Questions About Hurricane Katrina, in New Orleans, Louisiana?

Question by Yenny: Questions about Hurricane Katrina, In New Orleans, Louisiana?
6.What were the critics pointing out as trouble with the governor of Louisiana?
7.According to then-FEMA director Michael Brown, when does FEMA take over for state and local governments?
8.What were the complaints of local and state officials against FEMA?
9.How many days did it take for the government, under President George W. Bush, to acknowledge they were late and inadequate in its response?

If anyone could answer those questions for me I would be super greatful. Please!!!!!!!!
(15 points)

Best answer:

Answer by NOLA guy
The Governor was known as “Blank Stare” Blanco. She was called that by her own staff for reportedly lapsing into a drug & alcohol induced stupor during the crisis. Very few people were close enough to know if she was indeed rendered incapable by substance abuse, but she either wouldn’t make decisions or made very bad decisions. For example, President Bush asked at least twice and possibly three times to ‘federalize” the disaster response, which would have allowed the use of active duty military personnel in the rescue effort. She refused to do so because she didn’t want the Republicans to get any credit and the result was hundreds of people dead who didn’t have to die. Blanco should have been prosecuted for mass negligent homicide, but Governors have immunity for such decisions.

FEMA did not have the authority to “take over” from local/state government. At the time, disaster response was a jealously guarded authority of the state governor – which was why Blanco could tell President Bush “no” when he asked to federalize the response. The law was changed in 2006,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Posse_Comitatus_Act#Recent_legislative_events

Despite a common belief, FEMA is not a first-responder agency FEMA mostly writes checks and helps local/state government prepare for disasters with training. A legitimate criticism was that for years before Katrina, FEMA focused on terrorism and ignored natural disasters. It was also obvious the FEMA director knew little about disaster management as he was appointed based on political connections instead of competency. For the Democrats to criticize Bush for that is truly the pot calling the kettle black.

I don’t recall the date, but Bush accepted responsibility within about two weeks after Katrina struck. Whatever his faults, he did that because he is an upstanding guy. None of the local/state politicians (ALL Democrats) EVER admitted beng less than perfect. Even Blanco claimed her “decisions” were all correct.

Know better? Leave your own answer in the comments!

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