I've had lots of discussion with people about this. One one website, there's been a lot of people that refuse to hold the Federal gov't responsible. Saying that FEMA is not meant to be the 1st responders (one even said that FEMA didn't get to Hurricane Andrew until 8 days AFTER the storm) and they are not supposed to do much of anything.
I disagree with this, but they have their talking points. And I refuse to let the Federal gov't get off the hook of this one. I can't let it happen. There's a lot of blame to go around, to be fair, but I will not let FEMA turn this into a state thing.
So, I was thinking about what I would have done and what I think that any normal person would have done in the situation.
There's a couple of constants in my thinking. The first is that people knew that if the big one hit NO there would be trouble. The second is that, traditionally, the local and state gov'ts in LA have tended to be troubled (not knocking Blanco or Nagin here, but there's been a history of such things)
So, one would be led to believe that somewhere in FEMA there's some sort of uh, manual, book, something that discusses diasters in the United States. And one would believe that in that book it would mention a major hurricane hitting New Orleans.
And you would think that there would be some sort of checklist for the FEMA director. Things to do, per se. And I, an 26 year old accountant, already have a list of things that should have been done.
You would think that the FEMA director would think to himself.....'there's a major hurricane coming, I better make sure the mayor is doing his job and evacuating people.' So the FEMA director would call the mayor and tell him, get those people out. Do you need any help? Can we get the military in here to drive busses of people out? I've talked to Texas and they are preparing to host people.
Then a competent FEMA director would probably discuss things with the mayor and gov. Things discussed would be, do we have enough people on the ground? What about food and water? Is there a place to set up a mobil First Aid station? What about air drops if we can't get to people. He would be on the phone with appropriate military personnel from several states and have National Guard troops staging in Arkansas. Far enough away that they wouldn't get hit by the storm, but close enough to step foot on the ground mere hours after it. This could have and should have been done on Sunday.
After the storm passed, a qualified FEMA director would continue to talk to the gov and mayor. He would realize that a diaster was on hand and would act appropriatly. He would have people in DC watching the news and in contact with local officials. He would have a satelite phone and would make sure he knew where people were getting dropped off to. He would be on the phone with the president and tell him that troops were needed.
Finally, while all this should have and could have been done by anyone with half a brain in their head. There are still other things that could have been done long before this storm. As noted before, everyone knew that this could happen. So why didn't FEMA get on the phone and have diaster planning meetings with these local officials. Why didn't they tell them what FEMA would and wouldn't do.
If these things are obvious to me, they should be obvious the the Federal gov't. It's not because it's Republicans in there, it's because there are incompetent people in there. And those incompetent people are guilty of the neglected people of New Orleans. And that, is a moral issue.