A “floatilla of aid” TURNED BACK from New Orleans
A group of approximately 1,000 citizens pulling 500 boats left the Acadiana Mall in Lafayette this morning (Weds.) and headed to New Orleans with a police escort from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Department. The “flotillia” of trucks pulling boats stretched over five miles. This citizen rescue group was organized by La. State Senator, Gautreaux from Vermilion Parish. The group was comprised of experienced boaters, licensed fishermen and hunters, people who have spent their entire adult life and teenage years on the waterways of Louisiana.

Fearing riots, Guard rejects food airdrops
Authorities are avoiding airdropping provisions into New Orleans — the traditional way of supplying disaster victims — out of fear of sparking riots, a state official said.

Homeland Security won’t let Red Cross deliver food
“The Homeland Security Department has requested and continues to request that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans,” said Renita Hosler, spokeswoman for the Red Cross.

US won’t let Canada help Katrina victims
Planes are ready to load with food and medical supplies and a system called “DART” which can provide fresh water and medical supplies is standing by. Department of Homeland Security as well as other U.S. agencies were contacted by the Canadian government requesting permission to provide help. Despite this contact, Canada has not been allowed to fly supplies and personnel to the areas hit by Katrina.

On BBC: Northern Command was in position, waiting for Presidential orders
We had the USS Baton sailing almost behind the hurricane so that after the hurricane made landfall it’s search and rescue helicopters would be available almost immediately. So we had things ready. The only caveat is, we have to wait until the President authorizes us to do so. The laws of the United States say that the military can’t just act in this fashion, we have to wait for the President to give us permission.

Confirmation of BBC report: Navy Ship still unused 6 Days after Katrina!
But today the Bataan’s hospital facilities, including six operating rooms and beds for 600 patients, are empty. A good share of its 1,200 sailors could also go ashore to help with the relief effort, but they haven’t been asked. The Bataan has been in the stricken region the longest of any military unit, but federal authorities have yet to fully utilize the ship.

Daley ’shocked’ as feds reject aid
A visibly angry Mayor Daley said the city had offered emergency, medical and technical help to the federal government as early as Sunday to assist people in the areas stricken by Hurricane Katrina, but as of Friday, the only things the feds said they wanted was a single tank truck.

Virgina Team turned away- others efforts wasted
Twenty-two Loudoun County sheriff’s deputies and six medical personnel who left Thursday for the New Orleans area returned home early yesterday because of poor communication between officials in Louisiana and Virginia that left the team without required approvals.

FEMA prevents water, fuel delivery- cuts communication lines!
On Meet the Press, the president of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans, Aaron Broussard, said that FEMA turned away aid and cut their communication lines!

Guardsmen ‘played cards’ amid New Orleans chaos: police official
A top New Orleans police officer said that National Guard troops sat around playing cards while people died in the stricken city after Hurricane Katrina.

FEMA Chief Brown caught in a LIE.
In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, “We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day.” Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Who’s Responsible?
Bush reorganized the government specifically to give the Feds more power in an emergency.

Bush’s Criminal Ignorance:  “I don’t think anyone could have anticipated the breach of the levees.”

As a flooded New Orleans sinks further into despair, up to 500 Florida airboat pilots have volunteered to rescue Hurricane Katrina victims, transport relief workers and ferry supplies.

But they aren’t being allowed in. And they’re growing frustrated.

“We cannot get deployed to save our behinds,” said Robert Dummett, state coordinator of the Florida Airboat Association. He said the pilots, who range from commercial airboat operators to weekend pleasure boaters, “are physically sick, watching the New Orleans coverage and knowing that the resources to help these poor people is sitting right in our driveways.”

On standby since Monday, the pilots — many from Central Florida — have spent thousands of their own dollars stocking their boats and swamp buggies with food, water, medical supplies and fuel.

But the Federal Emergency Management Agency will not authorize the airboaters to enter New Orleans. Without that permission, they would be subject to arrest and would not receive security and support services.

The airboat association has complained to several congressmen who have contacted the federal agency on their behalf.

“To me, 500 airboats seems a perfect solution to the chaos and difficulty getting people out of their flooded homes,” said U.S. Rep Mark Foley, R-Palm Beach Gardens. “I’d love them to be able to go in and help, and that’s what I’ve conveyed to FEMA.”

A FEMA representative said citizen volunteers are not being allowed into New Orleans for one big reason: It’s just not safe.

“I think it’s understandable, particularly given the TV footage that the entire world is seeing, for folks who have a big heart to feel a little bit frustrated and want to help,” said Frances Marine, Orlando’s FEMA public-affairs director. “However, it’s so important to be coordinated. Those areas are dangerous right now. There are health hazards and limited ways of getting in and out. . . . Right now, private citizens trying to go into those impacted areas are more hindrance than help.”

That explanation doesn’t sit well with one victim of Hurricane Andrew, who e-mailed the airboat association, demanding to know why they weren’t in New Orleans.

“I lost my house with Andrew,” said Merle Arostegui, 59, of Perrine. “I was one of those people sitting on what was left of my doorstep. Let me tell you: I could be [a victim] in New Orleans right now, and I am so frustrated.'’

Meanwhile, airboat operators watch and wait.

