Put out the light, and then put out the light
Never Forget: There have been two evacuations of New Orleans.
On Saturday August 27, with no federal help, the city of New Orleans decided to evacuate itself. The president was in Crawford, on vacation.
On Sunday August 28, with no federal help, the city of New Orleans attempted to evacuate itself. Bush stayed on vacation.
Regardless of anything that happened after Monday night, the US neglect during the "first" evacuation is stunningly crinimal. Bush's horribly mindless vacation is criminal. An entire city needed to empty itself. Four years after 9/11, the government did nothing.
From Yahoo News, on August 28: "As many as 100,000 inner-city residents didn't have the means to leave, and an untold number of tourists were stranded by the closing of the airport. The city arranged buses to take people to 10 last-resort shelters, including the Superdome. Nagin also dispatched police and firefighters to rouse people out with sirens and bullhorns, and even gave them the authority to commandeer vehicles to aid in the evacuation."
From the NY Times: "The response will be dissected for years. But on Thursday, disaster experts and frustrated officials said a crucial shortcoming may have been the failure to predict that the levees keeping Lake Pontchartrain out of the city would be breached, not just overflow. They also said that evacuation measures were inadequate, leaving far too many city residents behind to suffer severe hardships and, in some cases, join marauding gangs."
Again, from the Times: "Mr. Compass said the federal government had taken too long to send in the thousands of troops - as well as the supplies, fuel, vehicles, water and food - needed to stabilize his now 'very, very tenuous' city. Col. Terry Ebbert, director of homeland security for New Orleans, concurred and he was particularly pungent in his criticism. Asserting that the whole recovery operation had been 'carried on the backs of the little guys for four goddamn days,' he said that 'the rest of the goddamn nation can't get us any resources for security.'
Two evacuations. Two murderous failures.
On Saturday August 27, with no federal help, the city of New Orleans decided to evacuate itself. The president was in Crawford, on vacation.
On Sunday August 28, with no federal help, the city of New Orleans attempted to evacuate itself. Bush stayed on vacation.
Regardless of anything that happened after Monday night, the US neglect during the "first" evacuation is stunningly crinimal. Bush's horribly mindless vacation is criminal. An entire city needed to empty itself. Four years after 9/11, the government did nothing.
From Yahoo News, on August 28: "As many as 100,000 inner-city residents didn't have the means to leave, and an untold number of tourists were stranded by the closing of the airport. The city arranged buses to take people to 10 last-resort shelters, including the Superdome. Nagin also dispatched police and firefighters to rouse people out with sirens and bullhorns, and even gave them the authority to commandeer vehicles to aid in the evacuation."
From the NY Times: "The response will be dissected for years. But on Thursday, disaster experts and frustrated officials said a crucial shortcoming may have been the failure to predict that the levees keeping Lake Pontchartrain out of the city would be breached, not just overflow. They also said that evacuation measures were inadequate, leaving far too many city residents behind to suffer severe hardships and, in some cases, join marauding gangs."
Again, from the Times: "Mr. Compass said the federal government had taken too long to send in the thousands of troops - as well as the supplies, fuel, vehicles, water and food - needed to stabilize his now 'very, very tenuous' city. Col. Terry Ebbert, director of homeland security for New Orleans, concurred and he was particularly pungent in his criticism. Asserting that the whole recovery operation had been 'carried on the backs of the little guys for four goddamn days,' he said that 'the rest of the goddamn nation can't get us any resources for security.'
Two evacuations. Two murderous failures.
posted by awol | 11:53 PM
1 Comments:
They tell us not to politicize a "natural disaster"...
they "tut tut" and "hush hush"...
tommorrow George Bush will pick up a little girl and an American flag and all this will be but a memory.
Post a Comment
<< Home