FEMA sent Helicopters for LEVEE to Church instead

[DoYouEverWonder]

Nagin reqeusted helicopters to drop sandbags on the 17th Street Levee when it started showing signs of trouble. NAGIN had the sandbags ready, all he needed was the helicopters.

HS/FEMA told him copters were on the way. They NEVER came. They went to a CHURCH instead.

So to pick up a 1000 people stranded at a CHURCH, 10,000's of peoples and their homes were doomed.




Nagin: Entire City Will Soon Be Underwater



New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is "very upset" that an attempt to fix the breach in the levee at the 17th Street canal has failed, and he said the challenges that the city is facing have "escalated to another level."


"The sandbagging that we had hoped would happen didn't materialize today, so the water continued to rise at that particular location," he said.

In an exclusive interview with WDSU anchor Norman Robinson, Nagin said the rising water has caused the generators to stop operating because the water got too high. Due to that, Nagin said he's been advised by the head technician at the sewage and water board that water in the east bank area of Orleans and Jefferson parishes will rise to levels equal to Lake Pontchartrain.

FEMA sent Helicopters for Levee to Church instead.


<snip>

He said he was told that the helicopters may have been diverted to rescue about 1,000 people in a church, but he is still not sure who gave the order.

http://www.wdsu.com/weather/4917809/detail.html


Who gave the fucking order to send these copters somewhere else? Who gave the fucking order? I want to know.

[skooooo]

1. Maybe these two stories belong together somehow?

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1758364

[DoYouEverWonder]

3. Funny you should bring that one up

Because CNN and FAUX advertised for Operation Blessing for the first three days of the storm.

They were on the main screen right along with the Red Cross, now they don't mention them it seems.

[BringEmOn]

7. Operation Blessing?

Are there diamond mines in N.O.?

[fooj]

2. We need a list of all of this. ALL OF IT!

Then we need to bombard them with questions and demand immediate answers.

Peace.

[Canuckistanian]

4. Ah, so that's what he meant...

by the "attempt to fix the levees"..

I remember thinking at the time, "what, they tried and couldn't do it?"

But now I realize that the attempt had never been made.

[Zenlitened]

5. And did those people at the church ever actually get rescued?

Were there in fact 1,000 people at a church waiting to be rescued?

So much about the entire Katrina story is tinfoil hat-worthy at this point, that I'm inclined to believe for now that this is just disinformatioon. Hopefully, someone can pin down the truth.

But for now, it seems too convenient:

"Why didn't you use the copters to shore up the levee?"

"Church. Rescue. Apple-pie. Feelgood. Shut up."

:tinfoilhat:

[DoYouEverWonder]

10. This was a quote from the Mayor of New Orleans

that was reported during the event. He went on the air BEFORE the levee breached and gave the public this information. I am sure there are audio tapes and transcripts of his reports that he issued throughout the storm. This particular report was published the next day in the press. I know what I heard that day and this report confirms it.

At the least, I think Nagin would know whether or not he made any requests.

[elehhhhna]

16. The levees topped at 9:00 a.m. central time. Remember that.

[DoYouEverWonder]

18. Which day?

n/t

[Zenlitened]

23. Maybe I'm not explaining myself well. I believe Nagin when he says...

... he was TOLD why the copters were being diverted. But was he told a lie?

As I say, I'm having a tough time these days trying to stay tinfoil-free!

:D

[DoYouEverWonder]

25. He might have said it

just to try to get attention to the problem.

I remember growing up in NYC if you saw someone sick on the street from an overdose or a fight, you would call it in to 911 and say someone was having a heart attack. It was the only way the cops would come.

[GeorgeBushytail]

6. Wonder if it was a rich, white church.

[Pacifist Patriot]

8. One does have to wonder.

[DoYouEverWonder]

17. Even if it wasn't

Even if it was a black church, it doesn't matter.

The Mayor's request should have taken priority over any other requests for equipment and resource distribution for the city of New Orleans. When the Mayor says, WE HAVE AN EMERGENCY, SEND COPTERS, then that should have been the top priority.

[SoCalDemocrat]

21. This was the US Army Corp of Engineers that was overruled by FEMA

I saw the head of the US Army Corp of Engineer son the news that afternoon. He was mighty pissed. He said the problem was, and I quote "too many damn cooks in the kitchen." They are the ones that were running the levy reshoring operations.

FEMA apparently was the one who redirected the helicopters to go pick up folks waiting at a church. Those helicopers had 3000 lb sandbags on board them. I want to know whose order it was to redeploy? I'm betting it came from higher up the chain than the head of FEMA. I bet someone in the White House got word of a church full of faithful waiting for evacuation, and wanted to create a nice fat PR photo opportunity.

There is also the darker side of me that wonders if they redirected those helicopters on purpose knowing how much damage would be done, and the massive level of contracting dollars that would ensue from the cleanup? Hey they let the looting go on orders in Iraq to create an even worse mess there, knowing full well they were going to get paid to clean it up. Contracts had already been let out.

Research where the contracts are going now. Who is FEMA handing out cash to? There is a big privatization push in FEMA, which is part of the reason I suspect that they have been turning back volunteer services. FEMA said they had it under control, meaning they already had private croney's lined up for the reconstruction and relief dollars.

[DoYouEverWonder]

22. I'll take Door #2

One more LIHOP, that BushCo loves so much.

These events are always so good for business.

[preciousdove]

9. Trying to rewrite history to justify it to their base?

Evacuating a church instead of evacuating "evil" NO?

Hope you track it down and to hold that person responsible or expose the cover-up story.

[DemsUnited]

11. kick

And agree with so many others, we need to consolidate all of these links. Will give it a shot when search comes online.

