Disaster Relief Finger Pointing

Hi, Zipp. Welcome to A2K. I don't quite understand what you mean by the NAACP and its failure to be faster.

NAACP is not a disaster relief agency. FEMA is.

I imagine the race factor is going to played (maybe rightfully so) on both sides. On TV it does look like most of those stranded are African Americans. What difference that makes I am not sure yet.

One difference it will surely make is a lack of sympathy on the part of crypto-racists who see the reports on the news.

Hey, Setanta. I think the reason has to do with the fact that most of very poor were black. Still don't get the Zip quip.

I suspect that it was racially motivated, MissLettybettyhettygetty, which is what inspired my remark.

i dunno, revel. i tend to think that the failures are more about failure in leadership than prejudice. and maybe a certain amount of being disconnected from reality.

unlike iraq, this mess is right in our front yard. photo ops, congratulations and sloganeering aren't gonna cut it.

yup. hook. worm. cast....

I think it will become a race issue as well as a class issue. Someone told me this morning that the difference between the relief response to mid-town Manhattan in 2001 and inner city NO is 2005 is noticeable.

Don't you think that for the most part that has to do with the amount of devestation? 9/11 was for the most part an isolated incident which left the rest of the city of NY available to help out. In this situation the entire city is under water which makes it much more difficult for help to arrive. I agree the response and planning could have been much better, but I don't think it is fair to compare it to 9/11.

Oh!

You're right, JP. My point was that the comparison is already being made, will continue to be made, and the 'apples and oranges' response will need to be made over and over.

and followed by lawsuits, most likely.

We have the rest of the country and all our resources left available to help out. Yet as of yesterday there was still people left stranded on roof tops. Comments from some law makers like Hassart are even speculating on whether NO should even be rebuilt. There should have been someone in charge and in control from the beginning. It is not like we didn't know a hurricane was coming and it is not like we didn't know NO was below sea level and prone to floods.

It is almost as though no one in charge knew there was an emergency until we started seeing it on TV and have been playing catch up ever since and in slow motion at that.

Ugh, unfortunately I'm afraid you're right, DToM

But has stopped defending and has come right and admitted that response has been slow.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/09/02/AR2005090201257.html

Re: Disaster Relief Finger Pointing


Zipp, you won't find much support for your racist comments here.

Bye!

BBB

Revel, thanks for posting that. I have never admired that joker in the least bit. I do respect that he did something he never does, however, in this case, and that is to admit to anything having been done wrong in his administration. I suspect, though, that such an admission will be the exception that proves the rule that he never admits to wrong.

Who Knew? Gas Prices? Bush Spins Disaster With Diane Sawyer
http://www.bushwatch.net/

Friday, September 2, 2005

Interview: Who Knew? Gas Prices? Bush Spins Disaster With Diane Sawyer, with Dan Froomkin

Sawyer: "Mr. President, this morning, as we speak . . . there are people with signs saying 'Help, come get me'. People still in the attic, waving. Nurses are phoning in saying the situation in hospitals is getting ever more dire and the nurses are getting sick because of no clean water. Some of the things they asked our correspondents to ask you is: They expected -- they say to us -- that the day after this hurricane that there would be a massive and visible armada of federal support. There would be boats coming in. There would be food. There would be water. It would be there within hours. They wondered: What's taking so long?"

Bush: "Well, there's a lot of food on its way. A lot of water on the way. And there's a lot of boats and choppers headed that way. Boats and choppers headed that way. It just takes a while to float 'em! . . . "

Sawyer: "But given the fact that everyone anticipated a hurricane five, a possible hurricane five hitting shore, are you satisfied with the pace at which this is arriving? And which it was planned to arrive?"

Bush: "Well, I fully understand people wanting things to have happened yesterday. I mean, I understand the anxiety of people on the ground. I can imagine -- I just can't imagine what it is like to be waving a sign saying 'come and get me now'. So there is frustration. But I want people to know there is a lot of help coming.

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did anticipate a serious storm. But these levees got breached. And as a result, much of New Orleans is flooded. And now we are having to deal with it and will."
*****

Wrong.

Just for starters, how about Sunday's New Orleans Times-Picayune , which described a computer model run by the LSU Hurricane Center. "It indicated the metropolitan area was poised to see a repeat of Betsy's flooding, or worse, with storm surge of as much as 16 feet moving up the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet and topping levees in Chalmette and eastern New Orleans, and pushing water into the 9th Ward and parts of Mid-City."

Or Monday's New York Times , in which New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin is quoted as saying that "Hurricane Katrina could bring 15 inches of rain and a storm surge of 20 feet or higher that would 'most likely topple' the network of levees and canals that normally protect the bowl-shaped city from flooding.

And as Andrew C. Revkin and Christopher Drew write in today's New York Times: "The 17th Street levee that gave way and led to the flooding of New Orleans was part of an intricate, aging system of barriers and pumps that was so chronically underfinanced that senior regional officials of the Army Corps of Engineers complained about it publicly for years.
*****

Later, Sawyer asked about gas prices and oil company profits.
Sawyer: "Gas prices going up at the pumps. We have seen in Atlanta the lines backing up. And some of the prices are going up to $4, $5. First of all, what do you want to say -- what is the government putting in place to guard against price gouging? And also, is this a time to call on Americans simply to pull back and not use the gas? . . . "

Bush: "First of all, you are right. We ought to conserve more. And I would hope Americans conserve if given a choice. Secondly, we have done some things to help on the gas prices. . . ."

Sawyer: "Some people have said that the oil companies themselves should simply forfeit some of their profits in this time of national crisis. One conservative commentator, a popular one, called for a 20 percent reduction in the profits. Do you -- "

Bush: "Well, what I'd like to see in corporate America, is to make sure they contribute to helping these victims. . . . "

Disaster In New Orleans: How About An Emergency Communications System That Works? William Fisher

In the months to come we'll learn that one of the many failures of protecting citizens during the New Orleans disaster was the lack of communications. Last Thursday we ran this story because we thought it was relevant to the present need to coordinate communications in event of a disaster. It pointed out that very little that has been done to date to correct our inadequate communications system that may have cost lives during the 9/11 disaster. For example, as Fisher notes, " On 9/11 there was no spectrum allocated to public safety - and there still isn't."

Such a system would have proved useful during the New Orleans disaster. Based on relevant new stories, it's clear that the communications disaster in New Orleans in the 48 hours after the hurricane passed through may be found to have contributed to a loss of lives. The combination of poor, uncoordinated communications, confused survivors who were given little help to evacuate in advance of the hurricane, the sick and the handicapped who were left behind, the growing toxic stew of heat, refuse, poisons, sleeplessness, and mental derangement, and the Bush administration's slowness to respond could lead to more loss of life.
---Jerry Politex, Bush Watch.

[On 9/11] when police officials concluded the twin towers were in danger of collapsing and ordered police to leave the complex, fire officials were not notified. Four years on, families of victims, policy makers, and ordinary citizens are asking: "Could it happen again"? And, according to virtually every expert, the answer is 'yes'.

Public safety agencies including first responders, such as firefighters, police officers, and ambulance services, are heavily dependent on wireless radios. Wireless technology requires radio frequency capacity, known as spectrum, in order to function, and existing wireless technology is designed to work within specified frequency ranges. On 9/11 there was no spectrum allocated to public safety - and there still isn't.