Katrina Rant

ENOUGH!

Guess what we learned during Katrina. We learned that the federal government is an organization full of red tape that will never spring into action quick enough in a real emergency and as a responsible person you should never, repeat never, trust that the government will do everything for you. Of course when you live in government housing, eat off government food stamps, and buy plasmas and nikes with the goverment welfare check, I am not shocked that most were waiting for a big red, white, and blue bus with G Dub driving to pull up and drive them to safety.

The people of new orleans know that their city is below sea level and surrounded by lakes, rivers, and the ocean. They had access to every report for days and days that a strong hurricane was threatening their very vulnerable city. Evacuation was a viable option for all. Poor, average, or rich everyone has the freedom to choose where they live!

Ray Nagin may not have made a lot of great decisions but he did make it very clear 24 to 36 hours before the storm hit that it was going to be bad, to get out, and staying at the superdome was a option of last resort.

Also, 5-7 days without government services and people are dying of stravation? People claim that the goverment should have been doing food and water drops sooner. If I knew a Cat 5 was bearing down on my home and I decided to ride it out I would get at least a weeks worth of supplies (easily done with can food and tap water in jugs for under $10).

Also, by the way when you see the photos of people standing on the roofs of their homes looking directly at the cameras with signs "Please Help Us" they are refering to the 40+ news helicopters that circled the city for weeks dodging footage of rescues to get shots of the most desperate people. They would get their shots and fly off to the next victims of the drive-by media.

Final point and then you all can tear into me. New Orleans will be the most dangerous city to live in for the rest of our lives. Even if sea walls are repaired to cat 5+ resistance they will still be vulnerable to human destruction by anyone, and I am not just thinking terrorism. For example, gangs are usually set by territory and neighborhoods, it would be easy for a rival gang to flood an entire area of New Orleans to win a gang war, claim territory, revenge, etc.

Originally posted by JoshGator54
ENOUGH!

Guess what we learned during Katrina. We learned that the federal government is an organization full of red tape that will never spring into action quick enough in a real emergency and as a responsible person you should never, repeat never, trust that the government will do everything for you. Of course when you live in government housing, eat off government food stamps, and buy plasmas and nikes with the goverment welfare check, I am not shocked that most were waiting for a big red, white, and blue bus with G Dub driving to pull up and drive them to safety.

The people of new orleans know that their city is below sea level and surrounded by lakes, rivers, and the ocean. They had access to every report for days and days that a strong hurricane was threatening their very vulnerable city. Evacuation was a viable option for all. Poor, average, or rich everyone has the freedom to choose where they live!

Ray Nagin may not have made a lot of great decisions but he did make it very clear 24 to 36 hours before the storm hit that it was going to be bad, to get out, and staying at the superdome was a option of last resort.

Also, 5-7 days without government services and people are dying of stravation? People claim that the goverment should have been doing food and water drops sooner. If I knew a Cat 5 was bearing down on my home and I decided to ride it out I would get at least a weeks worth of supplies (easily done with can food and tap water in jugs for under $10).

Also, by the way when you see the photos of people standing on the roofs of their homes looking directly at the cameras with signs "Please Help Us" they are refering to the 40+ news helicopters that circled the city for weeks dodging footage of rescues to get shots of the most desperate people. They would get their shots and fly off to the next victims of the drive-by media.

Final point and then you all can tear into me. New Orleans will be the most dangerous city to live in for the rest of our lives. Even if sea walls are repaired to cat 5+ resistance they will still be vulnerable to human destruction by anyone, and I am not just thinking terrorism. For example, gangs are usually set by territory and neighborhoods, it would be easy for a rival gang to flood an entire area of New Orleans to win a gang war, claim territory, revenge, etc.

I pretty much agree with you. One big exception, while the Federal Government (heck government at every level) could have done WAY better, there is simply no way to "quickly" respond to everyone in a disaster of this magnitude.

Think about it, there was about 36 hours of REAL warning time on this, remember it went from relativly moderate to monster over night.

In 36 hours you can't evacuate a multimillion citizen city.

Most National Guard units cannot recall all personal and draw equipment needed in less then 24 hours. In a case like this the units generally need to leave the area affected so they aren't destroyed, then return.

Of course it was difficult to get any rescue stuff in because all major roads and bridges wereh out, all major runways were underwater. On top of that, collecting, transporting, distributing millions of pounds of food, water and other essentials takes time. You not only have to assemble the supplies, and put them in areas of distribution, and not only do you need trucks and aircraft, you need FUEL for those vehicals as well.

No matter how well ( or poor ) the execution of the recovery plans...it just can't be done overnight. I heard several people complain about how we can assemble all the troops and equipment to invade Iraq, but not help N.O.. That's a BS statement, because it took several MONTHS, to move and assemble all those forces....not 36 hours.

And of course if the mayor would have decided to use the freakin' school buses for evacuation.......

Exactly. Mobilization of a military force takes time and planning, you can't just scream, "GO!"

For an example of how to handle hurricanes just look at Florida, both during Jeb Bush's tenure and Lawton Chiles (D) before him. They understand the danger and prepare extremely well.