Don't come to conclusions until all is said and done

I thought my editorial last week was anything but fuzzy, but I spent some time responding anyway. Here’s the reference for my “factually challenged” story about Air Force One. You say all “credible news sources” report Bush wasn’t in New Orleans until…. I heard the story from the Mayor himself in a CNN interview. But, here it’s in print for you.

Keep in mind that if the evacuation effort would have happened, it is likely that no one would have died.

Mayor slams Blanco for stalling by James G. Lakely, THE WASHINGTON TIMES, September 7, 2005

“Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco has been critical of the Bush administration’s response to the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, but, according to the mayor of New Orleans, her indecision when President Bush offered help delayed rescue efforts and cost lives.

“New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin told CNN’s ‘American Morning’ Monday that he met with Mr. Bush and Mrs. Blanco on Air Force One on Friday and implored the two to ‘get in sync.’

“‘If you don’t get in sync, more people are going to die,’ Mr. Nagin said.

“Mr. Bush met privately first with Mrs. Blanco, then called Mr. Nagin in for a meeting.

“‘He called me in that office,’ Mr. Nagin said. ‘And he said, ‘Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor.’ I was ready to move. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision.’

“That decision was a request by Mr. Bush to allow the federal government to take over the evacuation of New Orleans, which had been marked by chaos for days. The Democratic governor, who has clashed behind the scenes with the Bush administration since the storm hit, refused.

“White House spokesman Scott McClellan confirmed the Air Force One meeting with Mrs. Blanco and the governor’s decision not to cede her authority over the Louisiana National Guard, but added that he didn’t think ‘it helps any situation to get into all those internal discussions.’

“’This isn’t a time when people are trying to look at who’s to blame or try to shift responsibility,’ Mr. McClellan said. ‘This is a time when we’re all trying to work together to get things done.’

“Mr. Bush, at the request of Mrs. Blanco, declared the entire state of Louisiana a disaster area 48 hours before the hurricane made landfall. He also asked Mrs. Blanco to order a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans on Aug. 27 -- two days before the hurricane hit -- but she did not make the order until Aug. 28.”

The third paragraph regarding the legal limits of the federal government’s power to act. It is against the law for the feds to come in unless invited by the state. It’s only being debated now, after Katrina. This is a very slippery states’ rights issue.

These are excerpts from an article eniltled “Disaster Relief? Call in the Marines” by Mark Sappenfield in the Christian Science Monitor. I thought it a good synopsis.

“’There’s a strong historical precedent against doing this,’ says Michael O’Hanlon, a defense analyst at the Brookings Institution. “But now we’ve got a real reason.”

“The difference is the scope of the destruction and the dire results of the delayed response, scholars say. During previous disasters, local responders were able to help many victims, while others were able to manage without power or shelter. Katrina, however, completely incapacitated local first-responders, and in the days before help arrived, New Orleans was beset by anarchy.

“ …As officials look at what went wrong - and wonder what to do if a future disaster similarly eviscerates local responders - their attention has turned to the military. Clearly, the armed forces are best prepared to deploy quickly to devastated areas, bringing not only a clear command structure, but an array of resources ideally suited for difficult work - from mobile communication systems to troops trained for the most taxing conditions. In his Thursday address, Mr. Bush called the armed forces “the institution of our government most capable of massive logistical operations on a moment’s notice.”

“As of yet, he has simply stated that ‘a challenge on this scale requires ... a broader role for the armed forces.’ Yet even before Bush’s address, Sen. John Warner (R) of Virginia wrote a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, saying that the Senate Armed Services Committee would be looking into ‘the entire legal framework governing a President’s power to use the regular armed forces to restore public order in ... a large-scale, protracted emergency’ - and asking Mr. Rumsfeld to do the same.

“This framework rests on Posse Comitatus as well as the Insurrection Act, which together bar active-duty troops from engaging in domestic law-enforcement activities, unless there is essentially an open rebellion.

“Reservations about granting the military too much power at home are older than the republic itself, harking back to days when British soldiers were foisted upon colonials for room and board. In the Constitution, the framers made specific provision to check military power by declaring that America’s armed forces be directed by civilian authority - namely, the various secretaries of Defense.

“Posse Comitatus goes even further, giving only National Guard units the authority to act as law enforcement, because they are under the control of governors. Active-duty troops are being used in the Gulf relief efforts but only for humanitarian efforts and logistical support. The move to amend Posse Comitatus would likely give them law-enforcement powers.

“He suggests that the lesson of Katrina was a lack of leadership at all levels: Emergency-response planners had everything they needed, he says, but they did a poor job of organizing it..”

Paragraph 5 regarding their failure to implement the whole plan is definitely the standard for success when people’s lives are in danger! Yes, they did put the warning out for those who could to leave town,--that’s great, but they missed a very important part of the plan, namely the part that read, “Special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific life saving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedures as needed. ...”

Also, it clearly states that the state and local governments are responsible for evacuations and first response. It continues, “As established by the City of New Orleans Charter, the government has jurisdiction and responsibility in disaster response. City government shall coordinate its efforts through the Office of Emergency Preparedness.

