LA. Just Gets A Worse Reputation-On ALL Levels

[Annie]

http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/HurricaneKatrina/story?id=1123495&page=1

Amid Katrina Chaos, Congressman Used National Guard to Visit Home
Two Heavy Trucks, Helicopter Were Involved in Lawmaker's Trip at Height of Crisis
By JAKE TAPPER

Sep. 13, 2005 - Amid the chaos and confusion that engulfed New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck, a local congressman used National Guard troops to check on his property and rescue his personal belongings -- even while New Orleans residents were trying to get rescued from rooftops, ABC News has learned.

On Friday, Sept. 2 -- five days after Katrina hit the Gulf Coast -- Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., who represents New Orleans and is a senior member of the powerful Ways and Means Committee, was allowed through the military blockades set up around the city to reach the Superdome, where thousands of evacuees had been taken.

Military sources tells ABC News that Jefferson, an eight-term Democratic congressman, asked the National Guard that night to take him on a tour of the flooded portions of his congressional district. A 5-ton military truck and a half dozen military police were dispatched.

Lt. Col. Pete Schneider of the Louisiana National Guard tells ABC News that during the tour, Jefferson asked that the truck take him to his home on Marengo Street, in the affluent uptown neighborhood in his congressional district. According to Schneider, this was not part of Jefferson's initial request.

Jefferson defended the expedition, saying he set out to see how residents were coping at the Superdome and in his neighborhood. He also insisted that he did not ask the National Guard to transport him.

"I did not seek the use of military assets to help me get around my city," Jefferson told ABC News. "There was shooting going on. There was sniping going on. They thought I should be escorted by some military guards, both to the convention center the Superdome and uptown."

The water reached to the third step of Jefferson's house, a military source familiar with the incident told ABC News, and the vehicle pulled up onto Jefferson's front lawn so he wouldn't have to walk in the water. Jefferson went into the house alone, the source says, while the soldiers waited on the porch for about an hour.

Finally, according to the source, Jefferson emerged with a laptop computer, three suitcases, and a box about the size of a small refrigerator, which the enlisted men loaded up into the truck.

Two weeks later, the vehicle's tire tracks were still visible on the lawn.

"I don't think there is any explanation for an elected official using resources for their own personal use, when those resources should be doing search and rescue or they should be helping with law enforcement in the city," said Jerry Hauer, a homeland security expert and ABC News consultant.

Jefferson said the trip was entirely appropriate. It took only a few minutes to retrieve his belongings, he said, and the truck stayed at his house for an hour in part to assist neighbors.

"This wasn't about me going to my house. It was about me going to my district," he said.

Two Heavy Trucks and Helicopter Involved

The Louisiana National Guard tells ABC News the truck became stuck as it waited for Jefferson to retrieve his belongings.

The soldiers signaled to helicopters in the air for aid. Military sources say a Coast Guard helicopter pilot saw the signal and flew to Jefferson's home. The chopper was already carrying four rescued New Orleans residents at the time.

A rescue diver descended from the helicopter, but the congressman decided against going up in the helicopter, sources say. The pilot sent the diver down again, but Jefferson again declined to go up the helicopter.

After spending approximately 45 minutes with Jefferson, the helicopter went on to rescue three additional New Orleans residents before it ran low on fuel and was forced to end its mission.

"Forty-five minutes can be an eternity to somebody that is drowning, to somebody that is sitting in a roof, and it needs to be used its primary purpose during an emergency," said Hauer.

Coast Guard Commander Brendan McPherson told ABC News, "We did have an aircraft that responded to a signal of distress where the congressman was located. The congressman did decline rescue at the time so the helicopter picked up three other people.

"I can't comment on why the congressman decided not to go in the aircraft," McPherson said. "Did it take a little more time to send the rescue swimmer back a second time? Yes … You'd have to ask the congressman if it was a waste of time or not."

The Louisiana National Guard then sent a second 5-ton truck to rescue the first truck, and Jefferson and his personal items were returned to the Superdome.

Schneider said he could not comment on whether the excursion was appropriate. "We're in no position to comment on an order given to a soldier. You're not going to get a statement from the Louisiana National Guard saying whether it was right or wrong. That was the mission we were assigned."