“It’s probably a 50-50 chance right now that we’ll go,” said James E. Brown, a 54-year-old Longwood man who heads a convoy of 14 local airboat pilots. “We’re willing to go, we’re able to go, but it’s all up to FEMA.”

However, chaos in the Big Easy is making boaters’ family members nervous.

“The more that is shown on TV of the shootings and looting,” Brown said, “the more loved ones are telling us: ‘Don’t go. You’re not going.’ “

Nancy Imperiale can be reached at nimperiale@orlandosentinel.com or 407-650-6323.

http://tinyurl.com/dnjq9

A “floatilla of aid” TURNED BACK from New Orleans…Explain!

A group of approximately 1,000 citizens pulling 500 boats left the Acadiana Mall in Lafayette this morning (Weds.) and headed to New Orleans with a police escort from the Jefferson Parish Sheriff’s Department. The “flotillia” of trucks pulling boats stretched over five miles. This citizen rescue group was organized by La. State Senator, Gautreaux from Vermilion Parish. The group was comprised of experienced boaters, licensed fishermen and hunters, people who have spent their entire adult life and teenage years on the waterways of Louisiana.

The State Police waved the flotillia of trucks/boats through the barricades in LaPlace and we sped into New Orleans via I-10 until past the airport and near the Clearview exit. At that time we were stopped by agents of the La. Dept. of Wildlife & Fisheries. A young DWF agent strolled through the boats and told approximately half of the citizens that their boats were “too large” because the water had “dropped during the night” and that they should turn around and go home.

We were pulling a large (24ft) shallow draft aluminum boat that can safely carry 12 passengers and had ramp access which would allow the elderly and infirm to have easier access to the boat. We politely informed the DWF agent that the local and national media had consistently reported that the water level had “risen” during the night which contradicted his statement to us that the water “was dropping” and no boat over 16ft. in length would be allowed to participate in rescue operations.

We then specifically asked the DWF agent that we (and other citizens in the flotillia) be allowed to go to the hospitals and help evacuate the sick and the doctors and nurses stranded there. We offered to bring these people back to Lafayette, in our own vehicles, in order to ensure that they received proper and prompt medical care.

The DWF agent did not want to hear this and ordered us home. We complied with the DWF agent’s orders, turned around and headed back to Lafayette along with half of the flotillia. However, two of my friends were pulling my other boat, a smaller 15ft alumaweld with a 25 hp. The DWF agents let them through to proceed to the rescue operation launch site.

My two friends were allowed to drive to the launch site where the La. Dept. of Wildlife and Fisheries were launching their rescue operations (via boat). They reported to me that there were over 200 DWF agents just standing around and doing nothing. My friends were kept there for approximately 3 hours. During that time they observed a large number of DWF agents doing nothing. After three hours had passed they were told that they were not needed and should go home. They complied with the DWF’s orders and turned around and went home to Lafayette.

Watching CNN tonight, there was a telephone interview with a Nurse trapped in Charity Hospital in New Orleans. She said that there were over 1,000 people trapped inside of the hospital and that the doctors and nurses had zero medical supplies, no diesel to run the generators and that only three people had been rescued from the hospital since the Hurricane hit!

I can’t come up with one logical reason why the DWF sent this large group of 500 boats/1000 men home when we surely could have rescued most, if not all, of the people trapped in Charity Hospital. Further, we had the means to immediately transport these people to hospitals in Southwest Louisiana.

On Tuesday afternoon, August 30, Jefferson Parish Sheriff Harry Lee asked for all citizens with boats to come to the aid of Jefferson Parish. A short time later Dwight Landreneau, the head of the La. Depart. of Wildlife and Fisheries, got on television and remarked that his agency had things under control and citizen help was not needed. Apparently, Sheriff Lee did not agree with that assessment and had one of his deputies provide the Lafayette flotillia with an escort into Jefferson Parish.

Sheriff Lee and Senator Gautreaux - 1000 of Louisiana’s citizens responded to your pleas for help. We were prevented from helping by Dwight Landreneau’s agency, the Department of Wildlife and Fisheries. When I learned that Charity Hospital has not been evacuated and that no one has been there to attempt a rescue, I became angry.

The “turf-marking” by some minor state agency should never take priority over the lives of citizens!

Signed,

Bewildered and Frustrated,

Jason Robideaux
Attorney At Law

1005 Lafayette Street
Lafayette, La. 70501
(337) 291-9444 office

http://www.thedeadpelican.com/lawyer.htm

there seems to be a theme…. govt refusing aid and people dying

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=8036

Fearing riots, Guard rejects food airdrops

ARLINGTON, Va. — Authorities are avoiding airdropping provisions into New Orleans — the traditional way of supplying disaster victims — out of fear of sparking riots, a state official said.

While the military has used helicopters to drop provisions to some stranded in New Orleans, authorities have not launched the massive supply airdrops seen in Afghanistan at the beginning of Operation Enduring Freedom.

Several C-130 Hercules aircraft are stationed at Little Rock Air Force Base, but authorities have not ordered them to drop supplies to flood victims, Arkansas Air National Guard officials said.

Airdropping supplies could actually worsen the situation, said Army National Guard Lt. Kevin Cowan, with the state Office of Emergency Preparedness.

