SubscribeNot enough: 68% | Right amount: 26%Thinking just about the President of the United States ... Do you approve or disapprove of President Bush's response to Hurricane Katrina?
Approve: 40% | Disapprove: 53%SurveyUSA | 9/2/05
"Experts said one of the major problems with the response effort was an ineffective evacuation that began just 24 hours before the storm hit. Though models for such a storm accurately portrayed the circumstances that arose -- a levee breach, flooding, stagnant water, inaccessible portions of the city and large numbers of people unable to leave -- more than 100,000 people remained when the storm hit.
Some people were simply too poor to pick up their lives, and others unwisely figured they could ride out the hurricane in their homes because they had done so in the past. But Rep William J. Jefferson (D-La.) said there was a failure to think about a 'holistic approach to the evacuation effort.'
Jack Harrald, director of the Institute for Crisis, Disaster and Risk Management at George Washington University, said researchers and academics have for years been studying New Orleans because of its particular vulnerabilities to disaster. In the Natural Hazards Observer in Nov. 2004, Shirley Laska, director of the Center for Hazards Assessment, Response and Technology at the University of New Orleans, predicted a direct hit could produce 'conditions never before experienced in a North American disaster' and said evacuation problems would be severe."
shit I'm glad there's some positive actionYes, peacay, I think that's a sentiment we can all agree with. Thank you to all the workers out there slogging through the muck to get what's needed to the people who need it.
AlexReynolds, you can shut the fuck up, k?I just noticed this. I don't know if dios is implying that Mr. Reynolds and I are the same person, if he's responding to something else, or if he's merely confused about who posted what. For the record, I'm not AlexReynolds; I think there are plenty of folks here who can vouch for that fact.
BUSH: You know, as governor, one of the things you have to deal with is catastrophe. I can remember the fires that swept Parker County, Texas. I remember the floods that swept our state. I remember going down to Del Rio, Texas. I have to pay the administration a compliment. James Lee Witt of FEMA has done a really good job of working with governors during times of crisis. But that's the time when you're tested not only -- it's the time to test your metal, a time to test your heart when you see people whose lives have been turned upside down. It broke my heart to go to the flood scene in Del Rio where a fellow and his family got completely uprooted. The only thing I knew was to got aid as quickly as possible with state and federal help, and to put my arms around the man and his family and cry with them. That's what governors do. They are often on the front line of catastrophic situations.
"A few moments ago, he stopped a truck full of National Guard Troops ... and said, 'Point your weapons down, this is not Iraq,'" said CNN's Barbara Starr who is traveling with the three-star general.
The irony of this would be funny, if it wasn't so incredibly tragic.
posted by Rothko at 10:57 AM on September 2, 2005