNN, "We need buses to get these people out of here. Get off your ass and get down here."
She picked up the phone and started calling local charter bus companies. By 6 AM she discovered that there was an abundance of vehicles ready and waiting to be deployed - if and when they were called upon. But, until now no one had called. All of the charter bus companies that Weber rang up had already signed on with FEMA several days earlier, and they were just waiting for a call back regarding financial reimbursement, a destination and an approved route. Each bus costs $8,000 to make the round trip and requires 6 drivers to run non-stop.
Next she decided to call the Governor's office in Louisiana instead of FEMA. They responded immediately with, "Please, God Bless You, YES!" and provided her with a route and a letter to Wisconsin Emergency Management requesting their assistance in staffing the buses with law enforcement officers. The State of Wisconsin responded requiring that each bus have bathroom facilities, 2 law officers and one medical assistant on board before they would approve of the mission.
Weber put a call out to local Door County law enforcement with no luck due to the demands of a busy Labor Day weekend. She started contacting other nearby communities and the results were amazing. Within an hour she had enough volunteers to staff 4 buses from the Fox Valley - each with two law officers and a medic on the finest coaches Kobussen had. All of this was accomplished in less than 24 hours, from the first phone call to the buses loading and leaving on Saturday morning, carrying a flat of drinking water donated by the local Wal-Mart and a collection of medical supplies and other contributions.
"People in New Orleans are confused, scared to leave, not knowing what will happen to friends, other family members and their ruined homes," says Weber. "There is no one organizing people there. The letter that we asked the Louisiana Governor's office to write for Wisconsin was used as a draft and they immediately sent it to all of the other states. Many of them responded, and hundreds of empty buses started to arrive at the same time in New Orleans."
The Wisconsin buses are now leaving New Orleans and will go to Houston, Texas to pick up evacuees.
The state of Michigan has officially opened its doors to accept 10,000 NOLA refugees. It is expected that Wisconsin will soon follow suit, declaring a state of emergency to free up Federal Emergency Management resources that provide for long and short term housing, schooling and medical needs.
Excerpts from an article in the Door County Compass
STURGEON BAY, WI - Early on Friday morning Christie Weber watched the Mayor of New Orleans screaming on CNN, "We need buses to get these people out of here. Get off your ass and get down here."
She picked up the phone and started calling local charter bus companies. By 6 AM she discovered that there was an abundance of vehicles ready and waiting to be deployed - if and when they were called upon. But, until now no one had called. All of the charter bus companies that Weber rang up had already signed on with FEMA several days earlier, and they were just waiting for a call back regarding financial reimbursement, a destination and an approved route. Each bus costs $8,000 to make the round trip and requires 6 drivers to run non-stop.
Next she decided to call the Governor's office in Louisiana instead of FEMA. They responded immediately with, "Please, God Bless You, YES!" and provided her with a route and a letter to Wisconsin Emergency Management requesting their assistance in staffing the buses with law enforcement officers. The State of Wisconsin responded requiring that each bus have bathroom facilities, 2 law officers and one medical assistant on board before they would approve of the mission.
Weber put a call out to local Door County law enforcement with no luck due to the demands of a busy Labor Day weekend. She started contacting other nearby communities and the results were amazing. Within an hour she had enough volunteers to staff 4 buses from the Fox Valley - each with two law officers and a medic on the finest coaches Kobussen had. All of this was accomplished in less than 24 hours, from the first phone call to the buses loading and leaving on Saturday morning, carrying a flat of drinking water donated by the local Wal-Mart and a collection of medical supplies and other contributions.
"People in New Orleans are confused, scared to leave, not knowing what will happen to friends, other family members and their ruined homes," says Weber. "There is no one organizing people there. The letter that we asked the Louisiana Governor's office to write for Wisconsin was used as a draft and they immediately sent it to all of the other states. Many of them responded, and hundreds of empty buses started to arrive at the same time in New Orleans."
The Wisconsin buses are now leaving New Orleans and will go to Houston, Texas to pick up evacuees.
The state of Michigan has officially opened its doors to accept 10,000 NOLA refugees. It is expected that Wisconsin will soon follow suit, declaring a state of emergency to free up Federal Emergency Management resources that provide for long and short term housing, schooling and medical needs.
Sunday, September 04, 2005
"We have been abandoned by our own country"
Broussard: "We have been abandoned by our own country."
The tear-filled eyes of Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard as he was interviewed by Tim Russert on today's Meet the Press:
"... The guy who runs this building I’m in, Emergency Management, he’s responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, “Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?” and he said, “Yeah, Mama, somebody’s coming to get you.” Somebody’s coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Friday… and she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night! [Sobbing] Nobody’s coming to get us. Nobody’s coming to get us..."
MR. RUSSERT: Mr. President...
MR. BROUSSARD: Nobody's coming to get us. Nobody's coming to get us. The secretary has promised. Everybody's promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For God sakes, shut up and send us somebody.
more links to video and transcript at Booman Tribune here.
