Planning Has Never Been His Strong Suit
If The Levee Breaks Got No Place to Stay...
Oh Well, Oh Well (Led Zeppelin, The Levee Song)
People I work with have made sarcastic references to Hurricane Katarina, asking if I blame President Bush for that as well. No, I do not. Research into this indicates that the hurricanes follow a cyclical pattern and they have been increasing in intensity for some time. This year was predicted to be one of the worst on record so I'll give him a pass on responsibility for the hurricane.
But (with Bush, there is so often a but) he's not going to walk away squeaky clean either.
As we all have all learned over the past few days, New Orleans is actually a city that has been established below sea level. With the Mississippi river on the south and Lake Pontchartrain to the north it sits like an empty bowl, with water lapping at the outer edges, waiting to spill in. Levees, giant wall of earth, create a buffer between the city and the water. Pumps are in place to suck the water back out when flooding occurs. This system is controlled by the Army Corp of Engineers in coordination with various local disaster agencies. As the city is built in swampy land the levees have a tendency of sinking so a major part of the upkeep goes to reinforcing the levees and building them up to the required levels.
Whether or not it is wise to build a city below the water that surrounds it is a fair question but given that it is there, steps must be taken to make it as safe as possible. This is where the COLOSSAL FAILURE OCCURS....
You see the War in Iraq, coupled with the massive tax cuts to the rich have so impoverished our government that we have had to shave a little bit here and there to make ends meet.
"It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.
"In 2001, the New Orleans district spent $147 million on construction projects. When fiscal year 2005 wraps up Sept. 30, the Corps expects to have spent $82 million, a 44.2 percent reduction from 2001 expenditures."--Marcia Demma, chief of the New Orleans Corps' programs management branch.
"...the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement."-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.
"The $750 million Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection project is another major Corps project, which remains about 20% incomplete due to lack of funds."--Al Naomi, Project Manager, Army Corp of Engineers.
What we will see is more of the same. As a nation, we no longer take proactive measures to prevent disasters. We gut the funding for our social and societal safety nets and then we decry the horror of the inevitableble result. And what do we call it?
The Culture of Life!
Oh Well, Oh Well (Led Zeppelin, The Levee Song)
People I work with have made sarcastic references to Hurricane Katarina, asking if I blame President Bush for that as well. No, I do not. Research into this indicates that the hurricanes follow a cyclical pattern and they have been increasing in intensity for some time. This year was predicted to be one of the worst on record so I'll give him a pass on responsibility for the hurricane.
But (with Bush, there is so often a but) he's not going to walk away squeaky clean either.
As we all have all learned over the past few days, New Orleans is actually a city that has been established below sea level. With the Mississippi river on the south and Lake Pontchartrain to the north it sits like an empty bowl, with water lapping at the outer edges, waiting to spill in. Levees, giant wall of earth, create a buffer between the city and the water. Pumps are in place to suck the water back out when flooding occurs. This system is controlled by the Army Corp of Engineers in coordination with various local disaster agencies. As the city is built in swampy land the levees have a tendency of sinking so a major part of the upkeep goes to reinforcing the levees and building them up to the required levels.
Whether or not it is wise to build a city below the water that surrounds it is a fair question but given that it is there, steps must be taken to make it as safe as possible. This is where the COLOSSAL FAILURE OCCURS....
You see the War in Iraq, coupled with the massive tax cuts to the rich have so impoverished our government that we have had to shave a little bit here and there to make ends meet.
"It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.
"In 2001, the New Orleans district spent $147 million on construction projects. When fiscal year 2005 wraps up Sept. 30, the Corps expects to have spent $82 million, a 44.2 percent reduction from 2001 expenditures."--Marcia Demma, chief of the New Orleans Corps' programs management branch.
"...the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement."-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.
"The $750 million Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Protection project is another major Corps project, which remains about 20% incomplete due to lack of funds."--Al Naomi, Project Manager, Army Corp of Engineers.
Now that we have established a baseline of facts:
- I do not give him a pass on completely gutting the funding for maintenancence and upgrades of the levee and pump systems that protected New Orleans from this type of event.
- I do not give him a pass on the massive tax cuts to the wealthiest Americans that caused him to cut funding to important programs.
- I do not give him a pass on sending half of the Louisiananna National Guard to Iraq with all of their flood mitigation equipment.
- I do not give him a pass on taking FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Administration) out of the business of dealing with natural disasters and turning it into a subsidiary of the Department of Homeland Security.
What we saw was the result of inadequate levees that broke down and pumps that failed because they were not up to the task of such major flooding and did not have proper backup power.
What we are seeing now is an ineffectual emergency response because FEMA is no longer in the business of "emergency management."What we will see is more of the same. As a nation, we no longer take proactive measures to prevent disasters. We gut the funding for our social and societal safety nets and then we decry the horror of the inevitableble result. And what do we call it?
The Culture of Life!
posted by Paul Skogstrom at 8:30 PM
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