Anonymous
The president can also declare a war and deploy thousands of troops to be on the ground of any country at any time and they would be there within a couple hours.....it seems tackling a federal disaster is much more than he can handle. SAD!
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Jeff Snyder
EF5
The only thing I think Bush could have done regards funding. I've stated my opinion in another thread, so I won't repeat it. All I'll say is that there is a finite amount of money to work with. You can't spend billions oversees and not see an effect on funding here at "home". City officials seem to be telling a completely different tale than what federal officials are saying in terms of funding cuts for the levee program, etc. Again, billions and billions for operations across the oceans means less money for planning, execution, etc, for gov't agencies here.
John Farley
Supporter
He could give an order this morning or yesterday that "I want food dropped to those people TODAY. You figure out how to do it." He's supposedly famous for that kind of thing. He could have shifted troops and equipment from all over the country into the Gulf area the minute he knew that southern Mississippi was swamped and the eastern part of NO was under water, i.e. Monday evening, while he was still on vacation. Unfortunately, there is a great deal he could have done. Harry Truman used to have a sign on his desk that said "The buck stops here." Very appropriate to this situation.
Kevin Bowman
EF4
he said today that the federal government is going to take on the full 100 percent of the relief costs
Kevin Bowman
EF4
what president has ever faced a natural disaster on the scale of this? Andrew wasant even this big and people are saying this was worse than camille
Jeff Snyder
EF5
OF COURSE HE IS! This isn't about spending money NOW. It's about changing our priorities from the countless billions spent oversees and in helping other countries with the huge cuts taken on our own land. Heck, I'd rather have more research money to the science of meteorology than knowing that we're spending millions and millions everyday in other places of the world. I'm gonna stop now because this is very much bordering on becoming a political discussion.
Kevin Bowman
EF4
blaming this on Bush though is dumb mainly because this is a event known for years and the money couldve been freed up by a number of presidents to reenforce the levis, build new ones ect but nothing was taken seriously untill something like this actually happened. that how we are, we only take things seriously untill we see what can happen
Will Tinder
The bottom line, regardless of whether we blame the president, the local officials, state government, or whoever...
The situation is absolute chaos. The more I see, the more I watch, the more I wonder if even the most prepared government in the world could deal with a disaster of this magnitude. Part of the problem, I think, is exactly that this disaster wasn't instantaneous... it was slow, it crept up, and because it was slow, because people thought the levees were fine, they didn't act. Then, when the situation did spiral out of control, everyone... Federal, State, and Local, were caught with their pants down.
The situation is absolute chaos. The more I see, the more I watch, the more I wonder if even the most prepared government in the world could deal with a disaster of this magnitude. Part of the problem, I think, is exactly that this disaster wasn't instantaneous... it was slow, it crept up, and because it was slow, because people thought the levees were fine, they didn't act. Then, when the situation did spiral out of control, everyone... Federal, State, and Local, were caught with their pants down.
Kiel Ortega
EF4
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A thread I think got ignored (it's on the second page with only 79 hits), though had a great article on spending for disaster relief, etc. related to N.O.
http://stormtrack.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8250
http://stormtrack.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=8250
Kevin Bowman
EF4
well the National Weather Service was not caught with their pants down. They were making it perfectly clear what was about to happen. Too bad everyone acted to late
B Doss
EF2
I've been trying to keep up with your cross posting. Many, many New Orleans residents barely had the resources to survive day to day living. Their first priority is the governmental checks that comes on the first week of the month. Few of these people have other resrouces. A late check can mean spell a crisis. So. Katrina? The ability to leave in a hurry was impossible.
Remember, Bush is not a king, but a president. A govern met by and for the people. Questioning his policies and rhetoric does not make you a Communist or even a Liberal, but a true, patriotic American. Especially considering that following 9/11, with all cameras on him, President Bush didn't hesitate to be dropped onto the rubble of ground zero where we reassured America, and the world. Congress had a special late night Sunday session to push legislation to have have Terri Schiavo's feeding tube reinstated. Yesterday he gave one of the most disappointing speeches since he's been in office. He seemed withdrawn, unaffected, and carleless. His speech went from Katrina to Iraq.
