It appears that Bush may not have declared an emergency for the southeastern parishes of Louisiana (despite the fact that Gov. Blanco made such a request). Check it out below the fold...
http://www.gov.state.la.us/Press_Release_detail.asp?id=976
Quote:
Governor Blanco asks President to Declare an Emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina
BATON ROUGE--Today Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco forwarded a letter to President Bush requesting that he declare an emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina. The full text of the letter follows:
August 27, 2005
[snip]
I request that you declare an emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina for the time period beginning August 26, 2005, and continuing. The affected areas are all the southeastern parishes including the New Orleans Metropolitan area....
The president followed up with:
http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/08/20050827-1.html
Quote:
The President's action authorizes the Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), to coordinate all disaster relief efforts which have the purpose of alleviating the hardship and suffering caused by the emergency on the local population, and to provide appropriate assistance for required emergency measures, authorized under Title V of the Stafford Act, to save lives, protect property and public health and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a catastrophe in the parishes of Allen, Avoyelles, Beauregard, Bienville, Bossier, Caddo, Caldwell, Claiborne, Catahoula, Concordia, De Soto, East Baton Rouge, East Carroll, East Feliciana, Evangeline, Franklin, Grant, Jackson, LaSalle, Lincoln, Livingston, Madison, Morehouse, Natchitoches, Pointe Coupee, Ouachita, Rapides, Red River, Richland, Sabine, St. Helena, St. Landry, Tensas, Union, Vernon, Webster, West Carroll, West Feliciana, and Winn.
Now look at a map of the parishes in Louisiana: http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/maps/louisiana_map.html
Notice something? Bush declared a federal state of emergency everywhere in Louisiana except for the southeastern parishes?
Has anybody seen this? Any explanation for this? Was there any other statement of emergecny that did cover teh southeastern parishes?
[Hattip to buddy from a message board I peruse]