My response to a poorly-researched, dishonestly-written Think Progress posted about former FEMA Director Brown's congressional testimony yesterday.

BROWN CLAIM: "FEMA doesn't evacuate communities."

FACT: Brown Said FEMA Was Engaging In Evacuations During Katrina

If there is still floodwaters around there, they shouldn't be trying to evacuate those patients by themselves. The Coast Guard, FEMA, all of those continue to do those rescue missions and we continue to do those evacuations and we'll certainly continue to evacuate all of the hospitals. [CNN, 9/1/05]

You can't tell the fundamental difference between a pre-storm evacuation, which is a local/state issues, and the post storm rescue/recovery phase, which FEMA does get involved with. You don't know your subject matter.

BROWN CLAIM: FEMA Was Stretched Beyond It Capabilities

"Mr. Chairman, this event stretched FEMA beyond its capabilities. There's no question about that. It did it in several ways. One is FEMA, over the past several years, has lost a lot of manpower. At one point during my tenure, because of assessments by the Department of Homeland Security, FEMA has lost — at one point, we were short 500 people in an organization of about 2,500. You do the math. That's pretty significant… FEMA has suffered from the inability to grow to meet the demands."

FACT: Brown Said FEMA Had All The Manpower It Needed

BLITZER: Are you ready? Is FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, ready to deal with this new hurricane?

BROWN: We absolutely are. We have all the manpower and resources we need. President Bush has been a very great supporter of FEMA. [CNN, 9/26/04]

Did you bother to even check the storm size and estimated damage from 9/26/05 to landfall? Katrina was just a weak Category 1 or Category 2 Hurricane on 9/26 depending on the time of day the question was asked. It only hit Cat 4 status on 9/28.

What a completely bogus comparison between a comment made about a weak storm, and a comment made about one of the most powerful storms to ever hit land.

BROWN CLAIM: "I can't discuss with you my conversations with the president's chief of staff and the president."

FACT: Brown Spoke to New York Times About Conversations With Chief of Staff

"Hours after Hurricane Katrina passed New Orleans on Aug. 29, as the scale of the catastrophe became clear, Michael D. Brown recalls, he placed frantic calls to his boss, Michael Chertoff, the secretary of homeland security, and to the office of the White House chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr. … 'I am having a horrible time,' Mr. Brown said he told Mr. Chertoff and a White House official — either Mr. Card or his deputy, Joe Hagin — in a status report that evening. 'I can't get a unified command established.'" [NYT, 9/15/05]

No contradiction here, at all. Read it again. One conversation was just with the C.O.S., which he could reveal. He could not, however and for whatever reason, discuss his conversation with the C.O.S. and the President.

Think Progress is a non-partisan organization? Could have fooled me.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:18 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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My church is just one of many organizations sending volunteers to help those communities ground away by Hurricane Katrina. Our first team of volunteers was based out of Gretna, LA, and was in and around New Orleans from Sept. 17-22. They got out ahead of Hurricane Rita.

These are some of the images they captured.

This tractor and car were flipped by the storm surge, the garage or barn they were in was completely demolished. The large body of water in the background is probably Lake Ponchartrain.

If you can ever find the carpenter who put down this hardwood floor, hire him.

This railbed buckled under the force of the storm surge.

Even the worst of disasters can't strip some people of their sense of humor.

There are no quitters here.

More pictures are on the church's Katrina Relief Blog, which we will be adding to as we make more trips down to help. Everyone has their own set of talents, and as I am marginally capable of swinging a hammer, I hope to go down with one of the construction teams in coming months.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:49 PM | Comments (7) | Add Comment
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Via sharp-eyed Lawhawk and Discarded Lies, I was alerted to this story from Human Rights Watch on the Common Dreams Newswire.

Human Rights Watch claims:

New Orleans: Prisoners Abandoned to Floodwaters

Officers Deserted a Jail Building, Leaving Inmates Locked in Cells

NEW YORK - September 23 - As Hurricane Katrina began pounding New Orleans, the sheriff's department abandoned hundreds of inmates imprisoned in the city's jail, Human Rights Watch said today.

Inmates in Templeman III, one of several buildings in the Orleans Parish Prison compound, reported that as of Monday, August 29, there were no correctional officers in the building, which held more than 600 inmates. These inmates, including some who were locked in ground-floor cells, were not evacuated until Thursday, September 1, four days after flood waters in the jail had reached chest-level.

“Of all the nightmares during Hurricane Katrina, this must be one of the worst,” said Corinne Carey, researcher from Human Rights Watch. “Prisoners were abandoned in their cells without food or water for days as floodwaters rose toward the ceiling.”

Human Rights Watch called on the U.S. Department of Justice to conduct an investigation into the conduct of the Orleans Sheriff's Department, which runs the jail, and to establish the fate of the prisoners who had been locked in the jail. The Louisiana Department of Public Safety and Corrections, which oversaw the evacuation, and the Orleans Sheriff's Department should account for the 517 inmates who are missing from list of people evacuated from the jail.

Carey spent five days in Louisiana, conducting dozens of interviews with inmates evacuated from Orleans Parish Prison, correctional officers, state officials, lawyers and their investigators who had interviewed more than 1,000 inmates evacuated from the prison.

Read the rest.

Human Rights Watch claims that guards recklessly abandoned inmates and implied that as many as 517 prisoners are unaccounted for and possibly dead, including 130 thought to have been in Templeman 3, one of the cell blocks where flooding was worst.

While deaths may indeed have occurred in the Orleans Parish Prison, they are nowhere near what Human Rights Watch hints at, nor does there seem to be as many prisoners missing as they allege. This level of exaggeration would be on par with other Human Rights Watch reports of the recent past, and indicative of a sensationalist organizational culture.

Here is what we do know about the situation in the Orleans Parish Prison immediately before and after Hurricane Katrina.

There were indeed breakdowns in disaster planning at the Orleans Parish Prison, apparent even before Hurricane Katrina made landfall. We heard rumors of a riot in the prison on 8/30, but at the time, the riot could not be confirmed. By the next day, the prisoners had been readied for evacuation, and by September 1, all inmates and corrections officers had been evacuated with no known fatalities.

