Rok, this is what went out of Scott AFB when the Tsunami hit in the Indian ocean.
http://www.af.mil/News/ArticleDisplay/tabid/223/Article/135288/amc-aircraft-people-support-tsunami-r...I couldn't care less what Mavis Staples is talking about, but it wasn't Katrina, it was the Aftermath in New Orleans. I was stationed at Scott in the reserves as a "loadmaster", I know what a C5A can carry; Scott was 2 hours from New Orleans. Lewis Armstrong International was dry, no problem landing a C5A.
This occurred eight months before the "Katrina" disaster. The Indian Ocean is half way around the world from Scott AFB, and New Orleans was two hours flight time from Scott. While the city was flooded, Louis Armstrong International remained dry and able to receive air traffic. C5A's are really huge aircraft, and just one flight complete with food, water, hospital staff, and rescue personnel, plus the ability to coordinate all military resources in that area; would have solved New Orleans problems, and all it took was one phone call from the White House.
KATRINA TIMELINE
By ThinkProgress on Sep 6, 2005 at 11:53 pm
Sunday, August 28
APPROXIMATELY 30,000 EVACUEES GATHER AT SUPERDOME WITH ROUGHLY 36 HOURS WORTH OF FOOD [Times-Picayune]
Monday, August 29
— KATRINA MAKES LANDFALL AS A CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE [CNN]
7:30 AM CDT — BUSH ADMINISTRATION NOTIFIED OF THE LEVEE BREACH: The administration finds out that a levee in New Orleans was breached. On this day, 28 “government agencies, from local Louisiana parishes to the White House, [reported that] that New Orleans levees” were breached. [AP]
11:13 AM CDT – WHITE HOUSE CIRCULATES INTERNAL MEMO ABOUT LEVEE BREACH: “Flooding is significant throughout the region and a levee in New Orleans has reportedly been breached sending 6-8 feet of water throughout the 9th ward area of the city.” [AP]
8PM CDT — GOV. BLANCO AGAIN REQUESTS ASSISTANCE FROM BUSH: “Mr. President, we need your help. We need everything you’ve got.” [Newsweek]
LATE PM — BUSH GOES TO BED WITHOUT ACTING ON BLANCO’S REQUESTS
Tuesday, August 30
U.S.S. BATAAN SITS OFF SHORE, VIRTUALLY UNUSED: “The USS Bataan, a 844-foot ship designed to dispatch Marines in amphibious assaults, has helicopters, doctors, hospital beds, food and water. It also can make its own water, up to 100,000 gallons a day. And it just happened to be in the Gulf of Mexico when Katrina came roaring ashore. The Bataan rode out the storm and then followed it toward shore, awaiting relief orders. Helicopter pilots flying from its deck were some of the first to begin plucking stranded New Orleans residents. But now the Bataan’s hospital facilities, including six operating rooms and beds for 600 patients, are empty.” [Chicago Tribune]
Wednesday, August 31
SUPERDOME; CONDITIONS DETERIORATE: “A 2-year-old girl slept in a pool of urine. Crack vials littered a restroom. Blood stained the walls next to vending machines smashed by teenagers. ‘We pee on the floor. We are like animals,’ said Taffany Smith, 25, as she cradled her 3-week-old son, Terry. … By Wednesday, it had degenerated into horror. … At least two people, including a child, have been raped. At least three people have died, including one man who jumped 50 feet to his death, saying he had nothing left to live for. There is no sanitation. The stench is overwhelming.”" [Los Angeles Times, 9/1/05]
3,000 STRANDED AT CONVENTION CENTER WITHOUT FOOD OR WATER: “With 3,000 or more evacuees stranded at the convention center — and with no apparent contingency plan or authority to deal with them — collecting a body was no one’s priority. … Some had been at the convention center since Tuesday morning but had received no food, water or instructions.” [Times-Picayune
They remembered all of those resources that were directed out of Scott Air Force Base, Ill, for people half way around the world in the Indian Ocean; but they forgot they had them for the citizens of New Orleans, which was only two hours flight time from Scott.