From: jason@ab20.larc.nasa.gov (Jason Austin)
Subject: Re: "I can even forgive Bush for Dan Quayle, but not for this."
Reply-To: Jason C. Austin <j.c.austin@larc.nasa.gov>
Organization: NASA Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA
	<Z26DqB6w164w@mintir.new-orleans.la.us>
Date: Tue, 1 Sep 1992 17:45:01 GMT

In article <Z26DqB6w164w@mintir.new-orleans.la.us> elendil@mintir.new-orleans.la.us (Edward J. Branley) writes:
-> jason@ab20.larc.nasa.gov (Jason Austin) writes:
-> 
-> >
-> >
-> >       I don't think you understand the magnitude what happened.  It
-> > was more than anyone would have expected and the system was just not
-> > prepared.  It's no ones fault when everyone's doing the best they can.
-> > A hindsight argument that Bush should have predicted this and prepared
-> > is ridiculous.  It's not even Bush's job to monitor each state's
-> > emergency preparedness.  This is just another liberal scam to take
-> > advantage of people's pain for political gain.
-> > --
-> > Jason C. Austin
-> > j.c.austin@larc.nasa.gov
-> >
-> 
-> You've got to live somewhere where hurricanes are an annual threat to your
-> community to appreciate just how wrong you are on this one.  Hurricanes are not
-> earthquakes;  you get anywhere from 48-96 hours warning that one of them is
-> going to whack the US.  Where specifically it will hit may be in doubt, but
-> that 48-96 hours warning ought to be sufficient time to begin staging federal
-> disaster relief.  You also get 48 hours' warning as to how big the storm is
-> going to be.  It's a safe bet that if a storm is Category 4 or 5 (Andrew was a
-> 4, Camille back in '69 was a 5) you're going to need federal help.  No state
-> disaster relief program is capable of handling the level of destruction that a
-> storm that size will bring about.
-> I'm quite sure that the folks in the White House watch CNN.  They get the same
-> reports on a storm's location that everyone else does.  The National Hurricane
-> Center is a federal agency.  The notion that the White House is not aware of
-> what is going on is truly riduculous.
-> 
-> As to the emergency preparedness of any given state, there is no state that
-> could handle the devastation of a storm like Andrew.  Even in Gulf Coast
-> states, where the National Guard units are experienced in evacuation and
-> disaster relief, the logistics are just too great.  Monitoring a state's
-> preparedness is not the issue; even the most prepared state will need a vast
-> amount of federal help, mostly from the military after such a disaster.  That
-> the Bush administration couldn't see this coming, and in of all years an
-> *election year* is unbelievable.  You'd think at least that the campaign team
-> would see this as a way to show that things are running smoothly on Bush's
-> watch.

	I live on the coast of Virginia.  A few days is not long
enough to organize an entire disaster relief system large enough to
handle that level of destruction.  In order to handle an incident like
this to the level people seem to expect would require millions (or
more) dollars of yearly spending for something that will rarely be
used.


-> 
-> The scam to take advantage of peoples' pain is Bush showing up last Monday in
-> south FL.  Had he wanted to really show he cared for the people of FL and LA,
-> he would have shown up in Miami riding in a C-5A loaded with supplies rather
-> than Air Force One.

	In it is a long tradition for the President to visit the
location of an incident like this.  If he didn't go, the same people
would have bitched that the president doesn't care enough to even see
what's going on.
--
Jason C. Austin
j.c.austin@larc.nasa.gov

Newsgroups: alt.fan.dan-quayle