A week later, stories began leaking out about the Orleans Parish Prison riot from both inmates and guards. These were the first and only early accounts from somewhat credible named witnesses. Even then, few accounts, if any, were corroborated, while some facts were flatly preposterous, like claims by one of the guards that flooding reached the fifth floor. Only one named source in the various articles I've seen claimed to have seen bodies, and they numbered exactly two in that account.

More recent accounts, including one published 9/25, claim that while some corrections officers did fail in their duties, some performed heroically, including newly promoted Chief Deputy Bill Short, whose eyewitness testimony seem to directly contradict key points of the report from Human Rights Watch:

Chief Deputy Bill Short said Thursday that he could confirm only four escapes, but a full head count by the state Department of Corrections is still under way.

Short was promoted to his new position a week ago in acknowledgment of his steely command of the 800-inmate House of Detention during the storm and its aftermath.

Other deputies said they knew of more than a dozen escape attempts.

One thing Short said he knows for certain is that there were no deaths - not among the inmates, not among the 900 or so employees who reported to work, not among the scores of residents who floated or waded in from the surrounding neighborhood to the relative safety of the veranda of the high-rise Community Correctional Center.

"Did we know exactly what to do?" Short asked. "Nobody did. It was a wild ride, but we must have done some good things because nobody died."

According to the top on-scene official contacted so far, no inmates died as Human Rights Watch has implied, and only four escapes have been confirmed.

In addition, in their attempt to paint prison officials in the worse possible light, Human Rights Watch does not mention the fact that the prisoners were evacuated well ahead of the sick, the very young, and the elderly at the Superdome and the Convention Center. Prisoners, perhaps because of their status as wards of the State of Louisiana, actually received preferential evacuation treatment over the other citizens of New Orleans.

Corinne Carey of Human Rights Watch says of the prison, "Of all the nightmares during Hurricane Katrina, this must be one of the worst."

Not. Even. Close.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:44 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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If you live, or know anyone who lives between Houston,TX and Lake Charles, LA, please go here and see if you can help. It will only take a few minutes, and won't even cost you a phone call.

Thanks.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 08:52 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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WRAL-TV in Raleigh, NC has what appears to be a complete list of links to local television (including some excellent live webcasts) and newspapers in Texas and Louisiana.

So far , it is the absolute best resource I've found for covering Hurricane Rita on a local level. This torm will hit land and stall, not leaving untli after the weekend. The widespread flooding seen as a result will be on par with that of Hurricane Floyd in 1999, with more than 20 inches expected in many areas.

Please say a prayer for everyone in the storm area.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 12:24 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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If you are in southeast Texas or southwest Louisiana, especially coastal areas, and plan to try to ride out Hurricane Rita, please help recovery operations by writing your social security number and name on both of your arms and both of your legs with a permanent marker.

This may assist mortuary teams in identifying your body.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:08 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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1 I heard Gov Blanco say that. Didn't she first say what a stupid thing it was to say when Gov. Bush (think it was him, maybe it was the Miss Gov)first suggusted it? Wonder what changed her mind?

Posted by: this and that at September 23, 2005 09:56 AM (MSMPS)

2 Ouch. How about if I just write it on my shirt? Thanks for the wellwishes Blanco Man I can't wait to vote that lady out of office.

Posted by: Kevin at September 23, 2005 10:56 AM (QHu90)

3 I thought John Tierney wrote this a few weeks ago in one of his columns - he said that this is how they handle reluctant evacuees in Virginia.

Posted by: theanchoress at September 23, 2005 11:39 AM (Sp817)

4 I first heard about it years ago, and can't recall if I heard it when Hugo came barrelling in our direction in '93 or when Bertha and Fran rolled thorugh in '96 or perhaps when Floyd came through in '99. I highly suspect tha it has been around as a saying for far longer than that.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at September 23, 2005 11:55 AM (2cgwG)

5 Where would anyone rather be, at home with batteries, pumps, MREs, bottled water, or out on the Interstate Highway at the mercy of competing agencies that give conflicting information?

Posted by: Tom T at September 23, 2005 01:00 PM (6krEN)

6 I had never heard this quote before Blanco made it. It is in poor taste whoever says it. It ranks up there with Kos' "screw them" statement imo.

Posted by: Kevin at September 23, 2005 03:14 PM (QHu90)

7 It is practical advice that has become something of an urban legend, Kevin, that cops have been using for years. I personally heard about it in the 90s during one of the hurricanes that hit teh east coast, but it has been used before and since, including this example from Hurricane Isabel, in 2003. It was used by coastal police before Katrina as well. What, you think Blanco could have thought it up on her own? You are worried about something being in "poor taste," while cops are using it as a rhetorical in a last ditch efforts to save people's lives. Which is more important, offending them, or saving them?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at September 23, 2005 04:23 PM (0fZB6)

8 The quote's origin go back to '54 when hurricane Hazel was barreling down on the North Carolina's coast. Permanent markers hadn't been invented and paper was still a rather new and expensive commodity so the local police officers asked residents determined to stay in the area to carve their names into stone tablets tied around their ankles. The tablets not only helped to identify the resident, it also helped to keep them from washing out to see of from being blown away. I also have a bit of swampland for sale in the 'glades is anyone's interested.

Posted by: phin at September 23, 2005 05:35 PM (DGPlf)

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Hurricane Rita has achieved sustained wind speeds of 165 mph, and is now officially a Category 5 hurricane on the Saffer-Simpson scale. This is the highest possible rating for a hurricane.

Rita is so powerful that it might be more descriptive to describe her for what she also is: A massive F3 (or “severe”) tornado on the Fujita Scale of Tornado Intensity.

The thing is, most tornados aren't generally large enough to be seen from space...

Via NOAA

If you live in South Texas, a trip north would be a good idea right about now.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 05:11 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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As I mentioned of a flooded New Orleans over two weeks ago, rebuilding the same city in the same spot and expecting a different result is the definition of what?

Since then, President Bush has given a speech pledging billions of dollars to rebuild a city that should not be, one built in a swamp, largely below sea level, surrounded by an unnaturally choked Mississippi River on one side, and a rapidly encroaching Gulf of Mexico on the other.

