how perspectives differ: louisiana v. mississippi

[cranrab]

transcript from MEET THE PRESS today:

1st, louisiana:

MR. RUSSERT: And we are back.

Jefferson Parish President Broussard, let me start with you. You just heard the director of Homeland Security's explanation of what has happened this last week. What is your reaction?

MR. AARON BROUSSARD: We have been abandoned by our own country. Hurricane Katrina will go down in history as one of the worst storms ever to hit an American coast, but the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will go down as one of the worst abandonments of Americans on American soil ever in U.S. history. I am personally asking our bipartisan congressional delegation here in Louisiana to immediately begin congressional hearings to find out just what happened here. Why did it happen? Who needs to be fired? And believe me, they need to be fired right away, because we still have weeks to go in this tragedy. We have months to go. We have years to go. And whoever is at the top of this totem pole, that totem pole needs to be chain-sawed off and we've got to start with some new leadership.

It's not just Katrina that caused all these deaths in New Orleans here. Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area, and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now. It's so obvious. FEMA needs more congressional funding. It needs more presidential support. It needs to be a Cabinet-level director. It needs to be an independent agency that will be able to fulfill its mission to work in partnership with state and local governments around America. FEMA needs to be empowered to do the things it was created to do. It needs to come somewhere, like New Orleans, with all of its force immediately, without red tape, without bureaucracy, act immediately with common sense and leadership, and save lives. Forget about the property. We can rebuild the property. It's got to be able to come in and save lives.

We need strong leadership at the top of America right now in order to accomplish this and to-- reconstructing FEMA.

MR. RUSSERT: Mr. Broussard, let me ask--I want to ask--should...

MR. BROUSSARD: You know, just some quick examples...

MR. RUSSERT: Hold on. Hold on, sir. Shouldn't the mayor of New Orleans and the governor of New Orleans bear some responsibility? Couldn't they have been much more forceful, much more effective and much more organized in evacuating the area?

MR. BROUSSARD: Sir, they were told like me, every single day, "The cavalry's coming," on a federal level, "The cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming." I have just begun to hear the hoofs of the cavalry. The cavalry's still not here yet, but I've begun to hear the hoofs, and we're almost a week out.

Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, "Come get the fuel right away." When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. "FEMA says don't give you the fuel." Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, "No one is getting near these lines." Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America--American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn't be in this crisis.

But I want to thank Governor Blanco for all she's done and all her leadership. She sent in the National Guard. I just repaired a breach on my side of the 17th Street canal that the secretary didn't foresee, a 300-foot breach. I just completed it yesterday with convoys of National Guard and local parish workers and levee board people. It took us two and a half days working 24/7. I just closed it.

MR. RUSSERT: All right.

MR. BROUSSARD: I'm telling you most importantly I want to thank my public employees...

MR. RUSSERT: All right.

MR. BROUSSARD: ...that have worked 24/7. They're burned out, the doctors, the nurses. And I want to give you one last story and I'll shut up and let you tell me whatever you want to tell me. The guy who runs this building I'm in, emergency management, he's responsible for everything. His mother was trapped in St. Bernard nursing home and every day she called him and said, "Are you coming, son? Is somebody coming?" And he said, "Yeah, Mama, somebody's coming to get you. Somebody's coming to get you on Tuesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Wednesday. Somebody's coming to get you on Thursday. Somebody's coming to get you on Friday." And she drowned Friday night. She drowned Friday night.

MR. RUSSERT: Mr. President...

MR. BROUSSARD: Nobody's coming to get us. Nobody's coming to get us. The secretary has promised. Everybody's promised. They've had press conferences. I'm sick of the press conferences. For God sakes, shut up and send us somebody.

 

[cranrab]

and now, mississippi

WOW.

MR. RUSSERT: Just take a pause, Mr. President. While you gather yourself in your very emotional times, I understand, let me go to Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi.

Governor Barbour, can you bring our audience up to date on what is happening in your state, how many deaths have you experienced and what do you see playing out over the next couple days?

GOV. HALEY BARBOUR, (R-MS): Well, we were ground zero of the worst natural disaster ever to hit the United States. And it's not just a calamity on our Gulf Coast, which is decimated, I mean, destroyed, all the infrastructure overwhelmed. We have damage 150 miles inland. We have 100 miles inland, 12 deaths from winds over 110 miles an hour.

Saturday night before this storm hit, the head of the National Hurricane Center called me and said, "Governor, this is going to be like Camille." I said, "Well, start telling people it's going to be like Camille," because Camille is the benchmark for how bad--it's the worst hurricane that ever hit America, it happened to hit Pass Christian, Mississippi. Well, Tim, Katrina was worse than Camille. It was worse than Camille in size. It was worse than Camille in damage. And so we've had a terrible, grievous blow struck us.

