God I hope this story is overblown right now!!!

[Soul Stream]

Sums it up...

By Rupert Cornwell in Washington

Published: 03 September 2005

Why has it taken George Bush five days to get to New Orleans?

President Bush was on holiday in Texas when Katrina struck. He then spent Monday on a pre-arranged political fundraising tour of California and Arizona, which he did not cancel or curtail. On Tuesday he surveyed the hurricane damage - but only from the flight deck of Air Force One, prompting criticism that he was too detached from the suffering on the ground. He didn't give a speech until Tuesday afternoon - 36 hours after the storm first hit - and didn't embark on a proper tour of the region until yesterday. Key advisers have come under fire for similar levels of detachment. As the full magnitude of the disaster unfolded, the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, was seen buying shoes in New York, and Dick Cheney remained on holiday.

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Ouch.

[GA Russell]

I always thought the GOP was out to weaken federal power by bankrupting the government with tax cuts and profligate spending.  Turns out, the strategy is to turn the entire federal government over to the Keystone Kops.

Minew, when it comes to Keystone Kops in govt, a New Orleanian would know one when he sees one!

Edited September 4, 2005 by GA Russell

[GA Russell]

Here's a sobering post from The Interdictor blog mentioned above:

Now this is something that requires tact, and I do not have much experience with reporting, but I think the world needs to know how overwhelmed the police are out here: I have reports from 3 different police sources that 2 police officers have committed suicide. Out of respect for their families, I will not name them or go into detail. Truly tragic how bad things are. I sincerely hope I did the right thing in reporting this.

[GA Russell]

But my point is that in as massive a disaster as this, FEMA shouldn't have to rely on either the media OR state and local governments for information as critical as this.  We're not talking about a few isolated people at the Convention Center, we're talking about TENS OF THOUSANDS.  The whole reason for FEMA's existence is that certain disasters are beyond the capability of state and local governments to handle on their own, hence the need for federal intervention and assistance.  FEMA is supposed to devote its own resources to getting a handle on a situation such as this and determining what it needs to do.  That's a major part of its job.

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Ron, someone instructed those people to go to the Convention Center, and that someone opened it up to them, and I suspect that that someone was the New Orleans city govt. There are 90,000 square miles of damage, and the federal govt can't be expected to know what is going on in every one of them if the local officials don't tell them. Someone from New Orleans dropped the ball and forgot to tell the feds, who in the person of Brown are operating out of Baton Rouge.

But at least the New Orleans police are doing the best they can. What has the Louisiana state govt done? Not a thing that I am aware of. What contribution the governor has made to this I'm not aware of. At this point I would say that she has been completely useless.

And speaking of New Orleans, why didn't they comandeer the school buses and the city buses to start getting people out? The mayor issued an evacuation order knowing that some people didn't have the means to get out on their own, and as far as I can tell he did nothing to help them.

[ghost of miles]

FEMA fool Michael Brown's excuse is pathetic. He and the other Michael (Homeland Security) need to be fired and, perhaps, tried.

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Agreed.

Guy

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Are you seriously agreeing that they should be "tried"?

Not sure if there are laws for criminal negligence.

Guy

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In order to be consistent you would have put a whole lot of government folks on trial, the mayor and governor included.

Chertoff is in way over his head, but is sure appears many local politcians are as well.

You won't find me defending Bush on this either.

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The Feds are the ones with the resources ostensibly to handle this and therefore far more culpable, IMO. Did you happen to see the Free Republic post that actually defends the mayor? It's been floating around... I'll try to find it and re-post here. And for those who want to compare him to Giuliani--this is far, far worse than 9/11.

[Christiern]

I detect none of Giuliani's Fascist traits in the mayor of New Orleans, and I bet you that Giuliani would never have the guts to speak frankly and off the cuff like the Mayor did.

[marcello]

The local goverment is the lead agency that call for a evacuation; in this case the City, I believe. Anyone who lives in South Flordia can confim that. There is enough blame to go around here for every person in authority.

[catesta]

FEMA fool Michael Brown's excuse is pathetic. He and the other Michael (Homeland Security) need to be fired and, perhaps, tried.

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Agreed.

Guy

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Are you seriously agreeing that they should be "tried"?

Not sure if there are laws for criminal negligence.

Guy

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In order to be consistent you would have put a whole lot of government folks on trial, the mayor and governor included.

