Two Evacuations

Tim Russert's interview with Chertoff, already on-line, is exemplary for showing how questions about the horrific govt failure during the post-flooding catastrophe lead inevitably back to the first evacuation.

Unfortunately, it took a while for Russert to get to this first evacuation, so Chertoff's shocking comments didn't receive full scrutiny. But please use this post for any thoughts about these comments -- or any news sources that continue to push this. (In this light, the Washington Post gives us the crucial article to date about how Bush/Chertoff/Brown are trying to "shift blame" to local authorities. The Chertoff interview repeats these absurd talking points, but also shows what a weak reed they lie on). Here is the crucial exchange:

CHERTOFF: The fact of the matter is, there's only really one way to deal with that issue, and that is to get people out first. Once that bowl breaks and that soup bowl fills with water, it is unquestionably the case, as we saw vividly demonstrated, that it's going to be almost impossible to get people out. So there is really only one way to deal with it, and that is to evacuate people in advance. Michael Brown got on TV in Saturday and he said to people in New Orleans, "Take this seriously. There is a storm coming." On Friday there was discussion about the fact that even though this storm could fall anywhere along the Gulf, people had to be carefully monitoring it. We were watching it on Saturday and Sunday. The president was on a videoconference on Sunday telling us we've got to do everything possible to be prepared. But you know, Tim, at the end of the day, this is the ground truth: The only way to avoid a catastrophic problem in that soup bowl is to have people leave before the hurricane hits. Those who got out are fine. Those who stayed in faced one of the most horrible experiences in their life.

RUSSERT: But that's the point. Those who got out were people with SUVs and automobiles and air fares who could get out. Those who could not get out were the poor who rely on public buses to get out. Your Web site says that your department assumes primary responsibility for a national disaster. If you knew a hurricane 3 storm was coming, why weren't buses, trains, planes, cruise ships, trucks provided on Friday, Saturday, Sunday to evacuate people before the storm?

CHERTOFF: Tim, the way that emergency operations act under the law is the responsibility and the power, the authority, to order an evacuation rests with state and local officials. The federal government comes in and supports those officials. That's why Mike Brown got on TV on Saturday and he told people to start to get out of there. Now, ultimately the resources that will get people who don't have cars and don't have the ability to remove themselves has to rest with the kinds of assets a city has--the city's buses, the city's transportation.

Mike Brown went on TV. George Bush had a videoconference. And, most remarkably, the statement, as dogma, that the evacuation of a city can be supported only by the "assets a city has".