wrap your heads around this

[Horse with no Name]

In order to receive emergency federal funding...a state has to submit their disaster plan to the President.
In that disaster plan...it has to be noted where the special needs shelters are--as the Superdome was designated a special needs shelter initially.
Now--once signing the declaration of emergency, it was up to Bush to have someone on the ground in LA immediately coordinating the efforts.
Now...why wouldn't FEMA know where the special needs shelters were?
Their excuse that they didn't know anyone was in the Superdome was simply just that, an excuse.
They had the state documentation at their disposal.
IF they CHOSE not to do their homework, then they neglected their duty.
Plain and simple.

[SillyGoose]

1. This relief effort was a complete disaster (no pun intended)

Not only do we need to get rid of Brownie and Chertoff, we need a complete overhaul of these agencies and they need to overseen by qualified individuals - no more nepotism. I also want answers on why Bush appointed non-qualified people to head these agencies.

This whole thing is a colossal screw-up...there is no excuse for it. Every news channel you turned to, you saw the people at the Superdome and Convention Ctr with no supplies and no assistance whatsoever.

[skygazer]

2. Actually, from my understanding

it was the Convention Center they claimed not to know about. I'm not sure how they couldn't know about it when we here on DU did, but there you are.

[Sweet Freedom]

3. I think you're right about that

I remember seeing here that the Convention Center had thousands of people no one knew about until a day or two after the fact.