L.A. Comes To LA's Rescue*
Later this weekend, I'll have some commentary on what I think was the Federal Government's mismanagement of providing resouces to local public safety officials in New Orleans in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. I'll also look at the preparation efforts of Louisiana local and state officials too.Yesterday, much to the chagrin of some of you, I posted my gratitude for how well prepared Los Angeles is for disasters. We all saw that in the immediate and long term aftermath of the 1994 Northridge Quake. I still feel that our local elected officials in Los Angeles - despite my disagreements with them on other issues - are the best prepared on the issue of emergency preparedness. As well, the thousands of men and women who work for our local police and fire departments - as well as other agencies - are the best of the best.
I'm a registered, middle of the road Republican who generally supports the President. I'm not going to pin the blame just yet on President Bush for the poor response, but I am going to be looking into it. Mismanagement is mismanagement. It does seem to me that the Clinton era federal emeregency officials responded far better to the many emergencies during those years. But I need to read up more and think more about that before I say for sure.
Back to the issue at hand, I am filled with Los Angeles pride as I turn on Fox News and see them continue to mention our fire fighters are on the scene and ready to go, ahead of federal rescue teams. It says alot about or Mayor, City Council and the County Board of Supervisors that we are able to do this and have the track record of performance to even be asked to help.
* Many of you have pointed out the need for all of us to contribute to the relief efforts and I completely agree. In my view, the best way to help is to give money to the relief givers rather than to collect and try to ship in clothing, food, etc. I believe the best way to do that is to donate to the Red Cross. We have a link to them on the right hand side of the page, above our site counter.
If any of you have any information about donating to local foundations that could help recoup the LAFD's and LACFD's expenses in helping New Orleans, we'll be glad to post that.
Posted by Mayor Sam @ 9/02/2005 07:29:00 AM
18 Comments:
Mayor Sam Lives!
I'm proud of our Fire Department.
I hope they have a safe experience in LA's rescue efforts. God Bless them and the victims.
To all bloggers. If you have not helped or donated money to help, please do so. The urgency is there, please help these people.
From concerned blogger.
Mayor Sam:
Thank you for your kind words. The specially-trained Los Angeles Firefighters now working along the Gulf Coast come from Neighborhood Fire Stations throughout our City.
Please know that these men and women, who earlier this week were responding to "routine" calls for emergency aid in our community, are keenly aware - and deeply proud - to be both rescuers and Ambassadors assisting the afflicted on behalf of all Angelenos.
The reports we've received from locations far from television cameras are both heartbreaking and inspirational. It is difficult, even with such immense amounts of information, to fully grasp the wrath of Hurrican Katrina.
I'm confident that regular readers of Mayor Sam's Sister City will reach out now to assist their fellow Americans in need. It takes little more than a phone call or the click of a mouse to bring hope and help to those who are suffering.
Keeping Los Angeles prepared for disaster is a journey and not a destination, it is also something we can't do alone.
We're glad to have your support Mayor Sam - even if you've been out of office for decades!
Respectfully Yours in Safety and Service,
Brian Humphrey
Firefighter/Specialist
Public Service Officer
Los Angeles Fire Department
LAFD Home Page: www.lafd.org
Nice attempt to "clean up" from yesterday's stupid post. No matter how you slice it, it is ignorantly presumptuous to assume everything will be just fine when the Big One hits because you have faith in LA's politicians and emergency response.
Comparing the Northridge Earthquake to Hurricane Katrina isn’t even comparing apples to oranges. Your allusion to Northridge would make more sense if 80% of the city of Los Angeles had been leveled or made uninhabitable by the quake, if 80% of the city had somehow been out-of-town when it hit (including store owners, transportation providers, medical professionals, and probably a good number of police officers and firefighters), and if the people left in the city were those without resources of their own and they ALL had to be rescued and/or evacuated (all 750,000 of them, 20% of the city). Add to that that the I-10 ended up blocked post-quake. If that happened but everything went smoothly, your post would make sense.
We should all hope and pray that if (when) a catastrophe of that magnitude hits LA that we all, with the help of dedicated police, fire, and medical professional, survive and get through it with minimal destruction and loss of life. If everything doesn’t progress perfectly, I hope that the rest of the U.S. wouldn’t sit back in haughtiness saying “L.A. is F-cked”, trash our local politicians and emergency response, and talk about how they’re glad they don’t live here while thousands are dying and local (and state) emergency response is doing all it can to save lives.
Your post from yesterday was stupid and obviously slanted seeing that somehow the Bush administration was absolved of any responsibility for aid and assistance. Of course, now after your outing you’re trying to correct those mistakes. I greatly appreciate the work that police officers, firefighters, etc. do and I’m thankful that L.A. is able to send emergency assistance to N.O. I can be proud of them without trashing the people of New Orleans.
Mr Humphrey,
It is great to see individuals like yourself participate at this blog site to help the victims affected by the hurricane. I an anon blogger appreciate it. I am also proud of our LAFD and other safety departments that always put their lives at stake to save others. God Bless All Of YOU.