“Just like Afghanistan, you drop food, it creates chaos,” Cowan said.

He said authorities are looking for a more controlled way to get badly need food and other supplies to people in the hurricane-ravaged region who need it.

“We’re trying to logistically to plan how to get food the best way,” Cowan said. “But as of right now, airdrops are not part of the plan.”

He said dropping supplies from the air is an option that is still available, but “I don’t think that is high on the priority list.”

Officials at U.S. Northern Command and Task Force Katrina could not be reached in time for publication Friday.

Little Rock Air Force Base is home to about 80 C-130s, but many cannot be flown because of wing cracks, wrote a spokesman for the 314th Air Wing in an e-mail.

On Friday, four C-130s from Little Rock Air Force Base were expected to bring water and MREs to the flood region and to evacuate refugees, wrote Air National Guard Capt. David Faggard.

The Arkansas National Guard is using 10 C-130s and 15 helicopters to bring troops and supplies to the flood region, said a National Guard spokeswoman.

Should authorities order an airdrop, “we are certainly ready if that’s what they need us for,” said Air National Guard Capt. Kristine Munn.

From October to December 2001, the Air Force dropped 2.5 million individual rations in Afghanistan using C-17 Globemaster aircraft based in Ramstein, Germany.

www.stripes.com…
http://tinyurl.com/beux3

Homeland Security won’t let Red Cross deliver food

Saturday, September 03, 2005

As the National Guard delivered food to the New Orleans convention center yesterday, American Red Cross officials said that federal emergency management authorities would not allow them to do the same.

Other relief agencies say the area is so damaged and dangerous that they doubted they could conduct mass feeding there now.

“The Homeland Security Department has requested and continues to request that the American Red Cross not come back into New Orleans,” said Renita Hosler, spokeswoman for the Red Cross.

“Right now access is controlled by the National Guard and local authorities. We have been at the table every single day [asking for access]. We cannot get into New Orleans against their orders.”

Calls to the Department of Homeland Security and its subagency, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, were not returned yesterday.

Though frustrated, Hosler understood the reasons. The goal is to move people out of an uninhabitable city, and relief operations might keep them there. Security is so bad that she fears feeding stations might get ransacked.

“It’s not about fault and blame right now. The situation is like an hourglass, and we are in the smallest part right now. Everything is trying to get through it,” she said. “They’re trying to help people get out.”

Obstacles in downtown New Orleans have stymied rescuers who got there. The Salvation Army has two of its officers trapped with more than 200 people — three requiring dialysis — in its own downtown building. They were alerted by a 30-second plea for food and water before the phone went dead.

On Wednesday, The Salvation Army rented three boats for a rescue operation. They knew the situation was desperate, and that their own people were inside, said Maj. Donna Hood, associate director of development for the Army.

“The boats couldn’t get through,” she said. Although she doesn’t know the details, she believes huge debris and electrical wires made passage impossible.

“We have 51 emergency canteens on the ground in the other affected areas. But where the need is greatest, in downtown New Orleans, there just is no access. That is the problem every relief group is facing,” she said.

“America is obviously going to have to rethink disaster relief,” said Jim Burton, director of volunteer mobilization for the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

The Southern Baptists, who work under the Red Cross logo, are one of the largest, best-equipped providers of volunteer disaster relief in the United States. Most hot meals for disaster victims are cooked by Southern Baptist mobile kitchen units. Burton is a veteran of many hurricanes.

“Right now everybody is looking at FEMA and pointing fingers. Frankly, I have to tell you, I’m sympathetic. When in your lifetime have we experienced this? Even though we all do disaster scenario planning, we have to accept the reality that this is an extraordinary event. This is America’s tsunami, that struck and ravaged America’s most disaster-vulnerable city,” he said.

Because New Orleans remains under water, it is different from other cities where Katrina struck harder, but where relief efforts are proceeding normally. Agencies place workers and supplies outside disaster areas before storms, to move in quickly. But there are always delays, Burton said, because nothing is deployed until experts survey the damage and decide where to most effectively put relief services.

The Southern Baptists operate more than 30 mobile kitchens that can each produce 5,000 to 25,000 meals daily, as well as mobile showers and communications trucks equipped with ham radios and cell phones. They are supporting refugee centers in Texas and Tennessee, and doing relief in Mississippi and Alabama. They have placed mobile kitchens around New Orleans to feed people as they come out.

Initially they tried to drive a tractor-trailer kitchen into New Orleans from Tennessee. It was stopped by the Mississippi Highway Patrol because the causeway it would have to cross had been destroyed, Burton said.

His agency has planned for missing bridges. The Southern Baptists’ worst-case planning is for reaching Memphis after an earthquake on the New Madrid fault, which in 1812 whiplashed at a stone-crushing 8.1 on the Richter scale. Burton envisions the Mississippi without bridges.

So when state and local Southern Baptists raise money to build a mobile kitchen, he tells them to design it to be hoisted in by helicopter.

After Katrina, he thought he would have to airlift a feeding unit to one isolated town, but a road was cleared, he said. He doubts that dropping a kitchen into the New Orleans’ poisoned waters, filled with raw sewage, dead bodies and possible industrial contaminants, would do any good. It made sense to prepare meals outside the area and truck them in or bring people out.

