My response to War and Piece

As Laura Rozen from the War and Piece said to me, "I jumped on your site. You know, my father is from Tulsa and shares your politics and to a surprising degree I understand where you're coming from. But I don't agree with almost anything you write and I suspect neither you of me."

She is correct, but I enjoy a good debate with those on the other side, if they can be reasonably factual in their arguments, and not fall back to just ad hominum attacks, against either me or President Bush, who I support. I incouraged her to post comments here, or on her blog and to trackback to my post, since her blog did not support either comments or trackbacks, but instead she enabled comments on one post and I have been carrying on a discussion with some of her readers. Ocassionally they made jabs, but when I ignored them, and came back with facts rather than jabs on my part, they really started coming up with some facts which needed to be addressed. I addressed them there, but I wanted to post a couple of their posts here, and show my responses, in case any of my readers have anything to add.

Elrod said I agree that Nagin comes in for some blame here. The point about the buses is true. They were actually owned by a private contractor - not the city - but I doubt he would have had trouble commandeering them. Who knows?

But the point about the Governor not allowing the National Guard is incorrect. First, Louisiana has no "martial law", so she couldn't have signed such a decree. Second, according to Bush's FEMA order that you've cited numerous times, the DHS had full authority already to use any means for rescue, recovery and security. As the FEMA directive says, "FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency." Sounds like the Feds had all the authorization they needed even before the storm hit. They didn't need any special order from the state. But before the storm, Gov. Blanco did specifically request help following Bush's FEMA order. http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf

Her letter includes many specific requests, and the actual disaster to follow clearly superceded the ones mentioned in her letter. But it is quite clear that she was actively seeking Federal help before the storm.

So, the Feds were ready to offer help, and the Louisiana state government was willing to ask for help, yet...the help never arrived until it was too late. In our Federal system, the Federal government takes primary responsibility in cases of national emergency - which the DHS's own mission statement even specifies. The primary responsbility for this failure lies with the Federal government.

My response: Elrod, the New Orleans transit buses may be owned by a private contractor, but as you said, Nagin probably could have gotten them, and I suspect the City owns the 205 buses referenced here, and only one was used, as far as I know, and the 18 year old using it to save lives is in legal jeapordy

How much suffering could have been avoided if both the Transit and the School buses had been loaded up once the mandatory evacuation order was signed, to get those without transportation out of the area.

You are correct that on 8/28 she requested the declaration of a major disaster, and that was done on 8/29

She also requested a bunch of individual assistance programs (money) and help on debris removal.

I know Louisiana does not have "martial law", despite Mayor Nagin declaring it, but the Governor does have the power to declare an emergency (which she did) and to request federal forces (which she did on 9/2)

But I did not see any request for National Guard people from other states (she has the power to call up the Louisiana national guard, and although 40% are in Iraq, 60% are not), nor did I see authorization for US Military (enabling him to waive Posse Comitas) prior to 9/2.

Do you really want the President (whether Democrat or Republican) to have the power to send troops (active military, reserves, or federalized National Guard) into a state without the authorization of that state's Governor? That request came on 9/2, the same day the convoys arrived.

wcw said My mistake, Don. Apologies for the unkind words about your post (no apologies on the blog, though; ugh).

For the record, while the FEMA timestamp is 8/29 hence the same as landfall, I found news outlets registering that declaration by the 28th. It might well have gone over the wires as early as the day before, giving the aforementioned two days.

I remain interested in any links to actual (not nominal) federal efforts on the 27th or 28th. Being wrong tends to spur my efforts, but I couldn't find anything concrete there, or really anything at all.

My response: wcw, I agree I recall hearing about the declaration a day or two earlier, but at least it was on or before 8/29

I dont have any other links to say they brought in aid before 9/2, but they certainly staged it close to the area, because the trucks brought it in on 9/2, and initially they thought Katrina was going to hit New Orleans directly, but instead it turned to the east and focused on Mississippi (and to some extent Alabama) and it was well on land before the levee (a levee which had recently been upgraded, not the levee for whom work was planned but not funded) broke. And once it broke, communication was drastically reduced, and access drastically restricted due to flooding.