Chertoff is in way over his head, but is sure appears many local politcians are as well.

You won't find me defending Bush on this either.

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The Feds are the ones with the resources ostensibly to handle this and therefore far more culpable, IMO. Did you happen to see the Free Republic post that actually defends the mayor? It's been floating around... I'll try to find it and re-post here. And for those who want to compare him to Giuliani--this is far, far worse than 9/11.

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I did not see the it, but would like to.

You are correct about the Feds. They are the ones that have to clean up the mess.

Still, it does not excuse the fact that the mayor did not do enough to facilitate an evacuation. I saw it reported that he did not deploy buses and other governement vehicles to assist those who did not have personal transportation.

The Gorvernor fucked up as well. In a Molly Ivins article I read that she failed to call up for duty several thousand National Guard members prior to the hurricane hitting. That may have made a difference, no?

I give Nagin credit for speaking out so frankly the other day, but it does not change the fact he is/was part of the problem.

Honestly this whole blame thing is just getting ridiculous. Everyone is trying to cover their own asses.

Right now it is time for Bush and all the other politicians to put up or shut up.

[ghost of miles]

The local goverment is the lead agency that call for a evacuation; in this case the City, I believe. Anyone who lives in South Flordia can confim that. There is  enough blame to go around here for every person in authority.

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The mayor ordered a MANDATORY evacuation. That's why 80% of the city's population did leave. Some stayed because they wanted to; many stayed because they had no means of leaving.

Here's the Free Republic post defending the mayor:

To: NautiNurse

Ok, the President has spoken, and I believe it is now time for all of us to being speaking bluntly. It has been my policy for the last few days to look for and point up the brightest news I could find, because I knew what we might be facing long before Katrina ever made landfall.

In my opinion, the time for optimism has passed. New Orleans did not dodge a bullet, New Orleans suffered a worst case doomsday scenario. But this is far far bigger than New Orleans alone.

By my count, America has lost not one city, but nine of them.

New Orleans, population 1.2 million, Slidell, pop. 26,000, Bay St. Louis/Waveland pop. 12,000, Long Beach, pop. 17,000, Gulfport, pop. 71,000, Biloxi, pop. 50,000, Ocean Springs, pop. 17,000, Psacagoula/Moss Point/Gautier, pop. 42,000, and Mobile, pop. 198,000.

I have figures in my possession that indicate a total maximum death toll of 410,000 Americans and a minimum death toll of 41,000 Americans.

I derived these figures as follows.

During the Hurricane Ivan mandatory evacuation, 600,000 people answered the call for mandatory evacuation, out of a total population of 1.2 million in the metro area. 600,000 remained behind. If half of those remaining behind did not survive the storm, or will not survive from this point onward, then the death toll in New Orleans alone will rise to 300,000 people. This is clearly a pessimistic approach, but I would remind the doubters that total rescue efforts yesterday saved, by the most optimistic estimates, 3,000 people. 3,000 out of potentially 300,000.

On the brighter side, if the pre-storm estimates prove to be true, then only 300,000 people did not evacuate in the greater New Orleans metro area, 100,000 of those within the city limits as claimed by the Mayor of that city. If only one in ten of the people trapped in attics and on their roofs died, or will die before they are rescued, the death toll in New Orleans alone will rise to 30,000 souls lost.

One in ten stay, one in ten of those die, 30,000, total. Just in New Orleans.

These numbers are speculative, and, having demonstrated the method used in deriving them, you may judge for yourselves their validity. Before you dismiss them out of hand, you should be aware that pre-storm death-toll estimates from the Red Cross ranged from 25,000 to 100,000 for New Orleans alone. Engineers tasked by the City with estimating worst case scenarios estimated a death toll of 40,000. FEMA estimates were 50,000 deaths for New Orleans alone.

It is my personal view that any final death toll under 41,000 will be considered a victory. The more the final count falls short of this, the luckier we will have been.

Though these numbers are speculative, other data is not.

All of the above listed cities have been reported as having lost a minimum of half of their buildings and structures. With a total population for the region, just from the cities, rural areas excluded, this means that currently, 820,000 people have no homes and are refugees. It is probable that this figure is actually over one million.

Many of these, perhaps half, perhaps half a million people, are walking wounded or even in critical need of medical attention. Seen any hospitals that will hold half a million people lately?