“The most important thing is to get the people out of that environment,” he said.

He expects unusual problems to continue, because victims of Katrina flooding will need emergency food for far longer than the usual week or so. He’s planning on at least two months.

Like the military, relief work requires a supply chain. Because business management favors just-in-time inventory, rather than stockpiling goods in warehouses, there isn’t a huge stock of food to draw on, he said.

“When you go into a local area, it doesn’t take long to wipe out the local food inventories,” he said.

The Red Cross serves pre-packaged food, including self-heating “HeaterMeals” and snacks, that require no preparation. Yesterday the Red Cross was running evacuation shelters in 16 states, and on Thursday, the last day for which totals were available, served 170,000 meals and snacks in 24 hours.

While emergency shelters typically empty out days after a hurricane or other natural disaster, in Katrina’s case they are becoming more crowded, Hosler said. People who had evacuated to the homes of relatives or hotels are moving in because they’re out of money or want to be closer to what is left of their homes.

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05246/565143.stm

US won’t let Canada help Katrina victims

“Things that make you want to scream” for $500, Alex…

Okay, first this article:

A specialized urban search and rescue team from Vancouver will be joining the rescue efforts in Louisiana in the wake of hurricane Katrina.

B.C. Solicitor General John Les said the province decided to send Vancouver Urban Search and Rescue (USAR) after officials in Louisiana asked for help.

“We’re the first non-U.S.-based team to be requested,” said Les. “They’re going to be helping as many people as they can.”

CTV Vancouver has learned that the team will board a plane Wednesday night heading to Lafayette, Louisiana, where local authorities will direct them to devastated areas.

Sounds great! Except for one problem — this team wasn’t allowed to fly into the US, blocked by Homeland Security from entering. A Canadian reader sends this report:

On tonight’s news, CTV (Canadian TV) said that support was offered from Canada. Planes are ready to load with food and medical supplies and a system called “DART” which can provide fresh water and medical supplies is standing by. Department of Homeland Security as well as other U.S. agencies were contacted by the Canadian government requesting permission to provide help. Despite this contact, Canada has not been allowed to fly supplies and personnel to the areas hit by Katrina. So, everything here is grounded. Prime Minister Paul Martin is reportedly trying to speak to President Bush tonight or tomorrow to ask him why the U.S. federal government will not allow aid from Canada into Louisiana and Mississippi. That said, the Canadian Red Cross is reportedly allowed into the area.

Canadian agencies are saying that foreign aid is probably not being permitted into Louisiana and Mississippi because of “mass confusion” at the U.S. federal level in the wake of the storm.

Once the hard-hit region is back on its feet, there better be a full accounting of the preparation and response to this catastrophe.
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/8/31/235829/261

On BBC: Northern Command was in position, waiting for Presidential orders

Announcer: The relief operation is the largest ever conducted in America. It’s being coordinated by the US Northern Command in Colorado. Leftenant Commander Sean Kelly explains how the relief effort is being organized.

Kelly: US Northern Command is the command that coordinates the military support for our federal and state agencies. They call up and request a capability and we try and provide that capability, whether it’s medical resources, search and rescue helicopters, food, water, transportation, communications; that’s what we provide.

A: So it sounds like you’re providing a bit of everything. I mean, do you know how much you’re actually providing?

K: Right now we’ve got 4,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and marine and coast guardsmen supporting this. They’ve delivered more than 9 million meals, I can’t remember how many millions of liters of water.

A: 9 million meals? Do you actually have 9 million meals?

K: It’s those “meals ready to eat”. The packaged meals that the Army takes out with them out in the field. We have 9 million of ’em ready. I know at least 100,000 went to the Superdome the other night to help the people out there in New Orleans. So they’re staged at various places throughout Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.

A: Now I’m sure you’re aware of the criticism that the authorities have been slow to respond to this. When did you get the order to start relief work?

K: NorthCom started planning before the storm even hit. We were ready for the storm when it hit Florida because, as you remember, it crossed the bottom part of Florida, and then we were plaining, you know, once it was pointed towards the Gulf Coast. So what we did was we activated what we call defense coordinating officers to work with the state to say okay, what do you think you’ll need, and we set up staging bases that could be started. We had the USS Baton sailing almost behind the hurricane so that after the hurricane made landfall it’s search and rescue helicopters would be available almost immediately. So we had things ready. The only caveat is, we have to wait until the President authorizes us to do so. The laws of the United States say that the military can’t just act in this fashion, we have to wait for the President to give us permission.

A: Now I gather that your engineers are also involved in pumping some of that flood water out of the areas.

K: Yes, our military personnel are helping to reconstruct the levees which frees up the engineers to start pumping out the waters so that hopefully New Orleans can be high and dry soon enough.

So apparently everything was in position, waiting for Bush to do something.

Videos of this BBC broadcast
high quality mpg (28mb):
http://news.globalfreepress.com/movs/katrina/BBC_Katrina.mpg

low quality (2mb):
http://www.nitrogen.no/files/video/bbc_interview.wmv
http://www.chris-floyd.com/video/BBC_Katrina.swf

audio only (.7mb):
http://www.nitrogen.no/files/video/bbc_interview.wma

Confirmation of BBC report:

Navy Ship still unused 6 Days after Katrina!