Many people have rallied behind the President for his pledge to rebuild the area "in a sensible, well-planned way."

There is nothing at all sensible about rebuilding New Orleans. It will be on, or under, the Gulf of Mexico by 2050, according to this lightly modified image from the U. S. Army Corps of Engineers (more here).

Of course, looking at a map is one thing: hearing from legitimate experts is another matter entirely.

Towards that end, I sent an email to some of the top coastal and marine studies scientists in the United States this past Friday, asking them to the following five questions:

1. Are estimates that the continued rate of wetland loss in Louisiana will place New Orleans on or in the Gulf of Mexico in the 2050-2090 time frame accurate?
2. If these estimates are not accurate in your estimation, what do you think the actual time frame will be (ballpark estimates are perfectly acceptable)?
3. The Mississippi Delta is immensely important as a breeding ground for migratory birds and for many species of marine life. Some have suggested that allowing the Mississippi River to "go native" —that is, removing levees and other hardening structures—would allow the Delta to replenish itself with sediments that are currently be lost to the Gulf of Mexico. Is that an accurate theory in your estimation?
4. Are other replenishment efforts more viable for the long-term?
5. If the area of New Orleans outside the port and French Quarter (above seas level) were cleared and cleaned and returned to nature with artificial flood control structures removed, what would be the impact on the wetlands of the Mississippi Delta?

Here is how he responded:

1. Are estimates that the continued rate of wetland loss in Louisiana will place New Orleans on or in the Gulf of Mexico in the 2050-2090 time frame accurate?

The estimates are probably accurate. There are three main factors: Global sea level rise, delta subsidence, Mississippi River sedimentation. Sea level is rising, the delta is sinking and the river is depositing much less sediment on the delta now than in the past (for multiple reasons).

2. If these estimates are not accurate in your estimation, what do you think the actual time frame will be (ballpark estimates are perfectly acceptable)?

They "are probably accurate" (See above)

3. The Mississippi Delta is immensely important as a breeding ground for migratory birds and for many species of marine life. Some have suggested that allowing the Mississippi River to "go native" —that is, removing levees and other hardening structures—would allow the Delta to replenish itself with sediments that are currently be lost to the Gulf of Mexico. Is that an accurate theory in your estimation?

Where the Mississippi mouth is located has shifted at least 14 times in the last 7000 years. It has now reached the point where it is over extended. There is great potential for the river to turn Southwest just south of Baton Rouge and take a short cut to the ocean. The Army Corps of Engineers has been fighting this for decades. It is natural for the river channel to significantly shift its channel.
Because the river has so many dams along its course and its banks are heavily diked, sedimentation on the delta surface has been reduced. This has aggravated the problem of completely natural process of delta subsidence because little is added to the top as the bottom goes down.

Note: Here is a map showing where the Mississippi would likely change it's course, taking a sharp turn to the southwest far before it reached New Orleans. Note that if the Mississippi river does change course as suggested, then New Orleans loses much of its value as a port city, along with its only natural supply of sediment. This also means that the large area of the Mississippi Delta to the east (right) of the new course, which is over-extended into the Gulf of Mexico would erode away over time.

Are other replenishment efforts more viable for the long-term?

4. Where would the dirt come from? The natural source is the best and cheapest. [Just to be clear, he means by sedimentation –ed.] All other schemes would require enormous energy output to move the material and probably create a problem somewhere else.

If the area of New Orleans outside the port and French Quarter (above seas level) were cleared and cleaned and returned to nature with artificial flood control structures removed, what would be the impact on the wetlands of the Mississippi Delta?

There would be an immediate increase in shallow fresh to brackish water wetlands. The quality of that increase would depend on elevation (depth) and what could become established on it. If it is an increase in area of low quality wetland or a series of lakes, it may not be worth it for the gain in wetlands alone.

After answering these questions, he also volunteered the following:

If a city planner were choosing a location for a big city, it would not be where New Orleans is today. It is a location that should be largely abandoned as a city.

New Orleans is a doomed city, and even the Mississippi River it depends upon seems to want to abandon it. I'd rather we faced up to that fact now, rather than $200 billion or a trillion dollars down the road.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:30 PM | Comments (29) | Add Comment
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Hugh Hewitt was right regarding President George W. Bush' Speech tonight in Jackson Square; it was A Good Speech by a Good Man:

Perfect pitch returned tonight, and the president's looks backward and forward were on target. As Chris Matthews observed, it sounded a little LBJ/FDR-like in its vows about the underclass of the recovery region, but that is exactly why it worked so well: That is what needs to happen, and he identified the best approaches in the empowerment of entrepeneurs and the retraining of the evacuees. The enterprise zone could prove a turbo charged motor to the effort, and the promise of innovation was well delivered.

For all the heartfelt sentiment however, Bush, his speechwriters, and prognosticators both Democrat and Republican missed one key point: New Orleans is not destined to be around to celebrate it's rebirth, at least not for long.

The picture above is pulled from Louisiana State University, a school that knows quite a bit about coastal erosion. The original picture comes from an online lab, where this image portrays the future Louisiana coastline as envisioned by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in just 50 years.

More conservative estimates place New Orleans on (or under) the Gulf of Mexico by 2090, and these were both pre-Katrina estimates. Once the environmental toll of Hurrican Katrina is finally measured, years are sure to be shaved from previous estimates.

It was foolish to build a city in a swamp 300 years ago. It is even more foolish now that we could rebuild a far better city, with far fewer problems, and far more potential, with far less money on a more viable location somewhere nearby.

Pouring trillions of dollars into rebuilding a temporary metropolis destined to fail is a fool's game that I would rather not play.

Note I would like to make it clear that I'm not against rebuilding as a concept, I'd just like it to occur at a more viable location than in an eternally sinking hole surrounded by massive bodies of water. Fair enough?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:22 PM | Comments (15) | Add Comment
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Does this scene sound vaguely familiar?

