What Happened?

12:09 pm EST September 7th, 2005 | News | 11 Comments

Think Progress has an excellent Katrina timeline

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11 Responses to “What Happened?”

  1. Brandon says:
    September 7, 2005 at 3:09 pm

    I guess Think Progress was so determined to nail this on Bush that they couldn’t even manage to squeeze in even one criticism for Nagin.

    Such as why over 200 busess weren’t used to evacuate residents when the city’s evacuation plan specifically said they should be used for that purpose.

    Or why he waited so long to issue a mandatory evacuation order when the city’s evacuation plan specifically said city leaders should allow at least 72 hours for an evacuation to occur.

    But why let facts get in the way of a good rant?

  2. Marty says:
    September 7, 2005 at 3:09 pm

    Sorry about that. Try this.

  3. Marty says:
    September 7, 2005 at 3:09 pm

    A much more complete timeline of just the facts about what was happening in the Gulf Coast (without the political grandstanding) can be found [URL=http://rightwingnuthouse.com/archives/2005/09/04/katrina-response-timeline]here.[/URL]

    (Thinkprogress even contributed to this one.)

  4. Brandon says:
    September 7, 2005 at 4:09 pm

    And lest anyone accuse me of being a Bush apologist, let me I say I agree with Oliver that Michael Brown needs to go. Just as he did with George Tenet, Bush is being loyal to very big fault.

    But from where I sit, there’s plenty of blame to go around. And shill partisan hacks like Oliver are ignoring the glaring mistakes that Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco made in their zeal to make some political hay.

  5. rhys says:
    September 7, 2005 at 6:09 pm

    Brandon, nobody is stopping you from creating a similar timeline for Nagin and Blanco, to a similar level of detail (do you have dates and times on those claims of yours?).

    The thinkprogress timeline is a list of “what happened and when”, while being careful not to engage in “what might have been”. There is no “criticism” of Bush in the article. It is a straight-forward accounting of the facts of what happened.

    By comparison, you want a “what might have been” list for the locals, without focusing on “what happened and when”. As you say, there is plenty of blame to go around. But please don’t misconstrue facts as criticism. The criticism is a conclusion drawn from the facts by the reader.

    Typical. When the facts are inconvenient, neo-cons criticise the ones who report the facts.

  6. Quaker in a Basement says:
    September 7, 2005 at 6:09 pm

    What if the Mayor had evacuated the city in a timely manner, rather than waiting for less than 20 hours before the storm to issue an evacuation order?

    That would make him Madame Cleo.

    A voluntary evacuation was in effect when the storm was a category 3 storm. The hurricane was upgraded to category 4 at 2 in the morning, 29 hours before landfall. It was upgraded to category 5 at 7 in the morning, 24 hours before landfall.

    A mandatory evacuation was ordered at 9:30 a.m., 21 1/2 hours before landfall.

  7. JD says:
    September 7, 2005 at 6:09 pm

    How can you not consider “what might have been” ?! What if the Mayor had evacuated the city in a timely manner, rather than waiting for less than 20 hours before the storm to issue an evacuation order?

  8. JD says:
    September 7, 2005 at 7:09 pm

    You complain that the feds do nothing, but NO’s own plan, in good weather, requires 72 hours to evacuate the city. To the extent that it could be, the majority of the city, in horrific conditions, has been evacuated in less than 5 days after the flooding. How is that doing nothing? Given the conditions, how could they be expected to do more?

  9. rhys says:
    September 7, 2005 at 7:09 pm

    JD, I was responding to Brandon’s claim that thinkprogress was trying to “nail Bush” by pointing out that the purpose of this timeline is not to nail anyone for what might have been. It merely states what actually happened, hour by hour. If you wish to speculate about what might have been, then fantastic. But Brandon’s characterisation of the timeline was incorrect.

    And yes, we must consider what might have been, at *all* levels of government. But we cannot do that properly if we ignore what actually happened.

  10. JD says:
    September 7, 2005 at 8:09 pm

    It is absolutely impossible to make a thorough and reasoned examination of this without including what was not done. Period.

  11. Brandon says:
    September 8, 2005 at 9:09 am

    “while being careful not to engage in  what might have been .”

    Bullshit they haven’t.