I The Behrend Beacon
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Katri
By Pat
staff
There have been few times in my life
as an American that I was as appalled
at my country's government as 1 was
when 1 observed the depressing
response time to aid those hit by
Hurricane Katrina. While 1 witnessed
many acts of individual heroism and
an outpouring of national generosity, I
was left with the distinct impression
that the government really dropped
the ball.
The government failed on many lev
els, in many ways. Let's start on the
local level.
The Mayor of New Orleans, while
justified in his righteous anger toward
FEMA; which we'll get to in just a
moment, don't worry; was a poor
planner in terms of disaster response.
The now-famous photo of several
dozen school buses sitting unused in
Hooded downtown New Orleans led
many to ask why these were not used
to evacuate citizens. However, I have
difficulty accepting that anyone could
have done a very good job after the
fact, no matter what plan they had,
considering that there was no power,
communication or transportation that
was viable once the city flooded.
Among other things, he issued a
mandatory evacuation order the day
before Katrina hit and 80 percent of
the city evacuated itself. Mayor
Nagin gets a C.
Governor Kathleen Blanco transmit
ted her formal request for federal
assistance on August 27, fully two
days before the hurricane hit. There is
a lot of misinformation floating
around out there that the Federal gov
ernment did not step in in a timely
matter because they had not received
state authorization. This is totally
untrue. The Congressional Research
Service issued its report on Tuesday
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students.
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practice,
made the
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trina Katrina ... Bush
than Governor Blanco took all “neces
sary and timely" steps needed and
informed the federal government that
"the incident is of such severity and
magnitude that effective response is
beyond the capabilities of the State
and affected local governments and
that supplementary Federal assistance
is necessary to save lives, protect
property, public health and safety, or
to lessen or avert the threat of disas-
This was acknowledged and
accepted by the government on
August 28, the day before the hurri
cane hit. Governor Blanco gets a B+.
This leaves us with the federal gov
ernment. While we’re at it, we may as
well start at the top, with the presi
dent. Mr. Bush in no way caused the
hurricane, but his decisions com
pounded the disaster that was to fol
low.
Mr. Bush declared Louisiana in a
state of emergency after receiving Ms.
Blanco’s request the day before, still a
day before the hurricane even hit.
What I can’t fathom or even begin to
understand is why federal assistance
was authorized by the president to all
parishes (counties) except those in the
coastal region most likely to take the
most damage.
I’m baffled. Furthermore, it
took days for any significant federal
disaster relief to appear. They saw the
hurricane coming days in advance,
federal help was requested days in
advance and yet FEMA was caught
flat-footed and totally unprepared.
This is inexcusable.
Core to FEMA’s problems was the
Bush Administration’s restructuring
upon his inauguration. Bush removed
the previous administration’s FEMA
leadership, which included several
professional disaster relief figures,
including the department head, and
replaced them with campaign
fundraisers / former college room
OPINION
mates. Five of the top eight new lead
ers of FEMA had very little or no dis
aster management skills whatsoever,
including Michael Brown, FEMA
head, whose previous work experi
ence consisted of being the commis
sioner of the International Arabian
Horse Association. His vast manage
ment and leadership skills ensured
that federal response took three days
to reach the area. Thirty seven percent
of all Louisiana and Mississippi
National Guard troops were in Iraq,
with another third getting ready for
rotation, yet no consideration was
given to how this would affect state
and local efforts.
The federal government’s actions in a
resource sense are no better. The
money for levee maintenance has been
cut 50 percent since 2001. FEMA’s
budget had been reduced by 1/3 last
year alone, all in the name of stream
lining it’s efforts by making it a part
of the Homeland Security
Department.
