Katrina questions

Oliver North wrote in Townhall .... Herewith a short list of questions for New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin:

When the National Weather Service warned that Hurricane Katrina would be potentially catastrophic, what emergency preparations and announcements were made to residents of New Orleans and when and how were they made? The Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan for New Orleans states that "the person responsible for recognition of hurricane related preparation needs and for the issuance of an evacuation order is the Mayor of the City of New Orleans." Yet in a radio interview, after the storm hit you said, "I need reinforcements, I need troops, man. I need 500 buses, man. We ain't talking about -- you know, one of the briefings we had, they were talking about getting public school bus drivers to come down here and bus people out here. I'm like, 'You got to be kidding me. This is a national disaster. Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country and get their asses moving to New Orleans.'" How and when was your evacuation order promulgated? If you needed busses to move the population, why were hundreds of government-owned municipal transportation and public school busses left to be inundated and destroyed in parking lots around the city?

And since the need for busses for evacuation is in the New Orleans plan, and since you were briefed about it, were you listening during those briefings?

In December 1995 the New Orleans Levee Board told the local Times-Picayune newspaper that it had an "arsenal" of federal money to improve and maintain New Orleans flood control measures. Yet, a year later, the same newspaper reported that the Levee Board was near bankruptcy. Where did that money go?

Pork barrel projects? Who introduced the legislation to earmark the funds for other projects?

On Wednesday after the hurricane passed, news networks broadcast footage of criminals shooting at rescuers, looters carrying off stolen property and what appears to be police officers stealing DVDs. The facial features of many of the individuals engaged in this lawless behavior are clearly visible. How many of the perpetrators of these crimes have been apprehended?

Who ordered that the Superdome be used as an evacuation center? How many law officers were assigned to "protect and serve" the tens of thousands of refugees who gathered there?

And since the Superdome was your evacuation center, did you move the 600 buses closer, so they could be used for the evacuation, or did you have the Superdome stocked with cots like Houston did its Astrodome?

When you told an Associated Press reporter that the "CIA might take me out," what did you mean? When you subsequently said, "If the CIA slips me something and next week you don't see me, you'll all know what happened," what were you talking about? Do you feel threatened by the CIA?

The American Red Cross says that they were ordered to stay out of New Orleans and not to bring in food and water to the victims. "The state Homeland Security Department had requested -- and continues to request -- that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans following the hurricane. Our presence would keep people from evacuating and encourage others to come into the city," reads a statement on the organization's web site. Did you confer with Louisiana Governor Blanco over this statement? Do you agree with it?

Did you want the people to evacuate (and if so why not provide them with busses), or did you want them to stay (and if so why not let the Red Cross deliver food and water?)

The Headquarters of the Marine Corps Reserve is in New Orleans. Before President Bush dispatched U.S. military ships, aircraft, equipment and units to Louisiana, did you, or to your knowledge, Governor Blanco ever request that U.S. Marines, under federal control, be used to restore law and order in New Orleans? If not, why not?

When the vice president visited on Thursday, did you thank him for the extraordinary response by 18,000 military personnel from the 82nd Airborne Division, the 24th Marine Expeditionary Unit, Marine Heavy Helicopter Squadron 461, the USS Harry S. Truman; USS Iwo Jima, the USS Bataan and the Navy doctors, nurses and medical corpsmen aboard the hospital ship USNS Comfort? Are you aware that the U.S. Coast Guard -- the smallest of our Armed Forces -- rescued more than 23,000 people in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane? Have you called Rudy Giuliani for advice on how to handle a crisis? If not, why not?