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Originally Posted by scoreman
That said, FEMA was completely unprepared and Brown ultimately should be held responsible for that.
There were not enough troops available to send into the city to quell looting because of the ongoing war in the middle east. Reserves stationed in Louisiana were not sent in right away because the commanders there were more concerned about their upcoming Afghan and Iraq deployments.
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It had nothing at all to do with the war in the middle east, nor the supposed upcoming Afghan and Iraq deployments. The "commanders" in Louisiana do not have the power to just up and tell their soldiers to go here and there.
Some of you - actually many of you - posting in this thread should really educate yourselves on the duties of the States and their Governors.
The duty to activate and deploy Guardsmen goes first and foremost to Blanco. She is the leader of the State. The local Guard commanders cannot act without her permission. The President cannot override her, the head of FEMA cannot override her. The military cannot override her. They can do NOTHING until she requests or accepts their help.
Saturday morning, nearly 48 hours before the storm hit, President Bush declared Louisiana (and Mississippi and Alabama) states of emergency.
This declaration gave Governor Blanco full authority to call up her active-duty Guardsmen and deploy them, as well as requesting and accepting Guardsmen from other States.
(Mississippi took full advantage of this, as did Alabama.)
Sunday night before the storm hit, she had activated just 3,500 of her active-duty Guardsmen. Another 6,500 sat on their hands waiting for her call. This doesn't even take into account the non-active-duty Guardsmen that she could have called up due to the emergency situation. There's a major Cat 4/5 hurricane headed straight for New Orleans, and she doesn't even bother deploying half of the Guard at her disposal. Of the 3,500 that she DID deploy, how many did she send to New Orleans? There certainly weren't 3,500 soldiers there after the storm. Judging from the news reports, live cam feeds, and on-the-ground reports, there MAY have been 500 - and that number is being generous.
Sunday she also wrote a letter asking the President for $130 million in funds for anticipated rebuilding. A Cat 4/5 hurricane coming for her state and all she thinks it will take to fix it is $130 million. The woman had no clue.
New Mexico's Governor offered ALL of its active-duty troops to assist Louisiana on Sunday before the storm hit, and the NM Governor faxed over the paper with his signature on it giving Blanco full command of his Guardsmen. All she had to do was sign it and fax it back. She sat on it, saying she needed to wait for a paper from the Feds, which would take 4 days to get there. Bush had already given her the authority to use these troops with his declaration on Saturday. That declaration overrides normal procedure and gives Governors extra powers and the ability to skip certain paperwork. She also held off the Texas Governor's offer of Guardsmen until (as far as I can tell tracking down paperwork and timelines online) Friday after the President came and talked to her.
FEMA had trucks with supplies and emergency vehicles on the ground on a highway outside of New Orleans (I saw at least 30 vehicles but the helicopter camera was moving quickly so it was probably more) but could not get into the city because the Governor had not deployed enough Guardsmen there to protect their unarmed personnel. They had to sit and wait for Blanco to get off of her ass. Actually, they had to sit and wait for Bush to fly down on Friday and TELL HER to get off of her ass and deploy troops to the area so their people could go in safely.
The Feds have requested to be given control of the situation so that they can deploy troops and relief workers where necessary - Blanco has refused. No troops can be deployed without her permission. No relief workers can get in without her permission. In the lower Parishes right now, there are Guardsmen having to turn away tractor trailers full of supplies sent by private groups and corporations because Blanco has not given them permission to accept these supplies. The only authority she has given them is to perform search and rescue and provide protection against criminals. They would love to accept this help but they cannot, because Blanco wants to personally review and approve/disapprove every movement in/out of the state.
A huge Navy ship left here (Norfolk) Monday night/early Tuesday (right after the storm) morning to go to the Gulf. It's been there for days upon days. It's now sitting there with hundreds of doctors and nurses, hundreds of soldiers who could be providing help, 600 beds that are going unused, and it can make 100,000 gallons of drinking water per DAY. (It converts it from seawater.) This is the big ship that went to help in the tsunami effort and provided most of the drinking water. It is sitting there unused and the sailors on board are going crazy wanting to help. They CANNOT leave the ship to help until Governor Blanco requests their help (otherwise it would be considered an invasion). They keep offering their help, she keeps ignoring them.
She even told the President, when he offered aid to her directly, that she needed 24 hours to think about it. When people are dying in her state and especially in New Orleans with every passing hour.
She is trying to micro-manage a situation that is far too big for her limited brain capacity, and people are dying because of it. Because she wants full power and is unwilling to step aside so that shit can get done. Meanwhile, people are dying because of her pride, power-hungry ego, and brainlessness.