Slow response and still no answers
AN OPEN LETTER TO BUSH, FROM THE NEW ORLEANS TIMES-PICAYUNE
We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we're going to make it right."
Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.
Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It's accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.
How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.
Despite the city's multiple points of entry, our nation's bureaucrats spent days after last week's hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city's stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.
Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.
Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.
Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.
We're angry, Mr. President, and we'll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame.
Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don't know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city's death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.
It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren't they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn't suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?
State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn't have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.
In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn't known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We've provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they've gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."
Lies don't get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.
Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You're doing a heck of a job."
That's unbelievable.
There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.
We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We're no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.
No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn't be reached.
Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.
When you do, we will be the first to applaud.
What the rest of the world is saying about this:
n a calamity of biblical proportions, the question that refuses to go away is why the administration of President George W Bush responded so inadequately to a disaster that was waiting to happen ...Hurricane Katrina - Too little, too late from US government, IRISH EXAMINER
America is also angry with rescue services that left thousands to die, and angry with President Bush, who during a national crisis continued vacationing and muttering cliches. America's Yom Kippur , YEDIOTH AHRONOTH (Israel)
The decline in internal security was also evident in the authorities' failure to detect and prevent the attacks of September 11, 2001. Four years on, Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath are a stark reminder that Mother Nature can unleash dangers as destructive as any terrorists.
Brutal side of US exposed in New Orleans , THE COURIER-MAIL (Australia)
The hurricane has left the US grappling afresh with issues of race and class in a society that is getting more polarised.
Katrina selects its victims , DECCAN HERALD (India)
There was something terribly discomforting about George W. Bush's visit to the ravaged Southeast of America.
Bush and Katrina: Affair to remember , GULFNEWS.COM (UAE)
Outsiders don't come here. Cops don't come here. And, in the maddened wake of Hurricane Katrina, rescue teams haven't come here, either.
The human baggage of Iberville , Toronto Star (Canada)
Bush will be left to explain why thousands of Louisiana National Guardsmen were not available to help feed, protect and evacuate the citizens of New Orleans because they were in ... Iraq.
Bush at bay, The Guardian (UK)
President George W. Bush pays back the good Christian Americans who elected him despite his illegal act of slaughter in Iraq by sitting in his Texas ranch for two days after the most horrific suffering was visited on the area around New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.
George W. Bush abandons Americans, Pravda (Russia)
Now, you can read all of the above and rant to me about how I am just Bush bashing .... but take this into consideration, this is not me saying this, this is not my personal views, yes New Orleans hasnt been handled correctly in this, no Nagin is not the best mayor a city could have, but when 9/11 hit NYC, we saw a mobilization of FEMA and the Federal Government that many saw as being the speediest response time ever for any organization. Now some 4 years later almost and it appears as if the wheels have come off of that impressive collection of immediate responders. You can speculate that this has to do with race or opportunity or wealth or class or politics or whatever but what you CANNOT deny is that there are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people watching this and thinking that its all a bad dream. The singluarly most important question that I have is ... why did this take so long? Just how unprepared were we or how do we fix this? Is it possible to ever fix a system that is obviously crippled if not completely unfixable? I will say that I think this is not a money issue, while certainly money and status may play a very large part in all of this, this is a responsibility issue. I hope that someone can offer me and the thousands of survivors answers that can make us feel better at why needless suffering has gone on more than helping ease their own conscious and helping them sleep better at night.
We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we're going to make it right."
Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.
Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It's accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.
How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.
Despite the city's multiple points of entry, our nation's bureaucrats spent days after last week's hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city's stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.
Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.
Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.
Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.
We're angry, Mr. President, and we'll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame.
Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don't know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city's death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.
It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren't they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn't suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?
State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn't have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.
In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn't known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We've provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they've gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."
Lies don't get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.
Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You're doing a heck of a job."
That's unbelievable.
There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.
We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We're no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.
No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn't be reached.
Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.
When you do, we will be the first to applaud.
What the rest of the world is saying about this:
n a calamity of biblical proportions, the question that refuses to go away is why the administration of President George W Bush responded so inadequately to a disaster that was waiting to happen ...Hurricane Katrina - Too little, too late from US government, IRISH EXAMINER
America is also angry with rescue services that left thousands to die, and angry with President Bush, who during a national crisis continued vacationing and muttering cliches. America's Yom Kippur , YEDIOTH AHRONOTH (Israel)
The decline in internal security was also evident in the authorities' failure to detect and prevent the attacks of September 11, 2001. Four years on, Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath are a stark reminder that Mother Nature can unleash dangers as destructive as any terrorists.
Brutal side of US exposed in New Orleans , THE COURIER-MAIL (Australia)
The hurricane has left the US grappling afresh with issues of race and class in a society that is getting more polarised.
Katrina selects its victims , DECCAN HERALD (India)
There was something terribly discomforting about George W. Bush's visit to the ravaged Southeast of America.
Bush and Katrina: Affair to remember , GULFNEWS.COM (UAE)
Outsiders don't come here. Cops don't come here. And, in the maddened wake of Hurricane Katrina, rescue teams haven't come here, either.
The human baggage of Iberville , Toronto Star (Canada)
Bush will be left to explain why thousands of Louisiana National Guardsmen were not available to help feed, protect and evacuate the citizens of New Orleans because they were in ... Iraq.
Bush at bay, The Guardian (UK)
President George W. Bush pays back the good Christian Americans who elected him despite his illegal act of slaughter in Iraq by sitting in his Texas ranch for two days after the most horrific suffering was visited on the area around New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina.
George W. Bush abandons Americans, Pravda (Russia)
Now, you can read all of the above and rant to me about how I am just Bush bashing .... but take this into consideration, this is not me saying this, this is not my personal views, yes New Orleans hasnt been handled correctly in this, no Nagin is not the best mayor a city could have, but when 9/11 hit NYC, we saw a mobilization of FEMA and the Federal Government that many saw as being the speediest response time ever for any organization. Now some 4 years later almost and it appears as if the wheels have come off of that impressive collection of immediate responders. You can speculate that this has to do with race or opportunity or wealth or class or politics or whatever but what you CANNOT deny is that there are thousands if not hundreds of thousands of people watching this and thinking that its all a bad dream. The singluarly most important question that I have is ... why did this take so long? Just how unprepared were we or how do we fix this? Is it possible to ever fix a system that is obviously crippled if not completely unfixable? I will say that I think this is not a money issue, while certainly money and status may play a very large part in all of this, this is a responsibility issue. I hope that someone can offer me and the thousands of survivors answers that can make us feel better at why needless suffering has gone on more than helping ease their own conscious and helping them sleep better at night.
posted by Bludlust at 2:27 PM
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