Responsibility for Katrina evacuation
AP/Washington Times:
It is also revealing in another way as to why Louisiana has such dysfunctional government. No one on any level takes responsibility.
While the criticism of the Bush administration focused on questions of competence, the real problem was that they were trying to help people who would not take ownership of the problem. FEMA was always competent when dealing with government people in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama. What the Democrats want to suggest is that they were only incompetent when working with Democrats in Louisiana.
Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco recounted the state's preparations for Hurricane Katrina as she testified yesterday in the trial of two nursing home owners charged in the drowning deaths of patients who weren't evacuated during the storm.You mean it was not FEMA's and George Bush's responsibility? Democrats have been attempting to mislead us for two years and now here is the Democrat governor finally stating the obvious only after the Louisiana Supreme Court forced her to testify at this trial. You can bet that this want be at the top of the coverage on the two year retrospectives that are popular right now. But, this is a major revelation that the blogging community should not let the media bury.
Prosecutors called the governor as a witness after she fought a subpoena from attorneys for the two defendants, Mabel and Salvador Mangano.
The Manganos face 35 counts of negligent homicide. Prosecutors say they should have evacuated their patients from St. Rita's Nursing Home in St. Bernard Parish, a coastal parish near New Orleans that was wiped out by flooding when Katrina hit.
Defense attorneys say Mrs. Blanco and other public officials failed to organize an effective evacuation and help transport "at risk" people to high ground.
On the witness stand yesterday, Mrs. Blanco described three press conferences that she held two days before the storm struck two years ago.
"I strongly urged people to get themselves ready to leave the area. It appeared to be coming to Louisiana," she said.
Under cross-examination, Mrs. Blanco said she left it to local officials to decide whether to call mandatory evacuations.
The Manganos' trial was moved to St. Francisville, about 100 miles northwest of St. Bernard Parish, because it would have been difficult finding jurors in the slowly recovering parish.
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It is also revealing in another way as to why Louisiana has such dysfunctional government. No one on any level takes responsibility.
While the criticism of the Bush administration focused on questions of competence, the real problem was that they were trying to help people who would not take ownership of the problem. FEMA was always competent when dealing with government people in Florida, Mississippi and Alabama. What the Democrats want to suggest is that they were only incompetent when working with Democrats in Louisiana.
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