Reality is always present, and truth is present in the perception of that reality.
No matter where the failure was actually present in the reality of the disaster, the perception of an inadequate response is based upon the reality that was present each day after the levees broke- no food, no water, and no coordinated effort to supply the basic needs for life support to the vicitims of the disaster.
Further perception is based upon the truh within this reality: It was not a local or regional disaster-it was a disaster on a National scale-hundreds of thousands homeless, thousands dead, and energy supplies to the rest of the nation severely curtailed.
Failure in planning for this disaster would be perceived as Local, State, and Federal failure to adequately protect the health and safety of tax-paying citizens living below sea level. Local government is repsonsible to prepare an Emergency Action Plan for a major disaster. All Agencies are required to review and approve the plan, as requierd by FEMA regulations.
If there was a plan, it was not carried out. But with reports of 60% of the local police force (an intregal part of the plan) turning in their badges, and the possiblity the emergency responders were over-whelmed with individual rescues-it is possible that the perception will be that the local government had neither the personnel nor the equipment (underwater) to enact the plan.
The State government is responsible to provide partial funding for emergency services and to take all necessary actions to defend and protect the economic well-being of its citizens. In the time of a state-wide emergency, there is an office of emergency management that would coordinate the emergency response. The state authorizes the National Guard to become involved, State Police to become involved, and all other State agencies, such as the Environmental, Highway, etc. to provide support and assistance in a repsonse to a major emergency. The reality that may be perceived is that the State government failed to realize the national scope of the tragedy, was attempting to treat it as a regional issue, perhaps even a local problem, and was slow in authorizing adequate resources to be moved into the area.
If the perception becomes that the Sate failed to realize the size and seriousness of the disaster, then the Sates also did not make a serious enough efffort to involved the Federal Government.
The Fderal Government will be perceived as having the greatest responsibilty in a National crisis-only the Ferderal government has the resources to respond to a National emergency with massive amounts of equipment, supplies, and manpower. The reality that is perceived is that the initial Federal response was severely inadequate. Complaints over FEMA's handling of last year's disasters of hurricanes that struck FLorida were commonly reported in the News. FEMA has been perceived as doing a credible job of coordinating paperwork for relief requests. However, in the recent spring flooding in Pennsylvania and New Jersey along the Dealware River, FEMA has been severely criticized for their decision to grant feeral disaster relief monies to Pennsylvania while refusing the same aid tro New Jersey. Many Nwe jersey towns that suffered severe damage have passed Resolutions condeming FEMA's decisions and demanding Federal intervention and invesitgation into FEMA practices. Therefore, there is a perception among those who have worked with FEMA that this agency is slow to provide immediate aid, fast at getting relief applications processed, and difficult to get approval and subsequent funds from.Add to this recent history a Director of FEMA who pulicly stressd on more than one newscast that he is "fascinated" at all the people crawling out of the woodwork. His interviews on CBS, FOX NEWS, and CNN, create the perception of a man who does not understand the gravity of the disaster, waits for his aides to tell him what he needs to know, or finds out from the television news where the victims are gathering. His words are reality in the present and our perceptions are based upon his words.
The Director of Homeland Security appears on television but does not appear to have left his home state to go to the disaster area. His agency has been perceived, thanks to Tom Ridge and the color coded alert system, as a slow moving dinosaur carrrying many smaller dinosaur agencies on its back. Even the computer system his agency stated would be the communication and data-base marvel of the world has been dramtically scaled back and the function of his department simplified. The Director is perceived to be intellectually superior, yet lacks the drive needed to lead the disaster relief.
The Army Corp of Engineers is peceived as an agency, under the direction of the US Army, as the same agency that designed the levees that failed when the Mississippi River flooded in the 1990's. The system failed to contain the river and whole towns were flooded and destroyed. The Corp was working on a program to raise the height of the levees and some work had been partially completed. However, the Corp also has a long-standing reputation as an Agency that is slow to review, slow to permit, and slow to implement their plans. Recent efforts to fill the breeches was 3000 pound sandbags was witnessed on national televsion. Any child who has dammed a stream wth rocks will tell you that their engineering was faulty. The reality is the idea did not work, the perception is the Corp cannot think "out of the box" to find a solution. However, a flood of this magnitude may be more than any single agency could enginner a immediate solution for- so the perception is based more upon the san bags when it should have been based upon the inadequte levee system that was common knowledge for many years.
