Who's to blame for state of New Orleans?

Question

I say New Orleans.....I am just waiting for the bush bashers to jump at this one....like it would be different under other administrations, they are all crooked...

Answer 1

I would say mother nature

Answer 2

1. The mayor 'school bus Ray Nagin'
2. The governor of the state
3. The people of the city of New Orleans.

It has been postulated that New Orleans has demonstrated that there was (and is) a breakdown of societal responsibility leading up to Katrina, and it exists even today. (Newt Gingrich) Too many people are looking for someone else, or the government to take care of their problems rather than taking the initiative to do things for themselves.

Look at all the other communites ravaged as badly or worse than New Orleans and you don't hear all this whining and crying by them. Of course the news media loves to spread the misery too as it might be a possible avenue to discredit President Bush.

I am tired of hearing about New Orleans. If the residents and politicans had spent as much time working to make things right as they have whining for handouts, and who can we blame next, the city would be back together and better than ever.

Enough is enough already.

Answer 3

Primary responsibility for the state(not capitalized, it seems to refer to situation) of New Orleans properly belongs on the doorstep of Ray Nagin and the residents of the City of New Orleans(not the train, the real city). They re-elected him, because the only serious opponent in a field of over 100 candidates was Mitch Landrieu(Lieutenant Governor), whose father was partly responsible by acts of omission, and is the brother to Mary Landrieu (Snelling), US Senator, Democrat.

Clarification: Moon Landrieu was Mayor of New Orleans years ago, and did nothing in his tenure to secure the levees. Father of Mitch (Lieutenant Governor) and Mary.

Ask Ray Nagin why all the yellow schoolbuses weren't used to evacuate the people. Someone's making a movie about some people who stole school buses to evacuate people. Actually, only one or two buses were effectively stolen, a few were crashed during the attempt.

Ask Ray Nagin why the New Orleans government had no plan for a storm everyone knew would be devastating. Ask his predecessors for at least thirty years.

Everyone there has been talking about the killer storm for at least thirty years. It isn't good to be several feet under sea level.

Partial responsibility resides with the company who built the levee years ago. Partial responsibility resides with the US Army Corps of Engineers which failed to ensure the levees were constructed according to their plans. The reinforcements weren't as deep as Corps of Engineers had required, but somehow that got by them, YEARS AGO.

They knew in advance Katrina was coming into New Orleans. It turned at the last minute, and only brushed New Orleans with the "Good Side" of the hurricane.

Governor Kathleen Blanco was and is Governor of the State of Louisiana. Secondary responsibility does reside with her office, because New Orleans and the surrounding parishes(counties) were all vulnerable. Louisiana either did not have, or did not implement a plan for evacuation. A Louisiana joke blames NOAA, for naming the Hurricane Katrina instead of Kathleen, because had it been named Kathleen, it would have just wandered around the Gulf not being able to decide which way to go.

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Addendum: The recovery efforts right now are being stymied by Blanco AND the state legislature for political purposes: The Feds don't trust Louisiana politicians, with good cause, and LA politicians are saying just give us bunches of money, we'll be good this time. Come up with a workable plan where the primary goals are to develop and rebuild New Orleans, if that is what you want. Actually, Baton Rouge and other locations in Louisiana are good alternative ports to New Orleans. Baton Rouge is on the Mississippi and above sea level. It's just that New Orleans had a direct shot to the Gulf. The political process in LA has resulted in enormous authority for Ports and the boat captains, which makes New Orleans more attractive.
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The rebuilding efforts are being hampered by State, Parish and City officials, elected and appointed, trying to exert their influence over any rebuilding efforts rather than coming together with a coordinated recovery plan.


Now for the Feds. For at least thirty years, all the above named offices have been requesting additional Federal monies to strengthen the levee system in New Orleans. Large requests were made, and petty donations were approved. Local corruption ate up most of that money, but the locals kept reelecting crooked politicians. Those requests for funding originated in the US Congress, and were adjusted downward in the approval process.

Oh wait. I almost forgot. Didn't Pat Robertson say God did it to punish New Orleans for having too much fun?

Answer 4

NEW ORLEANS ..... they needed to take care of this many, many, many, years ago. this was a disaster waiting to happen. As usual blame the Bush Administration. The State of New Orleans had no emergancy plan in case the leavys broke.

Answer 5

When the new administration took power, the work on the New Orleans levees was in progress and they used Congress to stop the renovations.Why?? I don't know, apparently it was a waste of money, so...Yes Bush had a lot to do with the tragedy

Answer 6

the local government for diverting funds away from the levee boards to make political pay outs. The levee boards for mishandling the funds they did get. The city for having a poor evacuation plan. The IDIOTS who stayed there with a five day notice AND didn't bother to even by a single bottle of water. The state for not asking for federal aid until 34 hours after the levees gave way. And finally FEMA for their disorganization once called in.

The US Coast Guard ( which does not need the OK by a governor to respond) is the ONLY agency that did their job to an outstanding degree....THANK GOD FOR THEM AND THEIR FAMILIES!

Answer 7

You are absolutely correct...
I lived in New Iberia LA for many years and I can tell you
that it is well accepted and known of the crime, corruption and
political mismanagement of New Orleans..
New Orleans is itself responsible for 90% of their own misery..
I have little sympathy for them..
And to make matters even worse, the turned around and
re-elected that worthless political hack Ray Nagin as mayor...

Answer 8

It was Bush. In order to have more money for tax cuts for the rich, he had to save somewhere. The $14 billion earmarked to protect New Orleans in case of severe hurricanes was like money you've wasted on insurance when your house does NOT burn down. He figured, he'd take the risk that the hurricane would not occur and then he'd have an extra $14 billion for tax cuts. Problem was, his luck didn't hold out. He lost the bet.

Answer 9

The mayor of N.O. and the governor of the state of LA. They are the ones who told FEMA that they didn't need help and that if and when they did they would call. So don't go blaming Bush or Fema or anyone else.

Bye the way ,like him or not, Bush is supposed to be capitalized!!!

Answer 10

Actually it's the state of Louisiana. New Orleans is a city.

And it was Thomas Jefferson, who decided that the best way to assure long term access to the Mississippi would be to purchase the city of New Orleans and the nearby portions of Louisiana east of the Mississippi. That resulted in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803.

Answer 11

The mayor of the city. And the Governor of the State. The federal Government dosn`t do anything until the Governor asks. And all she did was sit on her Fat @ss until it was to late.