Day 11

Today is the 11th day since Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast. We’ve all heard a lot about New Orleans, but have you heard about other places? I haven’t very much. FOX tries to be “fair & balanced”, but I think they are falling short here. They focus a lot of time on New Orleans rather than other places along the Gulf Coast. FOX does have people in Mississippi reporting, but they only get about five minutes an hour. Think I will have to do my own research. 🙂
We’ve been learning more & more about why help didn’t come to New Orleans. I don’t think I realized the way things worked before all this happened.
Did you know that it is the state’s & city’s responsibility to evacuate? I think I knew that one.
Did you know that the President couldn’t help until he was asked? I didn’t know that one.
Did you know that the governor of the state is in charge of the National Guard for that state? I didn’t know that one, either.
Did you know it is then the Govenor’s responsibility to send out the Guard to help in an emergency?
The President seems to be getting a lot of heat for “not responding fast enough”. Even O’Reilly says President Bush was not “pro-active” enough when it came to dealing with the Govenor of Louisiana. Personally, I think he did ok. I think President Bush is coming from a standpoint that says the states need to have their own authority, and it isn’t his job to step on toes. In any normal situation, we wouldn’t want the federal government just jumping in and taking over. Well, ok, some people might, but I wouldn’t!
This whole situation amazes me. Every day a new piece unfolds & I am even more dumbfounded. Here are things as I understand them. You all can comment & correct me if you think I am wrong.
It was Gov. Blanco’s responsibility to send out the national guard and have them in place before the storm hit. She did not do this. She also could have ordered a mandantory evacuation, but she did not do this, even though she had been urged by President Bush on SUNDAY (the day before the storm hit) to do so.
It was Mayor Nagin’s responsibility to evacuate New Orleans. A year ago, his office issued a DVD in regards to evacuating in case of a hurricane. This DVD said it was the poor person’s responsibility to get themselves out. Even though he had a lot of school buses at his disposal, and public transportation available, Mayor Nagin did not aggressively encourage or demand people evacuate.
President Bush had no control over any of these things. These were all state- & city-level problems.
We found out just recently that the Red Cross didn’t get in to the Superdome because city officials didn’t want to create a “magnet” for more people to come to! They wanted to get people out, so they prohibited the Red Cross from entering.
It wasn’t until Wednesday, I think, that Gov. Blanco decided to let the federal government take over. Even then she needed 24 hours to decide.
This whole situation just amazes me. I cannot get over it. If you want to see pictures, FOX News (click on photo essays in kinda the middle of the page) has photo essays from day one – when Katrina hit FL, and on to today.
Anyways … fill me in on your views. How do you think the media is handling this disaster? How do you think President Bush is doing? Who do you think is most to blame, if blame were assigned?