"When you read some of the graphic descriptions of what has occurred here -- I almost hesitate to put them in the record, and yet they have to be added to this debate. Let me read to you what one FBI agent saw. And I quote from his report:

"On a couple of occasions, I entered interview rooms to find a evacuee chained hand and foot in a fetal position to the floor, with no chair, food or water. Most times they urinated or defecated on themselves, and had been left there for 18-24 hours or more... On another occasion, the [air conditioner] had been turned off, making the temperature in the unventilated room well over 100 degrees. The evacuee was almost unconscious on the floor, with a pile of hair next to him. He had apparently been literally pulling his hair out throughout the night. On another occasion, not only was the temperature unbearably hot, but extremely loud rap music was being played in the room, and had been since the day before, with the evacuee chained hand and foot in the fetal position on the tile floor.

"If I read this to you and did not tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Louisianans had done to evacuees in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have been done by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime -- Pol Pot or others -- that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that is not the case. This was the action of Louisiana politicians in the treatment of their citizens."

When these words were uttered by Illinois Senator Dick Durbin in June, he was speaking of Guantanamo Bay, and the alleged treatment of al Qaeda terrorists in the care of the American military. It is sad that by substituting a few words we could so easily capture the desperate conditions Americans forced upon Americans just last week in the Louisiana Superdome.

The allegations of torture at Guantanamo Bay turned out to be false. The desperate situation in the Superdome turned out to be all too real.

I wonder if Dick Durbin and his fellow Democrats will be able to summon the same vigor to prosecute the authorities responsible for the torturous conditions of Louisiana Superdome, as they did for those they felt were responsible for Guantanamo Bay.

Sadly, I don't see that their character will be up to the task.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 06:34 AM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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John at WuzzaDem finds that it's all in the timing.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 06:33 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Via 2theadvocate.com:

The owners of St. Rita's nursing home in St. Bernard Parish were charged with 34 counts of involuntary homicide today, announced Louisiana Attorney General Charles Foti at a press conference.

Mable B. Mangano and Salvador A. Mangano, turned themselves into authorities and are in custody in the East Baton Rouge Parish Prison.

Foti said the arrests were in connection with the deaths of residents of St. Rita's during the Hurricane Katrina catastrophe.

He said it was the owners' duty to "follow reasonable practices" in safeguarding the well-being of the facility's residents.

"When accepting patients, it is their duty to provide a standard of care for them," Foti said.

"The pathetic thing is they were asked if they wanted to move them (the patients) out, and they said they did not," he said, noting that the owners of the nursing home had been repeatedly warned of the dangers of the approaching storm.

"Their inaction resulted in these deaths," Foti said.

These nursing home owners are responsible for their charges, and they failed a sacred trust, not to mention a basic human duty.

Other people also failed those that depend on them in Louisiana... we'll see if they are also charged for their ineptitude that contributed to at least some of the deaths of the 400 people recovered from Katrina's floodwater's so far.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 07:31 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Why has New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin moved his family to Dallas?:

Mr. Nagin was speaking from the Dallas area, where, he told the New Orleans Times-Picayune, he has bought a house for his family and enrolled his young daughter in school. He said he would remain in New Orleans while his family lives for the next six months in the Dallas area and would make visits when possible.

He didn't just move his family out of the flooded area, he moved them 520 miles and 1/3 of the largest state in the Union away.

So the $64,000 question: Why?

I don't think it will take a rocket scientist to see that Nagin might be out as Mayor once his failure to follow the written New Orleans evacuation plan is widespread knowledge among his scattered constituency. As his many failures in leadership are quite arguably to blame for many of the deaths in New Orleans, moving his family might be safety issue as well.

Of course, since the people he screwed over the most didn't even have enough transportation to make it out of New Orleans to Gretna, moving his family all the way Dallas might have been overkill.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 02:19 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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“Feel free to circulate my opinion.”

Okay dear, you asked for it.

The following section come from the words of a liberal professor at a nearby university, responding to a colleague that posted a "chain of responsibility" email that explained how the government chain of command ran in New Orleans, and how it should work.

The "chain of responsibility" as the colleague called it, ran from local responsibility to federal responsibility in this order:

• the Mayor (Ray Nagin)
• the New Orleans Director of Homeland Security (Terry Ebberts)
• the Governor (Kathleen Blanco)
• the Head of Homeland Security (Michael Chertoff)
• the President (George W. Bush)

It is more or less accurate, though it is certainly simplified, as the colleague left out the Louisiana Homeland Security office (state level), that reports to Governor Blanco, and she left out a Michael Brown-led FEMA altogether (though as I write this, Brown has stepped down).

Still the colleague's hierarchy was more right that wrong.

Sadly, this liberal college professor, like so many ordinary, non-EdD and PhD (piled higher and deeper) types, is so wrapped up in her partisanship that she can't tell fact from fiction. Read her response first and see if you can spot her errors. I'll provide a proper Fisking on the other side:

Another valid perspective:

How about that the government was studying this (with our money) for 4 years - and cutting the budget to fix the levies [sic] (admittedly this was also cut under Clinton which was shameful)? Why were they budgeting anything at all if this was a private sector issue? And - since the levies protected an entire, extremely vulnerable city - how could anyone in good conscience say - it is the responsibility of property owners only? The buck stops with the person at the top. Always has and always will. In this situation, that happens unfortunately (for me and others) to be GW and his poor administrative choices, Chains of responsibility as a defense for the "blame game" don't make it in most crises situations. Try telling that to the homeless.
This piece sounds more like " blame the victims" but protect the government at all costs. I am glad this kind of thinking wasn't directed toward members of this community during Floyd. Granted, aspects of this article are probably true. The crime and violence in the Astrodome was absolutely horrifying. Given the blatant irresponsibility of some of New Orleans's citizens - why did the gov't issue $2,000 each worth of "get rich free cards" on Wed. (given to countless numbers to "empower them" to buy what?). Fortunately, someone caught the stupidity of that one and cancelled the program on Friday (when they fired the Fema Undersecretary) . When our Pres. visits Trent Lott's house and promises to rebuild it "bigger and better than ever - can't wait to be sitting on his front porch again..." - I think he is absolutely clueless regarding the plight of the poor and general human suffering. That truly frightens me. ...
By the way, watch out for Ophelia - because if we are affected, there will be nothing left for us. Wish we had more National Guard Troops at home to assist those in need right here in the US of A.
The fact that the Republicans feel the need to put forth something like this - which is blatantly political - lllustrates their defensiveness and concerns regarding the next election. Indeed, they need to be very worried.
Obviously, I have strong feelings about this too or would have let it go by. Feel free to circulate my opinion.

