Hurricane Expert: FEMA and Feds to blame NOT Local and State

[kerry-is-my-prez]

http://msnbc.msn.com/id/9178501/

What's more, it appears that the federal government did not follow up on an exercise last year that mostly predicted what happened in New Orleans — devastating flooding and hundreds of thousands stranded.

-snip-

"What bothers me the most is all the people who've died unnecessarily," says Ivor Van Heerden, a hurricane researcher from Louisiana State University who ran the exercise.

Van Heerden says the federal government didn't take it seriously.
"Those FEMA officials wouldn't listen to me," he says. "Those Corps of Engineers people giggled in the back of the room when we tried to present information."

One recommendation from the exercise: Tent cities should be prepared for the homeless.

"Their response to me was: 'Americans don't live in tents,' and that was about it," recalls Van Heerden.

-snip-

[mattclearing]

1. Ouch.

This is going to hurt.

[Career Prole]

2. Jerks.

Utter and absolute.
:grr:

[rzemanfl]

3. Another Louisiannan who needs to avoid small planes and

secluded locations....

[Cha]

8. Ain't that the truth!

the bushwa plays Dirty ..just ask James Hatfield if he were still alive.

[DELUSIONAL]

4. Science -- SCIENCE -- who the hell needs science?

asks the bushie faith based (or feel it in the gut) crowd.

There is so much hostility toward science and "college professors" -- by the bushie crowd.

And now we are all paying the price -- New Orleans and other Gulf states areas that got hit by Katrina.

[POLEIS]

16. Faith Based Disaster Prevention!

[Cha]

5. I bet the poor people and families

would love to have a TENT of their own ..right about NOW!

I lived in a tent after Hurricane Iniki on Kauai for 5 months..we didn't have electricity or water for that long, either.

We were very grateful to have food and bottled water!

[DELUSIONAL]

18. That's right -- I knew that the Navy had assisted in a major

disaster in Hawaii -- Tsunami and then Iniki!

Power was supplied by using the power plant in a Navy Sub.

Kauai took a real hard hit -- thanks for the reminder.

[mzmolly]

6. Recommended.

Thanks

[bushisanidiot]

7. Holy crap!! What incompetent boobs!!

i can't believe how irresponsible this administration is!

[cthrumatrix]

9. get them on a 1 hour tv show and start impeachment the next day

[Wheezy]

10. He was on MSNBC

Interviewed just now by Rita Cosby, and the collective jaws in our house dropped. He didn't mince words. Said a rep from the white house attended part of his conference, and he gave briefed her and gave her a CD of all the data.

Rita (who I can't stand!) said 'we look forward to talking to you in the next few days.'

[Spazito]

11. Whoa, another excellent article, thanks for posting

This is being added to my ever growing cache of articles and data showing the incredible incompetence of bush, his admin and his agency heads.

[speedoo]

12. Impeach Bush and Cheney now.

This is exhibit 1.

Failure to take effective action post 9/11.

Failure to take effective action pre Katrina.

[NYC]

13. U.S. gov't. is irresponsible and uncaring.

[aikoaiko]

14. Bush and his federal appointees have a lot to answer for. nt

[KerryOn]

15. I think there were some problems at the local level as well....

I will probably get smeared for this, but what the heck.

The government new that this could happen, and the locals new this could happen as well.

True * diverted the NO flood wall $ for his war in Iraq, and if he hadn't the area still would have been toast, because the project would not have been completed in time for Katrina.

The government screwed up by not getting there in time. And in my opinion the local city government, state government and federal government are all to blame for not having an evacuation plan. (Or was there one that I'm not aware of?)

I don't think they could have evacuated everyone in NO before Katrina hit, but it seems to me that their plan was for everyone to simply drive north. What kind of plan is that?

What about the people with no cars? What about the people in nursing homes and hospitals?

Why did they close the airports on Sunday, when they could have used the planes to get people the hell out of Dodge?

Did the bus companies simply leave buses their to be destroyed by Katrina, or did they drive them out of their empty?

I feel that the local authorities could have been better prepared to get more people out of their before Katrina hit. I saw the tape of the mayor of NO. He simply urged everyone to evacuate. If they had a plan it would have been more like: "I have instituted the emergency evacuation plane to commence immediately."

In the months to come I'm sure a lot of the questions will be asked and answered.

[BeFree]

20. A problem

Who was the Mayor going to get to enforce the evacuation? Cops had their hands full, all other employees had their hands full. There was nobody to go around all the neighborhoods and drag people out of their houses.

The problem was the evacuation shelters; the dome and convention center. There was no outside help for days and days at these places.

[Joe Chi Minh]

17. No. As in the UK and Calcutta, Americans - the spiritual creme de la .

creme - sleep in the streets.

[bread_and_roses]

19. How - and how fast - did help arrive in other hurricanes?

This seems like a good thread to ask a question that's been nagging at me - given my unreliable memory and not living in a hurricane zone so having no personal experience.

But we've had some very destructive hurricanes over the past few years - and I don't remember any delay in getting relief to the people immediately.

It seems to usually go something like this: hurricane forcast, hurricane hits, a state of emergency is declared, and as soon as the wind dies down we hear that supplies and help are arriving to aid the displaced.

I don't recall ever hearing about squabbling among Local/State/Fed officials over which provides the help, it's just...there.

Never, never remember people of dying of dehydration in the wake of a hurricane, never.

This is what I just can't get past - how could we not get WATER to people?

It would take a long time to search out the coverage of past hurricanes - hoping some of our knowlegable posters will respond...given the amount I've read over the past week it seems that I shouldn't have to ask this question, but maybe my mind is still frozen in shock.