Compare response to Katrina with that of Isabel 2003

Even prior to the landing of hurricane Isabel in September 2003, the National Guard was rescuing people and moving those who had no way to move themselves. The response to Isabel, as documented below, testifies well to the dubious nature of our lack of response to Katrina.

http://64.233.161.104/search?q=cache:RLlf9pugDFwJ:news.scotsman.com/topics.cfm%3Ftid%3D980%26id%3D10 37902003+hurricane+isabel+%22national+guard%22&hl=en&client=firefox-a

"In Virginia, the National Guard had helicopters ready to rescue anyone stranded by floods, and more than 6,300 people packed into shelters."

"IN DELAWARE: The National Guard was activated, with about 100 troops standing by at armories and emergency operations centers. Officials worried that dunes at Indian River Inlet could be breached, flooding coastal U.S. 1."

http://www.cnn.com/2003/WEATHER/09/18/hurricane.isabel/

This article describes the National Guard saving people during the first stages of Isabel.

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3731/is_200310/ai_n9313196

"Guardsmen went to work before the wind and rain subsided. They evacuated people from low lands
to shelters on higher ground. They helped police departments prevent looting. They provided clean water to communities with contaminated water systems."

•  Apples and Oranges in a way

  Virginia is on higher ground, Isabelle was a weaker storm.  There was flooding -- huge, huge storm surge for the unfortunate living along the Potomac and the Chesapeake Bay, lotsa tornados and fallen trees due to the stress of a multi-year drought followed by the whallop of Isabelle.

  Even in the low lying areas of the Tidewater region damange was a lot less and in the DC area it was mostly downed trees like the ten that fell parallel to the house I had put an offer on and had accepted two weeks before. Luckily for me the seller wanted a long time before closing so he had to pay for the tree removal.  The Federal Government closed on Thursday and Friday (storm hit Thursday night)but was back open on Monday.  In Fairfax the water treatment plants (all three) lost power so a boil water alert was on for the whole weekend but we only briefly lost water pressure.

  But all that said you're quite correct to point out the raw numbers of troops called out to help with the cleanup.

  by akeitz on Tue Sep 06, 2005 at 08:25:04 PM PDT

  •  The point you somehow missed

    was that the National Guard were THERE and helping BEFORE, DURING AND after the storm, and they were NOT held up by FEMA or by awaiting any requirement for Bush to authorize them to go to work. Did you REALLY not understand my point???? I can't imagine anyone trying to defend Bush at this point.
    

    by MuldraughTim on Tue Sep 06, 2005 at 09:47:30 PM PDT

    •  Hell no I'm not defending Bush

      I'm trying to point out the weaknesses in your argument -- the huge differences in storms made it alot easier for VA to handle both storm clean up and the assholes at FEMA.  Got it?

      by akeitz on Wed Sep 07, 2005 at 06:03:00 AM PDT

      •  Get a rest, please

        Your point that Isabel was smaller only means that it would have been LESS important for the Guard to be waiting to serve prior to it's arrival. The bigger the threat the MORE important it would be to have help standing by. The Guard WAS standing by in SEVERAL DIFFERENT states PRIOR TO Isabel, but WERE NOT SO in this case.
        In the case of Isabel FEMA would have had an EASIER  time holding off incoming help because LESS help was incoming to begin with because no one thought Isabel would be anything like we knew Katrina to be.
        I will never be convinced that race was not an issue in the mind of G Bush, Brown, ect.. never.

        by MuldraughTim on Wed Sep 07, 2005 at 09:47:59 AM PDT

        •  The apologists will be arguing like this...