The authority to order the evacuation of residents threatened by an approaching hurricane is conferred to the Governor by Louisiana Statute. The Governor is granted the power to direct and compel the evacuation of all or part of the population from a stricken or threatened area within the State, if he deems this action necessary for the preservation of life or other disaster mitigation, response or recovery. The same power to order an evacuation conferred upon the Governor is also delegated to each political subdivision of the State by Executive Order. This authority empowers the chief elected official of New Orleans, the Mayor of New Orleans, to order the evacuation of the parish residents threatened by an approaching hurricane.” Nowhere is the federal government even named.

You can read the entire plan at http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26]

Was the response as bad as some have portrayed? It’s never going to be acceptable to have people in a disaster situation, especially if people die.

Jason van Steenwyk is a Florida Army National Guardsman who has been mobilized six times for hurricane relief, noted that: … “the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne.”

For instance, it took five days for National Guard troops to arrive in strength on the scene in Homestead, Fla. after Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992. But after Katrina, there was a significant National Guard presence in the afflicted region in three.

Journalists who are long on opinions and short on knowledge have no idea what is involved in moving hundreds of tons of relief supplies into an area the size of England in which power lines are down, telecommunications are out, no gasoline is available, bridges are damaged, roads and airports are covered with debris, and apparently have little interest in finding out.

So they libel as a “national disgrace” the most monumental and successful disaster relief operation in world history.

I write this column a week and a day after the main levee protecting New Orleans breached. In the course of that week:

More than 32,000 people have been rescued, many plucked from rooftops by Coast Guard helicopters.

The Army Corps of Engineers has all but repaired the breaches and begun pumping water out of New Orleans.

Shelter, food and medical care have been provided to more than 180,000 refugees.”

“’You cannot just snap your fingers and make the military appear somewhere,’ van Steenwyk said.

“Guardsmen need to receive mobilization orders; report to their armories; draw equipment; receive orders and convoy to the disaster area. Guardsmen driving down from Pennsylvania or Navy ships sailing from Norfolk can’t be on the scene immediately.

“Relief efforts must be planned. Other than prepositioning supplies near the area likely to be afflicted (which was done quite efficiently), this cannot be done until the hurricane has struck and a damage assessment can be made. There must be a route reconnaissance to determine if roads are open, and bridges along the way can bear the weight of heavily laden trucks.

“And federal troops and Guardsmen from other states cannot be sent to a disaster area until their presence has been requested by the governors of the afflicted states.

“Exhibit A on the bill of indictment of federal sluggishness is that it took four days before most people were evacuated from the Louisiana Superdome.

“The levee broke Tuesday morning. Buses had to be rounded up and driven from Houston to New Orleans across debris-strewn roads. The first ones arrived Wednesday evening. That seems pretty fast to me.

“A better question -- which few journalists ask -- is why weren’t the roughly 2,000 municipal and school buses in New Orleans utilized to take people out of the city before Katrina struck?

The 13th paragraph blaming the Bush administration for consistently cutting funding for the measures that would have prevented the scope of the disaster, the rebuilding of the levees….

The federal government gave 60 million to New Orleans to fix levees 10 years ago. Apparently the money was squandered almost immediately, and it wasn’t under the Bush administration.

In “Louisiana Officials Could Lose the Katrina Blame Game” by Senior Staff Writer Jeff Johnson, CNSNews.com wrote:

(CNSNews.com) – “The Bush administration is being widely criticized for the emergency response to Hurricane Katrina and the allegedly inadequate protection for ‘the big one’ that residents had long feared would hit New Orleans. But research into more than ten years of reporting on hurricane and flood damage mitigation efforts in and around New Orleans indicates that local and state officials did not use federal money that was available for levee improvements or coastal reinforcement and often did not secure local matching funds that would have generated even more federal funding.

”In December of 1995, the Orleans Levee Board, the local government entity that oversees the levees and floodgates designed to protect New Orleans and the surrounding areas from rising waters, bragged in a supplement to the Times-Picayune newspaper about federal money received to protect the region from hurricanes.

”’In the past four years, the Orleans Levee Board has built up its arsenal. The additional defenses are so critical that Levee Commissioners marched into Congress and brought back almost $60 million to help pay for protection,’ the pamphlet declared. ‘The most ambitious flood-fighting plan in generations was drafted. An unprecedented $140 million building campaign launched 41 projects.’

”The levee board promised Times-Picayune readers that the ‘few manageable gaps’ in the walls protecting the city from Mother Nature’s waters ‘will be sealed within four years (1999) completing our circle of protection.’

”But less than a year later, that same levee board was denied the authority to refinance its debts. Legislative Auditor Dan Kyle ‘repeatedly faulted the Levee Board for the way it awards contracts, spends money and ignores public bid laws,’ according to the Times-Picayune. The newspaper quoted Kyle as saying that the board was near bankruptcy and should not be allowed to refinance any bonds, or issue new ones, until it submitted an acceptable plan to achieve solvency.” In a word—squandered.

So, it’s not that my motivation is to be an apologist for the president. My motivation is seeing people wrongly accused who I believe are victims of spindoctors, the media and politicos for political gain. Now if you were writing about illegal immigration and upset with Bush, I’d agree whole-heartedly, but this is just not right I can’t substantiate it, but someone I know described New Orleans as, “a city so corrupt that the cleanest organization in town is the mafia.” It may not be true, but you have to wonder.