On Friday night, August 26, 2005 before the Hurricane hit, Max Mayfield of the National Hurricane Center Took the unprecedented action of calling Mayor Nagin of New Orleans and Louisiana Governor Blanco personally to plead with them to begin MANDATORY evacuation of New Orleans and they said they’d take it under consideration. This was after the NOAA buoy 240 miles south had recorded 68’ waves before it was destroyed.
President Bush spent Friday afternoon and evening in meetings with his advisors and administrators drafting all of the paperwork required for a state to
request federal assistance (and not be in violation of the Posse Comitatus Act or having to enact the Insurgency Act.
Just before midnight Friday evening the President called Governor Blanco and pleaded with her to sign the request papers so the federal government and the military could legally begin mobilization and call up.
He was told that they didn’t think it necessary for the federal government to be involved yet.
After the President’s final call to the governor she held meetings with her staff to discuss the political
ramifications of bringing federal forces. It was
decided that if they allowed federal assistance it
would make it look as if they had failed so it was
agreed upon that the feds would not be invited in.
Saturday, August 27, before the Hurricane hit, the
President again called Blanco and Nagin requesting
they please sign the papers requesting federal
assistance, that they declare the state an emergency
area, and begin mandatory evacuation.
After a personal plea from the President, Mayor
Nagin agreed to order an evacuation, but it would not
be a full mandatory evacuation, and the governor still
refused to sign the papers requesting and authorizing
federal action. In frustration the President declared
the area a national disaster area before the state of
Louisiana did so he could legally begin some advanced
preparations.
Rumor has it that the President’s legal
advisers were looking into the ramifications of using the
insurgency act to bypass the Constitutional requirement
that a state request federal aid before the federal
government can move into state with troops -
but that had not been done since 1906 and the
Constitutionality of it was called into question to use before
the disaster.


Throw in that over half the federal aid of the
Past decade to New Orleans for levee construction,
maintenance, and repair was diverted to fund a marina
and support the gambling ships. Toss in the investigation
that will look into why the emergency preparedness plan
submitted to the federal government for funding and
published on the city’s website was never implemented
and in fact may have been bogus for the purpose of
gaining additional federal funding. As we now learn
never contacted or coordinating into any planning,
though the document implies that they were.
The suffering people of New Orleans need to be asking some hard questions as do we all, but they better start with why Governor Blanco refused to even sign the multi-state mutual aid pack activation documents until Wednesday, August 31, which further
delayed the legal deployment of National Guard from adjoining states.
Or maybe ask why Mayor Nagin keeps harping that the President should have commandeered 500 Greyhound busses to help him when according to his own emergency plan and documents he claimed to have over 500
Busses at his disposal to use between the local school busses
and the city transportation busses - but he never raised
a finger to prepare them or activate them.
This is a sad time for all of us to see that a major
city has all but been destroyed and thousands of
people have died with hundreds of thousands more
suffering, but it’s certainly not a time for people to
be pointing fingers and trying to find a bigger dog to
blame for local corruption and incompetence.

Pray to God for the survivors that they can start their
lives anew as fast as possible and we learn from all the
mistakes to avoid them in the future.

http://www.dojgov.net/posse_comitatus_act.htm