My purpose in being deliberately blunt today is twofold.

One, I do not believe that officials are being blunt with us or the media, for several reasons. They do not wish to start a panic, they do not wish to admit that they do not have a viable plan for dealing with between 40 and 410 thousand corpses, and they do not know how to house, feed and clothe one million people for even one week, let alone several months. Finally, I believe that their experts are telling them the exact same figures I am telling you, and, just like you, the officials do not want to believe something this bad could ever happen.

Two, I am being blunt because the scope of this disaster, the biggest disaster in the history of the United States, not one of the worst, the worst, has yet to be reported. Many, no even the majority, are pointing the finger of blame in various directions, without even barely comprehending the true scope of this event, while people who we know will die haven't died yet.

For those individuals I respectfully ask that you recalculate your priorities.

To those who would blame the mayor of New Orleans, I would ask you to prepare, in the course of three days, to completely evacuate and rebuild a city of approximately one million people. I would further constrain you by telling you to expect that the energy to be released on your city in the coming days will be equal to the detonation of one United States W81 0.5 megaton thermonuclear warhead on your city and the surrounding areas, each and every single minute that the storm is overhead.

Not only do you have to plan and build a new city in three days, that will house one million people, you must also facilitate the traffic flow of 800,000 of those people to an area that will not be affected by the rain of 450 kiloton nuclear weapons the storm will drop after it leaves your city.

You have to find, and physically force some portion of the 100,000 remaining persons to leave, and you have to find and transport the remainder of that 100,000 people who cannot do so on their own.

Whatever routes you choose to get to your brand new one million person city will be shared with mandatory evacuees from the entire two or three state region.

Beginning on the second day of your one million person new city construction project, every asset you and your staff possesses, cars, houses, offices, telephones, computers, and basic necessities, will be unavailable, under water.

At this point you will have to make some very hard decisions. No city government is capable of building a one million person city, not in three years and certainly not in three days, but this is only the beginning. When the levees begin to fail, you will have to start choosing who gets to live and who gets to die.

Not one at a time, you will be forced to decide whether large groups of human beings, your constituents, 20,000 in the Dome, 60,000 in each of three flooded parishes, another 50,000 in the downtown area, get to live or are abandoned. Will you save the people trapped on flooded roofs, or fix the levee and let them die? How many will die if you do not fix the levee?

When your best engineers tell you that they cannot close the breach before it floods the city, will you even try? When they tell you that even if by a miracle they succeed and seal the breach, that 50 others are ready to pop at any time, what then? If you seal that breach, or even try, the people on the roofs will die. If you do not seal the breach, who knows how many in the city's center will die.

But your task is not yet complete, far from it.

The largest seaport in the US has been destroyed. How will ships get in to help you?

The largest river in the US is now blocked to ocean going ships, and river going ships. Will you just let it sit there, blocked, while the rest of the country starves for gasoline, not to mention hundreds of other necessities?

All but one of the bridges into and out of your city are destroyed, but you don't even know this, not at first. You can't get even one block from your office without a chainsaw and a crane. Your helicopters are either 200 miles away or destroyed. Your phones don't work and your power is out. Will you divert resources from saving people in attics to look over the highways to see which are open and which are closed? Will you choose to check the roads, and begin cleaning the roads, if the price of doing so is to let a thousand people in local hospitals who require electricity to live, and who therefore must be evacuated, die in their hospital beds?

Perhaps instead, you will choose to place a priority on looters, who are shooting at hospitals and policemen. Who will you allow to die, while you divert assets to maintaining security?

This is just the beginning. You still have 30,000 people in the Super Dome, the water is rising, they are getting sick and they are near rioting. What are you going to do with them?

By now, you are hopefully beginning to understand the error in trying to fix blame, at least this early.

You do not, a city does not, even the United States does not build a brand new one million person city in one day.

If you try, you seal the deaths of thousands and thousands of people. What you do first is call in the Feds. This is so far beyond the capacity of any city, even New York, that the Feds have the only chance at success. But you are the mayor, you have known for years how many cops you have, how many National Guards you have, and that the numbers available to you are less than a tenth of what you need. The Federal Government is the ONLY answer.

But even the Feds do not rush into a disaster of this magnitude. If you want to know exactly how long it takes a trained crew to set up a one million person city, I cannot give you the answer. But I can tell you how long it takes to set up the headquarters that will run a one million person city.

