The Garbled Epoch

This man clearly likes dramatics. After his statement that there could be tens of thousands of people dead, and his inability to keep a civil tongue, one must wonder about this man's ability to NOT BE DRAMATIC. YES your city is underwater right now, yes people are dying, yes your city was built on an average of 12 feet underwater, yes President Bush AND Blanco declared States of Emergency in the area of Louisiana. However, I didn't see you evacuating people.

Now, to my readers, how would this man be able to evacuate people? Simple. Through the city buses, and the school buses which we have clear aerial shots of in a parking lot. Yes they are underwater now, but what about before the event occurred? And please don't give me the whole: "Well where do you get drivers from on such short notice?" When you have a disaster of this scale coming your way, I'm sure you can think of something. I'm sure that there are enough people in the city of New Orleans to make a decent attempt at getting drivers. But no. No attempts. Yet, this man does have an excuse. There are no bathrooms on the school buses. Do you really think that people are really concerned about that one Ray? I think having to stop on the side of the road to pee is better than loosing a loved one to your inability to react.

Nagin, however is clearly willing to blame the government and keeping the blame game going. Of course it’s the governments fault because they didn't send transportation. Of course its the governments fault about everything. What an easy excuse, blame the government.

One of the things that make me sickest is how he is sitting away from it all in Baton Rouge, not even there helping out. But even sicker still, is this statement that he made to the press regarding the “too many cooks in the kitchen”. Please pay close attention, this article is taken from CNN:

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.

An earlier breach occurred along the Industrial Canal in the city's Lower 9th Ward.

The rising flood waters overwhelmed pumping stations that would normally keep the city dry. About 80 percent of the city was flooded with water up to 20 feet deep after the two levees collapsed.

The Army Corps of Engineers is working to repair the levee breaches, the agency said Tuesday, but it gave no timetable for repairs. (See the video of water surging into the saturated city -- 1:53 )

The Corps has workers assessing damage at the two locations. The National Guard, Coast Guard and state and federal agencies are working with the agency to speed the process, it reported.

"These closures are essential so that water can be removed from the city," a statement from the Corps of Engineers' headquarters in Washington said.

Walter Baumy, the agency's engineering division chief, said the Corps is trying to line up rock, sandbags, barges, helicopters and cranes to patch the damaged levees.

Col. Kevin Wagner, a Corps official in Baton Rouge, said that engineers also were eyeing the prospect of filling shipping containers with sand and lowering them into the breaches to stanch the flooding.

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, follow-up and accountability.

Ray wants us to send every “goddam greyhound bus” and school bus in the nation, but when a few black hawk helicopters are used to pick up survivors, be blows a tube. Yet of course there will be an excuse and I can hear it now: “We need to get the economy of the nation running” Well Mr. Mayor, you should be concerned about your PEOPLE and not the economy of Louisiana which is the Governor’s job.

Mr. Mayor, I believe you AREN’T America’s Mayor, and I hope that your new found Venice from Hell will be of use for your little political games.

On a side note, I don’t like Nagin very much.

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 10, 2005 at 7:13 PM. You can skip to the end and leave a response.