I received an email from the New Democrat Network today that really hit it home for me, in a clear, concise way. Posted after the flip:
(Don't know how to do the cool boxes)
As the spin begins on the federal government's shamefully slow response to the crisis caused by Hurricane Katrina, here are five key facts to keep in mind:
- Governor Blanco asked for federal help in advance of the disaster. Despite reports to the contrary, Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco declared a state of emergency for the State of Louisiana on August 26th, well before Hurricane Katrina struck. On August 27th, she requested that the President do the same, soliciting federal support to avert disaster from the looming Hurricane.
- The Federal Government assumed responsibility for relief efforts before Katrina struck. On August 27th, with the President's explicit authorization, FEMA Director Mike Brown responded to Blanco's request for assistance by declaring that his agency would "mobilize equipment and resources necessary to protect public health and safety by assisting law enforcement with evacuations, establishing shelters, supporting emergency medical needs, meeting immediate lifesaving and life-sustaining human needs and protecting property, in addition to other emergency protective measures."
- Federal officials were well aware that Katrina might have catastrophic consequences. The Director of the National Hurricane Center has confirmed that both FEMA Director Mike Brown and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff listened in to his agency's briefings on the Hurricane's impact, including repeated warnings that it might have deadly effects on the region. As the Hurricane approached New Orleans, Brown asserted that he couldn't "emphasize enough to viewers how serious FEMA is taking this storm . . . We've done a lot of planning for a hurricane striking New Orleans because of New Orleans lying below sea level."
Indeed, FEMA had conducted a simulation involving the potential evacuation of New Orleans as a result of a Hurricane in July of 2004. Moreover, experts had been predicting that breached levees could result in untold crisis for years.
- Officials knew that thousands of New Orleans residents would be unable to evacuate. In advance of the levee's breaking, it was clear to observers that as many as 100,000 residents of the city would be unable to respond to the mayor's call to evacuate. Regardless, no federal action was taken to prepare for this obvious eventuality, and significant federal support did not reach stranded survivors until Friday, September 2nd, several deadly days after the crisis began.
- For all their talk of preparing the country for terrorist strikes, the administration knowingly staffed FEMA with individuals ill-prepared for disaster management. In contrast to the Clinton administration, President Bush has chosen to staff FEMA largely through political patronage, leaving an essential agency in the hands of leadership grossly unprepared to deal with a crisis on the scale of Katrina.