Evacuation
The governments of New Orleans and Louisiana have taken the Bush administration to task for not responding quickly enough to the emergency they are facing. While I am no sing-song Bush follower, I think that this position is absolute balderdash and needs to be examined.
These idiots completely failed to plan for a disaster that was local to them and bound to happen. They were the ones who knew the lay of the land. They were the ones who knew where the population centers were. They were the ones who knew which buildings could stand up to the storm. They were the ones who knew which roads were high enough to avoid the flooding. They were the ones with the local resources necessary to effect an evacuation (school and city buses, state vehicles, emergency crews). They were the ones who chose not to root out corruption that extends its roots from the topmost levels of the state and local governments down to the local police officer working the streets.
They were the ones who failed.
Bush cannot administer every level of every function of every state and municipality of the country. There comes a point when the local administrative personnel become responsible, and the levees were one example of this. FEMA had identified the problem on the state's behalf. The state requested that the levees be built/modified to fit a greater level of preparedness. If this issue was of such obviously critical and pressing importance, the state should have taken immediate steps to correct the situation themselves once their federal request was refused.
Think of it this way: A person sees child in danger, and they yell for help. When no help is forthcoming, do they stop yelling and sit and watch? No! They make significant effort to alleviate the danger themselves. They don't assume that it's not their problem because they already asked for help.
Well, that's what the state and local governments of Louisiana and New Orleans did...and now it's somehow someone else's fault.
Idiots.
As far as I know, every other state that is subject to disaster has a disaster recovery plan. California plans for quakes. Florida plans for hurricanes. Other states plan for tornados, hail, or other disastrous conditions as is appropriate.
Why didn't Louisiana?
Bartleby
These idiots completely failed to plan for a disaster that was local to them and bound to happen. They were the ones who knew the lay of the land. They were the ones who knew where the population centers were. They were the ones who knew which buildings could stand up to the storm. They were the ones who knew which roads were high enough to avoid the flooding. They were the ones with the local resources necessary to effect an evacuation (school and city buses, state vehicles, emergency crews). They were the ones who chose not to root out corruption that extends its roots from the topmost levels of the state and local governments down to the local police officer working the streets.
They were the ones who failed.
Bush cannot administer every level of every function of every state and municipality of the country. There comes a point when the local administrative personnel become responsible, and the levees were one example of this. FEMA had identified the problem on the state's behalf. The state requested that the levees be built/modified to fit a greater level of preparedness. If this issue was of such obviously critical and pressing importance, the state should have taken immediate steps to correct the situation themselves once their federal request was refused.
Think of it this way: A person sees child in danger, and they yell for help. When no help is forthcoming, do they stop yelling and sit and watch? No! They make significant effort to alleviate the danger themselves. They don't assume that it's not their problem because they already asked for help.
Well, that's what the state and local governments of Louisiana and New Orleans did...and now it's somehow someone else's fault.
Idiots.
As far as I know, every other state that is subject to disaster has a disaster recovery plan. California plans for quakes. Florida plans for hurricanes. Other states plan for tornados, hail, or other disastrous conditions as is appropriate.
Why didn't Louisiana?
Bartleby
posted by Bartleby at 9:43 AM
4 Comments:
I should point out that the Federal government is there and is doing things. For example, they (not the locals) told the Canadian aid workers to get lost and have been kicking local volunteer rescue boats (mostly firefighters) out of the flooded city. To fault the federal government for doing nothing in what is so clearly a crisis so large that no city is equipped to handle it is fine in my opinion. But to so clearly impede local rescue operations should offend anyone of libertarian sentiments. How can you straddle the fence like that to say, on one hand, it's ok to force the problem local, but on the other hand, Bush's people are doing a fine job even by impeding local efforts?
Actually, I didn't know about that. If the feds are doing that, they're idiots. As they are under Bush, he's responsible for that absolute stupidity.
This entire rescue operation has been botched. About the only person I've read about by name that's fulfilled their duty is Deamonte Love, and he's gone so far beyond it that it's heart wrenching. That poor kid at six years old having to take care of six babies.
He's an honorable kid and I'm proud to know he's an American. Heck, I'm proud to share his freaking species, because at age six, I cannot say I'm a bigger man than he is.
Talk about stepping up to the plate!
Bart
It's good to hear some people have worked very hard to rescue the remaining survivors. I was glad to see the Coast Guard showed up in force over the weekend and now a Coast Guard admiral is finally replacing the grossly incompetent Michael Brown in charge of the disaster relief.
My brother told me about this. I'm done with both major political parties. My only option right now is libertarian, and while I disagree with many of their points, they won't try and take rights from me.
Bartleby
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