It takes three days. We just saw it done. We just saw how professionals work. They do not run into a disaster area with two other guys and immediately bog down, buried under a task far too large to comprehend. No, they assess the situation first. That takes 24 hours. I have never seen any kind of a hurricane damage overview in less than 24 hours after the eyewall passed the area. They assess and then they move an advance team in to build the headquarters and support facilities necessary to command the entire relief effort. While that is being built, the lower echelon units ar packing and getting into trucks and flying their helicopters closer to the area. Closer, but not in, because they, and you, do not know exactly where it is safe for them to set up, or even where they will be needed.

But once you have the headquarters up, and the troops nearby, things begin to happen quickly. Now, instead of having to choose whether this 10,000 person group dies, or that 30,000 person group stays on the roofs, you have entire battalions to throw at the problem. Battalions to throw at each problem and more in reserve. Battalions that are fed and watered and equipped and supported and have a place to sleep. Battalions that you can sustain and keep working, not for a few days, but for the months that they will be needed.

Now, you have a plan. Now, you have the tools you need, the roads, the choppers, the aircraft, the rifles, and the boats. Now you can do the job right.

But you don't have any of that as the Mayor. I don't care if you are Boss Tweed or the least corrupt politician in hostory, you do not have the resources you need, not by a factor of ten and maybe not by a factor of one hundred.

There is only one option open to the mayor. Finger in the proverbial dike, and yell for the Feds. When you understand the real scope of this storm, then you understand that the Mayor's job was to hold the fort and yell for help.

Only then can you make an accurate assessment of how well the mayor performed his or her task.

But it still isn't time for that. Not yet. Not for a long time.

America faces the worst disaster in its history. More dead than Pearl Harbor. More than 9/11. Maybe only ten times as many dead. Maybe 100 times as many.

A bigger fuel crisis than the 1973 Oil Embargo.

Nine American cities mostly or totally destroyed.

America's largest port, closed until further notice.

America's largest river, closed until further notice.

A 500 year, worst case doomsday scenario hurricane.

Now take a good hard look in the mirror.

Yes, you.

If we are going to lose 40 thousand dead, and at least half of those are alive right now, what is your priority?

If we are going to lose four hundred thousand dead, half a million people, and half of them are still alive right now, what is your priority?

It isn't time to point fingers of blame, even at the looters. 100 looters don't hold a candle to the 20,000 people that will die if they aren't rescued.

Ten thousand looters don't hold a candle to two hundred thousand people at risk.

This is a huge disaster, and it is important for America to learn how to think big. If you aren't capable of walking past ten dying people to save 100 dying people, then at the very least, stay out of the way of those who can.

You know what the price is, if you don't.

When you start thinking big, you start understanding that one person doesn't count anymore. Not the mayor, not the governor, not even President Bush. Bush will not fix this, the New Orleans police will not fix this, and the National Guard will not fix this.

They aren't big enough.

Three hundred million American people are going to fix this, or else it isn't going to get fixed.

So for all the sidewalk superintendents, all the finger pointers, all those who would grab political power over this, I have one very simple question.

Do you stand with us, or are you going to just stand in the way?

Edited September 4, 2005 by ghost of miles

[catesta]

Thanks for posting that.

[JSngry]

Seeing as how the real disaster didn't begin until the levees cracked, isn't it fair to say that the local evacuation plan was at least adequate up until then? People had a place to go to if they chose, and other than the hole in the Superdome roof, they were safe during the storm itself. If the levees hadn't breached (breeched?), people could well have gone home to their respective messes as early as Monday, right? Tuesday for sure.

The surely forthcoming investigation needs to pay attention to who knew that the levees were in need of upgrading, and who prevented that from happening as much or more than it does the mishandling of the evacuation/rescue. The need for the latter might well have been averted if the former had been handled responsibly.

Spare no blame, I say, but let's get to the root cause of what really caused this mess, not just the mess itself.

[marcello]

Thanks for the article and information.

[Soulstation1]

i saw some portable toilets for the first time today

i hope people still aren't living on the freeways come monday

a week later......................................

would this shit happen in beverly hills????

[BERIGAN]

Seeing as how the real disaster didn't begin until the levees cracked, isn't it fair to say that the local evacuation plan was at least adequate up until then?....

