Mayor of New Orleans upset over lack of coordination

As I have been saying since yesterday, I'm at a loss over the lack of leadership our President is showing right now with the growing disaster happening in New Orleans.

Maybe people are not looking at this seriously enough so let me try to simply explain this. The city of New Orleans IS GONE! The city is 20 feet BELOW sea level and the water will continue to rush into the city until the water in the lake and the water in the city levels off. AGAIN, the city is 20 FEET BELOW SEA LEVEL.

It wasn't like people in the government didn't know that this hurricane (which was forcast as a level 5+ days before it hit the area) could cause this type of damage to the region so what happened to the planning? Where are the troops (President Bush placed 30,000 troops when Andrew hit the US in the 90s and the current President only placed 3,000 troops in NEw Orleans so far).

The former and current mayor of New Orleans are very upset and letting their feelings known in the media.

From CNN

A day after Hurricane Katrina dealt a devastating blow to the Big Easy, New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin on Tuesday night blasted what he called a lack of coordination in relief efforts for setting behind the city's recovery.

"There is way too many fricking ... cooks in the kitchen," Nagin said in a phone interview with WAPT-TV in Jackson, Mississippi, fuming over what he said were scuttled plans to plug a 200-yard breach near the 17th Street Canal, allowing Lake Pontchartrain to spill into the central business district. An earlier breach occurred along the Industrial Canal in the city's Lower 9th Ward.

[...]


The Corps has workers assessing damage at the two locations. The National Guard, Coast Guard and state and federal agencies are working with the agency to speed the process, it reported.

"These closures are essential so that water can be removed from the city," a statement from the Corps of Engineers' headquarters in Washington said.

Walter Baumy, the agency's engineering division chief, said the Corps is trying to line up rock, sandbags, barges, helicopters and cranes to patch the damaged levees.

[...]

But Nagin said a repair attempt was supposed to have been made Tuesday.

According to the mayor, Black Hawk helicopters were scheduled to pick up and drop massive 3,000-pound sandbags in the 17th Street Canal breach, but were diverted on rescue missions. Nagin said neglecting to fix the problem has set the city behind by at least a month.

"I had laid out like an eight-week to ten-week timeline where we could get the city back in semblance of order. It's probably been pushed back another four weeks as a result of this," Nagin said.

"That four weeks is going to stop all commerce in the city of New Orleans. It also impacts the nation, because no domestic oil production will happen in southeast Louisiana."

Some people emailed me asking me why am I taling so much abou this issue. Well. I know this site is suppose to concentrate on Connecticut issues but this hurricane will have a direct impact on our state and the nation. If you don't think so, just watch how fast the gas prices rise over the next couple of days. I predict that the price of gas will rise by at least a quarter by the end of the week.