WWL-AM interview with Ray Nagin
INT designates the interviewer, Garland Robinette.
(Introduction from radio broadcaster, the interview was live at 4:45pm US
Central Time, Thursday September 1, "Ray Nagin live from New Orleans, in
the battle zone")
NAGIN: ...to give me executive powers, to authorize me to dictate and to
manage military resources down here and I'll fix this for you. You call him
right now, and you call the governor, and you tell them to delegate
the powers that they have to the mayor of New Orleans, and we'll get this
damn thing fixed.
It's politics, man, and they're playing games and they're spinning. They're
out there spinning for the cameras.
INT: But can't they...
NAGIN: ...and...
INT: ...can't they just, if nothing else, look at twenty-five percent of
their energy coming from this state, is not flowing through the pipelines,
we're on the verge of anarchy, can't they understand that they're, if
nothing else, they're gonna be hurt politically?
NAGIN: I don't know what they're doing, I mean the air conditioning must
be good, because I haven't had any in five days. Uh, and maybe it's a...
maybe there's some, some smoke coming out of the air conditioning units
that's clogging some folks' jitly [sp], uh, no their vision.
INT: Have you talked with the President?
NAGIN: I've talked directly with the President. I've talked to the head of
the Homeland Security, I've talked to everybody under the sun, I've been out
there, man, I flew these helicopters, been in the crowds, talking to people
crying don't know where their, where their relatives are. I've done it all,
man, and I tell you, man, Garland, I keep hearing that it's coming. This is
coming, that is coming, and my, my answer to that is B.S., where is the beef.
Because there is no beef in this city. There's no beef
anywhere in southeast Louisiana, and these goddamned ships that are
coming, I don't see 'em.
INT: What did you say to the President of the United States and what did he
say to you?
NAGIN: I basically told him we had an incredible, uh, crisis here. And that
his flying over in Air Force One does not do it justice. And that I have
been all around this city, and I am very frustrated because we are not able
to marshal resources and we're outmanned in just about every respect. You
know the reason why the looters got out of control? Because we had most of
our resources saving people. Thousands of people. That were
stuck in attics, man, old ladies, when you pull off the doggone ventilator
vent and you look down there and they're standing in there, and in water up
to their fricking neck...
And they don't have a clue what's going on down there. They flew down
here, one time, two days after the doggone event was over, with TV
cameras, AP reporters, all kinda goddamned --- excuse my French, everybody in
America. But I am pissed.
INT: Did you say... did you say to the President of the United States, "I need
the military in here"?
NAGIN: I said I need everything. Now I will tell you this, and I give
the President, uh, some credit on this: he sent one John Wayne dude down here
that can get some stuff done. And his name is General Honoré. And he came off
the doggone chopper, and he started cussing and people started moving. And
he's getting some stuff done. They oughtta give that guy --- if they don't
wanna give it to me --- give him full authority to get the job done. And we
can, we can save some people.
INT: What do you need, right now, to get control of this situation?
NAGIN: I need reinforcements. I need troops, man. I need five hundred buses,
man. We're talking about, y'know, one of the briefings we had they were
talking about getting uh, uh... y'know, public school bus drivers to come
down here and bus people outta here. I'm like, you gotta be kidding me, this
is a national disaster! Get every doggone Greyhound bus line in the country
and get their asses moving to New Orleans! That's they're thinking small,
man, and this is a major, major, major deal. And I can't emphasize
it enough, man... this is crazy! I've got fifteen to twenty thousand people
over at the Convention Center, it's bursting at the, at the seams, the poor
people in Plaquemines Parish, they're at, they're, they're air-evac'ing people
over here in New Orleans, we don't have anything, and we're sharing
with our brothers in Plaquemines Parish. We, it's, it's it's awful
down here, man.
INT: Do you believe that the President is seeing this, holding news
conferences on it, but can't do anything until Kathleen Blanco
[Governor of Louisiana] requests him to do it, and do you know whether or
not she has made that request?
NAGIN: I have no idea what they're doing, but, uh, I will tell you this.
Y'know, God is looking down on all this, and if they are not doing everything
in their power to save people, they are gonna pay the price. Because, every
day that we delay, people are dying. And they're dying by the, by the
hundreds of them, I'm, I'm willing to bet you. They're, uh, we're getting
reports and calls that is breaking my heart, from people saying, "I've been in
my attic. I can't st... take it any more. The water is up to my, up to my
neck. I don't think I can hold out." And that's happening as we speak. And
y'know what really upsets me, Garland, we told, we told everybody the
importance of the 17th Street Canal issue. We said, please, please
take care of this; we don't care what you do, figure it out.
INT: Who'd you say that to?
NAGIN: Everybody. Governor, y'know, Homeland Security, FEMA, you name it we
said it. And, y'know, they allowed that pumping station next to it,
Pumping Station 6, to, to go underwater. Our Sewage and Water Board people,
Marcius Saint Martin [sp] stayed there and endangered their lives. And what
happened when that pumping station went down, the water started flowing again
in the city. And it started getting to levels that probably killed more people.
In addition to that, we had, uh, water flowing through the pipes in this city.
That's a power station over there. So there's no water flowing anywhere on the
east bank of Orleans Parish. So, a critical water supply was destroyed.
Because of lack of action.