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Yeah, but isn't that like saying until the Levees broke, they were doing an adequate job of holding the water? What did N.O. do to prepare for the worst? Here is a photo of a bunch of ruined School Buses, would have been nice if they had them surrounding the Superdome before the flooding.

Hell, I first thought when I heard all these folks were going to the Dome, what if the then 175 MPH Hurricane(Can it seem possible this story could have been worse with a direct hit with those winds!) damaged the structure? Imagine if thousands had died in that type of disaster. But, it seemed better than having them killed in the houses. So much delay....systems have to be improved...phones go down, no way to communicate? I see the media has satellite phones, perhaps cities need to invest in them....

[JSngry]

Seeing as how the real disaster didn't begin until the levees cracked, isn't it fair to say that the local evacuation plan was at least adequate up until then?....

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Yeah, but isn't that like saying until the Levees broke, they were doing an adequate job of holding the water? What did N.O. do to prepare for the worst? Here is a photo of a bunch of ruined School Buses, would have been nice if they had them surrounding the Superdome before the flooding.

...

Hell, I first thought when I heard all these folks were going to the Dome, what if the then 175 MPH Hurricane(Can it seem possible this story could have been worse with a direct hit with those winds!) damaged the structure? Imagine if thousands had died in that type of disaster. But, it seemed better than having them killed in the houses. So much delay....systems have to be improved...phones go down, no way to communicate? I see the media has satellite phones, perhaps cities need to invest in them....

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You're right as a matter of speculation (and by that I mean no dis. Just because there wasn't a direct hit doesn't excuse not being prepared for one), but the fact remains - this specific tragedy occured because people lived, and they lived because the specific plans in place worked. Until the levees broke...

It's a cruel, grusome even, irony that we'd have a lot "cleaner" disaster on our hands if the worst case had transpired - a direct hit. Then we'd just have a lot of dead bodies to clean up, and a national period of unambiguous grief. Scapegoats could easily be found, fingers easily pointed, etc., etc., etc. But people lived, and how they ended up living proved (and will continue to prove) to be more than a little embarassing (dare I say humiliating?) to, I hope, all of America. Dead people are easy to handle. You pick'em up and bury them. Living people, though, people locked up in near-death camp conditions for longer than there's any good explanation for, well, they're not as easily "processed", physically and mentally, as dead ones.

No way do I seek to exonerate anybody for not being prepared for the worst-case scenario of a direct hit of such a superstorm. But one thing I don't want to see is for investigations to get so caught up in finding fault in general that they fail to recognize the fact that people survived the storm with the plans already in place. If that happens, you push aside the reality that this catastrophe wasn't a result of poor pre-storm evacuation and planning, it was a result of the levees breaking, pure and simple. Nobody was ready for that, least of all, it seems, those on the outside who were so desperately needed to come inside. Once your locals are under water, there's not a helluva lot they can do from the inside to evacuate themselves. If the levees had remained intact, you can bet (I hope...) that those school buses would've been put to use. Yeah, it would've been smart to have them stationed outside the Superdome before the flooding, of that there is no doubt. But it would've been smarter still to have not f-ed around and left the levees in the state they were in. And whose fault is that?

Who knew how perilous the levees were? Who tried to get them upgraded? Who stopped them? Why? Who knew what, and when did they know it - the basic questions that follow in the wake of any disaster. They are the questions that must be asked and fully answered along with all the others, perhaps even before all the others, since they have direct bearing on what actually happened rather than what could have happened.

Failure to be prepared for a direct hit of a storm such as Katrina is negligence indeed, and it must not be overlooked or otherwise excused. But it's not what caused the devastation in New Orleans. Not this time.

Edited September 4, 2005 by JSngry

[casanovas347]

this is the pure nightmare....i still can't believe what's happend

*feeling sad*

[BERIGAN]

Mississippians' Suffering Overshadowed

Sep 03 11:49 PM US/Eastern

By EMILY WAGSTER PETTUS

Associated Press Writer

JACKSON, Miss.

Mississippi hurricane survivors looked around Saturday and wondered just how long it would take to get food, clean water and shelter. And they were more than angry at the federal government and the national news media.

Richard Gibbs was disgusted by reports of looting in New Orleans and upset at the lack of attention hurricane victims in his state were getting.

"I say burn the bridges and let 'em all rot there," he said. "We're suffering over here too, but we're not killing each other. We've got to help each other. We need gas and food and water and medical supplies."

