Best wishes & luck to any New Orleans members...

[baldprof]

Originally Posted by brianleahy

The National Guard - serious military aid - did not arrive in any numbers until Saturday 9/3, and there is a lot of puzzlement as to why it took so long.

Oh I think it's pretty obvious what the reasons might have been for the delay:

sponsored by the Washington Post and Talking Points Memo
Quote:

Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday.

The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.

A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor.

Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.

"The federal government stands ready to work with state and local officials to secure New Orleans and the state of Louisiana," White House spokesman Dan Bartlett said. "The president will not let any form of bureaucracy get in the way of protecting the citizens of Louisiana."

Blanco made two moves Saturday that protected her independence from the federal government: She created a philanthropic fund for the state's victims and hired James Lee Witt, Federal Emergency Management Agency director in the Clinton administration, to advise her on the relief effort.

Bush, who has been criticized, even by supporters, for the delayed response to the disaster, used his weekly radio address to put responsibility for the failure on lower levels of government. The magnitude of the crisis "has created tremendous problems that have strained state and local capabilities," he said. "The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable."

If I had been in the president's position, I would have federalized the National Guard, declared martial law, and sent in the 82nd to take care of the "looters and shooters". Well this is what ultimately has happened effectively anyway.
My position: I don't like Bush, didn't vote for him. I don't like governor Blanco either; I voted for her opponent. As a resident of the "northern" part of the state, there's more that I could about state politics, but I won't at least not for now. In my opinion, it was politics that led to the delay.

[TommyWillB]

My Dad is from New Orleans, and we still have reletives there...

...but I'm happy to report that all have checked in an are physically unharmed... However for both my Uncle and my cousin's family, all physical posessions are a total loss...

They are safe in Texas with my sister, and I would not be surprised if my 72 year/old Uncle never goes back to the city he spent all of the non-WWII years of his life.

[baldprof]

Well that's good to hear. There are several professional people who came up here as evacuees who have started looking for houses. I don't know if my sister and her husband will stay there. Of course they will be returning; but staying, we'll see.

People I know who live in Dade country Florida say that even though it's been 10+ years since hurricane Andrew, the place has never been the same.

There's been some amatuer video that's starting to turn up. Viewer discretion is advised. It just looks awful.

On a related issue: thursday evening we had gridlock with all the panic buying at the gas stations. Just now I filled up my car and my gas can for my power equipment. No gas lines. In fact I was the only customer at the freakin station.

Oh yeah, there's little traffic as well; it's amazing the conserving people can be motivated to do at $3+ a gallon.

[brianleahy]

Ach, panic-buying of gas. Most unfortunate.

I understand why it happens, but it may easily make things worse.

Supply and demand: a plunge in supply + spike in demand = even worse shortage.

[nixgeek]

Well, because of the shortage gas prices here in Miami are over 3 dollars for regular. Premium is almost up to 3.5 in some places. I spent 40 bucks filling the tank of my CR-V with regular gas. Usually in the past it's been only 20 dollars. And we're talking a CR-V!!!

BTW, baldprof, I couldn't resist but clicking on that link. Thank God I did!

Aaaahh...childhood memories..

[fryke]

Your gas prices are still _WAY_ below what the world's paying for it. Kyoto springs to mind. And that we - as the world - should _finally_ get off the oil and use renewable energy. Don't laugh. This is serious.

[nixgeek]

Originally Posted by fryke

Your gas prices are still _WAY_ below what the world's paying for it. Kyoto springs to mind. And that we - as the world - should _finally_ get off the oil and use renewable energy. Don't laugh. This is serious.

I absolutely understand how serious this is. I was just making a comment regarding his sig. I have seen the images as I mentioned before. I know people that have friends up there. So believe me, this is no laughing matter to me. I was just making a side note considering I was directing that part of my post to baldprof.

And I also agree that we should be using renewable energy. The technology has been around for years and we still have yet to see things change drastically. Until it stops being about the $$$ or the fossil fuels run out, it's not going to happen anytime soon unfortunately. Just my opinion.

[brianleahy]

There is some reason for hope; since our gas prices started going up, hybrid gas/electric cars have been selling faster than they can make em in the US. Hybrids are not a perfect solution, but they are a step in the right direction.

Hydrogen powered cars are, at least so far, not a great alternative; making sufficient compressed hydrogen gas is quite costly and so far, we have to USE energy from conventional sources to create the hydrogen gas.

Recently, I heard that there was one company that could modify a hybrid car by installing a huge extra battery in the trunk that can be connected to an AC charger overnight. They estimate that, for a few cents per night of electricity, the car could get over 200 miles per gallon...