La. Gov Sends Hurricane Docs to Congress

[NVMojo]

BATON ROUGE, La. (AP) - Gov. Kathleen Blanco on Friday sent thousands of Hurricane Katrina-related documents to congressional committees investigating government failures following the storm that killed over 1,000 people in Louisiana.

The documents include Blanco aides' notes as the disaster progressed, emergency logs, state police crime and traffic reports and logs of calls from people who were stranded by floodwater and pleading to be rescued.

A state police entry from Aug. 30, a day after Katrina hit, reports over 2,500 calls for help, most referencing "people in the New Orleans area who are trapped either on rooftops or on attics." One logs a caller reporting famed New Orleans pianist Fats Domino needed to be rescued.

Another police log refers to looting: "Every gun has been stolen including assault rifles" says an entry about a gun store robbery.

more...

http://www.lasvegassun.com/sunbin/stories/bw-cong/2005/dec/02/120201621.html

[maddezmom]

1. kick

[funkybutt]

2. Blanco defends actions in storm

She releases blizzard of papers depicting her decisive, frustrated

http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/frontpage/index.ssf?/base/news-4/113359599087730.xml

"Promises of rescue buses that arrived days late. Critical requests to the White House missing for nearly a week. A plea to officials as far away as California for police reinforcements and helicopters.

Hurricane Katrina's devastation to life and property is well known. But thousands of pages of memos, e-mails, letters and other documents released late Friday by Gov. Kathleen Blanco provide a glimpse into the chaos and miscommunications between state and federal officials responding to the disaster. "

--snip--

"I believe my biggest mistake was believing FEMA officials who told me that the necessary federal resources would be available in a timely fashion," she said.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

3. While KBR was running empty trucks up and down the road in

Iraq for big $$, while Halliburton fed substandard food to our troops and charged 100$/bag of laundry, while billions went missing in Iraq, people in New Orleans died on top of their homes and in their attics... believing that they live in the greatest nation on the planet, and they could not be more wrong.... may they rest in peace.

[Poppyseedman]

4. Between all the huffing and puffing

Blanco clearly was inept with the Katherina response as was FEMA

As much as she would like to blame Bush and the federal response, the state is the first line of defense.

Nothing makes a politician look more weaselly then playing the blame game when clearly all involves were completely incompetent

Spare me the talking points. Anybody with a brain can see she fell down on the job.

She put politics above people. She is after all, the freaking governor

[shraby]

5. When it is clearly beyond the state's ability to handle

a crisis like that, it becomes the federal government's responsibility to take over. She requested help in time. The feds fell down on the job because they were too busy to notice that there was a devastating human crisis in New Orleans. Brownie was more concerned about his dinner and his clothing than about people on the roofs of their homes without food and water.

[bluestateguy]

6. In crisis times like this, we all need to rally around the governor

She has a special mandate from God. Anybody who criticizes her hates Louisiana.