Why didn’t the feder…

Why didn’t the federal government help Louisiana out earlier, in anticipation of Katrina? We now know (with a hat tip to Captain’s Quarters), that it’s partly because Louisiana told them to stay away.

A ranking Louisiana health official turned down federal offers to help move or evacuate patients as Hurricane Katrina bore down on New Orleans, a newly released document shows.

But the state’s top medical officer said Louisiana coordinated with the federal Health and Human Services Department in evacuating hospitals and nursing homes after Katrina hit.

Two days before the Aug. 29 storm, HHS was told by the state’s health emergency preparedness director that the help was not needed, according to an e-mail released Monday by a Senate panel investigating the government’s response to Katrina.

The state official, identified in the Aug. 27 e-mail as Dr. Roseanne Pratts, “responded no, that they do not require anything at this time and they would be in touch if and when they needed assistance,” wrote HHS senior policy analyst Erin Fowler.

The more evidence that comes out, the more it becomes clear that the state abrogated many of its responsibilities, and then proceeded to blame others. Yet we still hear from the media and the liberal pundits about problems with the federal response, as if that is the only place any failures occurred. To be sure, they could have done a lot better, but when the feds deferred to the state, that was their proper role. Would folks that are all up in arms about the feds listening in on Americans talking to terrorists, contrarily, yawn over the military barging in and taking over whenever the feds thought they knew better? If not, then more notice needs to be taken of Blanco’s and Nagin’s failure in responding. But you can bet that, in the future, the media will continue to try to Blame Bush(tm).

(Cross-posted at Stones Cry Out. Comments welcome.)

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