Thread: Some 20/20 for yah.

FEMA now falls under Homeland Security.

http://www.fema.gov/

I was never in the guard or reserves but I was active duty in the Air Force. When we were assigned to mobility teams to deploy to military situations we had a 72 hour response time from the time the higher headquarters gave the order until we were on a plane in the air. So I don't think the federal/military response to too far behind the schedule.

Thank you, John. I guess I should have known FEMA was under DHS. Okay, well that explains that.

How about the border patrol pulled off the borders? What do you think about that?

Now again, we ALL saw this coming. Imagine an attack, which “Neutralized� an American metropolis the way that New Orleans was essentially neutralized. If we were attacked with Nukes, it wouldn’t be one city; I can put a buck on that. And as you stated, how are we preparing, for such an attack? Closing Military bases, opening borders, dang darn what is he thinking?

Four years after 9/11, I would have hoped that the Federal/State governments would have had time to create some sort of workable procedure for dealing with disasters, either natural or terrorist caused.

The response to this one is disturbing, at best. The mayor of New Orleans is MIA, while the governor of LA can't seem to make up her mind about anything. The response by the Feds is underwhelming at this time , as well. Meanwhile, people are trapped and dying, while armed gangs of thugs roam the streets at will.

If this is a true indication about how the government is going to respond to a terrorist attack, we're in even deeper trouble that I would have thought possible.

Originally Posted by LegalUSCitizen

Art, I agree, I don't have too much sympathy for people who do not follow evacuation orders. But the people I do feel sorry for are the ones who did go to the Super Dome, and look what has happened to them. Mainly because of the armed gangs. I think we should have had the National Guard more ready, and all that you say. Let me ask you something, is it to be expected that Homeland Security would handle this?
I would expect FEMA, National Guard, Fire, Police, State Troopers and volunteer doctors, nurses, etc., the Red Cross. But Homeland Security?
I don't understand that.

Art, what do you think of Border Patrol being taken off the borders to be there? Why?

Homeland Security is the overall authority thesedays, FEMA, INS,EMS ect.. all come under the authority and control of Homeland Security. And yes boarder patrol agents have been orded by President Bush to assist in the relief effort.

Originally Posted by ArtC

And yes boarder patrol agents have been orded by President Bush to assist in the relief effort.

Can you hear that sucking sound, that is the illegals running right behind the agents towards New Orleans?

Originally Posted by JohnB2012

When we were assigned to mobility teams to deploy to military situations we had a 72 hour response time from the time the higher headquarters gave the order until we were on a plane in the air. So I don't think the federal/military response to too far behind the schedule.

I fully respect your thoughts J, however; as my boss would say "Unacceptable". I can see it taking 72 hours to go to China or some country around the world. A 72 hour response to go to New Orleans with water, food, blankets, generators, medicine, N.G.? We as a Nation had at least 48 hours, the governor did the best thing and called for a complete mandatory evac in that time frame and saved the most lives.

I really don't blame our military, our military works very hard and does an outstanding job. Poor leader ship affects the entire chain; after all, that is why he carries the label "Commander and Chief".

The 72 hours was our time frame to get our stuff together and leave. That did not include travel time to where ever we would be going. Another thing to consider about the National Guard. These people are normal civilians most of the time and do not carry their equipment around with them. Once they get a notice they probably have a time frame to report to their duty station which may be on the far side of the state from where they live. Plus you have to figure a good number of these folks were also probably effected by Katrina and that could have delayed them some.

I would also take a very hard look at the preperations done at the state and local level and the citizens themselves. Personally, I keep some bottled water and about a 3-4 day supply of food set aside just for stuff like this. Nobody makes me do this. I do it on my own to make sure my family is taken care of. What about taking care of your neighbors? Why did so many stay when ordered to evacuate? I don't know exactly when the evacuation was ordered but I don't recall hearing anything from the Mayor until the day before the storm and don't recall hearing anything from the Governor until after the storm. I've heard that the predictions of the number of people who would stay equals about what really happened. So, if that was expected, the local city and county emergency management should have had more food and water set aside. The state emergency management should have had a feel for what the local governments were capable of and when they would need to step in and they should have know what their limits were. To run out of food and water two days into a disaster and then start screaming for federal help to me is unacceptable.

Another issue is the size of the area this storm hit. I don't think we have ever seen anything like this and hopefully won't for a long time. But, we're still not out of this year's hurricane season.

I am TOTALLY DISGUSTED by the conditions inside the Superdome and the New Orleans Convention Center ... dead bodies laying around, no food/water/medicine, etc and im even more disgusted by the looting, violence and anarchy in the aftermath. Dident the New Orleans PD and FD have a plan for this? Why is the National Guard doing jack s--- to stop the looters and protect the aid conoys? Where is all the federal aid and the regular Army?

BTW: a building just collasped in downtown New Orleans and several others have been set on fire and in addition a police station and a hospital are under siege by armed mobs.

okay, this is the way I see it!

the federal government KNEW Katrina was a catastrophic hurricane days before it made landfall ... planes and helicopters should have been loaded with supplies and ready to fly BEFORE it made landfall.

sometimes the best laid plans fail ... my aunt had a brand new guardian standby generator -- after kicking on about four times when the power went out, it quit working!! I tried to get it going, but I'm not a mechanic and I couldn't get a technician to fix it, they said it could take 2 or 3 days. My nephew tried to fix it but said the starter was broke. Finally, a technician came and had to order the part for the starter -- it would take 2 or 3 days to get here.


In the meantime my sister and brother-in-law came back from out of town and he hooked up a small generator that I didn't even know she had -- then he got out her bigger generator and hooked it up to natural gas and got it going -- her power was restored before her brand new generator could be fixed.

Once my sisters husband got the older generator going, I thought I could confiscate the small one, but the generator my other sister was using blew a head and she beat me to the little one.

the thing that I have learned about hurricanes over the years is if you live in the city you are susceptible to looters if your property is damaged -- a friend of a friend of mine had her house broke into this week

I can understand folks looting for food or taking a car to get out of town but looting homes and such is unacceptable.

One story was told on the radio today about a 20 year old who stole a bus from LA and started picking people up. They polled their money for gas and food and drove to the Astro Dome. When they got there, they told him that they were full and he would have to go somewhere else. Lord only knows where they went.