How To Deal With A Natural Disaster - The Nagin and Blanco Way

Archy McNally
The Lake Hamilton Gazette
Monday, September 5, 2005

The Democrats are out in full force condemning George Bush for not acting fast enough after Hurricane Katrina blew through New Orleans.

Under the Emergency Operations Act, the responsibility, the power and the authority to order an evacuation rests with state and local officials. In the case of New Orleans that responsibility falls squarely on the shoulders of Ray Nagin Democrat Mayor of New Orleans and Kathleen Blanco Democrat Governor of Louisiana. Both failed their responsibility miserably.

What roll and responsibility did Ray Nagin Mayor of New Orleans have to play in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina?

  • No. 1: Mayor Nagin is the man. The boss of the City of New Orleans. All departments answer to him. Including one of the most corrupt police departments in the United States.

  • No. 2: Mayor Nagin is responsible for the day to day workings of the city in good times, bad times and during natural disasters.

  • No. 3: Mayor Nagin chose to ignore the City of New Orleans Hurricane Preparedness & Disaster Plan.

  • No. 4: Mayor Nagin had the means before the hurricane struck to stock the Superdome and the Convention Center with food and water but chose his wait and see attitude.

  • No. 5: Mayor Nagin gave the mandatory evacuation order and had the means at his disposal to evacuate any resident of New Orleans that did not have a way to leave….but chose not to do so. Instead he blames George Bush.

  • No. 6: Mayor Nagin chose to turn a blind eye on the looting and the looters as it first started. The result of his ineptness was total anarchy.

  • No. 7: With his city in chaos and his ineptness exposed Mayor Nagin chose not only to curse George Bush but to blame him for the New Orleans catastrophe.

Governor Kathleen Blanco had at her disposal the Louisiana Army and Air National Guard that consists of 74 units spread among 43 cities and towns of the state and numbers some 11,500 Army and Air Guardsmen. But the inept and often overwhelmed Governor Blanco did a deplorable job of deploying her state's National Guard.

Governor Blanco is also guilty of not reaching out to a multi-state mutual aid agreement for help until Wednesday. That was more than 24 hours after breaches in the New Orleans levee system had flooded the city and killed thousands.

Governor Blanco to this day has not and will not declare a state of emergency and refuses to yield authority over rescue efforts to the federal government. She fears that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. She would rather see the good people of New Orleans die than do something as politically incorrect as declare a state of emergency.

Perhaps Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco should have fallowed former New York City mayor Rudolph Giuliani’s example of how to run a city during a disaster. Perhaps it is time for Nagin and Blanco to accept responsibility for their less than valiant effort and stop blaming Bush for their failure to take charge.

One never knows does one?