How much blame goes to Blanco?

Lisa Myers at MSNBC does a great job of laying out the facts on what La. Gov. Blanco did wrong in the days leading up to Katrina, and the days after the levees were breached.

Pointing out the full facts in the “who’s to blame” game was something the blogosphere did very well in the immediate aftermath of Katrina. I’m happy to see the media slowly jumping on board that train, even though it’d have been nice if they wouldn’t have jumped to faulty conclusions the first time around.

10 Responses to "How much blame goes to Blanco?"

Conservative Outpost says:

October 12, 2005 at 10:38 am

Daily Summary

NEWS: – California Abortion Advocates Oppose Parental Notification Proposal – DeLay’s Lawyers Subpoena His Prosecutor – Tennessee Pro-Life Group May Weigh in on State Judges, Abortion – Panel Recommends Changing Tax Breaks – Self-Labeled ‘Proud Homop…
rainlillie says:

October 12, 2005 at 2:29 pm

The undeniable truth is:

The people in New Orleans were let down by every level of Government! There’s no way around it. Every single American should ask the following questions:

How would my state Government handle this type of disaster?
Where are the emergency shelters in my community?
Can the Bush Administration protect us from another terrorist attack, if they couldn’t protect us from a hurricane, that they knew was coming five days in advance?
Do I have my first aid kit intact, including candles can goods etc.
Why did it take so long for all of the agencies to get on the same page?
How can I help my fellow Americans in their time of need?
Baklava says:

October 12, 2005 at 4:27 pm

Rainlillie misses the point when she wrote, “Can the Bush Administration protect us from another terrorist attack, if they couldn’t protect us from a hurricane, that they knew was coming five days in advance?

In a hurricane situation it is not up to the federal government (or Bush Administration as you stated) to ask people to evacuate or have evacuation plans for each community or area. It’d be helpful to the discussion if you understood which entity is responsible for what and then you can accurately pinpoint where the failures lied.

Please don’t interpret this to be a Bush can do no wrong statement. Nobody is perfect but the media and individuals on blogs continue to mistate things without even researching.

People in America seem to be more and more quick to inaccurately judge. Are you wishing to be an inaccurate harsh judger or do you want to learn and be more accurate in your judgments.
Sister Toldjah says:

October 15, 2005 at 3:25 am

Rainlillie: Welcome to the ST blog – I concur with Bak on most of the points he made, and would also add that just because it seems the feds were unprepared to deal with a natural disaster on this level, I think they are more than prepared for a terrorist attack … which is why we see stepped up security everytime there are hightened alerts. I don’t worry about our gov’ts anticipated response to the next (and sadly, there will be one at some point, I fear) terrorist attack – but I do fear that some people (like the ACLU) will undermine their efforts at trying to protect us due to things like random searches at airports and train stations, etc. In fact, I think the ACLU is already doing just that.
rainlillie says:

October 27, 2005 at 3:09 am

I have absolutely no faith in “Homeland Security.” Hurricane Katrina exposed the fact that the state, local and federal agencies still aren’t prepared to deal with a disaster, be it man made or by nature. These agencies weren’t on the same page. . . Still after 911. The communications break down should be cause for any American to be concerned. I know people who support Bush , will NEVER admit that his administration has shown incompetence beyond belief!
PCD says:

October 27, 2005 at 8:59 am

rainlillie, Uh, you just don’t understand limits to Federal power. I could lecture you on the legal requirement for the State’s governor to REQUEST Federal assistance in writing. I could point out the petty politics Blanco and Nagin played in Louisana, but you really aren’t interested in that, are you? You just want ot have a good Bush bash.
Baklava says:

October 27, 2005 at 11:26 am

PCD, I believe she had unreasonable expectations too.

She wants to be told to evacuate, then be free not to evacuate, then not have New Orleans use 100’s of buses to evacuate her, then when the levee breaks even though the levee was funded more per year in Bush years than previous years she wants to go to the Convention Center and expect to be fed by the Bush administration EVEN THOUGH the Red Cross (under FEMA) tried multiple times to delever food but was denied by the Louisiana Department of Health Services.

Disaster’s will happen and they will be tragic. There will be suffering. Post criticism must be leveled by someone who uses her facilities to understand the details of what happened and the law that prevented the Bush administration from taking over in Louisiana. Nobody is saying that the federal government is blame free Rainlillie. What we are saying is that you aren’t prepared with facts and therefore are leveling the WRONG criticisms. Isn’t that convenient for you?
rainlillie says:

November 17, 2005 at 1:57 pm

Excuse me, but if by bashing Bush you mean pointing out his failures, then I guess that’s what I’m doing. So you’re saying Bush lied when he said he accepts responsibility, because the federal government didn’t respond adequately? If you read my previous post I stated that “all” levels of government failed. I don’t think it’s asking to much as a taxpayer, to have the government respond in a timely and sufficient manner when there’s an emergency. FEMA new the hurricane was coming 3-5 days in advance. What more did they need. Also would you be as understanding if you were a victim of the hurricane?
Baklava says:

November 17, 2005 at 2:23 pm

Rainlillie wrote, “So you’re saying Bush lied when he said he accepts responsibility”

You should read in full what Bush said. He accepted responsibility for something and you should read what he said. I apologize if you don’t know where to get his FULL quote.

Rainlillie wrote, “FEMA new the hurricane was coming 3-5 days in advance. What more did they need.

They need to follow a process and so does the local governments and officials. For instance, FEMA doesn’t evacuate the local officials issue evacuation orders. Louisiana waited a full day later to issue evacuation orders and didn’t use it’s resources such as buses. When many people were then NOT evacuated and then trapped there was an extensive rescue mission. Supplies were not brought to the people stranded… they were asked to leave the area and were assisted in leaving the area. The Red Cross (managed by FEMA) tried to bring supplies multiple times on multiple days to the people in the convention center but were denied by Louisiana Department of Health services. Again that isn’t FEMA’s fault.

Nobody Rainlillie is saying that there isn’t blame to be had by FEMA or the federal government. We are saying that the blame you are putting on them shows a lack of understanding of the policies, process or details (facts).

Rainlillie wrote, “Also would you be as understanding if you were a victim of the hurricane?

I personally would’ve evacuated my two daughters to a safe area. In the event of an unwarnable earthquake here in CA, I have enough distilled (rotated stock) water, charcoal, food, etc to get us through such an event.

There is a personal responsibility issue as well. The evacuation PLAN wasn’t followed by New Orleans mayor nor Gov Blanco. The citizens there didn’t listen to orders to evacuate by a factor or more than 50%. Resources weren’t used to help the non-able bodied evacuate. All people should have emergency supplies. Not many did.
PCD says:

November 17, 2005 at 2:31 pm

rainlillie, if you know the law edited – ST, you would see that a MAJORITY of the blame for the Katrina failure sits squarely on Bagin and Blanco’s shoulders. Blanco dithered and Nagin was just plain stupid.

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