As it's been said, we've heard all about what they're doing. But the pictures being broadcast show what they're obviously not doing.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/conte...5041100879.html
Miriam Lawrence
EF1
Just going back to the issue of fact vs media spin, which is where this thread was before we started on politics... if the coverage is so slanted and inaccurate, how do you account for this?
Ok, maybe he has an axe to grind... or maybe it's true. Maybe he's just trying to cover his own butt... or maybe he's got good reason to be frustrated because the Feds did not arrive in sufficient numbers, with sufficient resources, quickly enough.
The reporting on Fox News isn't taking potshots at anyone, but they are reporting the fact that communications are nonexistent and that the city has fallen into a state of complete chaos. These both are directly related to a lack of sufficient resources and leadership on the ground three days post-storm.
I'm not suggesting I could do a better job in this situation -- but I'm not in charge of disaster relief for the US, either. It would be one thing if an 8.0 earthquake and tsunami had just destroyed Boston. The present situation is one that has been hanging out there for decades. FEMA itself identified it as one of the top three risks the US faced, and presumably has been modeling scenarios for years. And they had advance warning. I saw Joe Bastardi on Friday, just as Katrina was coming off Florida into the Gulf, predicting the storm would rival Camille in intensity. They knew two days before it hit that a flooded, destroyed NOLA was at least possible. They had as much advance warning and prep time as anyone could reasonably expect, and then some.
And it should not have been that hard to at least ballpark the number of people that would stay put despite the evac. I'm sure there are plenty of statistical models based on past storms.
Disaster relief is about preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. From my admittedly uneducated, inexpert armchair quarterback perspective, it seems absolutely INSANE that things are in their current condition 3 days after the storm passed. From where I sit, for whatever reason, the Feds have dropped the ball in a huge way.
Ok, maybe he has an axe to grind... or maybe it's true. Maybe he's just trying to cover his own butt... or maybe he's got good reason to be frustrated because the Feds did not arrive in sufficient numbers, with sufficient resources, quickly enough.
The reporting on Fox News isn't taking potshots at anyone, but they are reporting the fact that communications are nonexistent and that the city has fallen into a state of complete chaos. These both are directly related to a lack of sufficient resources and leadership on the ground three days post-storm.
I'm not suggesting I could do a better job in this situation -- but I'm not in charge of disaster relief for the US, either. It would be one thing if an 8.0 earthquake and tsunami had just destroyed Boston. The present situation is one that has been hanging out there for decades. FEMA itself identified it as one of the top three risks the US faced, and presumably has been modeling scenarios for years. And they had advance warning. I saw Joe Bastardi on Friday, just as Katrina was coming off Florida into the Gulf, predicting the storm would rival Camille in intensity. They knew two days before it hit that a flooded, destroyed NOLA was at least possible. They had as much advance warning and prep time as anyone could reasonably expect, and then some.
And it should not have been that hard to at least ballpark the number of people that would stay put despite the evac. I'm sure there are plenty of statistical models based on past storms.
Disaster relief is about preparing for the worst and hoping for the best. From my admittedly uneducated, inexpert armchair quarterback perspective, it seems absolutely INSANE that things are in their current condition 3 days after the storm passed. From where I sit, for whatever reason, the Feds have dropped the ball in a huge way.
Kevin Bowman
EF4
from your link
maybe its the anwser that arent what everyone wants to hear. like i said before this is so much bigger than 9/11. 9/11 was a few blocks (in NYC) this is 90000 square miles. No leader of this country has ever had to face a disaster area quite like this before. What does everyone expect congress to do that already is being done?
Anonymous
I would expect congress/the president/FEMA to have gotten help there yesterday.........
Kevin Bowman
EF4
FEMA has been there since Monday, The President flew over there yesterday and will be there tomorrow. im sure the congressional parties from each state have flown over and seen the damage first hand
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