Dick Schmidt
09-11-2005, 05:27 AM
On Friday night before Katrina hit the gulf coast, Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center took the unprecedented action of calling Mayor Nagin of New Orleans and Louisiana Governor Blanco personally to plead with them to begin MANDATORY evacuation of New Orleans and they said they'd take it under consideration. This was after the NOAA buoy 240 miles south had recorded sixty-eight foot waves before it was destroyed.
President Bush spent Friday afternoon and evening in meetings with his advisors and administrators drafting the paperwork required for a state to request federal assistance.
Just before midnight Friday evening the President called Governor Blanco and asked her to sign the request papers so the federal government and the military could legally begin mobilization and call up. She told him that they didn't think it necessary for the federal government to be involved yet.
After the President's final call to the governor, she held meetings with her staff to discuss the political ramifications of bringing federal forces. It was decided that if they allowed federal assistance it would make it look as if they had failed, so it was agreed upon that the feds would not be invited in.
Saturday before the storm hit the President again called Blanco and Nagin requesting they please sign the papers requesting federal assistance, that they declare the state an emergency area, and begin mandatory evacuation.
After a personal call from the President, Nagin agreed to order an evacuation, but it would not be a full mandatory evacuation, and the governor still refused to sign the papers requesting and authorizing federal action. In frustration, the President declared the area a national disaster area before the state of Louisiana did so he could legally begin some advanced preparations.
It is also reported that the President's legal advisers were looking into the ramifications of using the insurgency act to bypass the Constitutional requirement that a state request federal aid before the federal government can move into state with troops; but that had not been done since 1906 and the Constitutionality of using it before the actual disaster was called into question.
Several congressmen have called for an investigation into the disaster and the lack of planning. The investigation must ask why over half the federal aid of the past decade to New Orleans for levee construction, maintenance, and repair was diverted to fund a marina and support the gambling ships. The investigation also will have to look into why the emergency preparedness plan submitted to the federal government for funding and published on the city's website was never implemented and, in fact, may have been bogus and displayed only for the purpose of gaining additional federal funding. We have just now learned that the organizations identified in the plan were never contacted or brought into any of the planning, though the document implies that they were.
The people of New Orleans should ask some hard questions (as should we all)and they should start with why Blanco refused to even sign the multi-state mutual aid pact activation documents until Wednesday which further delayed the legal deployment of National Guard troops from adjoining states. They should also ask why Mayor Nagin keeps saying that the President should have commandeered 500 Greyhound buses to help him when, according to his own emergency plan and documents he claimed, between the local school buses and the city transportation buses, he had at his disposal over 500 buses, but he never raised a finger to prepare them or activate them.
President Bush spent Friday afternoon and evening in meetings with his advisors and administrators drafting the paperwork required for a state to request federal assistance.
Just before midnight Friday evening the President called Governor Blanco and asked her to sign the request papers so the federal government and the military could legally begin mobilization and call up. She told him that they didn't think it necessary for the federal government to be involved yet.
After the President's final call to the governor, she held meetings with her staff to discuss the political ramifications of bringing federal forces. It was decided that if they allowed federal assistance it would make it look as if they had failed, so it was agreed upon that the feds would not be invited in.
Saturday before the storm hit the President again called Blanco and Nagin requesting they please sign the papers requesting federal assistance, that they declare the state an emergency area, and begin mandatory evacuation.
After a personal call from the President, Nagin agreed to order an evacuation, but it would not be a full mandatory evacuation, and the governor still refused to sign the papers requesting and authorizing federal action. In frustration, the President declared the area a national disaster area before the state of Louisiana did so he could legally begin some advanced preparations.
It is also reported that the President's legal advisers were looking into the ramifications of using the insurgency act to bypass the Constitutional requirement that a state request federal aid before the federal government can move into state with troops; but that had not been done since 1906 and the Constitutionality of using it before the actual disaster was called into question.
Several congressmen have called for an investigation into the disaster and the lack of planning. The investigation must ask why over half the federal aid of the past decade to New Orleans for levee construction, maintenance, and repair was diverted to fund a marina and support the gambling ships. The investigation also will have to look into why the emergency preparedness plan submitted to the federal government for funding and published on the city's website was never implemented and, in fact, may have been bogus and displayed only for the purpose of gaining additional federal funding. We have just now learned that the organizations identified in the plan were never contacted or brought into any of the planning, though the document implies that they were.
The people of New Orleans should ask some hard questions (as should we all)and they should start with why Blanco refused to even sign the multi-state mutual aid pact activation documents until Wednesday which further delayed the legal deployment of National Guard troops from adjoining states. They should also ask why Mayor Nagin keeps saying that the President should have commandeered 500 Greyhound buses to help him when, according to his own emergency plan and documents he claimed, between the local school buses and the city transportation buses, he had at his disposal over 500 buses, but he never raised a finger to prepare them or activate them.