Broussard: "We have been abandoned by our own country."
The tear-filled eyes of Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard as he was interviewed by Tim Russert on today's Meet the Press:
"... The guy who runs this building I’m in, Emergency Management, he’s responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, “Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?” and he said, “Yeah, Mama, somebody’s coming to get you.” Somebody’s coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody’s coming to get you on Friday… and she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night! [Sobbing] Nobody’s coming to get us. Nobody’s coming to get us..."
MR. RUSSERT: Mr. President...
MR. BROUSSARD: Nobody's coming to get us. Nobody's coming to get us. The secretary has promised. Everybody's promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For God sakes, shut up and send us somebody.
more links to video and transcript at Booman Tribune here.
Bush sends marines as flood fury grows
· 20,000 still trapped in burning city· We let citizens down, admits President
Julian Borger and Jamie Doward in Baton Rouge
Sunday September 4, 2005
The Observer
President George Bush ordered an extra 17,000 troops - including 7,000 elite airborne troops and marines - into New Orleans and the devastated Gulf Coast yesterday to try to bolster the stumbling flood relief effort and salvage the reputation of his presidency.
The order was announced after it became clear that National Guard troops sent into the city on Friday were no match for the scale of the disaster unleashed by Hurricane Katrina and the consequent collapse of the levees around the city. Within two days the number of military personnel in the area is hoped to reach some 54,000 people.
· 20,000 still trapped in burning city· We let citizens down, admits President
Julian Borger and Jamie Doward in Baton Rouge
Sunday September 4, 2005
The Observer
President George Bush ordered an extra 17,000 troops - including 7,000 elite airborne troops and marines - into New Orleans and the devastated Gulf Coast yesterday to try to bolster the stumbling flood relief effort and salvage the reputation of his presidency.
The order was announced after it became clear that National Guard troops sent into the city on Friday were no match for the scale of the disaster unleashed by Hurricane Katrina and the consequent collapse of the levees around the city. Within two days the number of military personnel in the area is hoped to reach some 54,000 people.
Last 300 Refugees Leave Superdome
By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS - The last 300 refugees in the Superdome climbed aboard buses Saturday bound for new temporary shelter, leaving behind a darkened and stinking arena strewn with trash.
The sight of the last person — an elderly man wearing a Houston Rockets cap — prompted cheers from members of the Texas National Guard who were guarding the facility.
"I feel like I've been here 40 years," said Louis Dalmas Sr., one of the last people out of the arena. "Any bus going anywhere — that's all I want."
Inside and outside the Superdome — including the concourse around it and a 50-yard bridge that connects it to a shopping center — was a sea of garbage up to 5 feet deep.
By MARY FOSTER, Associated Press Writer
NEW ORLEANS - The last 300 refugees in the Superdome climbed aboard buses Saturday bound for new temporary shelter, leaving behind a darkened and stinking arena strewn with trash.
The sight of the last person — an elderly man wearing a Houston Rockets cap — prompted cheers from members of the Texas National Guard who were guarding the facility.
"I feel like I've been here 40 years," said Louis Dalmas Sr., one of the last people out of the arena. "Any bus going anywhere — that's all I want."
Inside and outside the Superdome — including the concourse around it and a 50-yard bridge that connects it to a shopping center — was a sea of garbage up to 5 feet deep.
Across U.S., Outrage at Response
By TODD S. PURDUM
"It really makes us look very much like Bangladesh or Baghdad," said David Herbert Donald, the retired Harvard historian of the Civil War and a native Mississippian, who said that Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's destructive march from Atlanta to the sea paled by comparison. "I'm 84 years old. I've been around a long time, but I've never seen anything like this."
MORE from the New York Times
By TODD S. PURDUM
"It really makes us look very much like Bangladesh or Baghdad," said David Herbert Donald, the retired Harvard historian of the Civil War and a native Mississippian, who said that Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman's destructive march from Atlanta to the sea paled by comparison. "I'm 84 years old. I've been around a long time, but I've never seen anything like this."
MORE from the New York Times
"Falluja Floods the Superdome"
By FRANK RICH
AS the levees cracked open and ushered hell into New Orleans on Tuesday, President Bush once again chose to fly away from Washington, not toward it, while disaster struck. We can all enumerate the many differences between a natural catastrophe and a terrorist attack. But character doesn't change: it is immutable, and it is destiny.
As always, the president's first priority, the one that sped him from Crawford toward California, was saving himself: he had to combat the flood of record-low poll numbers that was as uncontrollable as the surging of Lake Pontchartrain. It was time, therefore, for another disingenuous pep talk, in which he would exploit the cataclysm that defined his first term, 9/11, even at the price of failing to recognize the emerging fiasco likely to engulf Term 2.