Jefferson insisted the expedition did not distract from rescue efforts.

"They actually picked up a lot of people while we were there," he said. "The young soldier said, 'It's a good thing we came up here because a lot of people would not have been rescued had we not been in the neighborhood.'"

Jefferson's Homes Searched in Unrelated Investigation

In an unrelated matter, authorities have recently searched Jefferson's property as part of a federal investigation into the finances of a high-tech firm. Last month FBI officials raided Jefferson's house as well as his home in Washington, D.C., his car and his accountant's house.

Jefferson has not commented on that matter, except to say he is cooperating with the investigation. But he has emerged as a major voice in the post-Katrina political debate.

"The levee system that had protected New Orleans for hundreds of years had failed," he said on the House floor on Sept. 7. "Our city was inundated, 80 percent of it, with deadly water. Thousands of lives were lost, many drowned, trapped in their homes. Others were lost trying to escape the fury."

Last week, Jefferson set up a special trust fund for contributions to his legal defense in light of the FBI investigation. A senior federal law enforcement source tells ABC News that investigators are interested in learning if Jefferson moved any materials relevant to the investigation. Jefferson says he did not.

 

[Annie]

Links at site:

http://billhobbs.com/hobbsonline/007288.html

September 13, 2005
Bus Story Debunked?

ThinkProgress.org claims that it has "debunked" the claim that New Orleans had a huge bus fleet that it could have used to evacuate the poor from the city before Hurricane Katrina hit, but a careful analysis of ThinkProgress's article makes it clear that the Left-wing website has it wrong. In fact, the piece helps clarify the true scope of the failure of New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin and Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babbling Blanco to use the transportation assets they had in a timely manner.

First, the ThinkProgress piece:

CLAIM — MAYOR NAGIN LEFT 2,000 SCHOOL BUSES BEHIND IN THE FLOOD: Sean Hannity said, "You would have thought that the 2,000 buses, school buses, that sat in the yards would have been used to help those people that were incapable of getting out on their own, but none of that had happened locally." [Hannity and Colmes, 9/6/05]

FACT — NEW ORLEANS HAD LESS THAN 300 WORKING SCHOOL BUSES: "The [Orleans Parish school] district owns 324 buses but 70 are broken down." [New Orleans Times-Picayune, 9/5/05]

CLAIM: LOCAL OFFICIALS DESERVE BLAME FOR LACK OF EVACUATION BUSES: Rick Santorum claimed, "Many didn’t have cars … And that really was a failure on the part of local officials in not making transportation available to get people out." [Times Leader, 9/6/05]

FACT: LOUISIANA NATIONAL GUARD REQUESTED 700 BUSES FROM FEMA FOR EVACUATIONS, FEMA ONLY SENT 100: The Boston Globe reported, "On Sunday, the day before the storm, the Louisiana National Guard asked FEMA for 700 buses to evacuate people. It received only 100." [Boston Globe, 9/11/05]

Okay, now let's consider ThinkProgress's "debunking" point by point.

1. Sean Hannity claimed Nagin left 2,000 school buses behind in the flood. Well, Hannity's wrong about the number. Score one for ThinkProgress, which cites a Times Picayune story that says "The [Orleans Parish school] district owns 324 buses but 70 are broken down."

But the factuality of the claim that Nagin failed to use his school buses is not dependent on Hannity getting the numbers right. Nagin did leave hundreds of buses behind, unused. In fact, according to the numbers cited in that Times Picayune article, and referenced by ThinkProgress, he had 254 usable school buses.

The question, then, is - did he use them? The now-famous AP photo suggests that he did not. It shows a large number of school buses parked in neat formation in a flooded parking lot. That parking lot, it turns out, is about a mile from the Superdome.

Were all of them working buses before the flood? Unknown. But - again, according to the newspaper article numbers referenced by ThinkProgress - no more than 70 of them were broken down. Which means that, at a minimum, there were around 185 working buses that were left to drown in the flood instead of being used to evacuate some of the city's poorest residents.

Overall, we know - thanks to the newspaper article referenced by Think Progress - that New Orleans had 254 school buses that it could have used to evacuate people.