But my experience is very different from Louisiana, apparently. I don't know anything about Louisiana. Over here, we had the Coast Guard in Monday night. They took 1,700 people off the roofs of houses with guys hanging off of helicopters to get them. They sent us a million meals last night because we'd eaten everything through. Everything hasn't been perfect here, by any stretch of the imagination, Tim. But the federal government has been good partners to us. They've tried hard. Our people have tried hard. Firemen and policemen and emergency medical people, National Guard, highway patrolmen working virtually around the clock, sleeping in their cars when they could sleep. And we've made progress every day.

But should I--we haven't made as much progress as I want any day. And to be honest, we won't make as much progress as I want any day because the devastation we're dealing with is unimaginable, not just unprecedented. It's unimaginable.

MR. RUSSERT: Governor, will you rebuild casinos along the Gulfport, exactly the same locations they were? And is that inviting another disaster if you do?

GOV. BARBOUR: Just this spring, our Legislature voted to no longer require the casinos to float, which had been the law that was initially passed when we legalized Las Vegas-style casinos in 1991. Our Legislature is going to have to look at whether or not we want to allow the casinos to be built on the land like the hotels that they're attached to. Nobody is going to talk about bringing them inland or anything. But the question is, should the bottoms, should the floors actually sit on land or pilings instead of out in the water. And because every one, or virtually every one of the casino barges, the casino floors were blown inland and did a lot of damage, the Legislature, I think, will do that. That's going to be my recommendation.

MR. RUSSERT: All right, gentlemen.

GOV. BARBOUR: But that's just one issue. It's one of a lot of terrible issues. That's just one issue.

MR. RUSSERT: Governor, how many people do you think have died in the state of Mississippi?

GOV. BARBOUR: Well, the official death toll is 160-something. And with the debris, Tim, that we have on the coast, which in many areas is six, eight, 10 feet tall, and because some people didn't evacuate, I think that toll will go up. I can't tell you how much, but we have so many people on the coast, they boarded up for Ivan, evacuated, nothing happened. Boarded up for Dennis, evacuated, nothing happened. Then they said, you know, "Where I am was OK for Camille." Nobody ever imagined something worse than Camille. And we have a lot of people...

MR. RUSSERT: Right.

GOV. BARBOUR: ...who may have died because they didn't believe anything could be worse than Camille.

MR. RUSSERT: Governor Haley Barbour of Mississippi, Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard, we thank you very much for your own personal testimony this morning and sharing it with the American viewers.

 

[QueEx]

Re: and now, mississippi

Hellava contrast.

QueEx

 

[QueEx]

Re: and now, mississippi

<font size="5"><center>Secretary of state:
Race was definitely no factor in response</font size></center>

Mobile Register
By EDDIE CURRAN
Staff Reporter
Monday, September 05, 2005

BAYOU LA BATRE, Alabama -- Neither President Bush nor the federal government would have reacted any differently to the devastation in New Orleans had most of those stranded in the flood-raged city been white, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said during a visit here Sunday.

With President Bush taking a public relations lashing for the federal government's real or perceived failure to respond quickly to the devastation in New Orleans, Rice embarked Sunday on a diplomatic assignment not to a foreign country, as is her accustomed duty, but to the Gulf Coast of the United States of America.

First at a church in Prichard and later during a stop at the Bayou La Batre Community Center, Rice sought to assure people of the region and the world that the federal government is pulling out all stops to end the suffering wrought by Hurricane Katrina.

She used the occasion to counter accusations, especially from black leaders like Jesse Jackson, that the federal response to the New Orleans' nightmare would have been swift and overwhelming had most of those stranded in that city been white.

"This response is not about color. I don't believe for one minute that people were allowed to suffer because of their color," said Rice, who is black and an Alabama native.

"How can that be the case? Americans don't want to see Americans suffer. Nobody, especially the president, would have left people unattended on the basis of race," she said.

"Across the spectrum, white, Asian, African-American, what you're seeing is Americans pulling together to help Americans," Rice said.

She made those comments during a brief press conference at the community center that's being used as the focal point of relief efforts for the thousands of residents of Bayou La Batre and neighboring Coden whose homes were lost or severely damaged by winds and rising waters.

With microphones and cameras from local, national and international media recording her every breath and movement, the secretary of state knelt down and put several canned goods into a box. Then she walked outside, hoisted another box of groceries, and placed it in a car driven by a middle-aged Asian woman who didn't seem to know what to make of the sudden swarm of attention.