Posted on Sat, Sep. 03, 2005

BY STEPHEN J. HEDGES
Chicago Tribune

ON BOARD THE USS BATAAN - (KRT) - While federal and state emergency planners scramble to get more military relief to Gulf Coast communities stricken by Hurricane Katrina, a massive naval goodwill station has been cruising offshore, underutilized and waiting for a larger role in the effort.

The USS Bataan, a 844-foot ship designed to dispatch U.S. Marines in amphibious assaults, has helicopters, doctors, hospital beds, food and water. It can also make its own water - up to 100,000 gallons a day. And it just happened to be in the Gulf of Mexico when Katrina came roaring ashore.

The Bataan rode out the storm and then followed it toward shore, awaiting relief orders. Helicopter pilots flying from its deck were some of the first to begin plucking stranded New Orleans residents.

But today the Bataan’s hospital facilities, including six operating rooms and beds for 600 patients, are empty. A good share of its 1,200 sailors could also go ashore to help with the relief effort, but they haven’t been asked. The Bataan has been in the stricken region the longest of any military unit, but federal authorities have yet to fully utilize the ship.

“Could we do more?” said Capt. Nora Tyson, commander of the Bataan. “Sure. I’ve got sailors who could be on the beach plucking through garbage or distributing water and food and stuff. But I can’t force myself on people.

“We’re doing everything we can to contribute right now, and we’re ready. If someone says you need to take on people, we’re ready. If they say hospitals on the beach can’t handle it … if they need to send the overflow out here, we’re ready. We’ve got lots of room.”

Navy helicopters from the Bataan and Pensacola Naval Air Station in Florida have joined the growing aerial armada of choppers that are lifting hurricane survivors from flooded surroundings and delivering food and water.

More will arrive throughout the weekend when the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman and four other Navy ships, including three amphibious assault ships - really mini-aircraft carriers with flat decks for helicopter use - arrive in the Gulf from Norfolk, Va. The USS Comfort, a hospital ship dispatched from Baltimore, is also steaming toward the Gulf coast.

The Bataan, though, was already in the gulf when Katrina crossed Florida and picked up new, devastating energy from the warm gulf waters. The ship, sailing near the Texas coastline, had just finished an exercise in Panama, and was scheduled to arrive back at its Norfolk, Va., home port Friday after six weeks at sea.

Instead, the ship elected to ride out the hurricane in the 12 to 14 foot seas and then fall in behind the storm as it neared the gulf coast. A day after Katrina struck, Navy helicopters arrived from Corpus Christi, Texas, and began survey flights over New Orleans.

The initial belief, Tyson said, was that the city had been spared.

“On Monday it was like, `Wow, it missed us, it took a turn east,’ and everything eased up,” Tyson aid. “It was `Let’s open up Bourbon Street, have a beer, let’s go party, and understandably so. And then all of a sudden, literally and figuratively, the dam broke, and here we are.”

When the city’s levies broke Tuesday, Tyson’s pilots were rescuing stranded residents. Communications became muddled as the rescue and humanitarian supply efforts were literally bogged down by the rising water and sketchy information. Tyson, who would get debriefings from returning pilots, had perhaps one of the best vantage points to see what was unfolding.

“It was like a bad dream that you knew you had to wake up from,” she said.

A 135-foot landing craft stored within the Bataan, the LCU-1656, was dispatched to steam up the 90-miles of Mississippi River to New Orleans. It took on a crew of 16, including a doctor, and its deck was stacked with food and water. The ship itself carries enough food and fuel to remain self-sufficient for 10 days.

Moving up through the flotsam of the storm, the crew couldn’t believe the scene on shore.

“We saw a lot of dead animals, dead horses, floating cows, dead alligators,” said Rodney Blackshear, LCU-1656’s navigator. “And a lot of dogs that had been pets. But no people.”

Near Boothville, La., the storm surge had lifted a construction crane and put it on top of a house. Near Venice, the crew members considered going ashore to examine the damage but mad dogs drove them back.

“I didn’t want any of my guys in there,” said Bill Fish, who commands seven of the LCUs based in Norfolk, Va., and who went on the river trip.

“Everything was decimated. It was the storm surge.”

Then the Bataan was ordered to move to the waters off Biloxi, Miss., and LCU-1656 was ordered to return. The landing craft was still 40 miles from New Orleans, but it wouldn’t be able to deliver its cargo.

“It was a disappointment,” Fish said. “I figured we’d be a big help in New Orleans. We’ve got electricity, and the police could have charged up their radios. We’ve got water, toilets. We’ve got food.”

Now sailing within 25 miles of Gulfport, Miss., the Bataan is quickly become a floating warehouse. Supplies from Texas and Florida are ferried out to the ship, and the helicopters distribute them where Federal Emergency Management Agency personnel say they are needed.

The Bataan has also taken on a substantial medical staff. At noon on Friday hulking gray Navy Sea King helicopters ferried 84 doctors, nurses and technicians 60 miles out to the ship from the Pensacola Naval Air Station.

The medical staff had come from Jacksonville, Fla., Naval Hospital, and they covered a wide swath of medical specialties, from surgeons and pediatricians to heart specialists, a psychiatrist and even a physical therapist.

