Katrina thoughts
A blogger who belongs to the

Life, Liberty, Property Libertarian Community from Slidell, LA has surfaced much to the relief of the Community, alive and unscathed, but with a few thoughts on Katrina.

I will clip a few points but suggest you go to his site for a first hand accounting.

So now a few words from

The Louisiana Libertarian

"Well, my readers, I survived Katrina (now all I need to do is print the lousy T-shirts). My mother and I evacuated our hometown of Slidell, Louisiana the Sunday morning before the storm. We reserved our hotel room in Madisonville, Texas at the Carefree Inn the night before. The trip was supposed to take six and a half hours from Slidell to Madisonville, Texas. Instead, the trip took sixteen hours."

"Since I returned back to Louisiana, I've been volunteering at the FEMA distribution center in Slidell at the old Wal-Mart (I-10 and Gauze Boulevard). The lines of cars are very long to receive the basics such as food, water, and ice. However, there is way too much bureaucracy involved with this distribution center. For example, FEMA has found time and money to hire a safety officer to make sure we (volunteers and state and Federal employees) are following proper safety standards."


"Now everyone has been talking about the politics about the Katrina aftermath. Many on the left have used this opportunity to blame President Bush for the pathetic Federal response. That's nonsense."


"Now for the state's truly abysmal response to the storm. I have attacked Governor Blanco often on this blog and I've called her a moron and I've questioned her ability to lead often. Unfortunately, she has only confirmed those criticisms in this crisis. Governor Blanco has been more interested in protecting her power than helping the people of Louisiana. She refused to mobilize the Louisiana National Guard before the storm when President Bush advised her to. She refused to ask for outside help until the middle of last week to deal with the situation in New Orleans. Her Office of Emergency Preparedness obstructed efforts by the Red Cross and FEMA to aid the people of New Orleans after the storm."


"As for New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin, the only criticism I can make of him is that he failed to come up, with the state of Louisiana, a plan to evacuate the city of New Orleans. He would have had to coordinate with surrounding parishes and the state government because the one million people who lived in the outlying areas of New Orleans would be evacuating as well. If I could blame Mayor Nagin for this, I would have to blame his predecessors and the state government as well. Other than that, I see a man who in the end was powerless to save his city and rally his people"

That was just the tip of the iceberg. I will make one note. There WAS a plan to evacuate the City for those with and without access to vehicles. The problem is that the part of the plan for those without vehicles was NOT USED.

I an other bloggers have commented on this. As a matter of fact here is an email I received from one of my readers.

"Hi Dan - After reading the City of New Orleans 'Evacuation Plan' I gotta admit that everything you posted in the past few days seems to be right on target. ---Lou---

http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26

which I got from NewsMax"



PLEASE Go the Louisiana Libertarian website and read his full account.

|