The director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency said Thursday those New Orleans residents who chose not to heed warnings to evacuate before Hurricane Katrina bear some responsibility for their fates.
Michael Brown also agreed with other public officials that the death toll in the city could reach into the thousands.
"Unfortunately, that's going to be attributable a lot to people who did not heed the advance warnings," Brown told CNN.
"I don't make judgments about why people chose not to leave but, you know, there was a mandatory evacuation of New Orleans," he said. [Read more - CNN]
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If you thought that the people stranded in New Orleans were victims, think again. Federal Emergency Management Agency Chief attributes responsibility to the victims themselves (see below article copy pasted from cnn.com this morning, but not there anymore) because they CHOSE to stay. It’s not that most of them are among the poorest of the poor (no correlation to race here of course) with no means to get out; it’s not that many of them are among the elderly and the infirm, with very limited mobility, it’s not that they don’t own cars.
NO. It’s imprudence. Irrational choices in the face of timely warnings. Or possibly laziness. Another quite plausible explanation is that they just wanted a chance to see the freaking Superdome from the inside. Or maybe run an experiment to see if Hobbes was right.
The rhetoric of choice is out of control. This guy is a disgrace
Posted by: Philomila | September 02, 2005 at 05:11 PM
fire them then jail them.We the people was to be taken care of by these people... it didn't happen. Fire and Jail!!!!!
Posted by: Don | September 03, 2005 at 12:58 AM
It made me sick to my stomach when I read what Michael Brown had to say. Why would a person that would not only say this but think it have the job that he has. Very sad.
Posted by: Bruce | September 03, 2005 at 06:16 AM