This administration would like us to forget a lot, starting with the simple fact that next Sunday is the fourth anniversary of the day we were attacked by Al Qaeda, not Iraq. Even before Katrina took command of the news, Sept. 11, 2005, was destined to be a half-forgotten occasion, distorted and sullied by a grotesquely inappropriate Pentagon-sponsored country music jamboree on the Mall.
But hard as it is to reflect upon so much sorrow at once, we cannot allow ourselves to forget the real history surrounding 9/11; it is the Rosetta stone for what is happening now. If we are to pull ourselves out of the disasters of Katrina and Iraq alike, we must live in the real world, not the fantasyland of the administration's faith-based propaganda. Everything connects.
But a president who flew from Crawford to Washington in a heartbeat to intervene in the medical case of a single patient, Terri Schiavo, has no business lecturing anyone about playing politics with tragedy. Eventually we're going to have to examine the administration's behavior before, during and after this storm as closely as its history before, during and after 9/11.
We're going to have to ask if troops and matériel of all kinds could have arrived faster without the drain of national resources into a quagmire. We're going to have to ask why it took almost two days of people being without food, shelter and water for Mr. Bush to get back to Washington.
Most of all, we're going to have to face the reality that with this disaster, the administration has again increased our vulnerability to the terrorists we were supposed to be fighting after 9/11.
Excerpts of Sunday New York Times column. Full column HERE.
By FRANK RICH
AS the levees cracked open and ushered hell into New Orleans on Tuesday, President Bush once again chose to fly away from Washington, not toward it, while disaster struck. We can all enumerate the many differences between a natural catastrophe and a terrorist attack. But character doesn't change: it is immutable, and it is destiny.
As always, the president's first priority, the one that sped him from Crawford toward California, was saving himself: he had to combat the flood of record-low poll numbers that was as uncontrollable as the surging of Lake Pontchartrain. It was time, therefore, for another disingenuous pep talk, in which he would exploit the cataclysm that defined his first term, 9/11, even at the price of failing to recognize the emerging fiasco likely to engulf Term 2.
This administration would like us to forget a lot, starting with the simple fact that next Sunday is the fourth anniversary of the day we were attacked by Al Qaeda, not Iraq. Even before Katrina took command of the news, Sept. 11, 2005, was destined to be a half-forgotten occasion, distorted and sullied by a grotesquely inappropriate Pentagon-sponsored country music jamboree on the Mall.
But hard as it is to reflect upon so much sorrow at once, we cannot allow ourselves to forget the real history surrounding 9/11; it is the Rosetta stone for what is happening now. If we are to pull ourselves out of the disasters of Katrina and Iraq alike, we must live in the real world, not the fantasyland of the administration's faith-based propaganda. Everything connects.
But a president who flew from Crawford to Washington in a heartbeat to intervene in the medical case of a single patient, Terri Schiavo, has no business lecturing anyone about playing politics with tragedy. Eventually we're going to have to examine the administration's behavior before, during and after this storm as closely as its history before, during and after 9/11.
We're going to have to ask if troops and matériel of all kinds could have arrived faster without the drain of national resources into a quagmire. We're going to have to ask why it took almost two days of people being without food, shelter and water for Mr. Bush to get back to Washington.
Most of all, we're going to have to face the reality that with this disaster, the administration has again increased our vulnerability to the terrorists we were supposed to be fighting after 9/11.
Excerpts of Sunday New York Times column. Full column HERE.
Another Storm Possible in Hard-Hit Region
By MATT CRENSON, AP National Writer
Katrina may seem like the last word in hurricanes, but there is a very real possibility that another major hurricane may hit New Orleans or some other portion of the 200-mile coastline devastated by Katrina in the weeks to come.
"We're not out of the woods yet," said Susan Cutter, director of the University of South Carolina Hazards Research Laboratory. "We're not even in the height of hurricane season."
A forecast released Friday by meteorologists at Colorado State University calls for six more hurricanes by the time the hurricane season ends on Nov. 30, three of them Category 3 or above. On average, about one major hurricane in three makes landfall in the United States.
"We expect that by the time the 2005 hurricane season is over, we will witness tropical cyclone activity at near record levels," the Colorado State meteorologists wrote.
By MATT CRENSON, AP National Writer
Katrina may seem like the last word in hurricanes, but there is a very real possibility that another major hurricane may hit New Orleans or some other portion of the 200-mile coastline devastated by Katrina in the weeks to come.
"We're not out of the woods yet," said Susan Cutter, director of the University of South Carolina Hazards Research Laboratory. "We're not even in the height of hurricane season."
A forecast released Friday by meteorologists at Colorado State University calls for six more hurricanes by the time the hurricane season ends on Nov. 30, three of them Category 3 or above. On average, about one major hurricane in three makes landfall in the United States.
"We expect that by the time the 2005 hurricane season is over, we will witness tropical cyclone activity at near record levels," the Colorado State meteorologists wrote.
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