Saturday, September 17, 2005
DISTURBING STORIES OF KATRINA, BEFORE AND AFTER
Photo: New Orleans, 11 days after KatrinaaIn case you missed it, Friday's Morning Edition had two excellent and very disturbing stories on Katrina. One on how FEMA's top management ignored warnings of the impending disaster, and the other on race and class in the Katrina aftermath. The following is the prologue to the story FEMA Official Says Agency Heads Ignored Warnings:
In the days before Hurricane Katrina hit land, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, FEMA Director Michael Brown and other top Homeland Security officials received e-mails on their blackberries warning that Katrina posed a dire threat to New Orleans and other areas. Yet one FEMA official tells NPR little was done.
Leo Bosner, an emergency management specialist at FEMA headquarters in Washington, D.C., is in charge of the unit that alerts officials of impending crises and manages the response. As early as Friday, Aug. 26, Bosner knew that Katrina could turn into a major emergency.
In daily e-mails -- known as National Situation Updates -- sent to Chertoff, Brown and others in the days before Katrina made landfall in the Gulf Coast, Bosner warned of its growing strength -- and of the particular danger the hurricane posed to New Orleans, much of which lies below sea level.
But Bosner says FEMA failed to organize the massive mobilization of National Guard troops and evacuation buses needed for a quick and effective relief response when Katrina struck. He says he and his colleagues at FEMA's D.C. headquarters were shocked by the lack of response.
"We could see all this going downhill," Bosner said, "but there was nothing we could do."
Listen to Laura Sullivan's story and view the National Situation Updates HERE
EVEN MORE DISTURBING is Juan Williams' piece Examining Race, Class and Katrina, which examines "what the response to Hurricane Katrina says about race and poverty in the United States." Listen to the story HERE
Currently at THE CHURCH POTLOCK, Apple Torte w/ Carmel Sauce . Coming soon: Hearty Recipes for Fall
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I woke my eyes to the reality of how our Government manipulates the emotion of the people only to serve the pourpose of a few at the top since 9-11.
"If you trade liberty for security you end up with neither" G.G. Liddy
Simply stated it is only about the money/control and very little else. Still it is a good day to be alive!
"If you trade liberty for security you end up with neither" G.G. Liddy
Simply stated it is only about the money/control and very little else. Still it is a good day to be alive!
From the Red Cross Website:
Since Katrina hit, the Southern Baptists have had more than 30 mobile kitchens operating in affected areas of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. With bright yellow shirts and shining spirits, the Illinois Southern Baptist Disaster Relief team has been running their kitchen in a hot, dusty church parking lot in Bogalusa, Louisiana. On Monday alone, they sent 14,500 meals via Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs) to feeding stations across the parish and surrounding areas.
“This massive response is bigger than any one organization and takes the combined efforts of many to bring swift relief,” said Stephanie Millian, Red Cross spokesperson. “But despite the challenges of delivering aid over 90,000 miles to hundreds of thousands, more aid is being delivered more quickly and to more people than ever before. It wouldn’t be possible without the Southern Baptist Convention.”
I like to focus on what WAS done, rather than what wasn't. It makes for a much better story. The government's inaction always gets the most attention and it shadows the stories of success.
Since Katrina hit, the Southern Baptists have had more than 30 mobile kitchens operating in affected areas of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. With bright yellow shirts and shining spirits, the Illinois Southern Baptist Disaster Relief team has been running their kitchen in a hot, dusty church parking lot in Bogalusa, Louisiana. On Monday alone, they sent 14,500 meals via Red Cross Emergency Response Vehicles (ERVs) to feeding stations across the parish and surrounding areas.
“This massive response is bigger than any one organization and takes the combined efforts of many to bring swift relief,” said Stephanie Millian, Red Cross spokesperson. “But despite the challenges of delivering aid over 90,000 miles to hundreds of thousands, more aid is being delivered more quickly and to more people than ever before. It wouldn’t be possible without the Southern Baptist Convention.”
I like to focus on what WAS done, rather than what wasn't. It makes for a much better story. The government's inaction always gets the most attention and it shadows the stories of success.
Sadie - that's all well and good, but the fact is the people who are responsible for public safety, whose JOB it is to react quickly in emergency situations, screwed up big time and a lot of lives were lost because of it. Focusing on the positives give those who failed miserably a free pass, and insures that it will happen again. We can NEVER HAVE A REPEAT OF THIS PERFORMANCE! Freaking banana republics could have, and have, done better.
It's a situation that can brook no excuses. We must slove these problems immediately, and pretending they didn't happen, or focusing on the positives, won't fix these problems!
It's a situation that can brook no excuses. We must slove these problems immediately, and pretending they didn't happen, or focusing on the positives, won't fix these problems!
I understand that, I do. Please don't think I'm advocating the "free pass" mentality. I just think that there is too much focus on the inaction and not enough on the goodness and the heroes that came out of this situation and acted on impulse and hearts of gold. It's just discouraging to me to see the nation so divided and unsupportive of each others efforts and once again--the grumblings against the president are louder than the voices of everyone else.
sadly, I think that the story of the heroes will long be drown out by the story of the failures. I know that the only post I have had in ages that didn't get a single comment was the one I posted about one of the heroes, our friend Nic in Texas.
Four years of hearing 'Homeland Security' and this is what we get.
Then again, looks at who's in charge and you can't help but think, damn it coulda been a lot worse!
Then again, looks at who's in charge and you can't help but think, damn it coulda been a lot worse!
Let's get out the guillotine! Who cares of government agencies were overwhelmed. Whether they were overwhelmed or just sitting on their fat asses watching Sally Jesse Raphael...off with their heads! That'll shape everybody up! And, I'm sure it will weed out many undesirables, eh GWB?
i'm so glad to hear that i'm not the only person who listens to npr! i have found them to be the only balanced reporting in this entire mess.
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