There were several articles that showed up this weekend that analyzed what happened in NO. I read thru 2 of them, from Wall St. Journal and Los Angeles Times. Both articles seemed to be fair treatments of the situation.

Did the local and state authorities make some hugh mistakes? Absolutely!!

However, the far, far, far bigger point was the failure at the federal level. Many of the worse comments describing the situation came from those who worked at Fema. The hurricane was a test of plan put in place at the federal level to handle disasters. The plan was put in place after 9-11.

The results of the plan were a major disaster. Nothing worked correctly.

And we've seen some of the same issues that were reported in Iraq. Many of the top positions were filled based on cronyism, nothing to do with experience. Do you think this is acceptable when lives are at stake???

Obviously there is some blame at the state, local level. But the performance at the federal level was particularly abismal.

I don't know how you can sit there and try to ignore what went on at the white house. People like you amaze me. I've always wondered when I've heard about events in the world. How could some of these things happen. Since they require the support of the people, but who would support such a plan.

I feel extremely saddened to be a witness to the same behavior in my own country.



>What are you talking about? On the interview I saw with my own eyes and heard with my own ears, the Red Cross official plainly said they were pre-deployed with food, water, and sanitation kits before the hurricane hit. They were ready to go in Tuesday morning as soon as the winds had sufficiently diminished to set up shop BEFORE the levees broke. The State would not allow it. This post has ZIP to do with FEMA. This point directly shows the people at the Superdome, Convention Center and on the interstate hwy suffered needlessly because the State did not want to encourage those people to stay. They plainly wanted them to leave, but the State gave them no way out. There was NO reason for the State to block the Red Cross from those sites.
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>>The request was made by the Red Cross on Thursday, September 1st, 3 days after the hurricane hit. At that point, I believe they were trying to evacuate the people at the Superdome. How did FEMA do at that job?
>>
>>>Straight from the Red Cross web-site:
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>>>http://www.redcross.org/faq/0,1096,0_682_4524,00.html
>>>
>>>The State of Louisiana prevented the Red Cross from providing food, water and sanitation kits to those in the New Orleans Superdome and Convention Center. Their reasoning and results were abhorrent. So all you who are bashing the Feds, US Military, etc., can lay off of this one. This fiasco lies at the doorstep of the Louisiana Governor who controls the State Homeland Defense department.
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>>>Also, Major Garrett (of Fox News) who investigated this story was interviewed today on Sean Hannity's radio. The Red Cross aid was pre-stationed before the hurricane hit and was ready to go. The State did not want them to aid those at the Superdome and Convention Center because the State wanted those people evacuated out. Providing them food, water, sanitary kits, would "only attract more evacuees" and would make it harder to get them to leave for other shelters outside the city.
>>>
>>>Try explaining this one away, and not using the hundreds of buses that were available all BEFORE the levees broke and AFTER the hurricane in the city was over.