After the evacuation of New-Orleans,
all America questions itself
L was not necessary a half-day, Saturday September 3, to empty the
Center of the conferences and Superdome, the giant stage of New-Orleans,
where thousands of people piled up since the passage of the Katrina cyclone,
Monday August 29. The operation was carried out with 1 000 national guards
only. Instead of the buses, it is in the plane that the refugees were evacuated,
at the time of the largest interior airlift of the American history. With
the disappearance of the scenes of chaos which shocked the whole world,
came the questions: Why the authorities didn't act more quickly? Why so
late? All the actors armed, first-aid workers were ready. The
Katrina cyclone was announced since August 24. The FEMA (Federal Emergency
Agency Management), the federal agency in charge of the emergency helps,
had even made up two teams of veterinary surgeons to deal with the wounded
animals. But nothing was activated in time.
Bankruptcies of interior safety
It was the first test for the department of interior safety, created after September 11, 2001 (180 000 employees; a budget of 40 billion). For one of the Members of the Commission of 11-September, Timothy Roemer, quoted by Washington Post , " we spent of the billion dollars to try to protect us and we did not make progress ". The representative Bernie Thomson took, on his side, the example of the pipelines " If the consequence from what occurred to New-Orleans east that we have this oil crisis in all the country, that does not make a difference that they were struck by a cyclone or a terrorist ."
Like September 11, 2001, the persons in charge were handicapped by a
problem for communications. "the head of the police force could not speak
to the mayor because their cellular telephones did not work any more and
that their radios did not communicate" , deplored the democratic sénatrice
Mary Landrieu in the New York Times . ( Corresp .)
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Financial assistances and medical
The international community started to send of the assistance to the
United States which accepted, Sunday September 4, the assistance of UNO.
A team of coordination went in the American capital. Two emirates of the
Arabo-Persian Gulf, Koweït and Qatar, were shown particularly generous
with respectively 500 million dollars of gifts in petroleum products and
100 million dollars. The European Union, for its part, announced in Brussels
that the United States had required an emergency aid of him in the form
of medical kits, of water and 500 000 feed rations. NATO also received
a request for feed rations. Several European countries, whose France, already
passed to work. The offers of assistance emanate from any share, y compis
of country poor such Afghanistan or Bangladesh or of hostile governments,
of which those of Venezuela or Cuba. President Bush did not answer the
proposal of Fidel Castro yet to send 1 500 doctors (AFP.)
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Mr. Bush defers his meeting with Hu Jintao
After several days of hesitation, the administration of George Bush
from now on very whole is mobilized around the tragedy of New-Orleans.
Chinese George Bush and its counterpart, Hu Jintao, are agreed to sine
die defer the meeting which they were to have, Wednesday September 7, in
Washington to try to level a certain number of disagreements, in particular
dispute on the Chinese textile. The American president was to turn over,
Monday, in the zones disaster victims. In order to make conceal criticisms
on the passivity intitiale of the team Bush, the Secretary of State, Condoleezza
Rice, and Donald Rumsfeld, the secretary with defense, moved, Sunday, on
the ground. "That will take many, many, many months, and even of the years
so that this area finds the former circumstances ", Mr. Rumsfeld declared.
M me Rice affirms, on its side, being convinced that racism did not play
any role in the slowness of the helps. "I am afro-American, I am of Alabama,
I can say to you that this reaction has nothing to do with the color of
the skin ", it has says (AFP.)
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The failures of the political power mix with the bureaucratic reasons. The Red Cross did not bring food because of the insecurity. President George Bush did not send the army immediately. Tens of thousands of people were left without water nor food after having lost their houses. During one week, the Katrina cyclone remained a catastrophe without assessment. The authorities refused to advance estimates. Nobody collected the bodies. Sunday, one spoke only about 59 dead in New-Orleans, 125 in Mississippi. Then the authorities started to prepare the Americans to be seen assembling the figures. The person in charge for interior safety, Michael Chertoff, prevented that there would be "atrocious scenes" when water would ebb. The secretary with health announced "thousands of deaths" .
Was the disaster foreseeable?
The president thinks that it was not it. "I do not think that anyone anticipated the rupture of the dams" , it declared the 1 er September. Mr. Chertoff made the same analysis, comparing the rupture of water reserves with a "atomic bomb" which would have come to be added to the foreseeable elements (cyclone and momentary overflow). The disaster was however largely announced. Of "Hurricane Zebra" in 2000 in "Hurricane WFP" in 2004, several exercises had been organized (but on the basis of cyclone of category 3 and not 4). Last year, the appropriations assigned by the federal State to the body of the engineers of the army had been cut down by half and the assessment had not been drawn.