Gibbs and his wife, Holly, have been stuck at their flooded home in Gulfport just off the Biloxi River. Water comes up to the second floor, they are out of gasoline, and food supplies are running perilously low.

Until recently, they also had Holly's 75-year-old father, who has a pacemaker and severe diabetes, with them. Finally they got an ambulance to take him to the airport so he could be airlifted to Lafayette, La., for medical help.

In poverty-stricken north Gulfport, Grover Chapman was angry at the lack of aid.

"Something should've been on this corner three days ago," Chapman, 60, said Saturday as he whipped up dinner for his neighbors.

He used wood from his demolished produce stand to cook fish, rabbit, okra and butter beans he'd been keeping in his freezer. Although many houses here, about five miles inland, are still standing, they are severely damaged. Corrugated tin roofs lie scattered on the ground.

"I'm just doing what I can do," Chapman said. "These people support me with my produce stand every day. Now it's time to pay them back."

One neighbor, 78-year-old Georgia Smylie, knew little about what's happening elsewhere. She was too worried about her own situation.

"My medicine is running out. I need high blood pressure medicine, medicine for my heart," she said.

Larry Sabato, a University of Virginia political scientist, said he's been watching hours of Katrina coverage every day and most of the national media attention has focused on the devastation and looting in New Orleans.

"Mississippi needs more coverage," Sabato said. "Until people see it on TV, they don't think it's real."

Along the battered Mississippi Gulf Coast, crews started searching boats for corpses on Saturday. Several shrimpers are believed to have died as they tried to ride out the storm aboard their boats on the Intracoastal Waterway.

President Bush toured ravaged areas of the Mississippi coast on Friday with Gov. Haley Barbour and other state officials. They also flew over flooded New Orleans.

"I'm going to tell you, Mississippi got hit much harder than they did, but what happened in the aftermath _ it makes your stomach hurt to go miles and miles and miles and the houses are all under water up to the roof," Barbour said.

Keisha Moran has been living in a tent in a department store parking lot in Bay St. Louis with her boyfriend and three young children since the hurricane struck. She said National Guardsmen have brought her water but no other aid so far, and she was furious that it took Bush several days before he came to see the damage in Mississippi.

"It's how many days later? How many people are dead?" Moran said.

Mississippi's death toll from Hurricane Katrina stood at 144 on Saturday, according to confirmed reports from coroners and the Mississippi Emergency Management Agency. Barbour had said Friday the total was 147, but he didn't provide a county-by-county breakdown.

In a strongly worded editorial, The Sun Herald of Biloxi-Gulfport pleaded for help and questioned why a massive National Guard presence wasn't already visible.

"We understand that New Orleans also was devastated by Hurricane Katrina, but surely this nation has the resources to rescue both that metropolitan (area) and ours," the newspaper editorialized, saying survival basics like ice, gasoline and medicine have been too slow to arrive.

"We are not calling on the nation and the state to make life more comfortable in South Mississippi, we are calling on the nation and the state to make life here possible," the paper wrote.

____

Associated Press reporter David Royse and Brian Skoloff in Gulfport and Jay Reeves in Bay St. Louis contributed to this report.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2005/09/03/D8CD6TQ03.html

[BERIGAN]

Bet each thinks they are helping the other, and they probably are!

[BERIGAN]

.... Yeah, it would've been smart to have them stationed outside the Superdome before the flooding, of that there is no doubt. But it would've been smarter still to have not f-ed around and left the levees in the state they were in. And whose fault is that?

Who knew how perilous the levees were? Who tried to get them upgraded? Who stopped them? Why? Who knew what, and when did they know it - the basic questions that follow in the wake of any disaster. They are the questions that must be asked and fully answered along with all the others, perhaps even before all the others, since they have direct bearing on what actually happened rather than what could have happened.

Failure to be prepared for a direct hit of a storm such as Katrina is negligence indeed, and it must not be overlooked or otherwise excused. But it's not what caused the devastation in New Orleans. Not this time.

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We have met the enemy, and they is us....

Katrina's enablers:

Levees were ignored for decades

WHO OR what gets the blame for the levee breaches that wrecked so much of New Orleans after Hurricane Katrina struck? We have heard people point fingers at all of the following: President Bush, global warming, the Iraq war and racism. We are still trying to figure that last one out. The real culprit, however, has been right before our eyes for a long time.

