No one is attacking you, Sourdough, just attacking your opinions. That's what FSA is like. Your opinions can get praised or get disrespected. Don't be so thin-skinned, you post inflammatory statements all of the time. You must be expecting some argument. The Colorado remarks are only to remind you that you are far from the heart of the matter to be so matter-of-fact about this crisis. I had no power for six hot, miserable nights and have worked long days through weekends and holidays. I have crawled in double traffic for three weeks, stood in lines at stores, ATM's, and gas stations. LSU grew by 15% in a week. And my problems are nothing. There are people standing in line with me whose problems are immense. I spent hours at the State Police Emergency Operations Center where I witnessed 600 people in crisis mode for 2 weeks, 24/7. State Office of Emergency Preparedness, National Guard, Governor's Office, State Police, Fire marshals, FEMA staff, Red Cross, FBI, and dozens more agencies working their asses off. LSU climate, hurricane, environment, and mapping teams shared three small workstations in the main room. I get a little annoyed when people who weren't around try to tell me that "nothing" was done by the state. There was a lot done. A lot of planning, a lot of response, and a lot of crisis management. Inadequate to this unprecedented emergency? Yes. Blunders made by decisionmakers? Absolutely. Disorganization in the face of communication and transport problems? Indeed. But thousands of people in emergency centers, support operations, and in the field did a tremendous amount of work and kept this crisis from being a whole lot worse. Feds, state and local employees, and volunteers alike. I take it kind of personal when somebody says that nothing was done, that's all. No "mean spirit" intended.
Fair enough, Please keep in mind that my parents didn't have power for quite some time and they have the traffic problem also. I hear about this stuff. My parents live in Baton Rouge off of Baylor Dr, Sherwood Forest blvd. I should elaborate when I said nothing was done, sorry. What I mean is state and local officials didn't do enough, they were suppose to evacuate the city not house people in the Superdome. Please keep in mind in my sig it said what did they do to prepare for the storm. It always has been about pre and not post hurricane It aggravates me is well when I see posts blaming FEMA and the Feds for everything when in reality most of the blame should go to the state and local authorities for pre-hurricane operations. I totally understand everyone is working there asses off on all levels including government.
Sourdough drive around NOLA sometime and explain to me how you get 1.5 million people from that city plus the folks from Plaqumine and St Bernard Parishes out. It took just about every cop in the state to ensure the evacuation went smoothly on the roads. There simply wasn't the man power to go door to door and force everyone out of that city in 48 hours and maintain the flow of traffic on the outbound roads. You can't say not enough planning was done. When I sit back and think about how the 1.3 million who got out the city in 40 hours did it I am flabergasted. It took an act of God. There probably wasn't enough planing, but with the amount of variables I can understand. Some bad assumptions were made, but I don't think they were bad until after the storm hit and we knew what we were dealing with. It is a rare situation when something goes right the first time through. For my folks back home this was the first time through.
I totally agree with you, given the way events happened there was no way to get everyone out. The Governor and the Mayor took to much time to make their decisions for starters. They still could've gotten more people out with buses however. A teenager was able to get a hold of a bus and drive 80 people to Houston. Maybe he should be elected mayor or governor? There wasn't the man power because the governor did not immobilize the Louisiana National Guard, 65% or something like that was available and no where to be found. You said above that you can't say enough planning was done and then you say it? You say that you don't think bad decisions were made until after the storm well I disagree. Did the mayor and governor follow the evacuation guidlines they were suppose too? Its very simple and some people around here are trying to make it a complex issue. According to the evacuation procedures the mayor was suppose to provide food for those the city or state housed in shelters. I'm not here saying the only mistake was made by not evacuting the city. There were far too many by local and state officials. You said somewhere that there are other hurricanes well there are also other disasters and isn't it suspicious that Louisiana is the only place that couldn't handle the situation on a local and state level. They couldn't even go along with their evacuation guidlines. Just think if Rudy Guliani had the priviledge of knowing there was a terrorist attack on the way. I don't think you can compare the two since we do have hurricane warnings. Look at the 4 hurricanes in Florida, look at Andrew, Hugo. Look at the responce for Katrina in Mississippi, hardest hit area btw. Why is it New Orleans is the only place were officials failed miserably? One more thing, No one is saying this but one reason FEMA was late coming in is because after the hurricane everyone thought that NO was sparred again. Remember? The local and state officials including the Louisiana National Guard, all of it available along with anything else she needed should've been there to protect the city and people, she had those resources, that is why Louisiana was declared a state of Emergency by the president along with Mississippi and other areas. I will say that the only way you could've evacuated all of the city is with an airlift. I think that should be a possibility for future storms hitting NO. I don't know if the Louisiana National Guard has military transports, another way would be by ship, I think that is a great idea, possibly. You said somewhere, where was the mre's and why didn't they drop food from airplanes. I said the samething the day after the storm on this forum and the only reason I can find is the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security denied food and water from the Red Cross and probably other agencies to the people who needed it most. They have asked why and I hope they find that information from the Red Cross.