“It’s really a cross section of a major hospital,” said Capt. Kevin

Gallagher, a Navy nurse who was part of the group. “We haven’t been told what to expect, but we’re going to find out once we get out there.”

Friday evening the Bataan was to edging closer to the Mississippi shoreline; until then, it had stayed well out into the gulf to avoid floating debris.

Closer to shore, it will be able to deploy the landing craft again, as well as Marine hovercraft that can ride up onto shore to deliver supplies.

LCU-1656 cruised 98 miles overnight Thursday with a failed electrical generator and broken starboard propeller to join up again with the Bataan, their mother ship. Repairs were under way Friday and the crew was preparing to set out for the shoreline near Gulfport, Miss., Saturday with a 15,000 water tank lashed to vessel’s deck, as well as pallets of bottled water.

Fish said most of his crew hasn’t slept since Wednesday, but the crew was preparing to go out again as soon as it received orders.

By Friday evening the sizeable medical staff on board the Bataan also hadn’t been given its mission. The staff’s role in the relief effort was not up to the Navy, but to FEMA officials direction the overall effort.

That agency has been criticized sharply for failing to respond quickly enough.

Tyson said the hurricane was an unusual event, one that has left some painful lessons to ponder.

“Can you do things better? Always,” Tyson said. “Unfortunately, some of the lessons we’ve learned during this catastrophe we’re learning the hard way. But I think we’re working together well to make things happen.”

http://www.macon.com/mld/macon/news/nation/12554907.htm

Daley ’shocked’ as feds reject aid

September 3, 2005

BY STEPHANIE ZIMMERMANN AND SCOTT FORNEK Staff Reporters

That truck, which the Federal Emergency Management Agency requested to support an Illinois-based medical team, was en route Friday.

“We are ready to provide more help than they have requested. We are just waiting for their call,” said Daley, adding that he was “shocked” that no one seemed to want the help.

Meanwhile, U.S. Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) said he would call for congressional hearings into the federal government’s preparations and response.

“The response was achingly slow, and that, I think, is a view shared by Democrats, Republicans, wealthy and poor, black and white,” the freshman senator said. “I have not met anybody who has watched this crisis evolve over the last several days who is not just furious at how poorly prepared we appeared to be.”

Response ‘baffling’

The South Side Democrat called FEMA’s slow response “baffling.”

“I don’t understand how you could have a situation where you’ve got several days’ notice of an enormous hurricane building in the Gulf Coast, you know that New Orleans is 6 feet below sea level. … The notion that you don’t have good plans in place just does not make sense,” Obama said.

Obama said he expects his counterparts in Louisiana, Mississippi or Alabama will call for congressional hearings, but he is ready if they do not. “It’s heartbreaking and infuriating and, I think, is embarrassing to the American people.'’

Daley said the city offered 36 members of the firefighters’ technical rescue teams, eight emergency medical technicians, search-and-rescue equipment, more than 100 police officers as well as police vehicles and two boats, 29 clinical and 117 non-clinical health workers, a mobile clinic and eight trained personnel, 140 Streets and Sanitation workers and 29 trucks, plus other supplies. City personnel are willing to operate self-sufficiently and would not depend on local authorities for food, water, shelter and other supplies, he said.

Flanked at a Friday press conference by a who’s who from city government, religious organizations and business, the mayor also announced formation of the Chicago Helps Fund for storm victims.

“I’m calling upon every resident of Chicago to donate what they can afford, whether it’s 50 cents or 50 dollars,” the mayor said.

People can make tax-deductible cash or check donations at any of Bank One’s 330 Chicago area branches or by check at Chicago Helps, c/o Bank One, 38891 Eagle Way, Chicago 60678-1388. A phone line to take credit card donations will be set up.

Churches were urged to take up collections this Sunday, and firefighters are planning to collect at major intersections this weekend.

In addition, donations will be taken at this weekend’s Jazz Fest in Grant Park, and $2 of every ticket purchased through Ticketmaster for the Chicago Classic football game at Soldier Field today will go to hurricane relief. The Shedd Aquarium announced it will donate $1 from every ticket sold this holiday weekend to relief efforts and has set up “donation stations” at the aquarium.

Homeless shelters enlisted

By midday Friday, Inner Voice, a private agency that runs 27 homeless shelters for the city, had rounded up space in unused facilities for about 2,000 storm refugees, should they need it, said president Brady Harden.

Ed Shurna, executive director of the Chicago Coalition for the Homeless, suggested the city tap recently vacated units at Cabrini-Green and Lathrop Homes that were slated for demolition but still have heat and electricity available.

Daley reiterated that students from stricken areas are welcome to enroll in the Chicago Public Schools and in the City Colleges. Cardinal Francis George on Friday asked that Catholic schools in the archdiocese waive tuition for displaced children.

More than 400 students have applied to Loyola University Chicago, most coming from its sister Jesuit school, Loyola University New Orleans. Half had been admitted as of late afternoon Friday. Spokeswoman Maeve Kiley said the school “will honor their tuition that they already paid.'’

University of Illinois campuses in Urbana-Champaign and Chicago have admitted more than 100 students, including two foreign students who had Fulbright scholarships to attend Tulane.