Rice, known for her poise in dealing with the media and congressional panels, was perhaps the only person in Bayou La Batre who wasn't sweating.

The secretary of state urged Americans to understand that with Hurricane Katrina, local, state and federal officials faced a disaster without precedent in the history of the United States. She acknowledged that the "the magnitude of this one probably got the upper hand" in the days following the storm, but asked Americans to focus on the efforts being made now and to come.

One lesson learned the past week: Next time an American city faces a threat like Hurricane Katrina, the government needs to do a better job of providing means of evacuation for the poor, the elderly and the sick, Rice said. It was during the period before the storm that government agencies could have done the most to prevent the suffering that was to come, she said.

A French journalist asked Rice about the donations of food and money that are pouring in from other countries, France included. He asked her to respond in French, but she demurred. Rice noted that even Sri Lanka, so recently devastated by the tsunami, has pledged to send aid, as has the United Nations.

Rice also praised Alabama for agreeing to accept thousands of the newly homeless from Louisiana and Mississippi, even as the state battles through its own crises.

Joining Rice Sunday at church and later, in Bayou La Batre, were U.S. Sen. Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama; U.S. Rep. Jo Bonner, R-Mobile; Mobile Mayor Mike Dow, and a host of city councilmen and county officials, including mayoral candidate and Mobile County Commissioner Sam Jones.

Alabama Gov. Bob Riley attended the church service, then flew to Birmingham to review efforts being made there and elsewhere to house and care for what are expected to be tens of thousands of evacuees from Mississippi and Louisiana.

During his sermon and in comments during the service, Pilgrim Rest pastor Rev. Malone Smith Jr. stayed away from political commentary. "This is not a political rally, it's a religious rally," he said at the start of the service.

The theme of his sermon was the metaphor of midnight as the darkest period in a person's life.

"Some things presidents can do, some things governors can do, but only the Lord you are serving has the power to bring you out of midnight," Smith said, to a host of amens.

Near the end of the service, Smith walked to the front pew, where Rice was seated. With a broad smile and a twinkle in his eye, the pastor said to the congregation, "If you will excuse me a minute, I must talk to the head lady in charge for just a second."

Rice stood and the two whispered to one another for about a minute. Then Rice walked to the front and addressed the audience.

"We've gone through midnight this week," she said, in connecting the experience in New Orleans and the country to Smith's sermon.

Before Rice arrived at the Bayou La Batre Community Center and no doubt well after she left, what seemed like hundreds of volunteers, many sweating profusely, gave boxes of groceries, baby supplies and other goods to those in need of the assistance.

http://www.al.com/news/mobileregister/index.ssf?/base/news/112591188434960.xml&coll=3

 

[QueEx]

Re: and now, mississippi

ANOTHER CONTRAST IN PERSPECTIVES

Times Picayune
New Orleans, La.
September 5, 2005

While the New Orleans (Orleans Parish) refugees were mostly poor and black, Jefferson Parish brought the storm's destruction to a much wider economic cross-section. The sprawling parish stretches from Grand Isle on the Gulf of Mexico to Lake Pontchartrain in the north, and includes some of the metropolitan area's most exclusive neighborhoods.

In the enclave of Old Metairie, the rows of palatial, six-bedroom homes sustained little structural damage but had some of the worst flooding. Only a few windows were broken and the live oaks survived but the water rippled up the knobs at front doors and completely covered Mercedes-Benzes, pickup trucks and BMWs in garages.

Many residents were happy that the storm spared their homes, but angry that the failure of the levee system left them swamped. Some were considering a lawsuit against the federal government for having a levee that could survive no more than a Category 3 hurricane.

"That's what so devastating, that goddamned levee breaking," said Bobby Patrick, a resident of neighborhood now living in Houston. "My home didn't lose a shingle but it's got six feet of water in it."

Since the storm, rumors had swirled that looters had crossed over the parish line and begun breaking into evacuated homes in Jefferson. Many were relieved to return home Monday to find their belongings untouched.

Walter Zehner found his front yard full of foul-smelling floodwater and a broken lock on his door from rescuers looking for stranded survivors, but nothing missing. "It could have been a lot worse," he said.

Across the neighborhood, residents took what items they could fit in a boat. One woman loaded up her boat with her collection of cashmere sweaters, her cat and the 1957 Leica camera that belonged to her grandfather. A man packed his pickup truck with his silverware, his wife's clothes and a cherished animal figurine.

Unlike the poor in New Orleans, these refugees had other places to go. And few here planned to stay through what could be a long recovery.

With police checkpoints on every major street corner and ID checks for parish residents, even looting was not a major concern.

