Katrina Disaster Timelime

General Lee 01 · September 16, 2005

Before I post this, I want to make clear that my reasons for posting this are not to wrap political crap around the Katrina disaster, We still need to pray for those unfortunate people and do what we can to help out. When I read this I found it extremely interesting (as well as dissapointing). I also want to warn you guys this is quite lengthy. With that said, read on.

>Following is the timeline not widely discussed in the news:

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>The liberal media do not like to talk about the truth....they just want a

>story....even if it's not true.

>

>On Friday night, August 26, 2005 before the Hurricane hit,

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>Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center took the

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>unprecedented action of calling Mayor Nagin of New Orleans

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>and Louisiana Governor Blanco personally to plead with them

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>to begin MANDATORY evacuation of New Orleans and they

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>said they'd take it under consideration. This was after the

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>NOAA buoy 240 miles south had recorded 68' waves before

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>it was destroyed.

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>President Bush spent Friday afternoon and evening in

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>meetings with his advisors and administrators drafting

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>all of the paperwork required for a state to request

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>federal assistance (and not be in violation of the

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>Posse Comitatus Act or having to enact the Insurgency

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>Act).

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>Just before midnight Friday evening the President

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>called Governor Blanco and pleaded with her to sign

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>the request papers so the federal government and the

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> military could legally begin mobilization and call up.

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>He was told that they didn't think it necessary for

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>the federal government to be involved yet.

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>After the President's final call to the governor she

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>held meetings with her staff to discuss the political

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>ramifications of bringing federal forces. It was

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>decided that if they allowed federal assistance it

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>would make it look as if they had failed so it was

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>agreed upon that the feds would not be invited in.

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>Saturday, August 27, before the Hurricane hit, the

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>President again called Blanco and Nagin requesting

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>they please sign the papers requesting federal

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>assistance, that they declare the state an emergency

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>area, and begin mandatory evacuation.

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>After a personal plea from the President, Mayor Nagin

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>agreed to order an evacuation, but it would not be a full

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>mandatory evacuation, and the governor still refused

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>to sign the papers requesting and authorizing federal

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>action. In frustration the President declared the area

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>a national disaster area before the state of Louisiana

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>did so he could legally begin some advanced

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>preparations.

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>Rumor has it that the President's legal advisers were

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>looking into the ramifications of using the insurgency

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>act to bypass the Constitutional requirement that a

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>state request federal aid before the federal

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>government can move into state with troops - but that

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> had not been done since 1906 and the Constitutionality

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>of it was called into question to use before the

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>disaster.

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>Throw in that over half the federal aid of the past

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>decade to New Orleans for levee construction,

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>maintenance, and repair was diverted to fund a marina

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>! and support the gambling ships. Toss in the investigation

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>that will look into why the emergency preparedness plan

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>submitted to the federal government for funding and

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>published on the city's website was never implemented

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>and in fact may have been bogus for the purpose of

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>gaining additional federal funding. As we now learn

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>that the organizations identified in the plan were

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>never contacted or coordinating into any planning,

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>though the document implies that they were.

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>The suffering people of New Orleans need to be

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>asking some hard questions as do we all, but they

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>better start with why Governor Blanco refused to even

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>sign the multi-state mutual aid pack activation documents

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>until Wednesday, August 31, which further delayed the legal

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>deployment of National Guard from adjoining states.

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>Or maybe ask why Mayor Nagin keeps harping that the

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>President should have commandeered 500 Greyhound

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>busses to help him when according to his own emergency

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>plan and documents he claimed to have over 500 busses

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>at his disposal to use between the local school busses

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>and the city transportation busses - but he never raised

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>a finger to prepare them or activate them.

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>This is a sad time for all of us to see that a major

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>city has all but been destroyed and thousands of

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>people have died with hundreds of thousands more

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>suffering, but it's certainly not a time for people to

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>be pointing fingers and trying to find a bigger dog to

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blame for local corruption and incompetence. Pray to God for the survivors that

they can start their lives anew as fast as possible and we learn from all the

mistakes to avoid them in the future.

lrymal · September 16, 2005

Any source for this article?

General Lee 01 · September 16, 2005

I wish I had one, I just got it in an e-mail. I'm going to have my eyes on snopes to see if it turns up there.

Elwood 2000 · September 17, 2005

I have heard this on Fox News and Rush Limbaugh several days ago. I was watching this closely before the huricane hit, during and after and I was disappointed with what took place, especially seeing a parking lot with hundreds of school busses under about 6-7 feet of water.

az'03Silverado · September 17, 2005

I'm really torn with this disaster. On the one hand I genuinely feel sorry for the people who lost everything and I do pray that they are able to find some way to get back to a normal life somewhere. And, I feel bad that such a historical town like New Orleans has been destroyed completely. But, the engineers have said for years that unless the levee system is improved, a catastrophe of this nature is inevitable. I hope that when/if they rebuild the city, it's either in a different place (that's not entirely impossible) or it's built relying on some other technology. I mean, if the Japanese can build an ISLAND in the middle of Nagasaki bay in 300 feet of water and build an airport on top of that (Kansai Intl), why can't we put 20 feet of dirt down to bring New Orleans at least up to sea level?

I guess my point is that if they rebuild the city exactly how it was before Katrina, they're crazy.

Wingnut · September 21, 2005

I just hope it washed away that pee smell on Bourbon Street.

Seriously though, I doubt very highly the veracity of some of those "facts"...Primarily because you got it in an email. When are those ever right?

Everybody dropped the ball, including the people of NOLA.

Shadowfax · September 21, 2005

Snopes proved this to be false. However the media and others trying to blame it all on the president and the federal government is laughable. This all started on a local level and worked its way up to state and then federal levels. Communication broke down on all levels and things that should've been done were not done.

Also add about 60 years of Louisiana Politicians stealing whatever money they could from various federal grants to feed their pet projects and to make themselves richer, and you see why a disaster happened.

There was an article here in the Alexandria Town Talk the other day on how the Federal government recently gave the state about 10 plus million dollars to draw up a new evac plan and to run simulation tests. What did our wonderful local officals do? They spent about 75 percent of it on a brige study on the Ponchatrain causeway. Brillant work guys.

State and local officals always bitch and moan why the Fed doesnt help out but I can't blame the Fed at times. For the last 60 years our tax dollars get loaned to the state to fix problems and they never get fixed. They always end up in somones pocket.

Best example was a tax that passed last year for highway improvment. State officals touted that it would help build better roads and fix the current quagmire of crappy Louisiana roads. Come to find out that whole tax had some nifty back door langauge that let the state put 100 percent of that money into the Louisiana State Police coffer. State Police revenues are already supposed to fix our roads but yet we never see it done, now they have more money from a tax approval so they can sit on their tails even more.

Ahhh Louisiana politics, gotta love em. Heck that goes for Politics in general lol.