Northeastern said it would waive tuition and fees for Illinois residents who already paid another school, and would grant in-state tuition to out-of-state students. Northwestern plans to let students pay what they would have at their original school and forward the money to that school.

Contributing: Andrew Herrmann, Dave Newbart

http://tinyurl.com/atpqx

Bad Communication Hinders Area’s Aid Efforts

This is a must watch video- Broussard on MtP:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/09/04.html#a4783

Paperwork from DC late to arrive- prevents National Guard from helping

Several states ready and willing to send National Guard troops to the rescue in New Orleans didn’t get the go-ahead until days after the storm struck — a delay nearly certain to be investigated by Congress.

New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson offered Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco help from his state’s National Guard last Sunday, the day before Hurricane Katrina hit Louisiana. Blanco accepted, but paperwork needed to get the troops en route didn’t come from Washington until late Thursday.

California troops just began arriving in Louisiana on Friday, three days after flood waters devastated New Orleans and chaos broke out.

In fact, when New Orleans’ levees gave way to deadly flooding on Tuesday, Louisiana’s National Guard had received help from troops in only three other states: Ohio, which had nine people in Louisiana then; Oklahoma, 89; and Texas, 625, figures provided by the National Guard show.

Maj. Gen. Thomas Cutler, who leads the Michigan National Guard, said he anticipated a call for police units and started preparing them, but couldn’t go until states in the hurricane zone asked them to come.

“We could have had people on the road Tuesday,” Cutler said. “We have to wait and respond to their need.”

The Michigan National Guard was asked for military police by Mississippi late Tuesday and by Louisiana officials late Wednesday. The state sent 182 MPs to Mississippi on Friday and had 242 headed to Louisiana on Saturday.

Typically, the authority to use the National Guard in a state role lies with the governor, who tells his or her adjutant general to order individual Guard units to begin duty. Turnaround time varies depending on the number of troops involved, their location and their assigned missions.

One factor that may have further complicated post-Katrina deployment arose when Louisiana discovered it needed Guardsmen to do more law enforcement duty because a large portion of the New Orleans police force was not functioning, according to Lt. Gen. Steven H. Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau at the
Pentagon.

Because the agreement that was already in existence for states to contribute Guard troops to Louisiana did not include a provision on their use in law enforcement, Blum said, Gov. Blanco had to get separate written agreements authorizing Guardsmen to do police-type duty.

Still, Blum said, this took only minutes to execute.

With many states’ Guard units depleted by deployments to
Iraq, Katrina’s aftermath was almost certain from the beginning to require help from faraway states.

Republicans and Democrats alike in Congress are just beginning to ask why one of the National Guard’s most trusted roles — disaster relief — was so uneven, delayed and chaotic this time around.

Sen. Chuck Hagel (news, bio, voting record), R-Neb., said the situation has shown major breakdowns in the nation’s emergency response capabilities. “There must be some accountability in this process after the crisis is addressed,” he said.

Democrat Ben Nelson, Nebraska’s other senator, said he now questions National Guard leaders’ earlier assertions that they had enough resources to respond to natural disasters even with the Iraq war.

“I’m going to ask that question again,” Nelson said. “Do we have enough (troops), and if we do, why were they not deployed sooner?”

President Bush was asked that question Friday as he toured the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast area and said he disagrees with criticism the military is stretched too thin.

“We’ve got a job to defend this country in the war on terror, and we’ve got a job to bring aid and comfort to the people of the Gulf Coast, and we’ll do both,” he said.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman John Warner, R-Va., plans to make oversight of the Defense Department, the National Guard and their assistance his top priority when he returns to Washington next week from an overseas trips, spokesman John Ullyot said Friday.

Bush had the legal authority to order the National Guard to the disaster area himself, as he did after the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks . But the troops four years ago were deployed for national security protection, and presidents of both parties traditionally defer to governors to deploy their own National Guardsmen and request help from other states when it comes to natural disasters.

In addition to Guard help, the federal government could have activated, but did not, a major air support plan under a pre-existing contract with airlines. The program, called Civilian Reserve Air Fleet, lets the government quickly put private cargo and passenger planes into service.

The CRAF provision has been activated twice, once for the Persian Gulf War and again for the Iraq war.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/katrina_national_guard

Guardsmen ‘played cards’ amid New Orleans chaos: police official

New Orleans deputy police commander W.S. Riley launched a bitter attack on the federal response to the disaster though he praised the way the evacuation was eventually handled.

His remarks fuelled controversy over the government’s handling of events during five days when New Orleans succumbed to lawlessness after Katrina swamped the city’s flood defenses.

The National Guard commander, Lieutenant General Steven Blum, said the reservist force was slow to move troops into New Orleans because it did not anticipate the collapse of the city’s police force.

But Riley said that for the first three days after Monday’s storm, which is believed to have killed several thousand people, the police and fire departments and some volunteers had been alone in trying to rescue people.

“We expected a lot more support from the federal government. We expected the government to respond within 24 hours. The first three days we had no assistance,” he told AFP in an interview.

Riley went on: “We have been fired on with automatic weapons. We still have some thugs around. My biggest disappointment is with the federal government and the National Guard.

“The guard arrived 48 hours after the hurricane with 40 trucks. They drove their trucks in and went to sleep.

