It's becoming apparent that not EVERYONE was caught unawares. The recent performance of Northern Command and Gen Russell Honere' demonstrates that. But does that matter if they couldn't legally act?.....
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/5167.html
"... When the BBC noted the criticism of the government's slow response, Lt. Commander Kelly explained that NorthCom was ready to go well in advance of Katrina making landfall, but suggested the president didn't make the right call at the right time.
"Northcom started planning before the storm even hit. We were ready when it hit Florida, because, as you remember, it hit the bottom part of Florida, and then we were planning once it was pointed towards the Gulf Coast.
"So, what we did, we activated what we call 'defense coordinating officers' to work with the states to say, 'OK, what do you think you will need?' And we set up staging bases that could be started.
"We had the USS Bataan sailing almost behind the hurricane so once the hurricane made landfall, its search and rescue helicopters could be available almost immediately So, we had things ready.
"The only caveat is: we have to wait until the president authorizes us to do so. The laws of the United States say that the military can't just act in this fashion; we have to wait for the president to give us permission."
Apparently, that permission could have been given right away, but it wasn't. ...."
A question that someone might be able to clarify…I don't know the anwer;
Federal statute and long-standing tradition is that Federal troops and resources can not be deployed without the permission or aquiescence of the State Governor where the troops will be deployed. Considering how Gov. Blanco had been dragging here feet over authorizing HER OWN National Guard troops; could the President release his "authorization" over her objections? It's been well documented that Gov. Blanco…as of this morning…was still stalling over authorizing Federal oversight and authority in Louisiana.
BUT, IF Pres. Bush could not legally "authorize" Northern Command without prior State acquiescence, can he be "blamed" for not doing so?? Especially when the governor of the state affected was all-over the airwaves patting herself on the back for NOLA's again "dodging the bullet"? The flooding of NOLA didn't become obvious until AFTER the storm passed. And it was well-known in the emergency-preparedness planning that Federal resources would not be able to arrive in-quantity until Day-Four.
I'll wait for the Congressinal Hearings to watch Blanco and Nagin squirm, before they plead the Fifth.
UPDATE: Kelly has clarified that it was FEMA that NorComm was waiting-on for authorization. That would be Mr. Brown.
.... "USNORTHCOM was prepositioned for response to the hurricane, but as per the National Response Plan, we support the lead federal agency in disaster relief — in this case, FEMA. The simple description of the process is the state requests federal assistance from FEMA which in turn may request assistance from the military upon approval by the president or Secretary of Defense. Having worked the hurricanes from last year as well as Dennis this year, we knew that FEMA would make requests of the military — primarily in the areas of transportation, communications, logistics, and medicine. Thus we began staging such assets and waited for the storm to hit.
"The biggest hurdles to responding to the storm were the storm itself — couldn't begin really helping until it passed — and damage assessment — figuring out which roads were passable, where communications and power were out, etc. Military helos began damage assessment and SAR on Tuesday. Thus we had permission to operate as soon as it was possible. We even brought in night SAR helos to continue the mission on Tuesday night.
The President and Secretary of Defense did authorize us to act right away and are not to blame on this end. Yes, we have to wait for authorization, but it was given in a timely manner." ....
