September 09, 2005
Louisiana officials told the American Red Cross not to plan to go into New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina hit to provide relief to residents at the Superdome — and also refused help from the organization before the storm hit.As its workers evacuated the city before the storm, the Red Cross offered to drop off food, water, cots and other emergency supplies to the Superdome, but officials declined the supplies, Red Cross spokeswoman Carol Miller said Thursday. The Red Cross was aware that the Superdome was a refuge of last resort for people who couldn't evacuate New Orleans.
Red Cross President Marty Evans said that officials for Louisiana's homeland security department told the relief agency not to drop off the supplies, Miller said. She didn't name the officials.
In the days after Katrina hit, television broadcasts from the Superdome showed thousands of people there complaining about the lack of food and water. Miller said the Red Cross didn't offer its own shelter in downtown New Orleans because it is the agency's policy to “not shelter in unsafe areas.”
So there is no more basis for saying it is the fault of the president or FEMA -- state and local government intentionally starved these people.
Posted by: Greg at
02:37 PM
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If it turns out that this line of explanation is supported and not otherwise explained away, then so be it. Hang the responsible parties out to dry, be they republicans and democrats, and FIX THE SITUATION so it doesn't happen again, when a dirty bomb goes off or whatever. The Red Cross does not offer shelter in unsafe areas? We'd better find someone who does, or some other way of handling the problem.
But, regardless, this one response out of the dozen excuses offered by the corporate-controlled-press and the administration offers an interesting possibility for inquiry, but it doesn't satiate my desire to learn more. Sounds like your appetite is sated, though.
Posted by: Dan at Sat Sep 10 01:26:36 2005 (aSKj6)
Greg isn't assigning "blame." He's obviously tongue-in-cheek w/the "intentionally starved these people" hyperbole -- utilizing the same ridiculous tripe that we've heard the Left screaming over the last week or so.
Posted by: Hube at Sat Sep 10 02:24:35 2005 (7pdx8)
The Mayor of New Orleans failed to follow his own evacuation/emergency plan.
Buses were left to be destroyed.
Food and water for the folks in the dome were turned down.
The evacuation order was delayed.
The governor delayed answering the federal offers of assistance.
She failed to mobilize the National Guard units.
And those were the things which happened before the storm ever hit, despite the fact that each involved a failure to do something that is a matter of common sense and standard civil defense/disaster preparedness procedures.
As for the Red Cross comment -- of course they don't offer shelter in unsafe areas. Rule number one is get the folks to safety. You know, just like firefighters evacuate folks from a burning building because it is unsafe.
Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sat Sep 10 02:31:01 2005 (flbw+)
After all, two offers to get food and water to the under-supplied Superdome were turned down, leaving the people there to starve and dehydrate.
It is now two weeks since Katrina was predicted to hit New Orleans, and only now is the "mandatory evacuation" being made mandatory by state and local officials.
In the mean time, we have heard the mantra of "people are starving, where is the food/medical assistance" from everyone -- including state and local officials.
But they turned down some of those very supplies to folks who they knew were there because they had taken shelter where the mayor told them to do.
Sounds like an intentional, deliberate policy decision to me.
Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sat Sep 10 02:54:32 2005 (flbw+)
Again, I have seen plenty of information that convinces me that state and local authorities made mistakes. I have also seen plenty of information that convinces me that federal authorities, up through Bush himself, made mistakes. I am not in a position to judge the full scope of the mistakes made by anyone, and neither are you.
To claim that there is "there is no more basis for saying it is the fault of the president or FEMA" is crazy talk, and, for an avid Bush apologist, wishful thinking. I'm happily not suffering from the same delusion that anybody involved is necessarily guilty or innocent here. This time, the liberals tend to have the open minds, while the conservatives are, for odd reasons I can't understand, desparately grasping at straws to protect Bush.
Posted by: Dan at Sun Sep 11 01:15:48 2005 (aSKj6)
I do not believe this information absolves the feds of all responsibility -- but I do think that it makes clear, once again, that the chain of failures can often be traced back to the state and local level.
But let's look at this specific charge (which is what I refer to) -- the city did not make arrangements for there to be food for the folks at the Superdome and the state refused to permit food deliveries later. How, exactly, is this the fault of the federal government? Why were policy decisions made at the state and local level to starve the poorest people of New Orleans?
And Dan, check out this from your own local paper in Kansas City:
By bus and by foot, as many as 25,000 people streamed to the Superdome, where neither the state of Louisiana nor the city of New Orleans had planned to stock food or water.
http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/special_packages/hurricane_katrina/12613786.htm
Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Sun Sep 11 03:51:40 2005 (GlrGU)
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