So how many mistakes did you find in our little liberal's canned argument? Let's take it from the top.

Another valid perspective

Sorry, but the good doctor (EdD) doesn't make it past the title on this one. You either have a chain of command, or you do not. The chain of command did leave out some key roles, and if the poster was going to address these missing roles, then the title may be valid. As we will soon see, though, the professor completely blows it. She does not in any way understand the hierarchy, and seeks to flatten it completely (everything is Bush's fault) in an effort to assign blame, hence even her title is wrong, as her hierarchy is invalid, making her claim to have a valid perspective incorrect.

How about that the government was studying this (with our money) for 4 years - and cutting the budget to fix the levies [sic] (admittedly this was also cut under Clinton which was shameful)?

Governments at various levels on two continents have been aware of levee problems in the Mississippi Delta at least since 1832 when English novelist Fanny Trollope wrote about New Orleans levees in 1832 (thank you, Michael Kinsley). Levee problems were not suddenly discovered during the Bush administration. They have been a constant concern for the citizens of New Orleans for well over a hundred yearsÂ… as has been the corruption of New Orleans and Louisiana officials that have failed to secure matching funds, misappropriated the funds they were allocated, and were so poor in money management that they lost the ability to restructure their debt.

In addition, the state of Louisiana thought so little of levee improvements that they spent less than one tenth of one percent of their 1998 budget -- $1.98 million -- to levee improvements in the New Orleans area. In 2001, the Orleans levee board was forced to defer capital improvement project because the locals rejected a tax increase to fix the levees. The levee board did manage, however to spend $2.5 million on one restoration project—of a water fountain. That, too, was well over budget. In short, New Orleans and Louisiana bear almost all the blame for not funding their levee system They couldn't even meet the federal government halfway. Why should someone in Boise or Boston be forced to pay for a Louisiana-benefiting project that won't even sell in Baton Rouge?

It is also worth noting that under the present administration, Louisiana has received more money for Corps of Engineers construction projects ($1.9 billion) than any of the other 49 states. California was a distant second with less than $1.4 billion, even though its population is more than seven times larger.

Why were they budgeting anything at all if this was a private sector issue? And - since the levies protected an entire, extremely vulnerable city - how could anyone in good conscience say - it is the responsibility of property owners only? The buck stops with the person at the top. Always has and always will.

Simply a reading comprehension issue, proving even a EdD can be semi-literate. These lines were responding to the claim that:

Â…the levees that broke were the responsibility of the local landowners and the local levee board to maintain.

The original contention was never just that the landowners were responsible, but that the landowners and the levee board were responsible.

These political cronies, six of eight appointed directly by the governor are the group with primary responsibility for the levees around New Orleans, as noted here:

The Orleans Levee District, a quasi-governmental body, is responsible for 129 miles of earthen levees, floodwalls, 190 floodgates, 2 flood control structures, and 100 valves. The governor appoints six of the board's eight members, and they serve at his pleasure. When a storm approaches it is responsible for closing the hundreds of hurricane protection floodgates and valves on levees surrounding the city. All residents outside of these levees evacuate.
The District's General Fund accounts for all operating funds for the daily operations of the Administrative Offices, Field Forces, Law Enforcement and support operations necessary to maintain the Board's level of services for flood protection and public safety.

The District's Special Levee Improvement Projects Fund (SLIP) accounts for the capital funds for major maintenance and/or capital improvements of all physical property and plant owned by the Board that is identified as directly related to flood protection.

So as the levee board was appointed directly be, and serves at the discretion of, the Governor. There is no higher authority for the levee board that the governor that appoints them. Period. This buck stops with Kathleen Blanco, and nowhere else.

In this situation, that happens unfortunately (for me and others) to be GW and his poor administrative choices, Chains of responsibility as a defense for the "blame game" don't make it in most crises situations. Try telling that to the homeless.

While without factual merit, this passage is worth mentioning in that it shows that even a seemingly educated person can become completely illogical when politics are involved, especially when you combine a rabid ideology with a lack of knowledge about the subject at hand. The Executive branch is not responsible in any way for a state's municipal projects. The good professor knows nothing of government, and tries to cover it with an emotional appeal.

This piece sounds more like "blame the victims" but protect the government at all costs. I am glad this kind of thinking wasn't directed toward members of this community during Floyd.

There was a simple reason state and local officials were not blamed for anything during Floyd, dear professor: they responded competently to the disaster. States and individual communities affected by Hurricane Floyd held to their disaster plans. Mayors led their communities; they did not flee to the state capitol. Governor's led their states; they did not toss up their hands and declare the situation "untenable."

In addition, citizens of North Carolina and Virginia and other states did not take advantage of Hurricane Floyd to go on a rampage throughout their cities, looting jewelry stores, pawn shops, and pharmacies of everything of value, which the community of New Orleans, including many law enforcement officers caught on tape, did. Perhaps we didn't blame the victims of Floyd, because the victims of Floyd didn't attempt to rob their cities blind.

Granted, aspects of this article are probably true. The crime and violence in the Astrodome was absolutely horrifying.

It would have been horrifying—if it happened. Luckily, Houston, Texas, home of the Astrodome, was unaffected by the ravages of Hurricane Katrina, or by the looters and gang members that apparently took over the New Orleans Superdome after the New Orleans police department fell apart. Currently, 25,000 evacuees of New Orleans have been evacuated to the Astrodome where they are now being cared-for by big-hearted Texans.

As for the horror stories of multiple murders and gang rapes inside the Superdome, none have so far been confirmed by credible sources, although there were some confirmed deaths, including a suicide. The majority of suffering endured by the people trapped in the Superdome was the direct result of actions, and inactions, in Baton Rouge.