The Army Corps of Engineers is in charge of flood control in New Orleans, but state and local officials play important roles in planning and funding too. Engineers as well as local, state and federal officials have known for decades that the New Orleans levees were designed to survive only a Category 3 hurricane. Katrina was a Category 5, which dropped to a 4 shortly before impact. Why didn't officials use their resources to build stronger, higher levees since the last Category 5 hurricane hit New Orleans in 1969?

With the federal government in charge, local and state officials were able to shift the burden to Washington and divert their attention to more frivolous pursuits. Instead of pumping the necessary resources into walls and levees that would withstand the worst storms, they built convention centers and sports arenas.

The Louisiana Superdome Cost $163 million to build in 1975. The Ernest N. Morial Convention Center, a state entity, was built in 1985. It was expanded in 1999, and the state just completed negotiations for a new 500,000 square foot expansion. The state signed a contract for the new expansion on Aug. 17, just 12 days before Katrina hit. The price: $315 million. Construction would have begun years ago, for a cost of $275 million, but for some delays. There was a legal dispute over the contract in 2003, then in 2004 Gov. Kathleen Blanco tried to combine the expansion with a new stadium to replace the Superdome.

There have been charges that recent decisions not to fully fund the requests of the Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans were somehow to blame for the flooding last week. But the lower than requested funding for the Army Corps of Engineers in New Orleans was slated for the 2006 budget; it would have made no difference last Monday.

However, Washington has neglected its duties in this area for years. Instead of spending the hundreds of millions, even billions, to replace levees that all experts knew were inadequate, federal politicians chose for decades to fund pork projects. Instead of new levees for New Orleans, the American people were given sports stadiums, bicycle trails and roads in powerful politicians' districts. Experts have known of the city's vulnerability since at least the 1960s, and yet no one at the local, state or federal level made sure that the levees could withstand a hurricane even less powerful than Camille in 1969.

Several decades' worth of politicians of both parties played with taxpayer money while neglecting their duty to protect the citizens. As a result of their irresponsibility, hundreds, perhaps thousands, have died.

http://www.theunionleader.com/articles_sho...l?article=59964

[vibes]

It's nice to see that even though we have had disagreements with a number of countries on this list, there is still a lot of generosity in the world and goodwill for the people of the United States.

Qatar offers $100m to relief fund

Sunday, September 4, 2005; Posted: 2:51 a.m. EDT (06:51 GMT)

(CNN) -- The oil-rich nation of Qatar has offered the United States $100 million to assist in the humanitarian crisis triggered by Hurricane Katrina.

The state-run Qatar News Agency said Saturday that Qatar's emir, Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, decided to contribute that amount for relief "and humanitarian supplies for the victims of this disaster."

The U.S. government has received offers of support from dozens of nations across the globe.

As of Friday, the White House had not accepted any offers, but Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the State Department was "working very closely with the Department of Homeland Security to match up what is available with what is needed."

There was no immediate word whether the United States would take Qatar up on its offer.

Other offers of aid and assistance have come in from countries around the world -- including from India, Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia, the four countries hardest-hit by the December 26 Asian tsunami.

The State Department said offers of help had been received from more than 50 countries, including:

Australia, Austria, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bahamas, Belgium, Canada, China, Columbia, Cuba, Dominica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Guatemala, Greece, Guyana, Honduras, Hungary, Iceland, India, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, Jamaica, Japan, Jordan, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Paraguay, Philippines, Portugal, South Korea, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, Slovakia, Spain, Sri Lanka, Switzerland, Sweden, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, United Kingdom, the United Arab Emirates, and Venezuela.

International organizations also offered help ranging from medical teams to tents to cash donations. They include NATO, the Organization of American States, the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees, and the World Health Organization.

The United Nations has offered to help coordinate international relief.

State Department officials have not yet said if any of these offers -- beyond specific offers of cash to humanitarian organization -- have been accepted.

Following is a list of some of the aid offered by governments.

-- Sri Lanka has offered what it called a "token contribution" of $25,000 through the American Red Cross.

-- Mexico has offered $1 million and is sending 15 truckloads of water, food and medical supplies via Texas. The Mexican navy has offered to send two ships, two helicopters and 15 amphibious vehicles.

