Blame Amid the Tragedy by Bob Williams

Have you ever heard the saying "when you throw a rock into a pack of dogs...the one that barks the loudest is the one that got hit"? I think that saying can be applied to the circus, the very tragic circus with deadly consequences that has occurred in Louisiana in the past week and a half.

Ask yourself...who has been barking the loudest in the group? Two of the loudest are Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin. The demagoguery coming from their mouths appears to be a smoke screen intended to cover their actions...or should I more accurately state, their lack of appropriate and timely action.

I believe that as the facts become know about the preparation and planning for hurricanes that would potentially hit New Orleans, and their failure to execute those plans, it will be revealed that Ms. Blanco and Mr. Nagin are key people responsible for the deaths of hundreds, if not thousands of Louisiana citizens.

This is not an attempt to gloss over or excuse the federal governments painfully slow and inadequate response to persons, in some instances literally dying, as they awaited help from their government. I do want answers as to what caused the fed's delay. The responses thus far from the Bush Administration, FEMA and Homeland Security are woefully inadequate. I do hope that this situation will be more fully examined so we as citizen, states and a nation can more adequately prepare for disaster...natural or man made.

Below are excerpts from an article by Bob Williams explaining some of what went wrong. To view the entire article, please click on the above link.

As the devastation of Hurricane Katrina continues to shock and sadden the nation, the question on many lips is, Who is to blame for the inadequate response?

But what isn't fair is to dump on the federal officials and avoid those most responsible--local and state officials who failed to do their job as the first responders. The plain fact is, lives were needlessly lost in New Orleans due to the failure of Louisiana's governor, Kathleen Blanco, and the city's mayor, Ray Nagin.

The primary responsibility for dealing with emergencies does not belong to the federal government. It belongs to local and state officials who are charged by law with the management of the crucial first response to disasters.

The actions and inactions of Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin are a national disgrace due to their failure to implement the previously established evacuation plans of the state and city.

In 1998, during a threat by Hurricane George, 14,000 people were sent to the Superdome and theft and vandalism were rampant due to inadequate security. Again, these problems were not corrected.

Mayor Nagin was responsible for giving the order for mandatory evacuation and supervising the actual evacuation: Mayor Nagin had to be encouraged by the governor to contact the National Hurricane Center before he finally, belatedly, issued the order for mandatory evacuation. And sadly, it apparently took a personal call from the president to urge the governor to order the mandatory evacuation.

But even though the city has enough school and transit buses to evacuate 12,000 citizens per fleet run, the mayor did not use them. Instead of evacuating the people, the mayor ordered the refugees to the Superdome and Convention Center without adequate security and no provisions for food, water and sanitary conditions.

Mayor Nagin failed in his responsibility to provide public safety and to manage the orderly evacuation of the citizens of New Orleans.

The federal government does not have the authority to intervene in a state emergency without the request of a governor.