The Gulf Coast: Abandoned by America

Jefferson Parish President Aaron Broussard put it very succinctly on Sunday, Sept. 4's

Meet the Press

:

We have been abandoned by our own country. Hurricane Katrina will go down in history as one of the worst storms ever to hit an American coast, but the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina will go down as one of the worst abandonments of Americans on American soil ever in U.S. history. I am personally asking our bipartisan congressional delegation here in Louisiana to immediately begin congressional hearings to find out just what happened here. Why did it happen? Who needs to be fired? And believe me, they need to be fired right away, because we still have weeks to go in this tragedy. We have months to go. We have years to go. And whoever is at the top of this totem pole, that totem pole needs to be chain-sawed off and we've got to start with some new leadership.

It's not just Katrina that caused all these deaths in New Orleans here. Bureaucracy has committed murder here in the greater New Orleans area, and bureaucracy has to stand trial before Congress now. It's so obvious. FEMA needs more congressional funding. It needs more presidential support. It needs to be a Cabinet-level director. It needs to be an independent agency that will be able to fulfill its mission to work in partnership with state and local governments around America. FEMA needs to be empowered to do the things it was created to do It needs to come somewhere, like New Orleans, with all of its force immediately, without red tape, without bureaucracy, act immediately with common sense and leadership, and save lives. Forget about the property. We can rebuild the property. It's got to be able to come in and save lives.

On this same "Meet the Press", Director of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff, being pressed on the response, and comments that they were surprised that the levee broke.

SEC'Y CHERTOFF: Tim, the way that emergency operations act under the law is the responsibility and the power, the authority, to order an evacuation rests with state and local officials. The federal government comes in and supports those officials. That's why Mike Brown got on TV on Saturday and he told people to start to get out of there.

Now, ultimately the resources that will get people who don't have cars and don't have the ability to remove themselves has to rest with the kinds of assets a city has--the city's buses, the city's transportation. You know, there will be plenty of time to go back over what the preparation has been with respect to infrastructure in New Orleans, with respect to transportation, with respect to evacuation. To confront a situation that, as you point out, people have been aware of for decades--this is not something that just came on the horizon recently.

My Note: Yeah, the state and local officials did start evacuating. They also alerted FEMA and Homeland Security on Saturday, a full 3 days before the hurricane hit.

Yet I saw Michael Brown, FEMA's head, say on the news, that "we aren't first responders, that's the police and fire of that city." So they are pointing the fingers back at the states? What about the fact that the Federal government for decades has been telling citizens that they will take care of us?

I heard an interview snippet with a spokesperson from FEMA's Northern Command that said they had military boats following the hurricane with aid. But they had to sit off the Gulf Coast until they got the go ahead from the Administration.

So basically, all of the responders suck. Mistakes were made on many levels and there was too much bureaucracy. We can't expect the federal government to save us. We have to depend on ourselves and our communities. The feds have trained us to not do community action.

Oh yeah, don't even get me started on FEMA turning people away. Both those trying to get out of New Orleans in the days after the hurricane. But also they've apparently turned away trucks of relief. Not to mention FEMA cutting communications inside New Orleans.

While the media is focusing on all of the devastation; we haven't heard much about the aid that other states and countries have offered.

The Chicago Sun-Times reported that The City of Chicago

has offered emergency, medical and technical help to the federal government to assist people in the areas stricken by Hurricane Katrina, but as of Friday (Sept. 2), the only things the feds said they wanted was a single tank truck.

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.

The State Department press release

says offers of aid to the victims of Katrina have come from more than 20 countries and international organizations.

Sri Lanka, still recovering from a massive tsunami that struck in December 2004, has joined those wishing to help the United States and has urged Sri Lanka-born physicians now living in the United States to volunteer to treat hurricane victims.

Government officials in Indonesia and Thailand, also hard hit by the 2004 tsunami, say they are determining how they best can offer help.

Meanwhile, Germany and other European nations say they are ready to use their own emergency oil reserves to help alleviate the crisis.

Other offers of aid include disaster assistance teams from countries in Latin America and the Caribbean, including Colombia, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Guyana, Honduras and Jamaica. Venezuela has offered humanitarian aid and fuel, while the small Caribbean island nation of Dominica has offered 200 members of its special forces to work alongside the U.S. National Guard.

The Organization of American States (OAS) expressed its condolences and solidarity with the American people, made a $25,000 contribution from its emergency fund and encouraged donations to the American Red Cross. The OAS has created a special fund to receive donations from its member states to aid the victims of the U.S. natural disaster.

A Yahoo News article from Sept. 2

said that 40 countries have offered aid. The department listed donors so far as: Australia, Austria, the Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, China, Columbia, Cuba, Dominica, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador , the European Union , France, Germany, Guatemala, Britain, Greece, Honduras, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Lithuania, Mexico, NATO , the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, the Organization of American States, Paraguay, South Korea , Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Sweden, Venezuela and the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.

Even two of our so-called "enemies" have offered aid.

Cuban President Fidel Castro , calling a "truce" in Havana's ideological enmity with Washington, offered to fly 1,100 doctors to Houston with 26 tons of medicine to treat people in the disaster area. (Source:

From the BBC:

Iran has offered to send 20m barrels of crude oil to the US to help with the consequences of Hurricane Katrina.

The two countries have had no diplomatic relations for decades, but America did send help to Iran when a severe earthquake hit Bam in 2003.

Speaking on state-run radio, Iran's envoy to OPEC said his country was ready to send up to five shiploads of crude oil to the US.

But he said this could only happen if US sanctions were lifted first.

Here's a humorous take on the media situation (beware there are several F* Bombs).
Click on

Foamy the Squirrel Live from Louisiana

. Kinda, puts it all in perspective!