Is it not the feds fault that they turned away supplies that could have helped people? IT is documented that the FEDS did that. Is it not the feds fault that they claimed they didn't even know people were at the Convention center? Was it not the feds fault that they seized diesel fool and tried to keep the local rescue efforts from using it? Was it not the Feds fault they cut local emergency communication lines? There are countless other things that are definitely the fault of the Federal govt. Attempting to not place any blame on them is letting people who failed to act appropriately off of the hook. I agree that local and state govts. should shoulder a portion of the blame as well.
FEMA was created back in the early 80's to consolidate multiple government agencies. It exists as an agency to assist and offer aid to states in disaster relief when the state is overwhelmed due to money, manpower, etc. not be the first response unit to go rushing into a states jourasdiction (you don't want the Feds to do this trust me). In reality it exists because politicians over the years have decided that they would spend every freakin' dime they get in an effort to get your vote and not have money put away or plans made for this type of thing. And when this type of disaster started happening as the country grew the state and local officials would lobby the federal government for help instead of sucking up the responsibility themselves. FEMA should be a last resort and not an expected first choice. Get your timelines strait and step away from the TV for a minute. They didn't hold back aid once it was requested. There were no local emergency communication lines; that was part of the problem. Once Lousianna and New Orleans officials requested help the cycle began. They didn't turn away supplies, they held them back until they were requested to be sent in and they had a better idea of where they could be used. This isn't Utopia....lol when stuff like this happens for the first time there are going to be hickups. Why didn't the mayor evacuate the city? He said he had busss but no drivers? He had plenty of time to take action before the storm hit. But I guess that little fact is not important. Why didn't the governor and state legislature spend money 10 years ago to improve the levees when it is brought to their attention that if a storm of this magnitude hit them this would happen? Gosh they were bragging last year when they dodged a bullet and the last big storm turned away from them. Oh well thats probably not important either. Its not like they didn't know this would happen eventually.....so who's fault would you say that is? Here is an interesting question for you.......why isn't anybody talking about the tens of thousands of poor people in Mississippi and Alabama who lost everything in multiple towns? I'll tell you why.....because it doesn't make as good a news story and it doesn't allow them to continually slam Bush. Now again I'm not saying Bush is a saint by any stretch.....open borders, fiscal irresponsbility, pushing for government health care (god save us), constantly allowing the media to abuse him (man I miss Ronald Reagan).....but lets not just focus on one thing here and not see the forest in spite of the trees. Having a big government agency doesn't really fix anything. Lets name a few examples......wellfare, medicare, social (in)security, and countless other social programs with big federal agencies have continually been a huge failure. Regardless of what political offiliation you are there is no denying that there is way to much bureaucracy in our government on every level. By keeping control and responsiblity at the state and local levels we as citizens can keep a closer eye on it and hold it more accountable. That is really the way the country was intended to be run; not have a huge federal government flled with bureaucracies that grows to a point that it begins to over take state jurasdiction (which is pretty much where we are headed if we are not careful).
You should look at your own timelines. Each of the things FB mentioned did occur. A huge failure? They may be overly expensive and/or inefficient, but have you seen poverty and health levels compared to pre-welfare and pre-medicare and pre-SS? The quality of living in America for the poor, disabled, and the elderly has dramatically improved over the past 50 years as result of these programs.
http://thinkprogress.org/2005/09/04/worst-abandonments/ <I>Broussard then discussed the difficulties local authorities had with FEMA, including one case where they actually posted armed guards to keep FEMA from cutting their communications lines: Three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn’t need them. This was a week ago. FEMA, we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. When we got there with our trucks, FEMA says don’t give you the fuel. Yesterday — yesterday — FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards and said no one is getting near these lines… </I>
Paging Mr. Brown...Mr. Micheal Brown. What pisses me off is the guy says the only two things he really did wrong was not recognize early enough that the Lousiana state and local government couldn't do their job right and that he didn't hold enough media briefings?! Bush was the first to admit wrong doing. Blanco followed suit, but was quick to place blame elsewhere. And Nagin, shoot he still believes this was everyone elses fault.