INT: Why couldn't they drop the three-thousand-pound sandbags, or the
containers, that they were talking about earlier? Was it an engineering
feat that just couldn't be done?!
NAGIN: It, they said it was some pulleys that they had to manufacture, but,
y'know, in a state of emergency, man, you, you are creative, you figure out
ways to get stuff done... then they told me that they went overnight and they
built seventeen, seventeen concrete structures that had the pulleys on them
and they were gonna drop 'em... I flew over that thing yesterday and it's in
the same shape that it was after the storm hit. There is nothing
happening. And they're feeding the public a line of bull, and they're
spinning. And people are dying down here.
INT: If, if some of the public called, and they're, and they're right,
that there's a law that the President, that the federal government can't do
anything without local or state request, would you request martial law?
NAGIN: I've already req... I've already called for martial law in the city of
New Orleans. We did that a few days ago.
INT: Did the governor do that too?
NAGIN: Uh, I, I don't know. I don't think so. Uh, but we called for martial
law when we realized that the looting was, uh, getting out of control, and
we redirected all of our police officers back to patrols in the streets, they
were dirt, dead tired from saving people, but they worked all night, because
we thought this thing was gonna blow wide open last night. And so we
redirected all of our resources and we held it under check. I'm not sure if
we can do that another night, with the current resources. And I am telling
you right now, they're showing all these reports of people looting, and, and
doing all the weird stuff, and they are doing that. But people are desperate.
And they're trying to find food and water. The majority of them. Now you got
some knuckleheads out there, and they are taking advantage of this lawless,
this situation where, y'know, we can't really control it. And they're doing
some awful, awful things. But that's a small majority [sic] of the people.
Most people are looking to try and survive.
And youse guys, one of the things people have, nobody's talked about this ---
drugs flowed in and out of New Orleans and the surrounding metropolitan area
so freely, it was scary to me. And that's why we were having the
escalation and murders. People don't wanna talk about this, but I'm'a talk
about it. You had drug addicts... that are now walking around this city,
looking for a fix. And that's the reason why they were breaking in hospitals
and drugstores --- they're looking for something to take the edge off of their
Jones, if you will. And right now they don't have anything to take the
edge off. And they find, they've probably found guns, so what you're seeing is
drug... starving... crazy... addicts. Drug addicts. That are wreaking havoc.
And we don't have the manpower to adequately deal with it; we can only target
certain sections of the city, and, and form a perimeter around them, and hope
to God that we're not overrun.
INT: Well you and I must be in the minority, because there've been apparently,
there's a section of our citizenry out there that thinks, uh, because of the
law, that says the federal government can't, can't come in unless requested
by the proper people, that everything that's going on to this point has been
done as good as it could possibly be.
NAGIN: Really?
INT: I know you don't feel that way.
NAGIN: Well, did, the, the tsunami victims request? Go through a formal
process to request? Uh, y'know... did Iraq, did the Iraqi people request
that we go in there? Did they ask us to go in there? They, what hap... what
is more important? This is, and y'know, I, I'm'a tell you, man, I, I am...
I'm probably gonna get in a whole bunch of trouble. I'm probably gonna get in
so much trouble that it ain't even funny, they probably won't even wanna deal
with me after this interview is over.
INT: Well you and I'll be in the funny place together.
NAGIN: But... we authorized eight billion dollars to go to Iraq.
Licketys... quick. After 9/11, we gave the President unprecedented powers,
licketys... [snaps fingers] quick, to take care of New York and the other
places. Now you mean to tell me, that a place where most of your oil is
coming through, a place that is so unique, when you mention New Orleans
anywhere around the world, everybody's eyes light up. You mean to tell me,
that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died, and
thousands more that are dying every day, that we can't figure out a way to
authorize... the resources that we need? Come on, man. Y'know, I'm not one
of those drug addicts. I am thinking very clearly. And I don't know whose
problem it is, I don't know whether it's the governor's problem, I don't
know whether it's the President's problem. But somebody needs to get their
ass on a plane, and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out. Right now.
INT: What can we do here?
NAGIN: Keep talking about it.
INT: We'll do that. What else can we do?
NAGIN: Organize people to write letters, make calls to their congressmen...
INT: Emails...
NAGIN: ...to the, to the President, to the White... to the governor. Flood
their doggone offices with requests to do something. This is
ridiculous. And I don't wanna see anybody do any more goddamned
press conferences. Put a moratorium on press conferences. Don't do another
press conference until the resources are in this city! And then come down to
this city, and stand with us, when there are military trucks and troops that
we can't even count. Don't tell me forty thousand people are coming here!
They're not here! It's too doggone late. Now get off your asses and let's
do something! And let's fix the biggest goddamned crisis in the history of
this country!
INT: And I'll say it right now, you're the only politician, that's called,
and called for arms like this. And if, whatever it takes --- the
governor, President, whatever law precedent it takes, whatever it takes,
I bet, that the people listening to you, are on your side.
NAGIN: Well... I hope so Garland, I am just... I'm at the point now where it
don't matter. People are dying... They don't have homes... They don't have
jobs... The city of New Orleans will never be the same. In this time.
[14-second silence]
INT: [voice faltering] We're both pretty speechless here... yeah, I don't
know what to say... uh...
NAGIN: I gotta go.
INT: Okay. Uh, keep us, keep in touch, keep in touch.