The photo I've included clearly doesn't show 254 or 255 buses, so why, then, do I keep repeating those numbers? The answer is that a satellite photo of flooded New Orleans shows the entire bus lot, while the AP aerial photo above shows only part of it. The blogger who found the satellite photo counted approximately 255 buses in it. You can see it here at JunkyardBlog (scroll down).

He counted 255 buses, the Times Picayune said that city had 254 working buses - the coincidence suggests the buses shown in the flooded parking lot in the AP aerial photo and the satellite photo are the city's working school buses.

254 buses, carrying 60 people per bus, could have evacuated 15,240 people per trip. How many trips to Baton Rouge - 75 miles away - might they have made if mobilized two days before Katrina hit? Two? That's 30,480 poor residents evacuated. Three? That's 45,720 people evacuated. The Superdome didn't need to be a shelter of "last resort" for tens of thousands of poor people to ride out Hurricane Katrina. It needed to be a central boarding station for a mass evacuation by bus before Katrina struck.

But the 254 working city school buses made zero trips.

That is undeniable fact. ThinkProgress focuses on the Hannity quote because it can't debunk the larger facts about the 254 buses we know Nagin failed to use.

2. Think Progress attacks a quote from U.S. Sen. Rick Santorum who said, "Many didn’t have cars … And that really was a failure on the part of local officials in not making transportation available to get people out." They counter with a Boston Globe story report that, "On Sunday, the day before the storm, the Louisiana National Guard asked FEMA for 700 buses to evacuate people. It received only 100."

Again, Think Progress is playing a game, attacking a specific quote rather than the general and known facts. And Santorum's quote is not specifically rebutted by the Globe's reporting.

The fact is, the official evacuation plan for New Orleans stated that the city was to mobilize its school and transit buses to evacuate people from the city in advance of a major hurricane. The city failed to do so. The fact is, the official evacuation plan for southeastern Louisiana stated that transit and school buses were to be used to evacuate people in advance of a major hurricane. The state failed to do so. Santorum is absolutely correct.

As for the Globe report that FEMA only sent 100 buses when the Louisiana National Guard requested 700, consider it closely. When did the LNG ask FEMA for the buses? "On Sunday, the day before the storm..."

It is not all that surprising that FEMA could not move 750 buses to New Orleans on such short notice. It is rather remarkable they were able to get 100 buses there that quickly.

Why did the Louisiana National Guard wait until, essentially, the last minute to request FEMA to send buses?

Perhaps they were waiting for New Orleans and the state to implement its own evacuation plan, which stipulated that city transit and school buses would be used to evacuate the city's poorest residents.

Or perhaps they were waiting for an order from Gov. Blanco. She, after all, is the commander of the Louisiana National Guard.

Blanco and Nagin knew Katrina had a high probability of being a monster storm and of hitting New Orleans three or four days before it arrived. Yet Nagin failed to implement the official plan to use his city's transit and school buses to evacuate his poorest residents, and Blanco's National Guard waited until too late to request FEMA to send enough buses to accomplish the task.

If - as it seems clear - Nagin and Blanco weren't intending to implement the official evacuation plan to use city transit and school buses, the next logical question then is why did Blanco wait until the last minute to ask FEMA to send buses?

UPDATE: B. Preston at JunkyardBlog has more on the unused buses here. He also debunks a MediaMatters attempt at spinning away the bus story here, and reports on Nagin being grilled by Tim Russert about the buses here.

Preston has done most of the hard digging on the bus story and calculates that New Orleans had a total of 569 usable transit and school buses before Katrina hit. If they'd used 500 of them to transport people out before the storm hit, at a conservative 50 passengers per bus, they could have evacuated 25,000 people per trip.

That was the official plan. But the officials didn't implement the plan.

 

[theim]

Liberals. Yeah, socialism utterly failed in Russia, China, Vietnam, Cuba, Latin America, North Korea, Cambodia, and Europe, but its still a good idea!

Yeah, we know LA has been Dem for 60 years and its totally f'd up, but just let us run the whole country and see what we can do!

 

[GotZoom]

http://www.abcnews.go.com/US/HurricaneKatrina/story?id=1123495&page=1

Favorite part of the whole story:

D-La

Imagine that.