A great article on Katrina failings
I love the BBC. I know, you poor people of England pay a hefty price to subsidize it, but it has played such a significant role in history. In how many countries have an occupied or oppressed people, clustered around jerry rigged radio sets, received good factual news reporting on short wave from the World Service. It is one of your great gifts to the world.
Okay, enough about that. But the BBC has a pretty good, fairly comprehensive piece on the failings in the lead up and aftermath of Katrina. It seems pretty balanced to me, and as all the Bush admin/anti Bush admin stuff starts to get thrown around, this offers a pretty good reference point.
Look here.
And let me just say here that my issue is generally with the DHS on down. We can argue as to whether Bush should've stopped vacationing and gotten involved sooner, and we can argue about the cuts to the levee budgets or restructuring of FEMA, not good, but, in the end, that was a political decision.
I do take significant issue with the appointment of unqualified people to key posts at FEMA. That was key in this disaster.
But generally speaking, the villians in this piece, or at least the federal villians, start at Chertoff and go down a couple of rungs. Quite obviously, the people on the ground have worked their asses off, and I would guess their bosses and their bosses' bosses have probably done very well. But the top of FEMA, the political appointees, there has been incredible incompetence.
As to State and local. It's seems to me that gov. Blanco has made some mistakes, both in tactics and presentation, although with a greater resource flow, I don't think they would have been as significant.
As to Ray Nagin, I think he's done a hell of a job considering the situation he's in. Working in New Orleans with no power or communications, more or less without sleep, he and his staff having suffered tremendous personnel losses, and no significant help from the outside world arriving for days(plural.) I can't even imagine how they kept going. In my book, the local officials did everything they could manage after the levee break.
I know you disagree with me, so sound off in the COMMENTS. I'm more than willing to change my mind in the face of sound arguments.
Mike
Okay, enough about that. But the BBC has a pretty good, fairly comprehensive piece on the failings in the lead up and aftermath of Katrina. It seems pretty balanced to me, and as all the Bush admin/anti Bush admin stuff starts to get thrown around, this offers a pretty good reference point.
Look here.
And let me just say here that my issue is generally with the DHS on down. We can argue as to whether Bush should've stopped vacationing and gotten involved sooner, and we can argue about the cuts to the levee budgets or restructuring of FEMA, not good, but, in the end, that was a political decision.
I do take significant issue with the appointment of unqualified people to key posts at FEMA. That was key in this disaster.
But generally speaking, the villians in this piece, or at least the federal villians, start at Chertoff and go down a couple of rungs. Quite obviously, the people on the ground have worked their asses off, and I would guess their bosses and their bosses' bosses have probably done very well. But the top of FEMA, the political appointees, there has been incredible incompetence.
As to State and local. It's seems to me that gov. Blanco has made some mistakes, both in tactics and presentation, although with a greater resource flow, I don't think they would have been as significant.
As to Ray Nagin, I think he's done a hell of a job considering the situation he's in. Working in New Orleans with no power or communications, more or less without sleep, he and his staff having suffered tremendous personnel losses, and no significant help from the outside world arriving for days(plural.) I can't even imagine how they kept going. In my book, the local officials did everything they could manage after the levee break.
I know you disagree with me, so sound off in the COMMENTS. I'm more than willing to change my mind in the face of sound arguments.
Mike
posted by mikevotes at
1:27 PM
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