Sunday, September 04, 2005
Get Ben Stein's clues
Gov. Kathleen Blanco, standing beside the mayor at a news conference, said President Bush called and personally appealed for a mandatory evacuation for the low-lying city, which is prone to flooding.
Yes. Louisiana's crack state and local authorities did not order the evacuation until after President Bush called them and "personally appealed" for them to do so.
Finally, check out this article (via Instapundit), which is otherwise extremely critical of FEMA:
Other federal and state officials pointed to Louisiana's failure to measure up to national disaster response standards, noting that the federal plan advises state and local emergency managers not to expect federal aid for 72 to 96 hours, and base their own preparedness efforts on the need to be self-sufficient for at least that period. "Fundamentally the first breakdown occurred at the local level," said one state official who works with FEMA. "Did the city have the situational awareness of what was going on within its borders? The answer was no."
As Instapundit's emailer wrote, "Measuring from the passage of the storm from the target area -- say 1500 hours on Monday, THE PLAN would therefore expect federal aid at the earliest at midday Thursday."
FEMA is obviously not the agency we all wish it was. By the lights of local politicians and outraged journalists, it sucked in 1992 and it sucks today. There is no obvious evidence that it became more effective between 1992 and 2000 (or, for that matter, less effective since 2000). It is obviously in desperate need of reform.
However, the feds can't just go piling in there without an invitation from local governments, who control the lions share of the resources that can be delivered on short notice. The delay in that invitation, coupled with the timing of the breaking of the levee, insured that federal help could not arrive in force until Thursday morning. It is obvious from this that however lame FEMA is, the New Orleans city administration is arrestingly incompetent (cops walking off the job, school buses parked up like planes on Oahu), and that the state of Louisiana is probably not much better.
One final thought: Will the dawning realization that local executive skill matters raise Rudy Giuliani's chances for the presidency in 2008?
5 Comments:
By 
cakreiz, at
Sun Sep 04, 03:19:00 PM:
It should (raise Giuliani's prospects) but it won't. Unfortunately the GOP is beholden to and pushed largely by its religious right. It's much more about prochoice and anti-gay rights, not about competence. I [Don't mean to be pick just on the GOP. The same is true of the Dems. They could win arguing competence but they won't. The Dems are controlled by a coalition of left-leaning groups (such as environmentalists) with little interest in practicality, functionality and competence.
By cakreiz, at
Sun Sep 04, 04:32:00 PM:
sorry, meant "prolife" above. As to the rest of your post, Hawk, right on. FEMA is alarmingly ineffective- but so was La. state and local gov'ts. After watching the feds contrive Homeland Security, I'm VERY apprehensive about the efficacy of building an effective FEMA. It's just amazing how little bang for our buck we get from so many government programs. I'm very thankful the Clintons weren't able to federalize health insurance. One can only imagine how inept that would be.
By 
, at
Sun Sep 04, 08:53:00 PM:
"However, the feds can't just go piling in there..."
From the Department of Homeland Security website at http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/theme_home2.jsp (via Unscrewing the Inscrutable):
Preparing America
In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility on March 1st for assuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation. This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort. The new Department will also prioritize the important issue of citizen preparedness. Educating America's families on how best to prepare their homes for a disaster and tips for citizens on how to respond in a crisis will be given special attention at DHS.
- Levi
By Papa Ray, at
Mon Sep 05, 01:32:00 AM:
Yea, with homeland security in charge, Fema has another layer of BS to contend with before it can do anything.
Guess who is going to be blamed for any and all deaths from our troops? Troops begin Combat Operations
Papa Ray
West Texas
USA
By TigerHawk, at
Mon Sep 05, 05:57:00 PM:
I believe, Levi, that that refers to Homeland Security's role among federal responses. We still have not federalized the police power, notwithstanding Homeland Security. More relevantly, the main assets on the ground are always locally owned, and obviously cannot be deployed or even ordered around by the feds.