Said personal trainer Rod McClave: "I'm more concerned about them damaging my stuff just for the hell of it."

http://www.nola.com/newsflash/natio...al-51/112592244419870.xml&storylist=hurricane

 

[vitrifier]

Re: and now, mississippi

I think in the next few weeks, when we actually hear more from the victims who were eyewitnesses to the chaos, we will end up seeing a completely different story than the one the media has painted. Even the interview of Broussard took heat off of the local government. Nagin was catching heat for saying the same thing, and to me at least, it sounded like the consensus in the media was that Nagin was just complaining and it was his own fault.

 

[Brown Pride]

NOLA being 6 to 10 feet below sea level is what fucked up that city,80% of that city was under 20 feet of water.It never should have been built in that location in the first place,man trying to create a city were god never intended one to be in the first place.I would like to know why the local people in charge didn't try and get busses to get all the poor people out of harms way before the storm.

 

[Greed]

Ex-Secretary of State Powell slams storm effort

Ex-Secretary of State Powell slams storm effort
43 minutes ago

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Colin Powell, the former U.S. secretary of state seen as a potential leader for Hurricane Katrina recovery efforts, has joined the chorus of Americans criticizing the disaster response at all levels of government.

"There have been a lot of failures at a lot of levels -- local, state and federal," Powell said in an ABC interview for the "20/20" program to be broadcast on Friday evening.

American political figures from both major parties have assailed the slow response to the hurricane's assault last week on the U.S. Gulf Coast, which devastated New Orleans and killed hundreds, possibly thousands, in the region.

"There was more than enough warning over time about the dangers to New Orleans. Not enough was done. I don't think advantage was taken of the time that was available to us, and I just don't know why," Powell said in excerpts on ABC's Web site.

He said he did not think that race was a factor in the slow response, but that many of those unable to leave New Orleans in time were trapped by poverty which disproportionately affects blacks.

Powell was the highest-ranking black official during U.S. President George W. Bush's first term and chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff during the 1991 Gulf War. He is among various names mentioned in Washington as a potential "hurricane czar" to take over the long-term recovery effort.

Two senators from Bush's Republican party on Thursday proposed that such a job be created. White House officials have not ruled out the option, saying it is among several being discussed.

Some black leaders, including Democrats in Congress, have charged that racism contributed to the misery of New Orleans' predominantly black storm victims.

"I don't think it's racism, I think it's economic," Powell said. "But poverty disproportionately affects African-Americans in this country. And it happened because they were poor."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20050909...31Z.3QA;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYwMlJVRPUCUl

 

[QueEx]

Re: Ex-Secretary of State Powell slams storm effort

BUMPING SELECTED KATRINA THREADS ON THE 4TH ANNIVERSARY


<font size="5"><center>On Katrina Anniversary, Obama Pledges to End
"Turf Wars" that Slow Recovery</font size></center>


Washington Post
By Michael A. Fletcher
August 29, 2009


President Obama used his weekly radio and Internet address Saturday to mark the fourth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, saying that his administration is cutting red tape and bulking up resources to accelerate the Gulf Coast's recovery from the storm.

Obama said that 11 of his Cabinet members have visited the region in the seven-plus months since his administration took office, and he said he, too, plans to visit the area later this year.

He said his administration has made a priority of fostering greater cooperation among federal, state and local governments.

"I have made it clear that we will not tolerate red tape that stands in the way of progress, or waste that can drive up the bill," Obama said. "Government must be a partner -- not an opponent -- in getting things done."

While the federal government appropriated more than $100 billion for Katrina rebuilding efforts during the Bush administration, complex federal rules and problems with state government programs, particularly in Louisiana, have slowed spending, and thus the pace of recovery.

Obama declared those days over. "No more turf wars," he said. "All of us need to move forward together, because there is much work to be done."

The 2005 storm bludgeoned much of the Gulf Coast and drowned New Orleans. In all, more than 1,000 people were killed and than 1 million people were displaced.

To prevent a recurrence of such a disaster, Obama said, the federal government must continue the work of rebuilding hundreds of miles of levees and floodwalls around New Orleans. The government also must work to bolster the barrier islands and wetlands in the region, which he called the Gulf Coast's "first line of defense" against devastating hurricanes.

Despite the remaining challenges, Obama said there are signs of hope. He said New Orleans has become the nation's fastest growing city, as residents who fled after Katrina have returned. Also, the city recently opened its first completely new school since the storm.

"So on this day, we commemorate a tragedy that befell our people," Obama said. "But we also remember that with every tragedy comes the chance of renewal."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/44/2009/08/29/on_katrina_anniversary_obama_p.html?wprss=44