California has evacuated a quarter of a million people as fierce winds fan wildfires in the Los Angeles region from San Diego up to Santa Barbara.
At least one person has died and thousands of homes are at risk in seven counties where fires have scorched some 200,000 acres (81,000 hectares).
- THESE PEOPLE HAD LESS NOTICE THAN THE PEOPLE IN NEW ORLEANS BEFORE KATRINA. YET THEY WERE SUCCESSFULLY EVACUATED.
- OBVIOUSLY, THE GOVERNMENT IN CALIFORNIA IS DOING ITS JOB WELL.
- IF THE CITY OF NEW ORLEANS AND THE STATE OF LOUISIANA HAD DONE AS WELL; THE LEVEE FAILURE WHICH FOLLOWED HURRICANE KATRINA WOULD NOT HAVE HAD AS BAD AN EFFECT.
WHY HAS CALIFORNIA DONE BETTER? IT'S GOVERNMENT IS LESS CORRUPT, AND MOST OF THE PEOPLE IN REGIONS BESIEGED BY THE FLAMES ARE MIDDLE CLASS - NOT UNDERCLASS PEOPLE ENSLAVED TO A CULTURE OF DEPENDENCY.
I PRAY GOVERNOR BOBBY JINDAL CAN CLEAN LOUISIANA UP. THE FUTURE OF HIS STATE DEPENDS ON IT.
And I pray for all the people of California.
***UPDATE: MORE HERE - including video of the Governator defending the efforts to date.
And I pray for all the people of California.
***UPDATE: MORE HERE - including video of the Governator defending the efforts to date.
It all comes down to leadership. Most of the media will admit that NOLA's mayor was out of touch for three days. By the time he issued a mandatory evac order, the first bands of rain were at the levees. Louisiana's governor called in the national guard only after it was obvious that the chain of command had totally broken down. She didn't want what she saw as a "military presence" in the area. There is video of school buses that should have been used to move those without transportation under water in parking lots. In short, Louisiana-which has been a hotbed of graft and corruption for decades, simply succumbed to its own ethics. They can point fingers all they want in NOLA, but it isn't the color of the victims skin or the amount of money they make that is causing this obvious difference-it's the vision and organization from the top down of California's first responders and emergency services. Sure we learned something from Katrina, we learned that fingerpointing does nothing and that sometimes you have to rise above personal politics.
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