Letter: Politics played no role in disaster response

Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2007 | 7:14 a.m.

The Oct. 28 letter by Diane Shaul ("Red-led states get swifter response") absurdly claims that California, during the recent wildfires, got a better response from the federal government than Louisiana did during Hurricane Katrina because (of all things) the former has a Republican governor and the latter a Democrat.

California is hardly a red state: Both U.S. senators, the majority of congressional representatives and the majority of state legislators are Democrats. Louisiana voted for George W. Bush in 2000 and 2004, and California voted against him. Furthermore, many, if not most, of Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Republican colleagues consider him a borderline Republican at best. How did California get to be a red state?

The truth is that California has suffered devastating losses, but a catastrophic situation was controlled as well as possible not by the federal government, but through the cooperation and efforts of state and local leaders and the heroic actions of firefighters, including those who volunteered from neighboring states such as ours.

In Louisiana, by contrast, neither disaster plans nor evacuation plans were followed during Katrina, and state and local leaders did little to marshal their own resources.

Yes, there is a difference between the two states' leaders, but it is not their political affiliations - it is their competence.

Ellen Shaw, Henderson