pan6467

Let's look at some of the finger pointing show maybe a good response so that the finger pointing can stop and we can move forward and build better so next time we are better ready:

Why didn't people (the government) take the storm more seriously?

I remember the night it hit, I was going into work. Drudge was commending the mayor for maintaining a sense of order and not doling out fear.

I also remember going in having heard that the storm appeared to be weakening and the worst was to miss New Orleans.

Noone knew what the results would be. And even had they told, the resulting mass hysteria would have created similar events.

In my mind I see it like this,

I could go out say run and panic because we don't have enough to save everyone.... creating lawlessness, destruction of that which was going to save people and and total out of control behavior which may lead to more deaths than the storm.

OR

I could look at what I will need to do afterward, knowing there will be 1000's needing help and make the best possible plans I can to save as many as I can. But also realize whatever I do plan may not be available or feasible right away.

I need to turn to someone (FEMA) that is trained and has practiced and formed all kinds of plans to do this job. But then, how do i contact FEMA, how do we coordinate things, and so on. (I have a feeling even though we have FEMA, few mayors and governors (if any) are truly apprised of how to respond, who to call, how to get the help needed.

And even then when you are in panic in the manner of which the panic was in this situation, no matter how educated, what position you hold nor who you are, noone truly knows how they will react nor can be called upon to remember every piece of red tape they have to go through.

OR

I can simply not do a damned thing because I truly have no idea how bad it will be.

Why didn't all the buses get moved out?

Well, let's see, if I recall they kept playing with the strength, raising and lowering it. And by the time the buses were loaded, noone can tell me those buses would be loaded in time so when the hurricane hit, they would have been big old corpses, getting blown off the roads and then the fingers pointers would have said, "who's bright idea were the buses?"

Even if the transportation was safe, you'd cause mass hysteria and riots from people trying to get on, because you could not have possibly had enough transportation for everyone. So then the question would have been "how do you decide who can go and who had to stay?" and that would lead to more finger pointing.

Also where would the buses go? there was no evacuation route that I have seen talked over. the traffic jams that already existed probably caused many many deaths. I remember days before the storm the gas stations had run out of gas, the interstates were bogged down with cars that had overheated, run out of gas, wrecked, or just broke down..... traffic wasn't going anywhere, just look at the news the Fri, Sat, and morning before the storm.

So where were the buses going to go?????????

Why didn't you force evacuation?

Well, gee, it's man's nature to disbelieve how bad something is going to truly be when looking into the jaws of death. It's like smokers, you smoke there's a very very strong chance you will die, but until most smokers hit a wall and realize how bad that death will be they tempt fate. Same can be said with storms, noone who stayed truly knew how bad it would be so they took their chances to stay where they knew.

There were those that couldn't be evacuated, the infirmed and poor with no means of transportation, but again, by the time you loaded them, they'd be on death trains. And how can you force evacuation if you cannot transport every last person out?

And having heard some of the people before, I can understand their thinking... "everything I know is here, I'll take my chances." And again as human nature we don't think how truly bad something will be until it happens.

Why didn't the governor/Bush have troops down there BEFORE the storm?

Can you imagine the outcry as our men and women in the service got ordered down there to their deaths? Come on this isn't even a realistic complaint, yet I've heard it.

Why didn't we get in there sooner and help?

We helicoptered people off roofs, but the city was underwater, what could have been done FEMA did prevent (supposedly) that is not finger pointing that is putting blame where blame truly should be.

Supposedly, there were the Carnival liners that were willing to hold people, there were first responders ready to get in, trucks ready with water and food that were stopped before they could deliver.

And I yelled as loud as anyone, why aren't we getting the materials there.... now the passion has subsided and logic is prevailing.

With the liners, how were the people going to get there? Even though the streets were 8 feet under, the liners couldn't come that far in. So you had to lifeboat people.... and again it comes to how did you decide who, and surely with this you are seriously going to have riots and quite possibly see people destroy the very boats there to help them.

With the supplies that were coming in..... they would have only gotten so far and again as we saw with the looting, I am more of the belief riots would have occured and you would have seen people fighting and getting killed trying to help others because it was impossible to help everyone.

Which again leads to the "how did you decide who to help and why didn't you help these people over here?" Even with logical and pure fact answers people would still claim those facts were all wrong and you didn't help over there for this reason or that.

In conclusion, noone wants to see Bush fall more than I do. But this isn't the thing to get him on. Nor should the GOP be trying to get the Dems, the mayor nor Governor.

It's pathetic the talking heads and partisans have turned this into not just finger pointing but political holy war. There was NOTHING either side could have done.

I am not trying to defend anyone, I am trying to end the partisan bullshit and the finger pointing so that we can help these people in the best and united ways possible. We can't blame anyone, for noone has been through anything like it before, and training and hypotheticals are just those.... I truly don't believe anyone was prepared or knew how to handle it and I don't believe anyone would ever have had that knowledge.

We just need to go in and continue doing what we have, doing the best we can to help as many as we can and to rebuild a better and stronger city. Now we have experienced worst case and now we can truly be prepared...... until the next worst case comes through.... but even then we have a better starting point IF WE LEARN FROM THIS AND STOP POINTING FINGERS.

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I just love people who use the excuse "I use/do this because I LOVE the feeling/joy/happiness it brings me" and expect you to be ok with that as you watch them destroy their life blindly following. My response is, "I like to put forks in an eletrical socket, just LOVE that feeling, can't ever get enough of it, so will you let me put this copper fork in that electric socket?"