My timeline is accurate. Your facts are lacking. Wal Mart did try and deliver aid and they were turned away by the FEDS. The FEDS did infact cut local lines of communication and those lines were only restored after the local authorities came in with armed personell and guarded the lines themselves. If you think everythign went smoothly once FEMA stepped in then you missed out on half the tragedy. As far as local and state authorities I do place blame on them as well. They should be accountable for their mistakes, just like the FEDS should be accountable for their mistakes. If you don't believe the FEDS made any mistakes please go back through and read some of the threads that were going on at the time. There are numerous documented mistakes that the FEDS deserve to be blamed for, including the ones that I mentioned.
How many people died of thirst due to Hurricane Katrina? For God's sake, this was a NATURAL DISASTER. People are going to die. This nitpicking over how imperfectly a never-before-seen intervention went is just so tiresome.
It isn't nitpicking. People were without water for days. A truck full of water was turned away by FEMA. I understand it was a bad disaster, but that doesn't mean that nothing went wrong, and people were affected by that, and people lost their lives. I think we need to lay blame where it is due. In this case it is due at the Federal, state, and local levels.
Wouldn't it be sorta cool if these post mortems focused on how to improve things in the future, rather than obsess with assigning blame...
In government, unlike business, there is no positive performance incentive. Thus, the primary method used to improve performance is public castigation for negative performance.
I think there's a lot more political capital in assessing blame. But I think it often masks opportunities to improve. We end up with a 'it was their fault' mentality, and the requisite excuses as to why it was not. Division rather than dialogue. I'm not convinced that's the best path to improvement. Or that unjust, or overblown public castigation fosters cooperation in reaching and implementing ways to deal with this sort of thing in the future.
I agree. My thinking is that public castigation now helps in the future. For example, for the next Mike Brown - there's no financial incentive to make FEMA run efficiently. He won't get a bonus. He won't keep his job longer (since it's a political appointment). He won't get a lot of credit during the next disaster. But knowing what happened to Mike Brown this time - if he doesn't want that to happen to him next time, maybe it'll serve as incentive to improve. That's kind of along the lines of what I was thinking. It's more the negative threats - public humiliation, loss of job, etc that serve as motivators in the public sector than positive ones like increased pay. Is it the ideal motivator? Absolutely not. But I'm not sure there's a better way in government without opening up all sorts of potential abuse (if you start adjusting salaries for performance, etc).
You're right Major. Accountability is good. I just tire of the blame game...which often seems to be more of a shifting of responsibility. Hope they smarten up. Certainly seems there's lots they could have improved from Katrina. Lot's of good work done...and a few major blunders.
I think in some cases it is the catalyst for improvement. Look at the Federal readiness for Hurricane Rita. If there hadn't been such a stink about the poor job done for Katrina, and Brownie would have still been in charge, I don't know that they would have been so prepared for Rita. I know it is a different state, and different local govt. involved as well, but I have no doubt that the blame and criticism of those branches of govts. helped the Texas state, and local govts. improve their readiness as well.
I agree with you here. I do tire of the blame game when it is shifting responsibility. I fervantly disagree with those that say it is all the locals' fault, or all the Feds fault. ::Edit:: I forgot to add that if it wasn't for the shifting of blame, it wouldn't be necessary for the blame game to begin. If in the beginning Everyone had talked about where they failed, and what they did wrong, and said they were going to work on improving it, things would be different. Instead all sides became defensive and started blaming the other side. That is when it seemed like it was necessary to make sure everyone understood what they did wrong, and assess blame.
I felt Nagin was a complete idiot even before the storm hit. He quoted "up to 10,000 dead". The Feds do not have any obligation to help out in a local disaster, so there can be NO blame placed on them. Why do we not hear from Gulfport, Biloxi, and Pensacola? Did central florida get hit by two powerful hurricanes back-to-back last year? There has not been any blame shifting in these instances to the extent of New Orleans.
