LOUISIANA SENATOR MARY LANDRIEU on Bush's response to Katrina

(Senator Mary Landrieu, Democrat- Louisiana,

September 3, 2005, press release)
http://www.bu.edu/globalbeat/index.html#landrieu

 

LOUISIANA SENATOR MARY LANDRIEU ACCOMPANIED THE PRESIDENT
Senator Landrieu later commented: "Yesterday, I was hoping President Bush would come away from his tour of the regional devastation triggered by Hurricane Katrina with a new understanding for the magnitude of the
suffering and for the abject failures of the current Federal Emergency
Management Agency. 24 hours later, the President has yet to answer my call for a cabinet-level official to lead our efforts.

 

Meanwhile, FEMA, now a shell of what it once was, continues to be overwhelmed by the task at hand.

"I understand that the U.S. Forest Service had water-tanker aircraft
available to help douse the fires raging on our riverfront, but FEMA has
yet to accept the aid. When Amtrak offered trains to evacuate significant
numbers of victims -- far more efficiently than buses -- FEMA again
dragged its feet. Offers of medicine, communications equipment and other
desperately needed items continue to flow in, only to be ignored by the
agency.

"But perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th
Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I
saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on
a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again
this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday
we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo
opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast -- black and white, rich and poor, young and old -- deserve far better from their national
government..."
(Senator Mary Liandrieu, Democrat- Louisiana, September 3, 2005, press
release)
http://www.bu.edu/globalbeat/index.html#landrieu