I'm not talking about the FEMA recovery efforts with displaced people and all that. I had nothing to do with that. I'm talking about the post-hurricane recovery period which included that rescue effort that you are talking about. Impromptu state and local people were doing what they could because FEMA was not there with the stuff that they needed. Not for days. The state and locals are responsible for pre-storm preparations and evacuation. Post storm emergency response was a FEMA responsibility. The city and state are often being held responsible for FEMA failures.
I maintain that Blanco shares much of the blame for those delays. She was obstructive to the fed's efforts to get in there in the initial stages.
I listened to a conference call that was made public by Times Picayune. In one sequence, the day after the storm, Jefferson Parish and Orleans Parish were requesting supplies from FEMA. The FEMA guy could not and would not take their requests until they were put through in an E-Team request. All requests for aide by the states have to come through this system. The Orleans parish network was destroyed, and the Jefferson parish one was down. FEMA would not release any provisions until the request for aide came through E-Team. I agree that Blanco dropped the ball in many ways, but federal fureaucracy and red tape were as terrible.
Let's just agree that the whole affair was screwed up and everyone is to blame and hope that the next storm is handled more efficiently.