Given the blatant irresponsibility of some of New Orlean's citizens - why did the gov't issue $2,000 each worth of "get rich free cards" on Wed. (given to countless numbers to "empower them" to buy what?). Fortunately, someone caught the stupidity of that one and cancelled the program on Friday (when they fired the Fema Undersecretary) . When our Pres. visits Trent Lott's house and promises to rebuild it "bigger and better than ever - can't wait to be sitting on his front porch again..."

Debit cards of $2,000—hardly "get rich quick cards" by any measure—were distributed as a pilot project in Dallas, Houston, and San Antonio where there were plenty of things to buy. Perhaps if the good professor wee a tad bit better in geography, she wouldn't be quite as snarky?

Why were the cards cancelled? Not because there weren't places to use the cards, but because the wonderful social elements created by Johnson's "Great Society" were already abusing them.

President Bush wants Trent Lott's house to be rebuilt, as much as he wants everyone else's home to be rebuilt. Just because a liberal like the good professor hates Senator Lott, it doesn't mean that he has an less value than any other person. I'd ask the professor if she'd rather if Lott not be extended the same right to rebuild as others, but I fear that I might guess her not quite Christian response.

I think he is absolutely clueless regarding the plight of the poor and general human suffering.

Come from a tenured university professor who hasn't faced the real world outside of her sheltered academic enclave and her comfortable upper-middle class neighborhood in decades, she's got quite a bit of nerve talking about the "plight of the poor."

By the way, watch out for Ophelia - because if we are affected, there will be nothing left for us. Wish we had more National Guard Troops at home to assist those in need right here in the US of A.

The fact that the Republicans feel the need to put forth something like this - which is blatantly political - lllustrates their defensiveness and concerns regarding the next election. Indeed, they need to be very worried.

Complete and utter horsecrap, if you pardon my language.

Ophelia, which wobbles back and forth nearly in place, and in strength between a tropical storm and a marginal hurricane, is a threat for minor inland flooding and beach erosion, but no more than the nor'easters that pound the Carolina coast throughout the winter season.

Even if Ophelia came ashore a strong category three or four, there are enough law enforcement and National Guardsmen in North Carolina to take care of our own, and we have done many times before. We have seasoned disaster veterans in all levels of emergency management from the state to the local level, and a citizenry that reacts to save communities, not destroy them. Therein lies the difference.

Over 100 years of corrupt and incompetent Democratic leadership on every level, an incompetent and corrupt law enforcement system, and a gang and drug-riddled population created by Johnson's failed "Great Society" doomed New Orleans.

Mayor Nagin, who failed to follow the New Orleans disaster plan and move citizens out of the city using school and public buses, has fled to Dallas. Governor Blanco who sad the situation was "untenable" and "overwhelming," went on to prove it by refusing to let the Red Cross or Salvation Army enter the city. Other Democratic leaders like Gretna Police Chief, Arthur Lawson, refused to let New Orleans citizens escape the city, and even had officer fire shots at, or over, those who tried to escape.

North Carolina citizens do not have to worry about their leaders trying to starve them out, or trying to trap them in concentration camp-like conditions.

That you would try to coverup the massive corruption, cronyism and borderline genocide committed by the Democratic party of Louisiana and New Orleans, and actually blame it upon a federal government, that actually responded faster and in more volume than any of the past six major hurricanes, speaks ill of your motives, and your knowledge.

Obviously, I have strong feelings about this too or would have let it go by.

You probably should have, professor. You probably should have.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 01:20 AM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I'd written a post on September 2 in response to Kanye West's ignorant statements made during the NBC telethon that "George Bush hates black people." This post led to an especially spirited comment thread, that I eventually locked down at 323 comments.

After locking down the thread, I received an email from someone we'll call "Spartakus" who took exception to this comment from poster calling himself "Sean John:"

I agree that all levels of the gov't failed NO. But the Federal Gov't knew - before Katrina hit -that the city and state did not have enough resources to handle this alone. We all knew that. FEMA knew that. BTW did you know that the Associated Press reported that the Army Corps of Engineers asked for $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans last year. The White House carved it to about $40 million. But President Bush and Congress agreed to a $286.4 billion pork-filled highway bill with 6,000 pet projects, including a $231 million bridge for a small, uninhabited Alaskan island.

"Spartakus," as an government insider, had this to say in response:

I do not normally respond to blogs but found the thread on the issue of
Kayne West's comments interesting. I was intending to respond to Sean
John's statement "...the Army Corps of Engineers asked for $105 million for
hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans last year. The White House
carved it to about $40 million."

I work in resource allocation for a major organization of the Federal
Government ($700 billion). I wanted to point out to Sean John that cutting
funding like that is not uncommon. Why? Because (just like our own personal
lives) the total costs of government project requests are invariably always
higher than the funding available. In order to meet the limit of the annual
federal budget programs are reduced (or cut altogether) to meet the
established topline. We call this reduction/cutting of some programs as
"taking risk." What that means is that the program will take a reduction in
funding with the hope (an educated guess if you will) that it can handle its
mission utilizing a lower amount of money. Also, it is not done in an
arbitrary fashion, the reduction is usually taken where the agency requests.

An example is your own personal budget. Let's say that, rather than getting
your annual pay in 26 bi-weekly paychecks, I am going to give it all to you
up front on October 1st (the fiscal year). However, two years prior to that
you need to present me with a plan on how every single dollar is going to be
spent. You may also include items you would like to have, since I can only
give you a rough estimate of dollars you will have to spend.

Also understand you cannot "rob Peter to pay Paul." By that I mean your
"FY2007 Home Budget Plan" must be divided into many subcategories: Home Roof
Repair, Bathroom 1 Plumbing Repair, Fast Food Purchase from McD's, Fast Food
Purchase from Wendy's, Gas for Car A, Gas for Car B, Oil for Car A, New Tire
for Car A, Repair 1 flat tire for Car A.... (See how it works? This roughly
approximates the myriad of agencies vying for Federal dollars every year).

Now, since you planned for only 1 flat tire for Car A what do you do if you
have two? What you cannot do is take money out of your "Fast Food Program"
or "Home Roof Repair" because these are different agencies. You must pay
for the tire out of your Car A Repair funds. By not programming for two
flats you also took risk.

