NEW ORLEANS RESPONSE

This is a partial email from a police officer in a major American city reacting to the situation in New Orleans.

First of all I want to address disaster preparedness plans. In the city that I work for we have plans for all sorts of situations that may arise. New Orleans had the same type of plans. Their plan called for the evacuation of the city for any hurricane of a category three or higher. The implementation of that plan was the responsibility of the mayor. They city recognized the fact that many people would not be able to get out of the city on their own. Those who can get out on their own were to be told to pack up and leave the city. They even made maps that were available to people this past spring (free of charge). The city plan then called for using all forms of transportation available to city government (city and school busses) to transport those without transportation out of the city to shelters. They even were to use special vans for those with medical needs. This evacuation was to occur before the hurricane came into the area. It was to start 72 hours before it made landfall. The nice thing about hurricanes is that, unlike earthquakes and tornadoes, you can see them coming. The mayor did not put this plan into motion. He ordered the city evacuated, but told the people they could go to the Superdome for shelter. The people had to get themselves there and were told to bring their own food. My next question is why, if they were going to put this many people in one location, did they not provide security? Where I work they would have had the police on overtime to put as many officers as possible to protect the people. That does not appear to have happened. Why, being the mayor did not activate the city plan for evacuating the city, does he get air time with the media blaming the federal government and George Bush for not taking care of his city. This is a matter of the local and state government failing its citizens from the beginning. Much of the media has also failed to report the fact the President Bush tried to get the mayor to declare a disaster so that he could start sending in federal help. The great thing about our government is that the states and cities have say in their local government. Everything is not run out of Washington. Their are laws that keep the President from just sending troops wherever he wants. They have to be requested by the Governor. This has not been shown by the media.

I am not saying that the federal government has handled everything with perfection. The question has been raised as to why the levee had not been strengthened before this occurred. The Army Corp of Engineers had requested more money, but they have not gotten it.