Monday, September 12, 2005

Blanco Incompetence Caught On Camera

Sister Toldjah blogged Ian at the Political Teen has a video of Gov. Blanco, between network interviews, talking with her press secretary and saying that she should have asked for troops sooner. As the CNN commentator notes, Blanco's initial requests for help from the feds did not include a request for troops - she just assumed they'd be ready to roll.

Why aren't we reading more about post-disaster response problems in Mississippi? Here's why:

The day before Hurricane Katrina came ashore in Mississippi on Aug. 29, the Mississippi National Guard had already been planning for the likelihood of a disaster. “During hurricane season our operations personnel are constantly monitoring storms in the Atlantic,” Mississippi Guard spokesman Lt. Col. Tim Powell said. “The Friday before the storm hit, we were tracking the storm.”
It appears they not only had a disaster plan, but had actually read it, and even more important, they acted on it.
Two days before the storm hit, the Mississippi soldiers knew the storm’s path would take it through the state’s coastal communities and officials began alerting units, primarily military police and engineers, Powell said.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don,

I've been following your articles, particularly regarding Hurricane Katrina, and they are excellent and informative. Really good stuff. I added you to my blogroll (okay, it's a "friends list", but same basic thing!)

Blanco is one of the most incompetent Governors, if not THE most, in the United States. They mayor of New Orleans may be worse.

Good stuff!

Don Singleton said...

I am honored, and I recommend that my readers check out Amy Proctor's Blog