Many Evacuated, but Thousands Still Waiting

Behind the scenes, a power struggle emerged, as federal officials tried to wrest authority from Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D). 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.

The administration sought unified control over all local police and state National Guard units reporting to the governor. Louisiana officials rejected the request after talks throughout the night, concerned that such a move would be comparable to a federal declaration of martial law. Some officials in the state suspected a political motive behind the request. "Quite frankly, if they'd been able to pull off taking it away from the locals, they then could have blamed everything on the locals," said the source, who does not have the authority to speak publicly.

A senior administration official said that Bush has clear legal authority to federalize National Guard units to quell civil disturbances under the Insurrection Act and will continue to try to unify the chains of command that are split among the president, the Louisiana governor and the New Orleans mayor.

Louisiana did not reach out to a multi-state mutual aid compact for assistance until Wednesday, three state and federal officials said. As of Saturday, Blanco still had not declared a state of emergency, the senior Bush official said.

"The federal government stands ready to work with state and local officials to secure New Orleans and the state of Louisiana," White House spokesman Dan Bartlett said. "The president will not let any form of bureaucracy get in the way of protecting the citizens of Louisiana."

Blanco made two moves Saturday that protected her independence from the federal government: She created a philanthropic fund for the state's victims and hired James Lee Witt, Federal Emergency Management Agency director in the Clinton administration, to advise her on the relief effort.

It's looking like Blanco is going to come out looking bad in this, the poster-girl for Lousiana politicians.

MSNBC right now is running a documentary on the big Florida hurricanes of the 1990s, and what was learned from them regarding evacuation, preparation, and response. Pity Louisiana didn't learn anything from Florida's experiences. If there is any justice in this, Katrina and the shameful aftermath will prompt a cleanup of Lousiana and especially New Orleans politics.

UPDATE: Senator Landrieu makes a rather unsenatorial remark. The, er, "punchline" of the article is priceless: "In recent days, Louisiana officials have been criticized for bungling evacuation and rescue efforts. One of those officials, Lt. Gov. Mitch Landrieu, is Sen. Landrieu's brother."

I think one of the positives that will ultimately result from the many-months-long evacuation and temporary dispersal of NOLA's population throughout the country is the firsthand experience evacuees will obtain with municipal governance in other cities and states. New Orleans doesn't have to continue to be run the way it was, and these evacuees will now know that, and hopefully demand better than what they've been getting.

The other positive is that there is going to be a lot of attention paid in coming months to cleaning up city and state government there. When it sinks in with the rest of the country just how much damage has resulted from decades of winking at corruption and neglect in New Orleans in particular as part of the "local color" and "charm" of the place, I don't think there is going to be as much tolerance for it going forward. And this may also in turn prompt people to pay more attention to their own local governments with the same attitude.

Posted by T.L. James on September 4, 2005 01:30 AM