I think most people understand now that the Louisiana government was simply incompetent when faced with Katrina. But with FEMA, I knew about them not getting to the convention center until days after it had turned into a third world country. And, I knew FEMA should have been more pro-active urging New Orleans to evacuate. I suspected there was more, but this is the best explanation of how FEMA screwed-up that I've heard yet:

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4849706

You have to click on the listen button at the top to understand the extent of the fuck-up.

I'm not going to go back and listen to the story, but the way you've worded things, I hope you're getting the thing about FEMA not urging New Orleans to evacuate from the story and not from me. What I wrote above the link is what I thought before I listened to that story. So, I said that, not (as I remember off top of my head) the story.

I didn't know Bush called Blanco urging to evacuate. And, I didn't spell this out in the quick post. But, what I've been wondering is if New Orleans just didn't have the shelters to evacuate all those people to. I'm sure Blanco or Nagin could have called whoever's the mayor of the Astrodome in Houston, but just seems like FEMA would be in a better position to have the contacts to get as many shelters as possible.

Not that lack of shelters would have excused what happened with the evacuation. New Orleans was in no way prepared. I basically think it's probably just been a long running joke amongst politicos in New Orleans for a long time when they thought a hurricane like that would never hit. The joke being: "Can you imagine being the sorry guy who's mayor when that hurricane ever hits? hahaha!"

Look, its a big city built under sea-level yet right by the ocean. Add one giant hurricane and voila`, a combination that will wreck anyone and everyone's weekend.
Maybe only the Japanese would have had the foresight and discipline to prepare an evacuation plan suitable for the task. Everyone just calm the fuck down, grab a trash bag, and start picking up.

http://www.drudgereport.com/flash.htm

CINDY SHEEHAN CALLS FOR U.S TO 'PULL OUR TROOPS OUT OF OCCUPIED NEW ORLEANS'
Mon Sep 12 2005 12:42:11 ET

Celebrity anti-war protester, fresh off inking a lucrative deal with Speaker's Bureau, has demanded at the HUFFINGTON POST and MICHAEL MOORE'S website that the United States military must immediately leave 'occupied' New Orleans.

"I don't care if a human being is black, brown, white, yellow or pink. I donÕt care if a human being is Christian, Muslim, Jew, Buddhist, or pagan. I don't care what flag a person salutes: if a human being is hungry, then it is up to another human being to feed him/her. George Bush needs to stop talking, admit the mistakes of his all around failed administration, pull our troops out of occupied New Orleans and Iraq, and excuse his self from power. The only way America will become more secure is if we have a new administration that cares about Americans even if they donÕt fall into the top two percent of the wealthiest."

Sheehan is in the middle of a bus trip across America in support of her cause.

Developing...

Here's a story on the New Orleans Times-Picayune about how the stories have been greatly exaggerated:

Link.

Okay jrv. My much promised, and probably less anticipated response.

We're getting more information out about what happened in Katrina. You've seen how some people are saying not only was Katrina a big storm, but also a big cultural event? David Brooks:

Bursting Point

I have heard more news about there having been lots of rumors about deaths and rapes that didn't happen. I read that link that you posted to above. That link says that only one murder happened in the convention center, and none in the dome. They have a better feel for this than other crimes because with murders, there are actual bodies laying around. One murder in the convention center sounds like a lot to me. Not the hysteria and such the rumors were floating around about. But, I can see one guy getting murdered in the convention center as having caused that many rumors. I sure as hell wouldn't want to be locked in the convention center after somebody had been murdered in there. I'd get hysterical too. But, not as many murders as had been rumored.

I saw a thing on Charlie Rose that reviewed the press's role in Katrina. And, it was interesting that they had reporters on there saying that government officials were reporting some of the non-sense that had been rumors. One guy was saying he reported it because the officials said it, but that he noted in his story that he hadn't personally seen it. Just goes to show how incompetent the management of that catastrophe was.

Here's a permanent link to the one I posted about the violence during the aftermath of the storm. The reports, false or not, of the violence start around the end of page 4 if I remember right. Might have been the end of page 5.

Breakdowns Marked Path From Hurricane to Anarchy

Then, the thing about getting 100% of the people out of New Orleans. I don't know that this is such an interesting point either way. I wasn't arguing that you couldn't get enough buses to get all the people out. I was arguing that you can't get all the people on the buses. The people who take pride in "riding out the storm". The huge effort it would have taken to get all the poor, sick, and elderly on the buses that you would have had two days to do. Yes, you could have gotten a lot more than the incompetents in New Orleans did, but say you got 95% of the people out of New Orleans. Which is a number I just threw out, but sounds pretty good to me. In a town of 500,000 people, you've still got 25,000 people in town and some of those people are going to die in a Hurricane as big as Katrina. Not that it would nearly approach the 1000 that did die in New Orleans.

Then, as to FEMA's responsbilities. If you're going to assign blame according to the number of deaths in New Orleans, yes I would definitely assign more deaths to the locals. They are supposed to be handling intial response and evacuation. The most crucial element involved in saving lives. Screwing that up killed more people than how I think FEMA screwed up.

But, I do think FEMA screwed up. And, from what I've read, it's not just in New Orleans. But Mississippi also. Maybe you've heard that House Congressman Taylor from Mississippi doing everything he can to tear up Michael Brown because he feels like he screwed up in Mississippi? Here's the first story I heard about Mississippi not getting much help:

Gulfport Residents Call for Increased Security

It's 2:15 minutes into the story where they talk about the Salvation Army being there but nobody else.

Here's a link I found today that made me think about this post that summarizes what FEMA was supposed to for a hurricane but didn't. Notice that they also talk about FEMA not deploying many resources preparing for the storm like the NPR link story I posted to start this thread does:

Actually, It Was FEMA's Job


That last link will expire after so many days.