Why everyone wasn't it evacuated?
The mayor issued an obligatory evacuation Sunday 28, that is to say the passage day before of Katrina. But nothing had been planned for disinherited. The FEMA affirms that it was allocated to the mayor to rent coaches. It would have been necessary some more than 2 000. There too, the problem was known. A study of the university of New-Orleans had estimated that 125 000 people did not have means of transport. The caritative organization Brother' S Keeper had launched an operation in the churches to put in contact the owners of vehicles and the others. The cyclone intervened at the end of the month, at one moment when thousands of people awaited the cheque of the social assistance and the means did not have of leaving.
Why did nobody come to help the refugees of Superdome?
The army: according to a law of 1878, the soldiers of active do not have the right to be engaged on the national ground for missions of maintenance of law and order, except ruling from the Chair. As of Tuesday 30, the Pentagon created a task force. "But the law forces to us to await the authorization of the president" , said one of the officers of US Northern Command, the commander Sean Kelly with the BBC.
The police force of New-Orleans: it disintegrated. Exceeded, 200 police officers (out of 1 500) left their station. Two committed suicide. A number of police cars were submerged by water. The police officers had to make like everyone and to be useful themselves in the street. Soon their cars "of loan" missed gasoline. They wiped shootings.
National guard: it is with it that returns the maintenance of law and order and civil defense. It is placed under the authority of the governors of the States. The lieutenant-General Steven Blum, the head of the national guard, indicated, Saturday, that its troops had not entered the city earlier because they had not envisaged the collapse of the civil police force. Then, it waited to have sufficient manpower "to have a crushing superiority" . "If we had entered earlier with a less manpower, it could y have had a response. The innocent ones could have been taken in the brawl (...) We made come from the troops, at a rate of 1 400 per day, and as soon as we could have the sufficient force, the troops were conveyed on the spot ",
The Red Cross: it did not receive the green light to enter New-Orleans. "the access is controlled by the national guard and the local authorities. We cannot enter against their orders. We cannot convey the assistance as long as the local authorities do not provide safety and access ", explains association on its Web site. The department of national safety also asked him not to return in the city after the cyclone. "Our presence would prevent people from evacuating."
Federal agencies: the director of the FEMA, Michael Brown, caused indignation when he said, Thursday, that the federal government did not know that there were refugees in the Center of the conferences, whereas it was enough to light television. Michael Brown is not a professional of the humanitarian but it is one of the persons in charge for the republican Party of Oklahoma. The persons in charge for the FEMA blame the local authorities, which are not unaware of that the federal assistance cannot arrive before a deadline from 72 to 96 hours. The local authorities criticize slownesses of the FEMA. The American Association of the ambulances proposed 300 vehicles. It was seen asking an authorization of the administration of the general services. Which claimed, as a preliminary, a request of the FEMA. The ambulances never took the road.
La Louisiane paye-t-elle à cause de l'Irak ?
Pour la gauche, La Nouvelle-Orléans est à porter au nombre des "victimes de guerre" . 40 % de la garde nationale de Louisiane est en Irak (soit 3 800 soldats). Le président Bush a réfuté cet argument. Selon lui, le pays est en mesure de couvrir les deux fronts. Les gouverneurs sont liés par des pactes d'assistance mutuelle. Le gouvernement fédéral reproche à la gouverneur la démocrate Kathleen Blanco de ne pas avoir fait appel plus vite aux troupes des autres Etats. Mais d'après le pacte, les troupes sont prêtées pour des tâches de défense civile, pas de maintien de l'ordre. Il a fallu un nouvel échange de fax pour que les gardes des autres Etats puissent être envoyés dans le centre-ville.
Où était le président Bush ?
M. Bush se voit reprocher, jusque chez les républicains, de ne pas avoir pris la mesure de la catastrophe. Mardi 30 août, il était à une commémoration militaire à San Diego, sur la côte Pacifique. Il est rentré le lendemain à Washington. Son avion n'a fait que survoler les zones dévastées. Les autres responsables n'étaient pas non plus présents pour l'alerter. Andrew Card, le secrétaire général de la Maison Blanche, était dans le Maine. Condoleezza Rice était en visite privée à New York. Elle a été aperçue en train de s'acheter des chaussures chez Ferragamo sur la 5e Avenue. Dès dimanche, elle était en mission de solidarité dans son Etat natal, l'Alabama. Des auditions sur Katrina sont prévues au Sénat dès mardi 6 septembre.