Hurricane Katrina Rant

So the following rant was a personal email this morning between
friends. One of them said, "Hey, you should put that on the blog." Okay, I'm game.
I usually do not talk this way in front of clients -- probably because
people do not like to be reminded of certain things. But here goes. This is meant in the spirit to encourage discussion. Hey -- I may be wrong about just about everything here. If so, please feel free to tell me. What good is a rant if nobody rants back at you?

Watching this (movie link below),
and hearing the Red Cross and Salvation Army say that the State of Louisiana prevented them from aiding the Superdome survivors; I'm just awestruck at the level of incompetence of the governor.

I know she's probably a nice person, and I can see she is in way over her head. Why didn't she just turn it all over to the Feds? She refused to let the Feds run the show (and still does), insisting instead on having control of everything that goes on in her state. That's not what the New York Gov did after 9-11 - he turned the whole thing over to the Feds and then had his departments coordinate. The more I look at this, the more I am convinced that nothing went wrong at all - the constitution clearly has the mayor and governor as the prime authority in these matters. Saying "send me everything you got" is NOT a request that means anything - did she want all the employees of the IRS? How about all the Forestry officials? How many nuclear submarines would she like? You can't just say "send me everything and I'll take control of it" - she's a governor, for crying out loud, she has no IDEA what resources exist or how to coordinate them.

And then to have a hissing fit at the Feds for lack of support? Hello? So you're in FEMA and some hospital calls and wants gasoline. You've already been told that FEMA is not coordinating, the governor's office is. So who do you call for approval and coordination? And no, saying "just send the gas whenever anybody calls" is not a good enough answer - everybody needs stuff, and no matter what you do people may die. Do you try to call the governor's office? The national guard? Without a UNIFIED command structure, the best you can do is ask for the request in writing, so you can go find somebody to approve it. And no, you just can't take it on yourself - there are literally hundreds of agencies and resources out there. If every agency just did whatever they felt like based on random phone calls it would be even more of a CF than it already was.

Rant concluded. We now take you back to your regularly scheduled program. (grin)

The Governor in her own words

[Then the follow-up email]

It just boils me because the lesson should be how to erect a unified command structure in an hour, not who was at fault! And the people preventing the command structure from forming are yelling the loudest! What a bunch of whiny losers!

Here's another one. My favorite quote:

"Governor Blanco's communications director, Mr. Mann, said that she was frustrated that Mr. Brown and others at FEMA wanted itemized requests before acting. "It was like walking into an emergency room bleeding profusely and being expected to instruct the doctors how to treat you," he said."

Well gee! It's not like the governor's office was bleeding! They were supposed to be the ones in charge! The ones who had detailed disaster plans, that they were using to manage the emergency. The ones who were coordinating efforts at the local, state, and federal level! What's the old saying? Lead, follow, or get out of the way! Looks like the governor and mayor failed in all regards. You know what happened, don't you? Honore just bulldozed in and started making decisions, whether he p*ssed off the governor or not. That called her bluff, and she was finally smart enough to keep her mouth shut and let him do his work.
Good follow-up article follows:

NYT Article

I'm still not for changing anything based on this. The system worked the way it should. Now the voters of the great state of Louisiana need to vote those rascals out, or repeat the fiasco. Another reason why I don't support building houses below sea level next to the ocean. But I'm sure they're be squealing about that next.

[Finally]
If Bush would have federalized the guard and taken over there would have been a BIGGER outcry! The guy just couldn't win. Might as well take blame. Happens on your watch, you take the blame. People understand and respect that, I think. Except the die-hard Dems, who will try to keep the pressure up. Gotta keep the base energized -- it's an off-year and we'll need them in a few months as grass-roots help.

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