I am proud of the LA FD and PD.
especially when I read reports in the Times-Picayune of New Orleans on line edition that 40-50% of the New ORleans police abandoned thier post.
And on an unreleated note:
I read in todays Daily news(valley) that Mayor Sam has a public Identity (a day after you posted it).
Keep up the good work Mr. Higby
"Its not the Fed's responsibility. Public safety is a local function."
Wow. What a lovely quote from good ol'd Mayor Sam. Somebody tell Bush to relax. Let New Orleans fend for itself. And when the Big One hits, we don't want no stinkin' feds to help. We'll have it all covered. Brilliant!
burtb, a full evacuation of New Orleans was ordered.
LAPD stood by and did nothing during the eruption of the 1992 riots.
We usually take care of our own shit anon. The fed send the checks after the fact. What state do you live in New York?
11:23 AM The persons that stayed for their own unknown reasons, did disobey. For those that are poor or no transportation, well you have a mouth, use it, ask your politician to help you get the hell out of there before the hurricane had hit. There are so many activists pointing fingers (lefties) such as Jesse Jackso Jr., why did they not use their strong arm and the Nation of Islam or who ever and provided $$$ to move people out of there. They didn't and also did not push Kathleeen Blanco to provide buses to the poor before hand. She is a commie advocate, what happened, she slept on the wheel. Did she do Fidel Castro a favor, who knows.
So now it's Jesse Jackson and the NOI's responsibility? Brilliant. Are they supposed to get $$$ to rescue and evacuate only the black people or the whites too? Only the Christians and Muslims or the Jewish too?
The Black Panthers made efforts to provide resource support in inner-city communities in light of governmental neglect. The feds did their best to eliminate this organization. What makes you think our current government would welcome any mass fundraising and mobilization effort from NOI?? Especially if they're usurping the government’s responsibilities. You people are on crack!
No prev. anon, you are on crack. NOI is spreading a lie, they are making this an issue of color. I don't expect anything from them other than what they expect from the gov. They cry foul after the tragic event, said it could have been prevented, then where the hell were they before this mess. No where. Now, they are pimping themselves on national tv to get exposure. TV WHORES> that is all they are. They cried race from the get go, and now you say my post expects them to do everything, on the contrary, I expect them to bond together as Americans with other people of the U.S., stop CRYING, and start HELPING.
1:04 Look crackhead, as stated in another post Jesse Jackson, NOI, etc. are not responsible for raising money in a few days for something they already pay taxes for the government to do. They have a right to demand action. You crackheads act like they should sit on the sidelines and not have an opinion on what they see as neglect and non-response. Better yet, they should just say "New Orleans is F-cked" like Mayor Sam did. As for being TV whores, who places them in the media? Who decides to quote them in papers or put cameras in their faces? Suckas.
Suckas? Yea, this is what Jesse Jackson Jr. is saying right about now. He must be sitting at his desk playing with numbers. How much will I get from this person, that organization, money is good. Rainbow Coalition from Daddy Sr. must be low on funds to pay for his illegitimate children while married and girlfriends they have on the side. Please! Tell me another story on how these "color based" organizations contribute, they pimp themselves on television cry cry cry until gov releases funds for the racist agendas or private sector caves in.
What very few people seem to remember is that when the Northridge earthquake hit our Republican Governor was out of the state. It was Lieutenant Governor Grey Davis who led the response. A respone I might add that exceeded all predictions of what could be done after an earthquake of that size.
1:49 PM. Yes. And it works. They keep on trucking, keep living it up, the media have heralded them as leaders, and they are constantly in the national spotlight. And you? You know who he is and he has no clue you exist. You're a bitter sucka!!
4:51 Oh yes, like I want to really have this pimp on TV using the poor people and his color to use people...if these are "your" leaders then this explains the poor mental capacity you have to tell me the reason for his existence.
I'd rather be "unknown" on earth than be Jesse Jackson...he uses people and will have to answer to God in the end, not me or you.
You would think that New Orleans were an island and not a city of any state. All the blame is being cast upon the federal government but where is Louisiana??
Out here in California we are reminded ad nauseum that if a there were a catastrophe on the scale of a massive San Andreas earthquake or fire, we are told that we should plan to have enough food, water, first aid supplies to last 4 days because that might be how long it would take for help. It's pounded into us constantly.
California has had its catastrophes and we've always looked to our city and state leaders -first- for aid AND LEADERSHIP.
Where is Louisiana's Disaster Preparedness plan? In fact, where is the states Leadership?? Where is Kathleen Blanco??
If anyone is responsible, it is this governor. Governor Blanco should be called to the carpet and take responsibility for the lack of a proper execution of the disaster preparation plan IF THERE WAS ONE! If there was no plan then Blanco should be held responsible for not having implemented one.
Where was/is Kathleen's leadership? She is not fit to govern a state.
Keep the focus on Louisiana's role in this catastrophic response to this catastrophe.
Our state has had it share of disasters, but always it has been the local and state governments that have taken on the responsibility and earned the respect of our citizens when managing these crisis.
Louisiana's response in the aftermath is nothing less than shameful.
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