Brian Rucker
09-06-2005, 01:00 PM
Transcript
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/09/06/DI2005090600700.html
California, Md.: Did you personally see incidents of violence in the evacuation centers or in the streets?
Ann Gerhart: You know, I did not. When I was in the Superdome, as dire as life seeemd, I did not feel personally at risk. I did have a commodity people desperately wanted---information. But "old-fashioned print" reporters, even in this era of instant technology, maintain one advantage: we don't have to carry a bunch of expensive equipment that makes us a target for thieves or flashpoint for anger. We can move more easily without attracting notice. That is what I tried to do. Additionally, I saw very little TV coverage in my week down there, and didn't get to read much coverage either---how much looting and violence was there really? Hard to say. Has someone actually seen photos of people carrying plasma TVs? Those I saw with shopping carts had them stuffed with food, or milk. That sort of thing.
Freeport, N.Y.: Thank you so much for taking questions. If the AM signal is working, didn't/doesn't that present an opportunity for some coordination, albeit perhaps limited, between emergency officials? Is the station being used to help coordinate the relief effort between different agencies?
Ann Gerhart: In short, no. And, officials need secure communication. They do broadcast info to the public. I'll say it again: Communication was the great failing. It's stunning that four years after Sept. 11, and with the knowledge that communication at Ground Zero was one of the major problems there, we don't have a better system. I asked the top FEMA pro on the ground--by that I mean a career disaster relief person, not political appointee Brown--how that could be, and he said, pointedly, but carefully, that if the taxpayers decide that is important, they can decide to fund it. I'm paraphrasing here.
Geneva, Switzerland: What is the quickest way to hold people, from the president on down, accountable for the failed response to the hurricane and the levees breaking? Reports down the road won't do. People are wondering what all the funding for Homeland Security has been for, if this is the result. New Orleans was one of the country's largest ports, through which lots of oil flowed. A terrorist couldn't have done a better job.
Ann Gerhart: Your last sentence is an important one. I have heard federal officials repeatedly trying to distinguish between a terrorist attack and a natural disaster. I haven't gotten the difference. No matter the cause, what we have here is a catastrophic aftermath. I heard over and over much anger from all sorts of citizens---the displaced, the volunteers, the fortunate---that America is supposesed to be a can-do nation. And dozens of references to the war---how can we take over another country so quickly and not get to our own? how can we drop pamphlets translated into Farsi onto Muslims apprehensive about us but not bottles of water on parched people stranded on highways? ---and I haven't come up with an answer.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/discussion/2005/09/06/DI2005090600700.html
California, Md.: Did you personally see incidents of violence in the evacuation centers or in the streets?
Ann Gerhart: You know, I did not. When I was in the Superdome, as dire as life seeemd, I did not feel personally at risk. I did have a commodity people desperately wanted---information. But "old-fashioned print" reporters, even in this era of instant technology, maintain one advantage: we don't have to carry a bunch of expensive equipment that makes us a target for thieves or flashpoint for anger. We can move more easily without attracting notice. That is what I tried to do. Additionally, I saw very little TV coverage in my week down there, and didn't get to read much coverage either---how much looting and violence was there really? Hard to say. Has someone actually seen photos of people carrying plasma TVs? Those I saw with shopping carts had them stuffed with food, or milk. That sort of thing.
Freeport, N.Y.: Thank you so much for taking questions. If the AM signal is working, didn't/doesn't that present an opportunity for some coordination, albeit perhaps limited, between emergency officials? Is the station being used to help coordinate the relief effort between different agencies?
Ann Gerhart: In short, no. And, officials need secure communication. They do broadcast info to the public. I'll say it again: Communication was the great failing. It's stunning that four years after Sept. 11, and with the knowledge that communication at Ground Zero was one of the major problems there, we don't have a better system. I asked the top FEMA pro on the ground--by that I mean a career disaster relief person, not political appointee Brown--how that could be, and he said, pointedly, but carefully, that if the taxpayers decide that is important, they can decide to fund it. I'm paraphrasing here.
Geneva, Switzerland: What is the quickest way to hold people, from the president on down, accountable for the failed response to the hurricane and the levees breaking? Reports down the road won't do. People are wondering what all the funding for Homeland Security has been for, if this is the result. New Orleans was one of the country's largest ports, through which lots of oil flowed. A terrorist couldn't have done a better job.
Ann Gerhart: Your last sentence is an important one. I have heard federal officials repeatedly trying to distinguish between a terrorist attack and a natural disaster. I haven't gotten the difference. No matter the cause, what we have here is a catastrophic aftermath. I heard over and over much anger from all sorts of citizens---the displaced, the volunteers, the fortunate---that America is supposesed to be a can-do nation. And dozens of references to the war---how can we take over another country so quickly and not get to our own? how can we drop pamphlets translated into Farsi onto Muslims apprehensive about us but not bottles of water on parched people stranded on highways? ---and I haven't come up with an answer.