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Ed,
"Let's first help end the misery and suffering first, then resolve to
make
certain our elected city, state and national leaders -- of
whatever
political party -- are adequately prepared to comfort and care for
those
affected the next time a disaster occurs."
That's a great sentiment. It's exactly what was said after 9/11. Yet it is
now apparent that FEMA has done no such thing during the 4 years since 9/11
occurred, despite the billions spent on "enhanced preparedness" and
"homeland security". They had 3 days advance warning on Katrina. In the
case of a terrorist setting off a nuclear bomb in the middle of a city they
would have zero warning. Yet they were caught flat-footed without adequate
heavy-lift helicopters and amphibious vehicles when the levies broke (which
everyone knew was a high probability with a storm that size).
It's obvious from the FEMA director's statement that their
pre-event planning figured on maybe 10,000 to 20,000 refugees, when anyone
with a lick of sense could have told them that in ANY city with well over 1
million people that at least 50,000 to 100,000 people wouldn't be able to
get out in time.
And then for the director of FEMA to be telling people that the reason
the response is slow and inadequate is because he's having "communications
problems" since the disaster was so catastrophic? Have they ever heard of
radio? The police and the army have. Apparently FEMA believed they could rely on
cell phones during a massive disaster.
These are the kind of things that show criminal negligence here --
and the negligence starts at FEMA and the newly created
bureaucracy called "homeland security" (which isn't even putting in a presence
on this scene) but the responsibility must, by definition, go all the way
up to the Oval Office where the policies are created, the department heads
assigned, and the funds are ultimately authorized. Not to mention that the
President is the Commander and Chief of the Armed Forces and has ability to
order in the military in full force at any time. Remember, the buck stops there.
And right now the guy sitting at that desk in the Oval Office is named George W.
Bush.
I live within 1/4 of a mile of the ocean along the Gulf Coast and was hit
by Dennis last month and I'm more than willing to stand up and say it is obvious
that FEMA has badly bungled this job. If that's Monday morning quarterbacking,
it's the equivalent of standing around the water cooler on Monday morning
and wondering "Hey, how come less than half of the team showed up for the first
half of the game?"
-- JR
----- Original Message -----
Sent: Friday, September 02, 2005
9:35
Subject: Re: [MOPO] OFF TOPIC - NOT THE
TIME FOR POLITICS OR ARCHAIR QUATERBACKING
Earl Blair (Captain Bijou) -- from Houston, here re: Hurricane
Katrina.
I am somewhat surprised that members of this forum would use
this moment of
devastation and misery to opine, point fingers and engage in
Monday morning
quarterbacking while the horror of Hurricane Katrina
continues to cause
suffering to hundreds of thousands. There will be plenty
of time for the
blame game for years to come.
Instead, I urge all
MoPo members to do what they can to help those sick,
displaced and
dying. The easiest way to that is click on the below link and
send your
cash contribution to the Houston chapter of the Red
Cross:
www.houstonredcross.org
Members
from this organization and volunteers from civic groups around the
area are
working around the clock. Currently, there are 13,000 Katrina
survivors
housed in the Astrodome and another 3,000. Each person is given
medical
attention, two hot meals and one cold meal (sandwich) a day, and a
cot on
which to sleep. These facilities are near capacity and additional
buses of
survivors will be directed to shelters in San Antonio or
Dallas.
Churches and shelters throughout the city and surrounding areas
are filled
to overflowing. We presently have 20 families in our Church's
gymnasium and
members are taking shifts in order to care for the families
and provide them
with clothing and food.
The Houston Independent
School District, the University of Houston and Texas
State University has
waived admission requirements and is admitting
thousands of children to our
already overcrowded classrooms. My wife, a
veteran teacher, gets her new
students today.
With 30% of the nation's oil supply removed from the
marketplace, the effect
of this disaster will reach every single person in
this country, whether it
is in the form of higher gasoline prices (--or the
lack of thereof--),
costlier home heating fuel costs this winter or
insufficient supplies of
petroleum to manufacture other goods like
fertilizer, plastics and so on. It
is appropriate that these concerns, too,
were addressed to citizens far
removed from the devastation.
The
simple truth is that this nation, does not a contingency plan to deal
with
any natural or man-made disaster of this magnitude. It is far greater
than
the human man can imagine. The threat of a hurricane is a fact of life
to
Gulf Coast. I have lived here most of my life and been through two.
The
destruction, death and devastation were enormous, but pale in
comparison to
Katrina. Tropical Storm Allison hit this city in 2002 and
left much of the
Houston underwater for days just as New Orleans is today.
Again their was
death, destruction and loss of property in the in the
hundreds of millions,
and again it is just a footnote in the epic story of
Katrina's horror. The
endless streams of the homeless and helpless
riding hopefully in Houston
have become a regular feature on our local
newscasts and will forever be
seared in our minds.
It is the largest
catastrophe in this nation's history, and not a Republican
or Democratic --
Red or Blue State -- issue.
Let's first help end the misery and
suffering first, then resolve to make
certain our elected city, state and
national leaders -- of whatever
political party -- are adequately prepared
to comfort and care for those
affected the next time a disaster
occurs.
Earl Blair
Houston TX
----- Original Message
-----
From: "Rudy Franchi" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent:
Friday, September 02, 2005 7:45 AM
Subject: [MOPO] OFF
TOPIC/DAVID
> It is fairly obvious to me that when the flood
barriers were breached,
> Bush's Brain, aka Karl Rove, got out his
electoral template which shows
> how every state, country, ward and
precinct voted in the last two
> elections and informed his
protege that there was no need for heroic
> measures since only a
minority of The Minority flooded to near
> extinction had voted for him.
All national decisions are now made on a
> strictly political basis and
the non-white population of New Orleans
> are not Bush people. As for
his leadership, it wasn't so great during
> 9/11 either. Aside from
flying all over the country and hiding out at
> military bases the day
of the event, how come it took him three days to
> show up at Ground
Zero when Clinton did it in two ... and he started
> from Australia.
Reading David's post and watching the right wing
> talking heads on TV,
it is now obvious how this is being spun. Blame
> as much as you
can on the local politicians, who are mainly Democrats
> and be sure to
add the cowardly caveat that of course mistakes were
> made at
every level. Regards, rudy
franchi
>
> Visit
the MoPo Mailing List Web Site at www.filmfan.com
>
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