[ThoughtCriminal]

12. I don't buy the "Church" part

Where the heck is the story about 1000 people being rescued from a church? That would be about 80% of the people who had been picked up by helicopters at that point.

[DoYouEverWonder]

13. Even if that didn't happen, so what?

The main point is that Nagin REQUESTED the helicopters and HS/FEMA told him they were coming. It appears that they never came. Just like everything else FEMA was supposed to do. They didn't respond to much of anything for over 3 days.

Besides, even if they did try to rescue 1000 people at a church, they probably botched that too. That's why there's no story on the other side of the coin? Who could even know at this point?

[SoCalDemocrat]

14. need more info

Please add more info to this thread.

This failure is key to the disaster that unfolded following the hurricane.

[SoCalDemocrat]

15. From my thread

On Monday the levy was overflowing, but plans were under way to repair it. US Army Corp of Engineers had 4 helicopters carrying 3000 lb sandbags en-route to shore it up. Those helicopters were re-directed by someone outside the Army and told to go pick up civilians trapped on rooftops (better photo op).

Who redirected the helicopters? Whomever redirected the helicopters likely caused the city to be flooded and the massive loss of life and property we have seen.

Had they been allowed to secure the levy, the worst of the flooding could of been prevented.


http://www.bloggledygook.com/bloggledygook/2005/08 /

The damage to the 17th Street Canal and its levee means that the water from Lake Pontchartrain is now free to flow down to inundate hundreds of thousands of homes and other buildings here.



Once it flows in, the water will not drain from New Orleans because of the very levees that protect the city and that largely held during the hurricane. Those levees, built to keep water out, are now keeping the water in, and reports from across the city indicate that water levels are rising.



Authorities plan to use helicopters to drop 3,000-pound sandbags into the breach in the damaged levee, the Associated Press reported. The breach is said to be about 200 feet long. There were reports Tuesday that other levees may also have given way in the hours since the storm passed.

[Tatiana]

19. And there's this from CNN...

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/08/31/katrina.levees/index.html

"There is way too many fricking ... cooks in the kitchen," Nagin said in a phone interview with WAPT-TV in Jackson, Mississippi, fuming over what he said were scuttled plans to plug a 200-yard breach near the 17th Street Canal, allowing Lake Pontchartrain to spill into the central business district.

An earlier breach occurred along the Industrial Canal in the city's Lower 9th Ward. The rising flood waters overwhelmed pumping stations that would normally keep the city dry. About 80 percent of the city was flooded with water up to 20 feet deep after the two levees collapsed.

<snip>

According to the mayor, Black Hawk helicopters were scheduled to pick up and drop massive 3,000-pound sandbags in the 17th Street Canal breach, but were diverted on rescue missions. Nagin said neglecting to fix the problem has set the city behind by at least a month.

"I had laid out like an eight-week to ten-week timeline where we could get the city back in semblance of order. It's probably been pushed back another four weeks as a result of this," Nagin said.

[DoYouEverWonder]

26. Here's a couple more

This alert was posted by WWLTV:

***ALL RESIDENTS ON THE EAST BANK OF ORLEANS AND JEFFERSON REMAINING IN THE METRO AREA ARE BEING TOLD TO EVACUATE AS EFFORTS TO SANDBAG THE LEVEE BREAK HAVE ENDED. THE PUMPS IN THAT AREA ARE EXPECTED TO FAIL SOON AND 9 FEET OF WATER IS EXPECTED IN THE ENTIRE EAST BANK. WITHIN THE NEXT 12-15 HOURS****

WWLTV also had established a blog that contained the following entries:

"Efforts to stop the levee break at the 17th Street Canal have ended unsuccessfully and the water is expected to soon overwhelm the pumps in that area, allowing water to pour into the east bank of Metairie and Orleans to an expected height of 12-15 feet."


7:59 P.M. - Mayor Nagin: Pumps at 17th street canal has failed and water will continue pouring into the city. Nine feet of water is expected on St. Charles Avenue that will be nine feet high. Water is expected to spread throughout the east bank of Orleans and possibly Jefferson Parish.

OK, so why did the repair efforts to the levee fail?

8:04 P.M. - Mayor Nagin: Unhappy that the helicopters slated to drop 3,000-pound bags into the levee never showed up to stop the flow of water. Too many chiefs calling shots he says.

And this from CNN...

The National Weather Service reported a breach along the Industrial Canal levee at Tennessee Street, in southeast New Orleans, on Monday. Local reports later said the levee was overtopped, not breached, but the Corps of Engineers reported it Tuesday afternoon as having been breached.

But Nagin said a repair attempt was supposed to have been made Tuesday.

According to the mayor, Black Hawk helicopters were scheduled to pick up and drop massive 3,000-pound sandbags in the 17th Street Canal breach, but were diverted on rescue missions. Nagin said neglecting to fix the problem has set the city behind by at least a month.

"I had laid out like an eight-week to ten-week timeline where we could get the city back in semblance of order. It's probably been pushed back another four weeks as a result of this," Nagin said.


Here's a link to the original post:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4668294#4668895

[Carni]

20. You have to be F'ing kidding me

I remember hearing him stating that he asked for them and got nothing.
If those levees had been reinforced on Monday night we wouldn't be having this convo.

[DoYouEverWonder]

24. Even if the levee did breach

At least they would have tried and failed, rather then to not try at all. It certainly does appear that at least Nagin tried his best. It was heart breaking to hear his reports during the storm.

I think the one about the helicopters not coming was when he really lost it and said 'Please excuse my french...."

[bushisanidiot]

27. I'd like to see these people they "rescued".. FEMA wasn't rescuing ANYONE

before or immediately after the levees gave way...