Quote:
Originally posted by Mmmm, Burger (C.J.)
All week, you and others have been asking the same question: Where was the fed'l gov't, and why wasn't it here more quickly, and why didn't it have a plan?
Well, the problem is that Blanco did so little that no one has even bothered to make this observation. Sure, the storm overwhelmed NO and La., but, if that's so, why is it surprising that it might overwhelm (at least temporarily) the federal government.
If you're NO's mayor your plan should have two basic parts: 1) What to do if there's a storm; 2) what to do if the storm is so big that you need help from the state. If you're the governor of La., your plan should have two parts: 1) What does the state do if NO needs help; 2) What do we do if the storm is too big for the state, and we need the feds.
It appears that neither the city nor the state had given much thought to part 2, so their immediate response was "where's the federal government--they should bail us out." That's not very satisfactory planning.
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Doubtless there was bad planning at all levels. But I'm not sure why you think LA hadn't given much help to 2), since they took the legal steps they needed to. And surely the state's response was not just, the federal government should bail us out. From what I've seen, the state troopers, the first responders, the La. Nat'l Guard -- all have worked tirelessly since the storm hit. You are implying that they were just sitting on their asses, waiting for the feds to show up.
