I saw excerpts from the hearing before the House Select Hurricane Katrina Committee on the news today and have to say that I think former FEMA chief Michael Brown raised some good points. Actually, some are the same exact points I’ve brought up with family and friends and have even blogged about, but haven’t found time to transfer to Blogger yet.
Those points are:
- The National Guard are under the command of STATE officials until they get called up … so why weren’t they utilized properly from the state level to begin with?
“Those are not FEMA roles. FEMA doesn’t evacuate communities. FEMA does not do law enforcement. FEMA does not do communications.”
- Alabama and Mississippi didn’t have much trouble with relief and utilizing their National Guardsmen.
“My biggest mistake was not recognizing by Saturday that Louisiana was dysfunctional …”
- Why did New Orleans Mayor Nagin and Louisiana Governor Blanco wait 12 hours after they were strongly advised by the director of the Federal National Hurricane Center, Max Mayfield, to issue a MANDATORY evacuation?
“I very strongly personally regret that I was unable to persuade Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin to sit down, get over their differences, and work together. I just couldn’t pull that off.”
- People need to take more responsibility and quit relying on the Government to hold their hands and make the tough decisions for them.
‘Americans themselves must play a more active role in preparing for natural disasters and not expect more from the government than it can deliver.’
- Why is he the focus of the blame when it’s obvious that there was dysfunction and failure on all levels?
“I’ve overseen over 150 presidentially declared disasters. I know what I’m doing, and I think I do a pretty darn good job of it.”
Okay, I’m not defending Mr. Brown, but I think everyone needs to quit being so myopic and see the bigger picture here.
First, you can’t blame one man for everyone’s failings. Not the President, not Mr. Brown, not Mayor Nagin, not Governor Blanco, and not even “the Devil.”
Secondly, would things have gone any better if someone else were the chief of FEMA at the time of Katrina? We’ll never know, but I doubt it. All I know is that I’m glad I sure as hell wasn’t in charge at that time.
Lastly, it was a huge fucking natural disaster! What’d you expect?
Honestly, I think Michael Brown was doing his job. I doubt he was sitting around in his underwear watching the media coverage and thinking, “Glad I’m not those poor sons-of-bitches!”
He said himself, “I’ve overseen over 150 presidentially declared disasters. I know what I’m doing, and I think I do a pretty darn good job of it.”
So I think I can afford to extend to him the benefit of my doubts and at least give him credit for being on the job and doing his job. The only thing is, I can’t say he did his best job this time around.
But I don’t think Mayor Nagin or Governor Blanco did either.
Committee Chairman Tom Davis, R-Va., cautioned against too narrowly assigning blame.
“At the end of the day, I suspect that we’ll find that government at all levels failed the people of Louisiana and Mississippi and Alabama and the Gulf Coast,” said Davis.
So where does the blame lie?
Personally, I think it lies on the people (including Mayor Nagin) of the great city of New Orleans. If everyone would have taken more initiative and done more themselves and quit waiting for someone else to take the necessary steps for them, a lot of the tragedy could have been avoided. I doubt most people caught in the aftermath can HONESTLY say they did everything possible.
Brown, himself, said the lack of an effective evacuation of New Orleans before the storm was “the tipping point for all the other things that went wrong.”
I mean … if a huge, menacing Category 5 hurricane don’t get your ass moving … nothing will.
Apparently they don’t call it “The Big Easy” for nothing.
***An aside to the Democrats that boycotted the hearing***
Get your crying, whiny asses back to work. You guys need to quit scratching your heads and wondering how George W. Bush got re-elected and wondering why everyone is so stupid and realize that the fault lies within YOU! Yeah, believe it or not, YOU could actually be the problem.