When I know how much money you can "execute" in FY2007 I will give you your
budget "topline." Invariably you will find that your topline is lower that
the available funding. So now you must cut some of your programs and in
doing so you must carefully evaluate each program and take risk when you
decrease the funding.

So the Federal Government and the Corps of Engineers took risk (the Corps
would have to show OMB what specific programs were to bet reduced/cut) when
they cut the initial request by $65 million. As we are now seeing, the
Federal Government will probably spend more than $65 million in direct and
indirect costs (indirect costs are those that we pay to our military and
governments employees who have responded. We would have paid them anyway
but we are paying them to do something in support of Katrina relief). The
government will probably pay these costs with supplemental budget
authorizations (but remember, cannot rob Peter to pay Paul usually applies)
although some of the burden of funding (FEMA, the National Guard, the
military) will be placed on agencies to fund (so they will have to find the
funds within their own organizations to pay, usually fuel costs).

Is it cut throat? Yes, it most certainly can be. But it is the reality of
government budgeting. Everybody wants a slice of the federal budget pie but
there is a limited amount of pie every year. [my emphasis -ed.]

To answer the blog threads of those who like to place blame for the slow
response I say it is too early to say. The problem with disaster response
is you do not get to really practice your plan. You usually have to execute
it in a real time situation and as Murphy's Law states: "No plan survives
initial contact with the enemy." Same is true for a disaster of this
magnitude. In the "hotwash" to come there will no doubt be enough blame
apportioned, but there will be success to highlight as well. Government
agencies usually end up learning from mistakes, it is unfortunate that
people must suffer during the learning process.

Something to think about,isn't it?

The federal government can't be there, at all times, being all things to all people. We've only got so much money to spend, folks, and we try to put it where it makes the most sense at the time. Even liberal Michael Kinsley recognizes that:

Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu and other Louisiana politicians, for instance, have been flashing their foresight all over the tube. They say they asked repeatedly for more money so that the Army Corps of Engineers could strengthen the levees, but repeatedly the Bush administration actually cut the corps' budget instead.

The Corps of Engineers itself is feeling pretty smug. It has long wanted money to build levees that would even survive a Category 5 hurricane, let alone a measly Category 4 like Katrina.

Sure, and if there were a Category 6 or a Category 473, there would be a dusty Corps of Engineers report in a filing cabinet somewhere, asking for money to protect against that one too. The Corps of Engineers has done many marvelous things. But it would cement over the Great Lakes and level Mt. Rainier if we would let it. Its warnings about natural disasters are like the warnings of that famous economist who has predicted 10 of the last five recessions.

Hinsight is 20/20, folks, but if Louisiana was all that interested in building additional levees, they could have raised their taxes in their states for their needs. They made the choice not to.

That was the wrong choice.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 05:56 AM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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It's time for everyone's favorite show, “Who Hates Black People?” hosted by Kanye West.

Here's how we play, audience: pick an offense, and we'll tell you which racist cracker has committed the crime!

This week, we're going to focus on Hurricane Katrina. As you know, Hurricane Katrina was a hurricane created by Republicans and aimed at New Orleans to kill black folks on welfare.

Are you ready? Let's go!

Q: Which racist Republican created Hurricane Katrina by refusing to ratify the Kyoto Protocol?

A: George Bush*

* Please ignore the fact that the second largest emitter of greenhouse gases (China) was completely exempted from the agreement, and ignore the fact that Russia's influential Academy of Sciences called the protocol “scientifically unfounded nonsense,” or that the Leipzig Declaration on Global Climate Change by 80 academics and 25 meteorologists was skeptical that global warming even exists. Also, please ignore the fact that we are currently in a 3 million year-old ice age. Hurricane Katrina is obviously Bush's fault.

Q: Which racist Republican purposefully trapped 100,000 black citizens of New Orleans by not following evacuation plans?

A: George Bush*

* Please ignore the fact that it was (Democrat) Mayor Ray Nagin who failed to follow the written disaster plan to use buses to effect an evacuation of the City of New Orleans, even though he knew 125,000 citizens didn't have personal transportation. George Bush should have bought each one of them a car.

Q: Which racist Republican blocked the escape the black citizens of New Orleans that tried to escape over the bridge known as the Crescent City Connection?

A: George Bush*

* Please ignore the fact that those orders actually came from Police Chief Arthur Lawson (Democrat), who said, "If we had opened the bridge, our city would have looked like New Orleans does now: looted, burned and pillaged." Of course, Bush forced Lawson to say that.

Q: Which racist Republican ordered the Louisiana National Guard and Louisiana Department of Homeland Security to keep the Red Cross and Salvation Army away from the tens of thousands of sick and starving people trapped at the Superdome and Convention Center?

A: George Bush*

* Please ignore the fact that while President Bush is the Commander in Chief of federalized National Guard units, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco (Democrat) is Commander in Chief of Louisiana's National Guard until she decides to hand control to the federal government, which she refused then and still refuses to do, despite the problems that has caused with the relief effort. It was under Blanco's orders that the Red Cross and Salvation Army were barred from entering New Orleans with relief supplies. Bush purposefully confused her by following the law.

Q: Which racist Republican violated the Second, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution by denying the remaining people in New Orleans the right to defend themselves from looters and thugs?

A: George Bush*

* Actually, It is New Orleans Police Chief P. Edwin Compass (Democrat) that violated and continues to violate the Second, Fourth, Fifth and Fourteenth Amendments of the United States Constitution, numerous provisions of the Louisiana Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, and natural law. Of course, he did so because, um, ah.. oh wait, it is Democrats that hate people having a right to defend themselves, isn't it?

Well, that's all the time we have for today's show, but come back next week after Hurricane Ophelia makes landfall on Myrtle Beach to see Jeff Foxworthy Host “Who Hates Rednecks?”

Update: Via Ace of Spaces, Strange Women Lying in Ponds provides more evidence of the racial nature of Hurricane Katrina. Damn that Bush!

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 02:24 PM | Comments (12) | Add Comment
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First reported by a local ABC affiliate and then discounted as a rumor by a lack of supporting evidence, the story Orleans Parish Prison Riot is starting to slip out in bits and pieces.

