Home > On BBC: Northern Command was in position, waiting for Presidential orders

On BBC: Northern Command was in position, waiting for Presidential orders

by Open-Publishing - Sunday 4 September 2005
5 comments

Wars and conflicts Catastrophes USA

This was on the episode of BBC World News which played on a local (Philadelphia area) PBS station at 6:00 am this morning. I can’t find a stream or transcript online. It’s sitting on my TIVO right now marked do not delete but I have no way to put it onto my hard drive and no place to serve it from anyway. If you do have a recording of it, it starts about 9 minutes in. I’ve done a hand written transcript, the spelling and punctuation are mine. The bolding is also mine to emphasize what I think is the important part. The BBC announcer was interviewing Lieutenant Commander Sean Kelly whom she referred to as Leftenant Commander. This is the entire interview with no missing context.

Announcer: The relief operation is the largest ever conducted in America. It’s being coordinated by the US Northern Command in Colorado. Leftenant Commander Sean Kelly explains how the relief effort is being organized.

Kelly: US Northern Command is the command that coordinates the military support for our federal and state agencies. They call up and request a capability and we try and provide that capability, whether it’s medical resources, search and rescue helicopters, food, water, transportation, communications; that’s what we provide.

A: So it sounds like you’re providing a bit of everything. I mean, do you know how much you’re actually providing?

K: Right now we’ve got 4,000 soldiers, sailors, airmen and marine and coast guardsmen supporting this. They’ve delivered more than 9 million meals, I can’t remember how many millions of liters of water.

A: 9 million meals? Do you actually have 9 million meals?

K: It’s those "meals ready to eat". The packaged meals that the Army takes out with them out in the field. We have 9 million of ’em ready. I know at least 100,000 went to the Superdome the other night to help the people out there in New Orleans. So they’re staged at various places throughout Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana.

A: Now I’m sure you’re aware of the criticism that the authorities have been slow to respond to this. When did you get the order to start relief work?

K: NorthCom started planning before the storm even hit. We were ready for the storm when it hit Florida because, as you remember, it crossed the bottom part of Florida, and then we were plaining, you know, once it was pointed towards the Gulf Coast. So what we did was we activated what we call defense coordinating officers to work with the state to say okay, what do you think you’ll need, and we set up staging bases that could be started. We had the USS Baton sailing almost behind the hurricane so that after the hurricane made landfall it’s search and rescue helicopters would be available almost immediately. So we had things ready. The only caveat is, we have to wait until the President authorizes us to do so. The laws of the United States say that the military can’t just act in this fashion, we have to wait for the President to give us permission.

A: Now I gather that your engineers are also involved in pumping some of that flood water out of the areas.

K: Yes, our military personnel are helping to reconstruct the levees which frees up the engineers to start pumping out the waters so that hopefully New Orleans can be high and dry soon enough.

So apparently everything was in position, waiting for Bush to do something.

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Forum posts

  • Louisiana governor made formal written request for federal aid on Sunday

    http://gov.louisiana.gov/Disaster%20Relief%20Request.pdf

  • Fox News already blamed it on the local black authorities! Puke!

  • You are slightly mischaracterizing the explanation. The State requests federal help (FEMA) which then requests military support which the president authorizes. Because Northern Command began responding as soon as the storm passed, it means the President gave authorization pretty quick.

    • God, what bullshit that the president gave orders "pretty quick." The point is that everything should have been authorized beforehand to make it all ready WITHOUT ANY DELAY to attend to people. People spent at least 3 days in the region without any help reaching them. And you want us to believe the President responded "pretty quick"? Yeah....right.

  • Oh by the way the Bataan was still sitting there six days later waiting for orders. So to person who said the president gave orders pretty quick, "Please take off your blinders and come out into the light. We would love to help you see the light. Don’t be such a sheeple, blindly following your leader." Here is a link to a story about it in the Chicago tribune. FEMA would not accept help from the ship the USS Bataan stationed in the gulf. Navy ship nearby not utilized.

    This ship had a hospital on board it for God’s sake. It also had the ability to make 100,000 gallons of water a day.

    Confirmation of BBC report:

    Navy Ship still unused 6 Days after Katrina! Crew of Navy ship ready to play larger role in relief effort Sat, Sep. 03, 2005 BY STEPHEN J. HEDGES Chicago Tribune

    ON BOARD THE USS BATAAN - (KRT) - While federal and state emergency planners scramble to get more military relief to Gulf Coast communities stricken by Hurricane Katrina, a massive naval goodwill station has been cruising offshore, underutilized and waiting for a larger role in the effort.

    The USS Bataan, a 844-foot ship designed to dispatch U.S. Marines in amphibious assaults, has helicopters, doctors, hospital beds, food and water. It can also 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 today the Bataan’s hospital facilities, including six operating rooms and beds for 600 patients, are empty. A good share of its 1,200 sailors could also go ashore to help with the relief effort, but they haven’t been asked. The Bataan has been in the stricken region the longest of any military unit, but federal authorities have yet to fully utilize the ship.

    Bush the next casualty of Katrina? I pray to God he is ... "impeached". You will too after you hear Lieutenant Commander Sean Kelly of U.S. Northern Command tell the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) that George Bush would not order the ship the U.S.S Bataan in to help while it sat idly by in the Gulf waiting to help. Download the movie now. It is twenty eight megs though so kind of a big download. Here is the link to the BBC video Lieutenant Commander Sean Kelly of U.S. Northern Command talks to the BBC. Right click to download. This is a long download 28 megs so be patient.

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