All these Federal agencies fall under the direction of the Executive Branch of the Government. The Agency Directors were either appointed by the President or, if not, then operating under the his direction. Decisions to cut funding for levee upgrades is perceived to have been made by the President. There is some truth in this perception-however, Congress adopts the budget, and not always the same budget proposed by ther President. Since Congress is Republican and so its the President, it may be perceived that the President proposed the cuts, and his party approved those cuts.
The President is limited in the powers he can bring to bear upon a disaster, without first receiving requests for assistance from the State. However, the Mayor of New Orleans, in a now famous radio interview, pointed out that the people of Iraq did not ask for us to bring liberty to their shores and he did so anyway. The reality is that the President spetn 5 weeks at his ranch, then flew over the disaster area on his way to DC a few days early. The perception is he didnt care. That perception is based upon is actions, comments, and perceived attitude towrds the disaster. The truth present in his reality is that his demeanor rarely changes fm day to day. He described it as getting on with his life, when questioned recently about his refusal to meet Cindy Sheehan.
The truth is he has committed, rather than initiate a draft, thousands of NAtional Guard troops to Iraq. It has been widely reported in the press for the past two years that our armed forces were stratched too thin. The perception is he didnt leave enough National Guard troops in the states for emergency responce. The truth is we never had 80% of a major city flood before.
The President may be perceived by many as having apoointed the wrong people into the top positions of these federal agencies, of not doing enough innitially to help get basic supplies to the victims, in not providing adequate funding to improve the infrastructure of the levees.
In the end the President may be preceived as having failed to provide immediate help to the city, the state, and most imprtantly to the unfortunate citizens who suffered and died,. but his greatest failure may actualy have been his policy decisions on the agencies he directed, included his choice of agency heads.
Prediction: He may never recover from this politially and will be viewed, in a historical context, as the one of the worst Presidents in American History.
This is based upon a simple perception- that there is no amount af spin that his aide's can make that can offset the images of the dying and suffering people of New Orleans. He can keep the cameras from photgraphing the coffins of our dead soldiers as they arrive home every day- but the inmages of New Orleans, like 9/11, will never be forgotten.
No matter where the failure was actually present in the reality of the disaster, the perception of an inadequate response is based upon the reality that was present each day after the levees broke- no food, no water, and no coordinated effort to supply the basic needs for life support to the vicitims of the disaster.
Further perception is based upon the truh within this reality: It was not a local or regional disaster-it was a disaster on a National scale-hundreds of thousands homeless, thousands dead, and energy supplies to the rest of the nation severely curtailed.
Failure in planning for this disaster would be perceived as Local, State, and Federal failure to adequately protect the health and safety of tax-paying citizens living below sea level. Local government is repsonsible to prepare an Emergency Action Plan for a major disaster. All Agencies are required to review and approve the plan, as requierd by FEMA regulations.
If there was a plan, it was not carried out. But with reports of 60% of the local police force (an intregal part of the plan) turning in their badges, and the possiblity the emergency responders were over-whelmed with individual rescues-it is possible that the perception will be that the local government had neither the personnel nor the equipment (underwater) to enact the plan.
The State government is responsible to provide partial funding for emergency services and to take all necessary actions to defend and protect the economic well-being of its citizens. In the time of a state-wide emergency, there is an office of emergency management that would coordinate the emergency response. The state authorizes the National Guard to become involved, State Police to become involved, and all other State agencies, such as the Environmental, Highway, etc. to provide support and assistance in a repsonse to a major emergency. The reality that may be perceived is that the State government failed to realize the national scope of the tragedy, was attempting to treat it as a regional issue, perhaps even a local problem, and was slow in authorizing adequate resources to be moved into the area.
If the perception becomes that the Sate failed to realize the size and seriousness of the disaster, then the Sates also did not make a serious enough efffort to involved the Federal Government.
