Airiheadda Lying or Just Sloppy?Arianna Huffington
slams the media for--no kidding--going too easy on the Bush Administration over their reaction to Hurricane Katrina. But she plays a little fast and loose with the facts here:
The Post, citing an anonymous “senior Bush official”, reported on Sunday that, as of Saturday, Sept. 3, Blanco “still had not declared a state of emergency”… when, in fact, the declaration had been made on Friday, August 26 -- over 2 days BEFORE Katrina made landfall in Louisiana. This claim was so demonstrably false that the paper was forced to issue a correction just hours after the original story appeared.As best I can work out, the Governor did not declare a state of emergency, and she certainly did not declare it on Friday, August 26. The
text of her letter to President Bush is on the New Orleans Times-Picayune's webblog:
August 27, 2005
The President
The White House
Washington, D. C.
Through:
Regional Director
FEMA Region VI
800 North Loop 288
Denton, Texas 76209
Dear Mr. President:
Under the provisions of Section 501 (a) of the Robert T. Stafford Disaster Relief and Emergency Assistance Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 5121-5206 (Stafford Act), and implemented by 44 CFR § 206.35, I request that you declare an emergency for the State of Louisiana due to Hurricane Katrina for the time period beginning August 26, 2005, and continuing. The affected areas are all the southeastern parishes including the New Orleans Metropolitan area and the mid state Interstate I-49 corridor and northern parishes along the I-20 corridor that are accepting the thousands of citizens evacuating from the areas expecting to be flooded as a result of Hurricane Katrina.Notice the date of the letter at the top? August 27. Yes, she requested that the state of emergency be backdated to August 26, but she did not request it until August 27.
I'm not sure if there's any significance to the fact that Blanco did not declare the state of emergency herself, or if the Washington Post and Airiheadda are just making the mistake of assuming that she had the authority. Blanco's letter appears to make it clear that she was
requesting that the President make the declaration.
Hat Tip: Rick Moran's
invaluable timeline of the response to the disaster.
