Thursday, September 08, 2005
When the Levee Breaks....
“I don’t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.”
“Nobody could have anticipated the breach of the levees” -- President George W. Bush
“Government planners did not predict such a disaster ever could occur.” -- Homeland Security Secretary, Michael Chertoff
Really?
Because there's plenty of evidence around that proves that the adminstration was fully aware of the catastrophic damage that could result if a hurricane were to strike the New Orleans region.
For example:
"In July 2004, just over one year ago, FEMA held a five-day exercise at the State Emergency Operations Center in Baton Rouge to develop joint response plans for a catastrophic hurricane in Louisiana.
In the staged scenario developed by FEMA, a fictitious “Hurricane Pam” brought 120-mph winds and storms that “topped levees in the New Orleans area.” “More than one million residents evacuated and Hurricane Pam destroyed 500,000-600,000 buildings.”
The New Orleans Times-Picayune covered the FEMA exercise and reported that officials focused on six major issues. One of which was: “Removing floodwater from New Orleans, Metairie and other bowl-like areas where levees will capture and hold storm surge, possibly for days or weeks.”"
And even before last week's disaster, the threat to New Orleans was more than well known:
"It's only a matter of time before South Louisiana takes a direct hit from a major hurricane. Billions have been spent to protect us, but we grow more vulnerable every day." (Part one of a Five-Part Series originally published June 23-27, 2002 in the New Orleans Times-Picayune.)
While Mark Fischetti wrote an another article for Scientific American that eerily predicted that "a major hurricane could swamp New Orleans under 20 feet of water, killing thousands" four years ago.
Which begs the question of why....
Hurricane protection was a low priority for Bush
and
Bush slashed hurricane funding For New Orleans
In fact, here's a timeline that outlines how the Bush administration gutted and neutered FEMA and slashed the budgets that could have maintained and stregthened flood control projects for New Orleans.
So bottom line, when the storm hit, they were inexplicably unprepared or were flat incapable of effectively getting help in even though 18 year olds and some resourceful college students seem to be able to manage just fine (or at least much better than FEMA). But is it any surprise when the head of the federal agnecy in charge of disaster management and preparedness is completely unqualified to hold the position and only got the gig because of cronyism (aka reverse affirmative action)?
So now "They out there spinnin''", as Mayor Ray Nagin put it in his infamous outburst of frustration a few days back, with team Bush playing the "Blame Game" and trying to pass the buck and the responsibility to Mayor Nagin, Governor Blanco and other local leaders for not being prepared and not declaring a state of emergency or requesting federal assistance early enough etc. etc. The reality though? Don't believe the hype.
