Just to nail it down, page 7 of the NRP states:

“For Incidents of National Significance that are Presidentially declared disasters or emergencies, Federal Support to States is delivered in accordance with relevant provisions of the Stafford Act.”

It goes on to note that all Presidentially declared disasters and emergencies under the Stafford Act are Incidents of National Significance.

Stafford provides for funding. It does not provide for the takeover of state sovereignty.

Sorry it’s taken so long to respond but had a lot to do today.

What was new to me was this disaster designation as an “incident of national significance.” My understanding is once that designation is applied to disaster, FEMA is supposed to assume on-site control of federal, state, and local assets including the Guard.This is in the National Response Plan.

What I think they discovered was when the rubber met the road, the “Plan” was baloney. You had a recalcitrant Governor (inexplicably so) and an hysterical mayor. From what I can tell - and I may be wrong - Brown didn’t play well with others. For some reason, Blanco didn’t trust him and rebuffed his efforts to coordinate with Washington. Nagin was a flea on Brown’s ass and I can just see him giving the idiot the bureaucratic two step while trying to get things ironed out in Baton Rouge.

The sticking point with Nagin was always the buses. And here is where Brown fell down. From what both the Times-Picyune and Nagin say,FEMA buses were promised for Wednesday. That’s for the Superdome. I see no evidence that Blanco or Brown even knew there were another 20,000 people at the Convention Center. Early Thursday, Blanco actually pulled Guard troops from S & R as well as security details to hunt up some buses because FEMA’s efforts in this regard were wanting.

You are correct saying those provisions (approx. 290 semis full of millions of meals and an ocean of water) were in place “in a semi-circle around the city” according to AP on Monday. What’s really weird is if you go to FEMA’s website and look at successive press releases they all say the same thing. The stuff is there and is ready to be delivered. They say the same thing through Wednesday! Why those provisions didn’t get to where they were supposed to will probably be one of the first questions asked. (This stuff was in addition to the Red Cross kitchens refused access to the Superdome).

Finally, is it your contention that the linchpin of this entire screw up is the security situation? If so, I think that is spot on. And since looting started midday on Monday, the day of the hurricane, I think it’s safe to say whose responsibility that was.

One more thing…as near as I can tell, there were approx. 4700 LA National Guard troops on the ground and participating in rescue operations as well as other duties by Tuesday evening. I don’t think Blanco anticipated 10,000 people sitting on rooftops or trapped in attics following the storm. Otherwise, she would have activated the other 3000 Guardsmen she had available.

Why she didn’t will remain a mystery.

I don’t think you’re wrong, btw. And the stuff you’ve been putting up has been the most logical and most eloquent writing you’ve done since I started to visit your site more than a year ago.

It seems to me that since these were further inland than NO, then using them would have placed evacuees closer to prpositioned aid and relief workers.

Re: incident of national significance and those 24 hours.

I’m just going to reprint a post from my comments section a while back (in response to a Kos diarist who posted this very thing) and you tell me where I’m going wrong. And I mean that humbly. I’m still trying to sort all of this out:

Show me one instance wherein the provisions outlined above weren’t followed. FEMA did pre-stage, the President did act pro-actively (he declared the state of emergency and readied the pipeline for the requests for funding and aid made by the Governor, etc.).

The only thing new here (to me) is the section on DCSA. And even that I’m not catching what the gotcha is. Sure, Georgia10 wants to read this through the lens of hindsight to argue that the DoD should have put troops in BEFORE THE CIVIL UNREST AND THE DESERTION of 2/3 of local law enforcement (when? Before the hurricane hit? Wouldn’t their heavy equipment then be underwater, too?), but from what I just read, the DoD would’ve had to be mindreaders to pre-place military troops in the city, and to do so would have to supercede the Governor’s authority—something I’m not sure the lefties really want Rummy doing.

Look at the language (from then National Plan): When such conditions exist and time does not permit approval from higher headquarters, local military commands and responsible officers from the DOD are authorized by DOD directive and pre-approved by the Secretary of Defense to take necessary action to response to the request of civil authorities.

Am I missing something? Was the Governor ever unreachable? Because if not, such conditions never existed.

The fact is, Blanco was reachable and still (ostensibly) in charge of the local operations. And because she didn’t want the federal troops, the President deferred—though he pressed her to take control.

Then there’s this:

With widespead looting and lawlessness, Posse Comitatus made it legally problematic to send in federal troops precisely because it forbids them a law enforcement role. To allow such a role, the President would have to declare an “insurrection,” which he arguably could do. (But note that Bush’s enemies have regularly been railing against such use at least since 9/11/01 and would of course declare that the claim of “insurrection” was illegal—and even an impeachable offense).

So once again, it looks like a damned if you do/damned if you don’t situation for the Administration—one that he’s put in because left is looking for ways to sink him, I might add.

Let me add, as well, that provisions were in place by way of FEMA coordinating with the Red Cross, but they were blocked from making it to the Superdome with pre-positioned supplies by state action.

So the incidents of national significance matters only insofar as bringing in extra security is involved. The best way to do that was to call in more guard units (who aren’t constrained by posse comitatus, and — more importantly, were able to arrive sooner, according to the Bushies (via the NYT) — something that Blanco finally made happen Wednesday by requesting additional troops.

Where am I going wrong?

Today’s dose of NIF - News, Interesting & Funny … Ugh, Monday

One thing that is important to remember in any disaster is to be able to adapt to changing conditions. You have done a great job with the timeline before, and now this excellent effort to show how Nagin and Blanco bungled so badly. But their most critical blunder was not changing strategies the minute the word got out those levies broke. I hope you don’t mind a link back to my site (if you do, feel free to edit it out) but in the middle of this post (http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/640) I discuss how all the people in the Superdome and Convention Center could have been moved to safer ground in Nagin move his buses the minute the levees failed. And likewise here (http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/641), Blanco should have immediately changed her position on the Red Cross supplying down town New Orleans. Not only did the Red Cross have much needed supplies, the vehicles they would use to drive the supplies in could also help ferry people out. Think of the difference in suffering if the Superdome and Convention Center had been evacuated by Midday Wednesday?

It was easily feasible if New Orleans and Loisiana moved once the nightmare scenario began with a levee breach. Up until that time differences of opinion on severity and response were understandable. Once a levee failed there should have been an all out effort to move those people ASAP.