"The 35 Articles of Impeachment and the Case for Prosecuting George W. Bush"Hurricane Katrina and FEMA
See also Hurricane George. Also please pass a link to this page to your friends in an email. "http://www.impeachbush.tv/news/katrina_timeline.html"
Many thousands of local rescue and emergency personnel, National Guard and Coast Guard personnel served bravely across the three states saving many thousands of lives. But as one ascends the chain of command into the federal agencies, bravery is replaced by incompetence or worse. FEMA, Homeland Security and the military were unable or unwilling to coordinate their efforts. The top of the command pyramid was missing or incompetent. We need a strong leader in times of trouble. But who do we have? Bush. The same man who sat for seven minutes reading "My Pet Goat" after hearing of the 9/11 Attack.
Was the federal response to Katrina too slow? Here is a timeline of events that may help us decide.
People
- Blanco, Kathleen Babineaux = Louisiana Governor (D)
- Brown, Mike = Director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency
- Chertoff, Michael = Director of Homeland Security
- Nagin, Ray = New Orleans Mayor
Friday, August 26, 2005
Blanco declares a state of emergency for Louisiana in anticipation of Katrina's landfall. "It's always a huge concern, because there's a very large lake, Lake Pontchartrain, that sits next to New Orleans, and if the hurricane winds blow from a certain direction there are dire predictions of what may happen in that city," Blanco said. [CNN]
Saturday, August 27, 2005
Katrina strengthens to category 3 hurricane. Louisiana coastal residents told to evacuate. Bush declares state of emergency for Louisiana so we know he knew it was coming.
Sunday, August 28, 2005
9AM: Bush speaks by phone with Governors, including Blanco, about preparations for Katrina. [WhiteHouse]
Katrina strengthens to category 5 hurricane. New orleans Mayor Ray Nagin orders mandatory evacuation of New Orleans.
Brown and Chertoff briefed by National Hurricane Center on expected severity of Katrina and "warned of a storm surge capable of overtopping levees in New Orleans". [Times-Picayune]
Monday, August 29, 2005
7AM: Katrina makes landfall as a strong category 4 hurricane. Catastrophic damage occurs across three states mostly from storm surge. Parts of New Orleans under 20 feet of water. [CNN]
Late AM: 17th St levee gives way flooding a large part of New Orleans. [Times-Picayune]
Some 25 feet of standing water was expected in many parts of the city -- almost twice the height of the average home -- and computer models suggest that more than 80 percent of buildings would be badly damaged or destroyed, said Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center. [CNN]
12AM: Brown asks Chertoff for 2000 employees to arrive within new Orleans within 2 days. Brown's memo told employees that among their duties, they would be expected to "convey a positive image of disaster operations to government officials, community organizations and the general public." [Yahoo]
Bush spends the day promoting Medicare Benefits and also mentions Katrina at about 5PM CDT: "For those of you who prayed for the folks in that area, I want to thank you for your prayers. For those of you who are concerned about whether or not we're prepared to help, don't be. We are. We're in place. We've got equipment in place, supplies in place. And once the -- once we're able to assess the damage, we'll be able to move in and help those good folks in the affected areas. (Applause.)" And has time for a joke about Dr. McClellan "Here you got on stage a C student and a Ph.D., and look who's President. (Applause.)" [WhiteHouse]
Tuesday, August 30, 2005
1AM: CNN report "Many were feared dead in flooded neighborhoods still under as much as 20 feet of water." [CNN]
A team of volunteer firefighters from Houston with rescue equipment and tools, packed into boats along with all the emergency supplies they could carry is told to wait by FEMA. By Thursday night most give up waiting and return home. The rest return home Saturday night. [DailyKOS]
Bush spends the day in San Diego commemorating VJ Day. Says this about Katrina: "Right now our priority is on saving lives, and we are still in the midst of search and rescue operations." Returns that night to Crawford Texas to finish his vacation. [WhiteHouse]
More than 1,200 people were rescued Monday by local personnel and Coast Guard. A Coast Guard spokesman said Tuesday night that rescuers "really have no idea" how many people remain stranded. [CNN]
Wednesday, August 31, 2005
Floodwaters continue to rise. Conditions deteriorating in Super Dome. Citizens continue to perish in New Orleans. [CNN]
FEMA calls for massive relief effort. [CNN]
A group of doctors in Prince William County with experience in violence-racked international missions told FEMA that they were eager to send a team to hard-hit areas. FEMA passed them to the Red Cross, which said it referred them back to federal health officials. The group and its emergency medical trailer remain in Manassas as of 9/3. [WashingtonPost]
A rescue team with 1000 citizens from Lafayette, LA with 500 boats and a police escort are turned away from the edge of new Orleans by FEMA. The group was organized by State Senator Nick Gautreaux and was composed of experienced fishermen and outdoorsmen. The group then offered to evacuate people from hospitals but were ordered home by FEMA. They were then directed to a launch area where they watched over 200 FEMA controlled DWF agents stand around for several hours doing nothing. They were sent home that evening without being allowed to serve. [DailyKOS]
Thursday, September 1, 2005
Three Duke University students, Hans Buder, Sonny Byrd and David Hankla, decided to help. They jumped in their Hyundai Allantra and drove to New Orleans. They had to forge press credentials to get past the National Guards but once past it only took 20 minutes to drive easily to the Super Dome where thousands awaited evacuation. Says Buder, "We saw 150 empty buses driving the other way on I-10 as we were going into the city." In their video you can see one after another empty school bus on the freeway. Local officials cannot explain this. Federal officials said they were frantically looking for busses and couldn't find them. This is documented in a CNN website video titled "Duke students beat feds in aiding stranded victims" published Sept 7, 2005. [CNN transcript]