"I really didn't think we were going to get out of there alive," 52-year-old Deborah Williams said of her ordeal at the Orleans Parish Prison complex. "It really was a miracle from God."
Williams, along with several other guards and the 10- to 17-year-old inmates were moved to an 8-story building at the prison from a less-secure juvenile detention center in the hours before Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast because the prison was thought to be safer. By the time they were rescued, the building had flooded up to the fifth floor, a riot had broken out and been put down and most of the other inmates had been evacuated.

While flooding to the fifth floor seems to be a gross exaggeration, the rest of the story seems to match other accounts coming to light. Sadly, Williams' story also provides the first evidence of prisoners dying during the evacuation.

"Sometime Thursday morning, we heard helicopters outside," Williams said. "Then I heard someone calling my name — 'Williams! Deborah Williams!' — and I knew we were saved. We all started hugging each other, and soldiers started coming in from the roof."
Williams and the others were given life jackets and, because of the high water and the fact that many couldn't swim, they were tied together and pulled several blocks through the flooded streets of downtown New Orleans.
"It was horrible," she said. "Two of our kids drowned, and there was nothing we could do to help them. One of them was pregnant. There were bodies floating by, and the soldiers kept telling us to hurry, that it wasn't safe."

An Australian tourist, Ashley McDonald, was arrested for minor offenses and since freed, reported that prisoners were virtually abandoned in the days after Hurricane Katrina struck, and also confirmed both prisoner riots and escapes:

"They basically threw away the key to the jail for four days," he said.
McDonald said he and the other prisoners were basically abandoned by authorities in the storm's aftermath.
"We had no food, no water, no power, no air-conditioning, no toilets," McDonald said.
"A lot of people started breaking out and escaping and that's when attention was brought to the jail."

It was only then that the jail was evacuated and the prisoners shipped out, including many with homemade weapons. McDonald himself was threatened with a screwdriver once he arrived at the prison in Baton Rouge.

Perhaps the most disturbing vision of the scene inside the prison from corrections officer Shantia Barnes:

As Katrina raged Monday outside the prison on Perdido Street, water began seeping into the building where Barnes worked. Toilets began to back up. By Tuesday, the water inside was about 3 feet high and about 320 inmates had to be moved to the second floor, she said.

As water rose 5 feet high that evening, the situation became desperate, she said. About 40 civilians, including family members of prison workers, had also taken refuge at the jail. Word spread among the inmates that the Ninth Ward neighborhood of New Orleans, where many had family, was underwater. Unfed for days, the inmates began to riot inside their cellblocks, Barnes said.

"We had no phone lines, no electricity," she said. "There was raw gas in the water ... If it wasn't for the deputies, a lot of people would have died."

She believes many drowned anyway, including inmates housed on the first floor of the Templeman 3 building, where Barnes said that in the chaos, some inmates may have remained locked inside.

"We evacuated everybody who was at the jail as far as we know once we got there," said Pam Laborde, a spokeswoman for the Louisiana Department of Corrections, which helped evacuate the prison. Laborde said she could not confirm what may have happened before rescuers from her agency arrived.

Taken together, these accounts seem to paint a picture of scared prisoners rioting in an attempt to get away from rising floodwaters. A skeleton crew of guards was unable to easily put down the uprising, and as a result, inmates may have been trapped and drowned in rising floodwaters.

The media seems unwilling, or unable to present a full picture of the events inside the Orleans Parish prison, with only these fractured accounts from two guards and one inmate presenting a fractured picture of rioting, fear and death that runs counter to official pronouncements of orderly prisoner transfers to other Louisiana prisons.

What once seemed to be a bright spot in the failed evacuation of New Orleans now appears to be just another failure to adequately prepare by Louisiana authorities.

Note: This just kind of confirmed what Dan Riehl reported almost a week ago.

Previous:
Lambs Leading Wolves
Orleans Prison Riot
Hurricane Katrina's Harsh Sentence

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 09:26 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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A lot of folks are hyping figures tossed out by New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana U.S. Sen. David Vitter that deaths in New Orleans are in the range of 10,000 dead.

I'm going on the record and saying that the actual body count will be far lower than these estimates, probably in the range of 3,000-3,500 dead. Why?

The bodies just aren't showing up as you might expect as the floodwaters recede. If deaths were on the order of 10,000 in Louisiana, Reuters photographers wouldn't have to ask to join FEMA on rescue boats to find bodies to feast on; corpses would be piling up like driftwood at chokepoints and finding bodies to exploit would be no problem at all.

But that isn't occurring, and the simplest explanation is that far fewer people died than expected. We heard grossly over-inflated estimates in the hundreds or even thousands when Hurricane Floyd came through North Carolina back in 1999 and caused extensive flooding. 47 died, not 470, or 4,700.

Thankfully, the lack of bodies recovered so far indicate that this might also be the case with Hurricane Katrina.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 02:06 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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Listening to WPTF Radio on the way home this afternoon, host Bill LuMaye noted that many of those poor - and now feared dead - citizens of the areas heavily flooded by the levee breaks in New Orleans had refused to leave their homes because they were afraid that if they evacuated, they would not get their government assistance checks.

The reasons they gave were that:

• that they didn't trust their neighbors not to steal their checks, and;
• they were afraid their checks would blow away

*Pop*

That the mail would not be delivered in a city under a mandatory disaster evacuation apparently never cross their minds.

Some people claim that a lot of people drown in New Orleans because of their skin color. Is it impolite to mention that their economic situation might have more to do with their intelligence and education than their melanin content? Quite frankly, many people died not because they were of a certain race, but because they were stupid.

Sorry, but there it is.

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:54 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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Stumble across the official web site for the Louisiana Governor's mansion at http://www.gov.state.la.us/mansion/letter2.htm, and you get a wonderful welcoming letter from the Governor—Governor Murphy J. “Mike” Foster.

It looks like levee construction isn't the only thing that is out of date and/or under construction in Louisiana.

And MikeÂ…

Seafoam?

Posted by: Confederate Yankee at 11:19 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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