          Katrina was just oh so big compared to Isabelle, it wasn't "safe" for the National Guard to be in New Orleans. Got it now?

          by akeitz on Wed Sep 07, 2005 at 10:01:49 AM PDT

          •  Annie

            I am certain that is what they might say, but that's not at all what I was talking about. I was talking about the REALITY of it. The Guardsmen who responded EARLY to Isabel had no idea what kind of damage or danger they might see, and it didn't matter to them THEN, so it wouldn't have made a difference to them LAST WEEK. It was FEMA and BUSH who made the ONLY difference and the ONLY difference TO THEM is that New Orleans was full of black democrats. Virginia is a redneck red state full of Bush bigots. I'm sorry if I have been unable to help you to comprehend this point. I am too upset over the murder of so many innocents and with so many people being too fucking stupid to see when their country is being led straight to hell, but instead want to pick "apples and oranges" arguments over silly nothings just to be able to make some kind of point that SOUNDS to support BUSH. BYE

            by MuldraughTim on Wed Sep 07, 2005 at 02:02:46 PM PDT

            •  Um no I live in VA and I'm not a bigot

              And some of the areas most badly affected by Isabelle were true blue.  Norfolk. Check.  Richmond. Check.  NOVA. Check.

              And the Guards did know what they'd find -- the storm didn't knock out everything like Katrina or Andrew.  Cell phone towers still worked, radios still worked. Magnitudes of difference, thereby making your argument quite weak.
              

              by akeitz on Wed Sep 07, 2005 at 07:43:13 PM PDT

•  What's different today?

  Why wasn't the response to Katrina even 50% of this response?

  by weirdscenes on Tue Sep 06, 2005 at 08:35:19 PM PDT

•  god, are you there? it's me, neal.

  i know you're pretty busy... i know that you know i wonder if you 'even exist,' blah blah blah, extend argument outward. i think you're on the level with my questioning, because i always feel 'a presence like you,' strangely, while i'm doing such self-questioning as i happen to experience now.

  i also know you're busy with 'heaven's nursery,' where presumably all unwanted/unallowed pregnancies end up... must be an up-to-the-minute business, nursing all the beautiful spirits that need to be re-alloted a shot at this plane of existence (as futile as it must seem at times)...

  purportably, you send these beautiful little creatures down our way, to do your work, as long as they have parents with remnants of your original beauty intact. this doesn't always happen... i imagine many white, hardly-rich americans (fools, -self-made- fools, oftentimes) right now have somewhere back in their faulty memories pictures of small, faulty children, throwing -other- children out the windows of subdivisions resultant of faulty welfare subdivisions (obviously without adult supervision - someone could not afford 'babysitting' supervision of said subjects...)

  there are some, higher up, reportedly female, that suggest that a portion of the population you wisely allow creation that are not worthy of help from others who have been worthy of being earthly borne into a portion of worldly wealth. they consider any toss-off from the high dinnertable to be a 'godly' gift from on high... a 'fantastic opportunity' to leverage oneself upwards in an unequal society that -you never gave birth or fortuity to.- (if you gave fortuity to america, then you gave proof to your own existance, which is forbidden.)

  if there is proof of your existence, then it is between the lines, by chance of this story... innocent children, knowing what's right, leading other children. no wonder i feel, just as i felt reading this story the first time last night, that i put a point one for my 'personal scorecard' for your existence... they know what's right, intrisically. just as the young doe scampers through the meadow out back early in the morning... the simple joy of existing; the inward knowledge that, faced with mortal danger, take all of younger ones with you when you can.

  i know i don't say this often, but god, you're beautiful... you pull all of us back to where we need to be eventually, peaceful and quiet, gathering all crying, lost souls together, to press onwards into the strange, scary future. the future that will eventually eat us all up... but we know where the current watermark is at, and if we keep climbing for it, we will achieve it... whether or nor -you- will have to provide that end-goal for us.

  to wish anyone who would speak against us, to wish that they would travel in our same shoes... our same -lack- of shoes, through waters that could reach us neck-deep, -nostril-deep, because of circumstance of our wealth, -through- circumstance of our race... a circumstance that those on high - again, purportedly female, is not judgement. is not anger. is not temper. is simply, your will... humans are humans are humans, no matter wealth, power, or judgemental temperament.

  it is, your will. we are equal. we are one. no one any more or less than the other. this is your will. we know this.

  through the leadership of one toddler, who should be fingerpainting in kindergarten, instead of leading others younger than he through waters reaching their necks, reaching their nostrils. oil-slicked. toxic.

  without a place to 'relieve themselves,' without anything to eat, to drink clean water.

