Part-Time Pundit

Hurricane Katrina: Some on the Right are Being Stupid Too

I just got this from the Minuteman Project:

TAKE ACTION: We weren’t expecting this sudden need. There’s no way to plan for such a time as this — but nevertheless, we MUST take action now. We can’t leave our borders unprotected — but having to start our operation early means we’re having to start without having all of the funds in place that we planned for. Click Here to help with your best contribution now:

Now, I do think we need to secure the border (as well as liberalize the number of immigrants we allow in legally) but using Katrina to try to push that agenda and then stump for donations is beyond the pale. There are more important things then immigrants getting into the country. We’ve had open borders for years now; a few more weeks won’t hurt. A few more weeks in New Orleans, however, will kill. The money needs to go to Katrina first.

September 2nd, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | Flood Aid, Hurricane Katrina, Law / Legal Issues, National, Politics | 2 comments

Hurricane Katrina: Who’s to Blame

There is a rush to blame the Katrina catastrophe on someone, and while there are those on the Left engaging in political corpse chucking at the Bush administration what is missed is where the failures actually were here (hint: they were local). Kyoto had nothing to do with this. Racism had nothing to do with this. Iraq had nothing to do with this. Federal spending had nothing to do with this. Poor and/or non-existent planning and poor execution had everything to do with this. (See debunking of stupid claims here and here)

People think the levees should have been upgraded but funding was cut. Those levees were still to protect against category 3 hurricanes. 15 foot walls do not protect against 22 foot waves. New Orleans and Louisiana knew the problem and they planned for it. The problem is they largely didn’t follow their own plan and left gaping holes. Protection against cat 5 hurricanes simply was not available, and the technology was about 25 years off, if it was going to work at all.

You can view the plans here. The plan clearly indicated that evacuation was the plan; they obviously just didn’t carry through on that plan. As a result, they had to make up things as they went, improvising the Superdome as a shelter despite the lack of any functioning facilities or supplies.

The overall strategy for dealing with a catastrophic hurricane is to evacuate as much of the at risk population as possible from the path of the storm and relocate them to a place of relative safety outside the projected high water mark of the storm surge flooding and hurricane force winds.

(see also this story on people stealing busses sitting in lots to get out)

That is an AP picture of a school bus parking lot. Note the array of flooded out buses neatly in lines? The million dollar question is why they are still there. If they were used in the evacuation, as they should have been, those buses would be in Baton Rouge right now. (Or at least ferrying people out of New Orleans). They KNEW the problem they’d have if a hurricane like that hit, and the city and state government did nothing to alleviate it. Instead, they made a last-minute half-baked decision to use the Superdome Thunderdome as a “refuge of last chance”. The floodwalls or work on the floodwalls don’t mean jack. The disaster plan took the problem into account. Flooded buildings are a pain, but can be repaired. You would have no disaster if no one was in the city at the time.

That brings us to point two. The evacuation plan was to start once the threat of a strong category 3 or better hurricane is in the Gulf. Katrina made it to the Gulf on August 27th, the day the President declared a state of emergency in Louisiana. When was the mandatory evacuation ordered? After Katrina became a Cat 5 at 10am on the 28th. Katrina made landfall as a Cat 4 at 6:15 am on the 29th giving people less than 24 hours to evacuate. On the 27th, if not before they should have initiated their emergency plans, got shelters and buses ready. Instead they ended up with almost 60,000 people at the Superdome with no way out.

Point three. The emergency plan has two large gaping holes. It included no contingencies for riots and no contingencies to bring food and supplies INTO the city. The plan called to keep moving people out. However, because of the damage there was little or no way to get in, and the few ways rescuers were able to get in were impeded by the looting and rioting. (Food notwithstanding. People were trying to “boatjack” rescuers.) These two holes played into each other, with people beginning more and more to choose the side of the criminal element because there was no plan to help them from the outside in place.

People may say, well they didn’t anticipate rioting. Let’s be honest a second. In this country, we riot when the home team wins a championship. What the (expletive) did you expect when you had 100,000 some odd poor, starving people in a corrupt who are neck deep in sewage? Rescue operations had to be stopped so that basic security can be established to provide an escape corridor. You have hardened criminals on one side, and desperate people that have joined them because they’re the only hope for survival now. You can’t rescue 100,000 people with helicopters. You’d also be hard-pressed to expect them to behave while loading up buses 100 at a time. We needed to then begin a massive call up of the National Guard to step in. Sure, some were in Iraq, but 70% was available, not including all the other states in the area. What can be criticized is why it took so long for those units to get to New Orleans (and some haven’t arrived yet). By the way, activation in this case is a matter for a governor, not the President. A serious look should be taken at Guard readiness in those states when this is over.

President Bush noticed the crisis coming 24 hours before New Orleans and Louisiana stepped up to do something about it. It isn’t the federal governments job to step in and run states. That’s why Louisiana has the Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness. They had a crap plan and didn’t follow it and now we all have to play clean up. While all are quick to blame Bush and Republicans, they ought to take a good hard look at the state and local governments who wrote the plan, left the holes, and failed to do what the could to stop this from getting out of control.

September 2nd, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | Hurricane Katrina, National, Politics | 12 comments

This week’s Bonfire

Is Up, sorry to host for late linking…

September 2nd, 2005 Posted by John Bambenek | Uncategorized | no comments