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It's been at least 30 years that I've heard experts predict this disaster in N'orlins. It went exactly by the "book", as predicted. Levee failure, the entire city flooded. There should have been a mass evacuation plan in place, and it should have been implemented on Sunday. The mayor ordered an evacuation, but there was no plan to evacuate those who were without the means--no car, no gas for the car, nowhere to go, whatever.
Gov. Blanco is in way over her head. You declare the state of emergency and deploy the Guard to key staging areas ahead of the storm. There's a big difference between what the Guard is allowed to do when a governor declares a state of emergency and what the regular military can do. Other than the Coast Guard, the regular military has no teeth to back it up when they are deployed domestically--they have no law enforcement or peace officer status--they are, in fact, civilians in that sense. I'm sure the Guard had snorkel equipped trucks that could have accessed many areas that were innundated. Cripes, MSNBC and CNN got reporters to the Superdome and the convention center--you mean to tell me the freakin' Guard couldn't have got down there and enforced order? In the Watts riots of the 60s, the Guard in L.A. had "shoot to kill" orders for looters, let alone people who were shooting at them.
That being said, Bush and the Feds didn't do themselves proud. We have a Homeland Security chief who's had a deer in the headlights look on his face for over a week now. After Camille in 1969 (which while as powerful as Katrina was a much smaller storm in area), Nixon deployed the entire 3rd Infantry to the Mississippi coast to aid in the relief effort. Bush didn't even cut his vacation short and return to DC until 2 days after the storm hit.
"No one thought it would be that bad"??? Bullcrap. We've known for as long as I've been alive what would happen if NO took a Cat 4 or 5 head on.
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