There’s been no shortage of liberal bitching about the ‘poor’ (though you’ll see any number of perjorative adjectives used) federal response to Katrina. As you might guess… that bitching is, more or less, pure bullshit. It is, essentially, the left using the deaths caused by Katrina as a political bargaining chip.
For starters, it’s important to realize that we live in a country governed by the federalistic principal that the Federal Government has only the powers afforded to it by the states. As a result, there wasn’t much the Feds could do until the state of Louisiana asked… a request that was a bit slow in coming.
And even then, as Jack Kelly points out, the response has been one of the greatest disaster responses in history:
Jason van Steenwyk is a Florida Army National Guardsman who has been mobilized six times for hurricane relief. He notes that:“The federal government pretty much met its standard time lines, but the volume of support provided during the 72-96 hour was unprecedented. The federal response here was faster than Hugo, faster than Andrew, faster than Iniki, faster than Francine and Jeanne.”
For instance, it took five days for National Guard troops to arrive in strength on the scene in Homestead, Fla. after Hurricane Andrew hit in 1992. But after Katrina, there was a significant National Guard presence in the afflicted region in three.
He rattles off quite a few impressive statistics that you’d think would be reported by the MSM… if they weren’t so eager to pin this on the Bush Administration… but he finishes up with the point about the buses…
Exhibit A on the bill of indictment of federal sluggishness is that it took four days before most people were evacuated from the Louisiana Superdome.The levee broke Tuesday morning. Buses had to be rounded up and driven from Houston to New Orleans across debris-strewn roads. The first ones arrived Wednesday evening. That seems pretty fast to me.
A better question — which few journalists ask — is why weren’t the roughly 2,000 municipal and school buses in New Orleans utilized to take people out of the city before Katrina struck?
So while most folks are asking the question “Why wasn’t the federal response better?” (a legitimate question, I suppose) the real question should, instead, be: “Why is the left so quick to try to use thousands of dead for political gain?”
I see you finally put your thoughts on your site. well said.
THREE DAYS is a good time frame? I mean, I understand [roughly] the kind of man power/effort/brain power/whatever to organize people to go into [basically] a war-torn area. But THREE DAYS! I can’t say I’m impressed.
oh.. and just to clarify? the bus thing has been my question from the start. i’m not expecting that a hurricane hits and y’know, BOOM ten thousand people are there to get things done A.S.A.P. just saying.
The buses are a viable point, but there is a fallacy there that is more apparent to those from the area. Having been around the evacuate/not to evacuate crowd for about a decade now, I realize that some people in New Orleans just aren’t going to leave, even if they have available transportation. Really, it could be the mother of all hurricanes and they will insist on staying put. Rich or poor, these are the people holed up praying to Our Lady of Prompt Succor to spare the city until the moment water starts pouring in under the door. Maybe some of them didn’t know about the hurricane, or the evacuation order, before it was too late (I can’t believe this). Most just never believed anything so bad could ever happen to New Orleans.
The buses sure would give all of those people who were stuck in New Orleans a rod, but that doesn’t mean they are going to fish. So, how do we teach people to fish for the next “big” one?
By the way, I think you pointed out something important here. The state has to ask for help. I honestly believe that our stupid governor had no freaking clue. Damn the idiots who wouldn’t vote for Bobby Jindal just because of the color of his skin.
As for the poor thing, is the ability to make rational decisions for oneself directly proportional to how much money one makes? I was just wondering…
Nobody is saying you have to be impressed, but you can’t do much about the fact that that response time is really about as quick as it gets.
Amanda: If people, knowing the risk, choose to stay, that’s fine… but I don’t feel sorry for them, and I don’t think anyone should have to risk their lives to rescue them, either.
I can’t help but feel sorry for those with the desire, but no means, to leave, however… and that would probably include a large portion of the Superdomers. Especially since that means was sitting just a few miles away in a parking lot waiting for an order.
I saw the mayor of NOLA on CNN last night claiming that those infamous school buses were not utilized b/c there was no one willing to drive them b/c everyone was rushing to leave the city. Anyone know if that was a reasonable excuse or just hot air?
Well, if we judge from the fact that there was a school bus STOLEN to evacuate people that ended up in houston…
…I’m going to guess that any number of folks in the superdome would’ve volunteered to drive, so long as they weren’t required to have a CDL.
I believe having voluteers driving buses without the proper licensing and training would be highly irresponsible and would create a horrible situation. There is far more potential for injury and death from an accident involving a bus than this hurricane. Perhaps bus drivers should be classified as essential employees that aren’t allowed to evacuate during a storm. Then they can drive all the people who want to leave out of town.
I’m just going to have to disagree with you there.
Letting someone drive a bus at 30MPH in a police-escorted convoy is far less risk than a hurricane. Do you really think there’d have been hundreds of people who died in that situation?
If so, how do you explain the 18 year old who successfully drove a stolen school bus all the way to Houston with no injuries whatsoever?
How is it more likely to have an accident involving a bus than the hurricane? It was a category 5 hurricane coming at a city that is already below sea level. People left in the city were inevitably going to be in an accident caused by this hurricane. I would take my chances any day with an untrained bus driver over sitting around waiting for a cat. 5 to roll through.
Simple answer to all this, had Governor Blanco called for the Natl Gaurd BEFORE the storm (when Bush offered them) instead of on Wednesday, they could have driven the buses.
Damnit, Sean… you make it sound so simple.
Also: had that been the case, wouldn’t the Nat’l Guard been able to call upon more apt people-movers than school buses?
Have you seen the way the normal bus drivers operate a bus in New Orleans on a good day? All joking aside, I see your point about the police escort.