  see, other 'children' of yours will cry, 'why didn't the mother keep them close,' 'why didn't they leave,' 'why aren't they well-off to do any of the above...' etc, etc. you know who these children are... you know they are lost. just like the bumper sticker... 'all those who wander are not lost.' you know who your children are.

  and, with just a tiny bit of vengefulness on your behalf, i wonder how well those people sleep tonight. i know you don't -officially- approve of such measures... but i feel, i -feel,- you know where i'm coming from tonight.

  there's not much more i can say about this... the evidence speaks for itself. a six-year-old, leading a small band of children, may defeat a president tonight... as long as others, serving in the american journalistic community (we already know where the international community is tonight... this boy will be the closest thing to the second-coming that the self-proclaimed 'chosen ones' have been looking for all this time)...

  your will be done. salute... and a long, under-the-stars, on-my-knees bawling cry.

  yours forever. perservere.

  ---------------------------------------------------------------------

  good evening...

  my apologies... as always here, dkos entries are not edited, except by the writers themselves. i take full responsibility for the following. first, i would like to repeat what i wrote earlier... in case it adds context...

  ----------------------------

  ...

  --------------------------

  tonight... would you deny me the right to live?

  (as opposed to an unknown, possibly future serial-killer white fetus?;)

  would you? would you, if you knew that i was a poverty-level white male, somewhat handsome, intellectually capable in most any capacity, the right to be me? would you rather tell me to die than to impose you for a little extra tax, a little extra off your profluferous income?

  would you? would you, if you knew that i perhaps had -black blood- within me, the 'niggah-lips' giving me away, despite my somewhat handsome exterior, my rather intellectual capacity (that might one day save -your- pure, unadorned ass, in the line of fire>?

  would you, your own child, put them into the meat-grinder... lips too big, eyes too wide open, ears too big? just might be too fuckin' smart for -you- to handle?

  -who the fuck are you?- i want to know... -we- want to know...

  -we all want to know who you are.-

  speak up. we are smarter and more caring than you, so you have nothing to fear. -we will take care of you.- we will not offer ourselves up to -your- services, because -your- services do not provide that guarantee.

  stand up. speak loud, whoever you are. we will finally know who is who. and we will make sure that -all who can live- ... -will- live.

  sleep well tonight.

  -----------------------------------------------

  no doubt...

  'pathological politicians' will be the weak link for any savior of sanity.

  ... but not 'democrats.' well, not 'democrats' in the current, certain sense... those who would stand up upon any upon-this-earth, within-this-plane-of-existance personages' rights. (the pre-born, and post-born - those with tubes up their noses - might not apply currently. they simply will not be willing visages for the voting movement. take a pill, and think things over... you will -never- engage these particpants willingly, except as 'advertising campaign images.')

  i understand if you don't understand... not everyone can. sometimes takes a minimal of college education. take a moment, take a breath, then re-read. then re-read again, if need be.

  and allow yourself -to learn.-

  turn off the cable-tv religion... (CANCEL your cable; you're paying for 60 channels of bullshit you don't believe in anyways.) turn off the 'bewwwwwww!' faith-healing bullshit. turn off -all- that bullshit.

  turn back on your own quiet mind, your own quiet spirit... the one that truly informs you, the one that truly -nurishes- you. the six-year-old who will lead others through the dark to the light.

  there are only two houses existant... two houses, precarious, shaking upon their foundations. one, intrisically, will outlive the other. one, instrisically, will better match -your- motives,-, your -beliefs,- than the other. the so-called 'third' party, -does not exist.- -period.-

  -form up now...- coalesce, or forever see your belief sink.

  -form up now...- and -have a chance to -clean house.-

  -form up now...- or never have a chance to have a chance.

  choose now...

  or forever, no more bullshit 'independence' crap.

  choose sides... clean house. stop bullshitting... i understand, but STOP BULLSHITTING ABOUT IT. FUCK THIS SHIT. TAKE A HOUSE, AND CLEAN IT UP.

  YOU GODDAMNED BASTARDS...

  -------------------------------------------------------

  i want my goddamn country back.

  - jesus

  (i'll goddamn quote god/jesus as much as -they- do... even if it's -false.- fuck them.)
  

  by n step on Tue Sep 06, 2005 at 09:43:34 PM PDT