The Fderal Government will be perceived as having the greatest responsibilty in a National crisis-only the Ferderal government has the resources to respond to a National emergency with massive amounts of equipment, supplies, and manpower. The reality that is perceived is that the initial Federal response was severely inadequate. Complaints over FEMA's handling of last year's disasters of hurricanes that struck FLorida were commonly reported in the News. FEMA has been perceived as doing a credible job of coordinating paperwork for relief requests. However, in the recent spring flooding in Pennsylvania and New Jersey along the Dealware River, FEMA has been severely criticized for their decision to grant feeral disaster relief monies to Pennsylvania while refusing the same aid tro New Jersey. Many Nwe jersey towns that suffered severe damage have passed Resolutions condeming FEMA's decisions and demanding Federal intervention and invesitgation into FEMA practices. Therefore, there is a perception among those who have worked with FEMA that this agency is slow to provide immediate aid, fast at getting relief applications processed, and difficult to get approval and subsequent funds from.Add to this recent history a Director of FEMA who pulicly stressd on more than one newscast that he is "fascinated" at all the people crawling out of the woodwork. His interviews on CBS, FOX NEWS, and CNN, create the perception of a man who does not understand the gravity of the disaster, waits for his aides to tell him what he needs to know, or finds out from the television news where the victims are gathering. His words are reality in the present and our perceptions are based upon his words.
The Director of Homeland Security appears on television but does not appear to have left his home state to go to the disaster area. His agency has been perceived, thanks to Tom Ridge and the color coded alert system, as a slow moving dinosaur carrrying many smaller dinosaur agencies on its back. Even the computer system his agency stated would be the communication and data-base marvel of the world has been dramtically scaled back and the function of his department simplified. The Director is perceived to be intellectually superior, yet lacks the drive needed to lead the disaster relief.
The Army Corp of Engineers is peceived as an agency, under the direction of the US Army, as the same agency that designed the levees that failed when the Mississippi River flooded in the 1990's. The system failed to contain the river and whole towns were flooded and destroyed. The Corp was working on a program to raise the height of the levees and some work had been partially completed. However, the Corp also has a long-standing reputation as an Agency that is slow to review, slow to permit, and slow to implement their plans. Recent efforts to fill the breeches was 3000 pound sandbags was witnessed on national televsion. Any child who has dammed a stream wth rocks will tell you that their engineering was faulty. The reality is the idea did not work, the perception is the Corp cannot think "out of the box" to find a solution. However, a flood of this magnitude may be more than any single agency could enginner a immediate solution for- so the perception is based more upon the san bags when it should have been based upon the inadequte levee system that was common knowledge for many years.
All these Federal agencies fall under the direction of the Executive Branch of the Government. The Agency Directors were either appointed by the President or, if not, then operating under the his direction. Decisions to cut funding for levee upgrades is perceived to have been made by the President. There is some truth in this perception-however, Congress adopts the budget, and not always the same budget proposed by ther President. Since Congress is Republican and so its the President, it may be perceived that the President proposed the cuts, and his party approved those cuts.
The President is limited in the powers he can bring to bear upon a disaster, without first receiving requests for assistance from the State. However, the Mayor of New Orleans, in a now famous radio interview, pointed out that the people of Iraq did not ask for us to bring liberty to their shores and he did so anyway. The reality is that the President spetn 5 weeks at his ranch, then flew over the disaster area on his way to DC a few days early. The perception is he didnt care. That perception is based upon is actions, comments, and perceived attitude towrds the disaster. The truth present in his reality is that his demeanor rarely changes fm day to day. He described it as getting on with his life, when questioned recently about his refusal to meet Cindy Sheehan.
The truth is he has committed, rather than initiate a draft, thousands of NAtional Guard troops to Iraq. It has been widely reported in the press for the past two years that our armed forces were stratched too thin. The perception is he didnt leave enough National Guard troops in the states for emergency responce. The truth is we never had 80% of a major city flood before.
The President may be perceived by many as having apoointed the wrong people into the top positions of these federal agencies, of not doing enough innitially to help get basic supplies to the victims, in not providing adequate funding to improve the infrastructure of the levees.
In the end the President may be preceived as having failed to provide immediate help to the city, the state, and most imprtantly to the unfortunate citizens who suffered and died,. but his greatest failure may actualy have been his policy decisions on the agencies he directed, included his choice of agency heads.
Prediction: He may never recover from this politially and will be viewed, in a historical context, as the one of the worst Presidents in American History.
This is based upon a simple perception- that there is no amount af spin that his aide's can make that can offset the images of the dying and suffering people of New Orleans. He can keep the cameras from photgraphing the coffins of our dead soldiers as they arrive home every day- but the inmages of New Orleans, like 9/11, will never be forgotten.
