"Maybe I'm being unfair here, but I suspect that, had he rushed back to the White House or to some other war room, these same critics would now be blasting him for trying to make himself seem effective despite the limits on how he can help."
Nah, I don't think so. The man's job approval ratings are apparently down around the neighborhood of where Nixon's were just before his resignation. Even an awful lot of Republicans are pretty disgusted right now, I think. When you've got that many people down on you, it's hard to do anything right and there's no shortage of people willing to claim that anything you do is wrong. Doesn't mean they're mistaken necessarily, but it has more to do with the predictability of human nature than any basis in reality.
As for holding local government accountable, I don't know about that. Sure, they knew what they had to work with, but it seems overly optimistic to try and have too detailed of a plan in the face of something as unpredictable as this. If you ask the mayor of New Orleans though, they apparently had SOME kind of plan for dealing with the problems, they just couldn't get cooperation or coordination:
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- A day after Hurricane Katrina dealt a devastating blow to the Big Easy, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Tuesday night blasted what he called a lack of coordination in relief efforts for setting behind the city's recovery.
"There is way too many fricking ... cooks in the kitchen," Nagin said in a phone interview with WAPT-TV in Jackson, Mississippi, fuming over what he said were scuttled plans to plug a 200-yard breach near the 17th Street Canal, allowing Lake Pontchartrain to spill into the central business district. ....
The National Weather Service reported a breach along the Industrial Canal levee at Tennessee Street, in southeast New Orleans, on Monday. Local reports later said the levee was overtopped, not breached, but the Corps of Engineers reported it Tuesday afternoon as having been breached.
But Nagin said a repair attempt was supposed to have been made Tuesday.
According to the mayor, Black Hawk helicopters were scheduled to pick up and drop massive 3,000-pound sandbags in the 17th Street Canal breach, but were diverted on rescue missions. Nagin said neglecting to fix the problem has set the city behind by at least a month.
"I had laid out like an eight-week to ten-week timeline where we could get the city back in semblance of order. It's probably been pushed back another four weeks as a result of this," Nagin said.
"That four weeks is going to stop all commerce in the city of New Orleans. It also impacts the nation, because no domestic oil production will happen in southeast Louisiana."
Nagin said he expects relief efforts in the city to improve as New Orleans, the National Guard and FEMA combine their command centers for better communication, followup and accountability.
---------------
Apparently they diverted the copters that could have helped seal the breach into rescue operations instead. An admirable seeming decision in the heat of the moment, but in the big picture they might have saved more lives by sealing the levee and stopping the water, if it was possible to do so.
Ultimately when it comes down to a major act of nature type of disaster, you can criticize the planning all you want, because it could always have been better SOMEHOW, but you might as well mount the fickle finger of blame on a spinner and just see where it stops.
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timeasmymeasure
no subject
Date: 2005-08-31 08:11 pm (UTC)Nah, I don't think so. The man's job approval ratings are apparently down around the neighborhood of where Nixon's were just before his resignation. Even an awful lot of Republicans are pretty disgusted right now, I think. When you've got that many people down on you, it's hard to do anything right and there's no shortage of people willing to claim that anything you do is wrong. Doesn't mean they're mistaken necessarily, but it has more to do with the predictability of human nature than any basis in reality.
As for holding local government accountable, I don't know about that. Sure, they knew what they had to work with, but it seems overly optimistic to try and have too detailed of a plan in the face of something as unpredictable as this. If you ask the mayor of New Orleans though, they apparently had SOME kind of plan for dealing with the problems, they just couldn't get cooperation or coordination:
NEW ORLEANS, Louisiana (CNN) -- A day after Hurricane Katrina dealt a devastating blow to the Big Easy, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Tuesday night blasted what he called a lack of coordination in relief efforts for setting behind the city's recovery.
"There is way too many fricking ... cooks in the kitchen," Nagin said in a phone interview with WAPT-TV in Jackson, Mississippi, fuming over what he said were scuttled plans to plug a 200-yard breach near the 17th Street Canal, allowing Lake Pontchartrain to spill into the central business district.
....
The National Weather Service reported a breach along the Industrial Canal levee at Tennessee Street, in southeast New Orleans, on Monday. Local reports later said the levee was overtopped, not breached, but the Corps of Engineers reported it Tuesday afternoon as having been breached.
But Nagin said a repair attempt was supposed to have been made Tuesday.
According to the mayor, Black Hawk helicopters were scheduled to pick up and drop massive 3,000-pound sandbags in the 17th Street Canal breach, but were diverted on rescue missions. Nagin said neglecting to fix the problem has set the city behind by at least a month.
"I had laid out like an eight-week to ten-week timeline where we could get the city back in semblance of order. It's probably been pushed back another four weeks as a result of this," Nagin said.
"That four weeks is going to stop all commerce in the city of New Orleans. It also impacts the nation, because no domestic oil production will happen in southeast Louisiana."
Nagin said he expects relief efforts in the city to improve as New Orleans, the National Guard and FEMA combine their command centers for better communication, followup and accountability.
---------------
Apparently they diverted the copters that could have helped seal the breach into rescue operations instead. An admirable seeming decision in the heat of the moment, but in the big picture they might have saved more lives by sealing the levee and stopping the water, if it was possible to do so.
Ultimately when it comes down to a major act of nature type of disaster, you can criticize the planning all you want, because it could always have been better SOMEHOW, but you might as well mount the fickle finger of blame on a spinner and just see where it stops.