“For 72 hours this police department and the fire department and handful of citizens were alone rescuing people. We have people who died while the National Guard sat and played cards. I understand why we are not winning the war in
Iraq if this is what we have.”

Riley said there is “a semblance of organisation now.”

“The military is here and they have done an excellent job with the evacuation” of the tens of thousands of people stranded in the city.

The National Guard commander said the city police force was left with only a third of its pre-storm strength.

“The real issue, particularly in New Orleans, is that no one anticipated the disintegration or the erosion of the civilian police force in New Orleans,” Blum told reporters in Washington.

“Once that assessment was made … then the requirement became obvious,” he said. “And that’s when we started flowing military police into the theatre.”

On Friday, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin denounced the slow federal response as too little, too late, charging that promised troops had not arrived in time.

“Now get off your asses and let’s do something and fix the biggest goddamn crisis in the history of this country,” the mayor said in remarks aired on CNN.

Blum said that since Thursday some 7,000 National Guard and military police had moved into the city.
President George W. Bush on Saturday ordered an additional 7,000 active duty and reserve ground troops.

Blum said any suggestion that the National Guard had not performed well or was late was a “low blow”.

The initial priority of the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard forces was disaster relief, not law enforcement, because they expected the police to handle that, he said.

The police commander was unable to give a death toll for New Orleans.

“We have bodies all over the city. A federal mortuary team was supposed to come in within 24 hours. We haven’t seen them. It is inhumane. This is just not America.”

Riley said he did not even know how many police remained from a normal force of 1,700.

“Many officers lost their homes or their families and there are many we have not heard from. Some officers could not handle the pressure and left. I don’t know if we have 800 or thousands today.”

news.yahoo.com…
http://tinyurl.com/dfzmm

FEMA Chief Brown caught in a LIE.

OUR OPINIONS: An open letter to the President
New Orleans Times-Picayune Staff

We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, “What is not working, we’re going to make it right.”

Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.

Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It’s accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.

How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.

Despite the city’s multiple points of entry, our nation’s bureaucrats spent days after last week’s hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city’s stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.

Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.

Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a “Today” show story Friday morning.

Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.

We’re angry, Mr. President, and we’ll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That’s to the government’s shame.

Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don’t know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city’s death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.

It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren’t they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn’t suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?

State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn’t have but two urgent needs: “Buses! And gas!” Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.

In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn’t known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, “We’ve provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they’ve gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day.”

Lies don’t get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.

Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, “You’re doing a heck of a job.”

That’s unbelievable.

There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.

We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We’re no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.

No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn’t be reached.

Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.

When you do, we will be the first to applaud.

www.nola.com….
http://tinyurl.com/8blms

RELATED:

FEMA Chief Brown resigned from his previous job under pressure and lawsuits
(He was the Stewards Commissioner of the International Arabian Horse Association- he oversaw the judges…) Why did Bush appoint this guy to be head of FEMA, why did Congress approve him?

In January 2005, U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler publically urged President Bush to fire Brown, citing reports that FEMA disbursed $30 million in disaster relief funds for Hurricane Frances to residents of Miami, Florida, a city which was not affected by the hurricane. Brown admitted to $12 million in overpayments, but denied any serious mistakes, blaming a computer glitch. Wexler repeated his call in April to Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, citing new reports that FEMA sent inspectors with criminal records of robbery and embezzlement to do damage assessments.

http://tinyurl.com/cyxyo

Who’s Responsible?

In the event of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other large-scale emergency, the Department of Homeland Security will assume primary responsibility for ensuring that emergency response professionals are prepared for any situation. This will entail providing a coordinated, comprehensive federal response to any large-scale crisis and mounting a swift and effective recovery effort.

http://www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/theme_home2.jsp

RELATED:

Homeland Security Chief on Meet the Press says he didn’t find out about the levees breaking until he read the papers Tuesday morning, 24 hours later!

http://tinyurl.com/dppxr

Bush’s Criminal Ignorance

“I don’t think anyone could have anticipated the breach of the levees.”

On Good Morning America Bush said:

“I don’t think anyone could have anticipated the breach of the levees.”

BUllSHit! The simple truth is that the breach of the levees had been a prime concern as Katrina approached. This statement proves beyond doubt that George W. Bush doesn’t know what the **** is happening. This ignorance is worthy of impeachment.

Sure, I could go on and on for a lengthy article, but I’m not. Have you heard the phrase, “Stop the Presses!”

Now is the Time. This ’slip up’ is the reason. STOP THE PRESSES. Bush must be removed- immediately- his criminal ignorance is putting us all in danger.

Video of Bush on GMA:
http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/09/01.html#a4738

The Levees were a prime concern:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200509030001

http://bellaciao.org/en/article.php3?id_article=8038

RELATED:

Bush is responsible for cutting levee funding

But the skimping has worsened since President Bush’s election, particularly after September 11. Federal spending on flood control in south-east Louisiana has been cut by almost half since 2001, from $69 million per year to $36.5 million. Funds for work at Lake Pontchartrain, the source of the flooding, have fallen by nearly two-thirds over three years, from $14.25 million to $5.7 million. As a result, work on New Orleans’ east bank hurricane levees stopped last summer for the first time in 37 years.

http://tinyurl.com/amkv7