This is from the government that
campaigned on protection from terror
ist-based disasters and response and
claimed to have been improving our
ability to react. If the response is this
poor to a disaster we saw coming days
beforehand, I cannot imagine how ter
rible the government’s response would
be to a terrorist bombing, chemical, or
gas attack on a major city would be
with no warning. Our government
response was worse than the
Indonesian response to the tsunami,
for which there were mere hours of
warning. If I were president, and I
admit that I do not know all the cir
cumstances, I would be irate. I would
not be telling Brownie he was doing a
heck of a job or assuring Trent Lott
that his mansion would be rebuilt
while thousands of poor New
Orleanians are struggling to survive.
The federal government gets an F.
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PSU email accounts.
Tennis court conundrum
for
I’m just going to jump to the point.
When are the tennis courts going to be
fixed ? I know many readers may not
have the tennis courts at the top of their
concerns, but for a little over 20 students
on this campus that make up the men’s
and women’s tennis team, it’s up there.
This year is the fourth year that I have
played varsity tennis for Behrend and it
is my second year as a captain. It is also
the fourth year that I, as well as the rest
of the women’s team and men’s team,
will have to play on courts that cannot
even be termed as decent. What we play
on is essentially nothing but concrete
with lines. It is almost impossible to
find evidence of what used to be a hard
court surface while cracks allow for
weeds to grow through the surface. The
cracks have also allowed for the shifting
of the courts, making them uneven with
bumps and dents. On court one, a pole
holding the net up has begun to pull out
of the ground bringing a huge chunk of
concrete with it.
All of these elements have made our
courts dangerous to play on. The wear
ing away of hard court and the presence
of cracks is a hindrance to sure footing,
By Amy Frizzell
editoral columnist
The Behrend Beacon
Published Weekly by the students of Penn State lirie
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causing players to trip, slip and fall. The
pole that is coming out of the ground is
a testament to its foundation being
unstable, which will only get worse as
the courts are neglected more and more.
During the 2004 season, Allegheny
College was invited to our annual
Behrend Invitational. Upon the teams
arrival, their coach immediately told us
that their team will not be returning to
play at Behrend again due to the fact that
our courts were too dangerous to play
on.
Not only are the courts dangerous to
play on, but they’re just plain unaccept
able. Balls don’t bounce as they are
meant to bounce on concrete compared
to hard court. That’s why you don’t see
any USTA tournaments played on con
crete: because its not an acceptable sur
face. Along with the surface, balls hit
ting the cracks often times stop the ball
dead in its tracks or making the ball
bounce in the complete opposite direc
tion causing players to lose points.
Occurrences like this are known to take
place on average four to six times in one
set; (that’s twelve to eighteen times in
one match.) Twelve to eighteen points
can cause a person the match; two points
can cause a person their match. These
are unfair circumstances.
Friday, Septmeber 16, 2005
Annie Sevin, Editor in Chief
Rob Frank. Managing Editor
Courtney Kaplin. Advertising Manager
Jerry Pohl. Public Relations Manager
Kim Young. Adviser
News Editor
Jennifer Haight
Assistant News Editor
Stephen Finch
Sports Editor
Chris LaFuria
Opinion Editor
Chris Hvizdak
Cartoonist
Zack Mentz
For the last three years, there has been
talk of completely redoing the courts
tearing them up and laying down new
ones, which is exactly what should be
done. Nothing has come of these talks,
just more cracks and lost points. I can
remember the athletic director coming
down to practice my sophomore year
and telling us that the courts were going
to be redone that summer. I remember
distinctly him even asking us what color
we would like the courts to be...and we
picked blue with white lines. That was
two years ago. Now in no way, shape or
form am I blaming this on the athletic
director or the athletics department.
You wouldn’t ask the baseball team or
the softball team or even the soccer team
to play all season with no grass. There
is no way that anyone would expect the
basketball teams to play on dirt. Why
expect the tennis team to play on courts
that are completely unacceptable? For
as long as I’ve been here and even
before my arrival to this campus the ten
nis team has been one of the top con
tenders in the AMCC conference, but
when teams arrive at our courts we get
laughed at. Not only does the tennis
team get laughed, at but the school gets
laughed at. No one likes getting laughed
at.
Student Life Editor
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