Emergency Aid Preauthorized For Hurricane Katrina....

Bush authorized aid on 8/27 (Saturday)

Published on September 3, 2005 By Baub In Politics

The difficult part to understand here is that while the Feds authorized aid on 8/27 (the Saturday before the hurricane), what took LA so long to request it? Before someone says the Feds should have rushed in, there are laws preventing just that from happening and the Washington Post reports that as of Friday night that Blanco is still fighting the Feds from taking a more active/coordinating role in disaster relief.

Comments

terpfan1980

on Sep 03, 2005

Damn Baub, are you not getting this information from the same place that Myrr is finding his mud at?

I mean really, how dare you educate everyone on what really happened -- we know this is all part of the great conspiracy! You are just another Bush apologist and liar! You know it!

Just ask Myrr, or read any of his latest round of crap.

ParaTed2k

on Sep 03, 2005

That is what I've wondered about myself. A disaster is a local authority situation, nothing happens without first being authorized and/or requested by local officials...

So far we have seen a Mayor declare martial law with no authority to do so, a Governor with the authority to request aid who delayed that request, and a nation left wondering why...

There are great and heroic things happening in the disaster area that deserve to be immortalized as part of our great history. There are also many errors to be investigated, and lessons to be learned.

Baub

on Sep 03, 2005

Conspiracies can be fun (just ask Sharpton and Jackson), but they are just intellectual laziness. I just think it'd be much more productive to see what happened and in what sequence, in order to improve this whole process the next time something like this happens (and it will). For me, the spin coming out of NO and BR has all the hallmarks of people trying to cover their own arses. Right now, I'm betting Nagin is hoping that the citizens of NO don't hear about the hundreds of buses he could have used to evacuate them, how he bumped his town's citizens off a bus to make room for the Hyatt tourists or how he bugged out to BR as soon as he possibly could. From a PR point of view, he missed his golden opportunity to run the rescue/relief effort from the middle of the Superdome or the Convention Center (whoops... did he even make it down there?).

Independent1

on Sep 03, 2005

Looks to me like the assistance you link to is in response to the request sent earlier the same day from Blanco's office.
http://gov.louisiana.gov/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=976

Baub

on Sep 04, 2005

Could be? We've got both the State and the Feds saying they were ready to go before the hurricane got there, but that still leaves the responsibility to the State to request from FEMA the resources needed. The Washington Points out that one way to avoid the going back and forth (FEMA: "you have to ask us first", State:"We need 10,000,000 MREs") is to federalize the relief effort, but Blanco doesn't want to do that. Why not? Does she see an advantage to keeping the State in the lead role? Does she see an advantage to herself in keeping the State in the lead role? Politically, I think it works for her on both levels. As long as the State co-ordinates the Federal response, there's always a convenient scape goat out there, plus the State can direct resources according to the priorities determined the normal way in LA.

Independent1

on Sep 04, 2005

Blanco is not fighting the feds from taking a more active role. She is keeping them from taking control of it. If you were govenor of a state would you allow the federal government to run the show as they feel necessary? Doing so would be a huge injustice to the people of Louisiana. She hired James Witt. Take a look at his resume and compare it to Chertoff's and Brown's. The right choice is a no brainer.

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