Gateway Pundit tipped me to Right Wing News who led me to this amazing story.
Hugh Hewitt interviewed FoxNews’ Major Garrett to discuss a story about the Red Cross being blocked from delivering supplies to the Superdome…
ON MONDAY AFTERNOON, IMMEDIATELY AFTER HURRICANE KATRINA PASSED!
Hugh Hewitt: You just broke a pretty big story. I was watching up on the corner television in my studio, and it’s headlined that the Red Cross was blocked from delivering supplies to the Superdome, Major Garrett. Tell us what you found out.
Major Garrett: Well, the Red Cross, Hugh, had pre-positioned a literal vanguard of trucks with water, food, blankets and hygiene items. They’re not really big into medical response items, but those are the three biggies that we saw people at the New Orleans Superdome, and the convention center, needing most acutely. And all of us in America, I think, reasonably asked ourselves, geez. You know, I watch hurricanes all the time. And I see correspondents standing among rubble and refugees and evacuaees. But I always either see that Red Cross or Salvation Army truck nearby. Why don’t I see that?
Hugh Hewitt: And the answer is?
Major Garrett: The answer is the Louisiana Department of Homeland Security, that is the state agency responsible for that state’s homeland security, told the Red Cross explicitly, you cannot come.
Why? Because local authorities didn’t want the Superdome or the Convention Center to become refugee magnets – they wanted those people to get out of New Orleans (and it would have worked had they used the buses).
Picture that for a moment – Red Cross trucks, with supplies (Food, Water, Personal Hygenic Products), standing by just after the hurricane calmed down ready to go in and care for refugees. But no, they were blocked by the locals — NOT by the federal government, and more importantly, NOT by George W. Bush.
Holy Cow.
Outside of Fox, where’s the rest of the MSM on this? Helloooooo CNN, MSNBC, NYT, WaPo…anyone home?
The whole interview is on Radio Blogger here, and video of Garrett’s work on Fox is with Ian Schwartz, here.
The Anchoress, who is just as shocked as I am on this, added this interesting comment:
Before anyone says this is all Republican Hooey, they should probably know this: A Red Cross official, Carol Miller, said on NPR’s Diane Rehm show this morning that the Red Cross was told not to provide aid at the Superdome by the Louisiana, not U.S., Department of Homeland Security. Audio here. (click link on left side of page; the comment is about 35:40 into the show.)
Captain Ed weighs in:
The Red Cross expected that either the local authorities would get the last of its citizens out of New Orleans or allow them to set up their relief provisions inside the city. To this day, the city and state have done neither, nor have they allowed the federal government to take control of the relief effort to make these decisions themselves. That means that the Red Cross personnel (and the relief provisions that FEMA helped them stage) have no way to reach those in the city anywhere, including the Superdome, the Convention Center, or any of the other shelters in New Orleans. Until Nagin and Blanco allow them to go to the victims or act to bring the victims out to them, the residents will not see any relief supplies except that dropped to them by air, a dicey proposition at best when facing toxic flood waters.
Lorie Byrd jumps into the discussion, as does The Right Place.
This is not the end of this story, for sure.
Related: Delusional, Dysfunctional, Divisive, and Defiant
I’ve been following the Interdictor’s LiveJournal through the whole ordeal. He’s been in a building downtown N.O. since Katrina blew in. He’s blogged the whole thing and with a webcam. Seems like I heard him state, or maybe relay from another source, that officials were not letting Rescue workers in (in the beginning) due to the volatile situation. They feared for the volunteer’s safety and were unable to protect them.
I can see the reasoning behind not allowing the aid BEFORE the situation became so terrible—wanting people to leave if at all possible. And like you said….if they had been using the buses, that would have been smart.
I’d love to get a real anwser regarding the buses.
Hindsight is 20/20.
This whole ordeal has “agenda, agenda” written all over it. Even many victims are simply touting their agenda.
Just passing through, I’m liking the blog by the way.
So this is what I want to know: Were the Red Cross really actually BLOCKED from going in, or would they have blocked THEMSELVES from going in anyway, because conditions were too unsafe?
I’m beginning have this odd suspicion. The Red Cross are beginning to remind me of the pathetic movie character who shouts ‘hold me back’, ‘hold me back’ to his cronies in the face of a superior foe.
His friends hold him back and that gives him the opportunity to pretend to the foe and to HIMSELF that he really would have actually battled the superior foe, if it weren’t for the friends who were holding him back.
Meanwhile WE observers know perfectly well that this character would not have had any chance against the superior foe, and he may indeed have run away in cowardice, had his friends not actually been successful at holding him back.
In the Red Cross case the ‘friends’ might be the National Guard, the City, and the State, who supposedly ‘blocked’ the Red Cross from entering New Orleans.
Their blocking the Red Cross from coming in, may have given the Red Cross the opportunity to get ‘macho’ about just how much they were DYING to get in, how prepared they were, how truly ‘ready’ they were – to FIGHT …
Do you see the similarity?
But would they actually have entered New Orleans ANYWAY had they been not been ‘held back’ – that is denied permission – given how unsafe it really was?
Would they have had to finally admit: “Actually, we don’t want to risk the lives of our members, so we are going to have to wait until the city is safe before we can enter”.
But of course, I could have it all completely wrong…
Anyway – when all is said and done – it seems that safety WAS an issue for the Red Cross.
And that’s not being reported on (enough).
MP
Red Cross: “It Was Not SAFE To Be In The City” (Video).
In a Larry King interview on Sept 2nd, Red Cross CEO Marsha Evans explained that the Red Cross were not in New Orleans because it was unsafe.
“It was unsafe to be in the city.”
“…it was not safe to be in the city, and it’s not been safe to go back into the city.”
According to other reports, Red Cross workers could have been shot or infected by disease if they entered New Orleans in the first days after the storm.
In addition, Evans mentioned concerns that relocating in the city would delay evacuation.
“They were also concerned that if we located, relocated back into the city, people wouldn’t leave, and they’ve got to leave.”
However, many reporters and news sources have failed to acknowledge the safety/security aspects of Marsha Evan’s explanation (an exception being Bill O’Reilly at Fox News).
It is not yet clear whether or not the Red Cross would have entered the city early on, given these serious safety risks, even if they had not been asked to stay out by the National Guard, the city and State emergency management.
A relevant video clip from the Larry King interview can be found here:
http://mediamatters.org/items/200509090002
MP