Appalling. The autopsy on Bush's response to Katrina.

[icarus]

The response to hurricane Katrina shows a region of devastation where aid was and is being consistently turned away by the federal government.

Why?

Red Cross was prevented from going in to NOLA by the federal government, and has been asked by Homeland Security not to come back, apparently in the theory that bad conditions will force people to leave the city (source: the Red Cross web site).

Yet at the same time Transportation out of the city was not being provided.

New Mexico National Guard was ready to move in to help before Katrina, but delayed until Thursday by Bush administration. (Source: Yahoo News.)

FEMA director lied and told CNN that he didn't know about the people stranded in the New Orleans Convention Center until Thursday. In the same report we have Mayor Nagin's vivid demand for help. (Source: CNN News.)

The governor of Louisiana formally requested aid for Katrina immediately, on August 28th, listing needs for military personnel and $5 million for evacuation. (Source: State of LA official disaster relief request form.)

She follows it up on September 2nd, this time in a public letter to the president. (Source: State of LA Press Release.)

ABC casts doubt on claims of shots fired at rescue helicopters. 'At the Superdome, we have a report that one shot was fired at a Chinook helicopter,' Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard said, adding that the Chinook is 'an extremely large aircraft.' Elsewhere there were no reports of any firing on rescue efforts. (Source: ABC News.)

New Orleans is easy to reach, reporters were there -- why was there no aid? (Source: Karen Wehrstein's blog.)

Military ready to deliver aid, but delayed by Bush's orders. (Original Source: BBC World News story.)

Vancouver Canada help is held up with no explanation. (Source: CTV News.)

Canadian Prime Minister's offer of help still put off on Thursday September 1st as we were 'still analyzing' the need. (Source: Yahoo News.)

Russian offer of help ignored (Russia has the largest airlift capacity in the world). (Source: Yahoo News.)

Florida airboat volunteers, who've stocked their boats with supplies from their own funds, are turned down. (Source: the Florida Sun-Sentinel.)

Florida airboat rescuers email CNN that they're told by FEMA that they'll have to pay their own gas to NOLA when 'The cost of gasoline for that air boat, for each day, amounts to approximately $550.00 per day, minimum. With the current gasoline crisis, it could cost considerably more, up to $600 - $700 per day.'.

Al Gore offered airplanes and was refused (source: CNN) because he was going to evacuate a private hospital not a public one.

Mayor of Chicago Richard Daley offered 36 firefighters and technical rescue teams, 8 emergency medical techs, search-and-rescue equipment, 100 police officers, 2 boats, a mobile clinic and 140 streets and sanitation workers with 29 trucks. All self sufficient. The FEMA response? 'just send one truck.' (source: The Chicago Daily Sun.)

1,000 volunteers with 500 boats are told they can't conduct 'renegade' rescue operations.



What the hell is going on? Bush could not have more effectively kept aid out of the region if he'd cordoned it off with armed guards.

ETA: Where was Bush? Stephanie provides his detailed itinerary with press photos.

selkielass provides this hilarious photo of Bush playing guitar at a fundraiser during the crisis.

Thank you to Karen Wehrstein for the majority of the links and kagyakusha for the Canadian aid link.

Comments

[setissma.livejournal.com]

As an interesting note, I was just talking to my grandmother on the phone, and she lives in Rochester, MN, home of the Mayo Clinic. In government plans - Department of Homeland Security, basically - the Mayo Clinic is considered the 'base' for a terrorist attack or disaster for a great many large cities, from St. Louis to Chicago and so on. If something were to happen, victims would be flown there - they have the resources to handle it. On top of having the resources to handle it, they have fully trained teams of physicians, part of the Disaster Medical Assistance Team. They're federally trained to respond to disasters just such as this one. They've got training and means and funding and they're pretty much begging to go and help, and here's the catch - the federal government refuses to allow them to go to NOLA or the surrounding area. I can't find a link to a reliable news source, but according to my grandmother, it was on the first page of the Rochester News. Way to go, guys, way to go.