Twenty-two Loudoun County sheriff's deputies and six medical personnel leave for the New Orleans area but are turned away because of poor communication between military FEMA officials in Louisiana and Virginia that left the team without required approvals. The Loudoun deputies have shelved their mission until the bureaucratic wrangling has been resolved. [WashingtonPost]
Uri Bar Zemer, owner of a satellite phone company in Rhode island, offered a satellite phone network capable of handling 5000 phone calls at once. The New Orleans Police and other agencies have been complaining that their work is seriously hampered by the complete lack of communications capability. Zemer has been unable to get permission as of 9/8, a week later. [CNN Video 9/8]
Friday, September 2, 2005
Federal officials tried to wrest authority from Governor Blanco. Shortly before midnight Friday, the Bush administration sent her a proposed legal memorandum asking her to request a federal takeover of the evacuation of New Orleans, a source within the state's emergency operations center said Saturday. [WashingtonPost]
Saturday, September 3, 2005
U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, D-La said “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." [NewsChannel6]
President Bush authorized the dispatch of 7,200 active-duty ground troops to the area -- the first major commitment of regular ground forces in the crisis. They are scheduled to arrive within three days. The Pentagon announced that an additional 10,000 National Guard troops will be sent to Louisiana and Mississippi, raising the total Guard contingent to about 40,000. Super Dome finally evacuated. [WashingtonPost]
Sunday September 4, 2005
In a Meet the Press interview President of Jefferson Parish, Aaron Broussard blasts FEMA: "Sir, they were told like me, every single day, "The cavalry's coming," on a federal level, "The cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming, the cavalry's coming." I have just begun to hear the hoofs of the cavalry. The cavalry's still not here yet, but I've begun to hear the hoofs, and we're almost a week out.
Let me give you just three quick examples. We had Wal-Mart deliver three trucks of water, trailer trucks of water. FEMA turned them back. They said we didn't need them. This was a week ago. FEMA--we had 1,000 gallons of diesel fuel on a Coast Guard vessel docked in my parish. The Coast Guard said, "Come get the fuel right away." When we got there with our trucks, they got a word. "FEMA says don't give you the fuel." Yesterday--yesterday--FEMA comes in and cuts all of our emergency communication lines. They cut them without notice. Our sheriff, Harry Lee, goes back in, he reconnects the line. He posts armed guards on our line and says, "No one is getting near these lines." Sheriff Harry Lee said that if America--American government would have responded like Wal-Mart has responded, we wouldn't be in this crisis. [MeetThePress]
Wednesday, September 7, 2005
FEMA sets up temporary morgue in St. Gabriel, LA to handle truckloads of bodies. [CNN]
Hearings into slow response by federal government cancelled according to Republican House Majority Leader Tom Delay. [CNN]
FEMA requests that no photos be taken of the dead be taken by the press. Refuses to allow press to ride along in boats. This is reminiscent of the Pentagon policy of hiding images of Iraqi war dead. [LATimes]
Thursday September 8, 2005
CNN reports in a video that Sweden offered a critically needed water purification system. Their transport plane has been sitting on the tarmac for days waiting for approval.
Nancy Pelosi, House Minority Leader, called on the president to fire Michael Brown, director of FEMA. Brown and Chertoff have come under intense criticism. "I think we had a natural disaster, we all know that for sure. I think we had a second disaster in the manmade mistakes following Katrina," Pelosi said. She said Bush was unaware of the many problems reported by the media and called him "oblivious, in denial, dangerous". [CNNVideo]
Friday September 9, 2005
Top U.S. disaster official Michael Brown, under fire over the federal response to Hurricane Katrina, cited prior emergency-management experience in an official biography but his duties were "more like an intern,". [Time]
FEMA chief Michael Brown was replaced with Coast Guard Vice Adm. Thad Allen as the man in charge of relief for Hurricane Katrina. [CNN]
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell criticized the slow response to Katrina. [CNN]
Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco said that radio equipment and portable generators she requested from the federal government a week ago had yet to arrive. Federal officials said they were tracking down the status of the items. [CNN]
Saturday September 10, 2005
It didn't take long for Bush to begin handing out cash to his cronies. Shaw Group and Halliburton have already received over $100M for reconstruction. Both companies have close ties to the White House. Dick Cheney was CEO of Halliburton between 1995 and 2000 when he left for the White House. Halliburton has received over $9billion for Iraq. Meanwhile, construction workers who live in New Orleans are being evacuated against their will. [CNN]
Tuesday September 13, 2005
President Bush said he takes responsibility for the federal government's failures in responding to Hurricane Katrina. "Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government and to the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility." said Bush. [CNN]
Resources
"Many Evacuated, but Thousands Still Waiting, White House Shifts Blame to State and Local Officials", by Manuel Roig-Franzia and Spencer Hsu, Washington Post Staff Writers, Sunday, September 4, 2005
"War on the Poor in New Orleans 2: The Attempt to Declare Martial Law" insightful analysis by Mick Arran
Interview with New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin by CNN on September 2.
"Katrina TimeLine" by Think Progress
Navy ship USS Bataan sits offshore unused.
List of strange FEMA behavior at DefenseTech.org
State of the Art Mobile Hospital turned Away
"Breakdowns Marked Path From Hurricane to Anarchy" New York Times
