Sept. 12, 2005
 
COMMENTARY: Landrieu: Amtrak Offered to Help Katrina Evacuation, FEMA Dithers
 
By David M. Kinchen
 
Editor, Huntington News Network
 
Hinton, WV (HNN) – In my last Thumbs column a few days ago, I made the suggestion that Amtrak could have helped out in the late August Hurricane Katrina evacuation of New Orleans through the use of special trains that could remove thousands of people from the danger zone.
 
Now it comes out that Amtrak indeed offered to help in the evacuation before the monster storm made landfall, only to be turned down. This is the Sept. 3, 2005 statement from U.S. Senator Mary Landrieu, D-LA.:
 
"I understand that the U.S. Forest Service had water-tanker aircraft available to help douse the fires raging on our riverfront, but FEMA has yet to accept the aid. When Amtrak offered trains to evacuate significant numbers of victims – far more efficiently than buses – FEMA again dragged its feet. Offers of medicine, communications equipment and other desperately needed items continue to flow in, only to be ignored by the agency.
 
Could it be that the hatred in the administration toward Amtrak – significant numbers of administration officials, assisted by such Amtrak haters as New York Times op-ed columnist John Tierney, have vented these feelings publicly – have influenced this idiotic decision by the lame Federal Emergency (Mis-) Management Agency? The respected newspaper Financial Times reported the Amtrak offer, as did the Environmental News Service (www.ens.newswire.com). I could find no mention of the offer in the New York Times.
 
Landrieu comes across as one of the few Louisiana officials with measurable brain power in the wake of this monstrous natural disaster. She way overshadows Gov. Kathleen Blanco and New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin.
 
In the same statement, she calls FEMA “a shell of what is once was….” adding that “perhaps the greatest disappointment stands at the breached 17th Street levee. Touring this critical site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. The good and decent people of southeast Louisiana and the Gulf Coast – black and white, rich and poor, young and old – deserve far better from their national government.”
 
Finally, late last week, Bush sent his beloved “Brownie,” – FEMA chief Michael Brown – back to Washington, to mis-manage the next disaster, which could very well be Hurricane Ophelia which may make landfall in the Outer Banks of North Carolina this week. We don’t need no stinkin’ lawyers running FEMA: We need a disaster specialist with extraordinary powers who will have the foresight to accept relief offers from Amtrak, the Forest Service or any agency or private company or foreign country that extends a helping hand.