@WL Re: $SPAM+++++++++ Re: [Vision2020] Of Deltas and CO2

[Andreas Schou]

On 9/4/05, Jeff Harkins <jeffh at moscow.com> wrote:
> 
> I am just curious Andreas, what, exactly would you have done?
> 
> Now remember, the storm veered east just before
> landfall and had dropped from a Cat 5 to a Cat 4;
> the news reports noted high winds, heavy rain in
> and around NO, but no "catastrophic damage." As
> I recall, the state officials had recommended
> evacuation, but it was not mandatory........ it
> wasn't until the next day that "mandatory evac" was ordered..........


Both FEMA and the Louisiana state government were well aware, quite to the 
contrary of both Bush and Chertoff's statements, that a Category 4 hurricane 
would cause catastrophic flooding in New Orleans; they had, in fact, 
developed a scenario as far back as 2001 that predicted as many as 80,000 
deaths and render large portions of the city uninhabitable. However, FEMA"s 
transition to DHS control (and the separation of FEMA's planning office into 
its own, terrorism-focused unit) had rendered it incapable of producing a 
response to that scenario. I personally read about that scenario in a 
Scientific American /four years ago/. 

And Chertoff's claim that they weren't preparing for 'two disasters' is 
desperate clutching at straws. 'Hurricanes' and 'flooding' are two disasters 
in the same sense that an 'earthquake' and 'buildings falling down' are.

We knew about this possibility years before the fact. We knew the levees 
were subsiding, and that federal money to fix them was not being provided. 
Plans were not produced, steps were not taken, heads should roll.

Power was lost (total darkness), and no landline
> communications and most cell phones were out (no
> towers). There was no evidence of a breach in
> the levee ,,,,,,,,,,, the media was reporting
> that the worst appeared to be over.


I have nothing to say to this other than that assuming the best is not 
disaster planning, it is lunatic naivete. 

......... media attention shifted to Biloxi and
> the coastal regions east .......
> 
> The next morning, NO is beginning to flood, roads
> are completely blocked ..............
> 
> SO please, explain what, exactly, would you have done?


I am not a professional disaster planner. Several things I would have done 
had I been President:

(1) I would have hired someone with emergency management experience to head 
up the Federal Emergency Management Agency. I probably would have made sure 
he hadn't been fired for gross incompetence from a job judging horses. I 
would make sure that he talked to me on a reasonably regular basis, rather 
than being cut out of the Cabinet entirely. 

Brown isn't even CPR-certified, for God's sakes.

(2) When I was made aware that a hurricane would likely kill thousands of 
people in a major American city (in 2001), my proposed budget would have, 
say, kept funding levels constant, rather than dropping Army Corps of 
Engineers funding, cutting disaster mitigation funds to the entire state of 
Louisiana, and defunding the levee-building project designed to keep a 
catastrophic flood from occurring. 

(3) I would probably not play guitar on my ranch in Texas while an enormous 
storm swept through the birthplace of jazz two states away. My first concern 
would not be Trent Lott's summer home.

(4) I would not have flown into New Orleans and grounded all helecopters for 
a day in order to get Potemkin Village pictures taken on top of the levee.

I did hear that so far, the "official" death
> count is 59, but it is expected to go higher. We
> can all hope that it does not increase at all.


The de-mort teams haven't even enterred the state of Louisiana yet. Most of 
the places where dead bodies are are unsafe an inaccessable. Plus, I have, I 
think personally seen more than 59 bodies in the media.

> LA is a predominantly democratic state. Can you imagine what would happen 
if the Feds (a Republican 
> administration) used their resources and authority to take control of the 
martial law activities, law enforcement, etc. in 
> LA. 

The civil disorder in New Orleans started because the federal government 
couldn't have food supplies (which, I might add, are a resource that state 
governments simply don't have) in place within 72 hours of a disaster they 
had three days warning for. They couldn't have food ready within six days of 
being told they needed it there. Food showed up in Banda Aceh with 48. I 
don't ask for much from the government, but I do ask that the government be 
more competent than Suharto's corrupt autocracy.

Even Harry Connick Jr., who sucks, and CNN reporters, who suck more, showed 
up ahead of the MREs. 

> No, those decisions rest with elected state officials. The governor 
controls the National Guard. US military are 
> not permitted to act as police officers on US soil. It would take an act 
of Congress (and probably a constitutional 
> amendment) to allow that. As many security experts reported today, it does 
appear that there was little or no 
> command and control at the state or local level.
First, let me say that by even responding to this, I'm buying the premise 
that the federal government should put political concerns (a fight with the 
Louisiana state government) over human lives, and that the people of 
Louisiana would tolerate that from their political leaders. This premise is 
idiotic on its face. If this were true, it'd still be enough for people to 
be fired over.

Second, you mean the same state of Louisiana that has 5/7 of its national 
House seats controlled by Republicans, 1/2 of its Senate seats controlled by 
Republicans, and that voted for Bush in the last national election? That 
state, whose voters clearly have no sympathy for Republicans whatsoever?

-- ACS
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