-- Australia is giving A$10 million ($7.6 million), most of it to the American Red Cross.

-- China has offered $5 million.

-- India is making a $5 million donation to the American Red Cross, Ambassador Ronen Sen said Saturday. In addition, Sen said India was willing to donate essential medicines to the relief effort, noting that India has the largest number of Food and Drug Administration-recognized pharmaceutical companies outside the United States.

-- -- Germany has offered a wide range of assistance including evacuation by air, medical services, transportation services, water treatment capabilities, assistance in searching for victims, vaccination teams and supplies, and emergency shelter. Germany has also said it is ready and willing to "dip into its own emergency oil reserves" to release some 2 million barrels a day for 30 days.

-- France has offered mobile help from the French Antilles, which is relatively close to the affected regions, including a civil defense detachment of 35 people, tents, camp beds, generators, motor pumps, water treatment units and emergency kits, two CASA cargo aircraft, a ship (Batral Francis Garnier) and the frigate Ventose with its Panther helicopter, and a hurricane disaster unit (20 soldiers and 900 kg of specialized supplies and medical support).

-- France has also offered assistance from the French mainland including: one or two C-135 planes, one A-310 aircraft , and four C-160 Transalls, an airborne emergency unit. In addition, the NGO Telecoms Sans Frontieres, which specializes in restoring phone lines and Internet service in disasters, is ready to send a team of experts and equipment. Veolia Environment, which has facilities in Louisiana, has offered to make its local water management resources available to the American authorities or the Red Cross. It can also quickly send in a team of hydraulic experts.

-- Japan has offered to provide $200,000 to the American Red Cross. The government of Japan will identify needs in the affected regions through the U.S. government and, upon request, is ready to provide necessary and available emergency assistance supply amounting to up to $300,000 worth of items such as tents, blankets, power generators, portable water tanks and more from a supply depot maintained by the Japanese government in Florida.

-- Cuba's President Fidel Castro said on Friday his nation was ready to send 1,100 doctors and 26 tons of medicine and equipment.

Asia

AUSTRALIA: "We're going to provide A$10 million ($7.6 million) and the bulk of that money, if not all of it, will go to the American Red Cross," said Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer. The Australian government said there may be up to 24 Australians trapped in Louisiana in the aftermath of Katrina.

CHINA: China offered $5 million in aid for victims of Hurricane Katrina which devastated the Gulf Coast ahead of President Hu Jintao's U.S. visit. If needed, the Chinese government is also prepared to send rescue workers, including medical experts, officials said.

JAPAN: Will provide $200,000 to the American Red Cross to assist victims of Hurricane Katrina, the Japanese Foreign Ministry said on Friday. Japan will also identify needs in affected regions via the U.S. government and will provide up to $300,000 in emergency supplies such as tents, blankets and power generators if it receives requests for such assistance, the ministry said.

SINGAPORE: The Singapore Armed Forces, responding to requests by the United States Texas Army National Guard, has sent three Chinook helicopters to Fort Polk, Louisiana, to help in relief efforts. The government said the Chinooks will help to ferry supplies and undertake airlift missions.

SOUTH KOREA: Has pledged aid and is waiting for a U.S. response, a government official said. "We have sent our intention to offer recovery aid," a Foreign Ministry official said on Friday.

SRI LANKA: Will donate $25,000 to the American Red Cross.

TAIWAN: Has pledged more than $3 million to the relief effort.

Americas

CANADA: Offered to help in any way it can and the navy is preparing a ship full of emergency disaster relief supplies to be sent when a request comes.

CUBA: Cuban President Fidel Castro offered to fly 1,100 doctors to Houston with 26 tonnes of medicine to treat disaster victims.

MEXICO: The country is sending 15 truckloads of water, food and medical supplies via Texas and the Mexican navy has offered to send two ships, two helicopters and 15 amphibious vehicles.

VENEZUELA: President Hugo Chavez, a vocal critic of the United States, offered to send cheap fuel, humanitarian aid and relief workers to the disaster area.

Europe

EUROPEAN UNION: EU countries are ready to give the United States oil if it requests help, EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana said on Friday. But British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said this was not what the EU had in mind when it discussed how to help.

FRANCE: Prime Minister Dominique de Villepin said France was ready to offer support, telling TF1 television: "We have rescue teams based in the Caribbean and we are naturally ready to provide aid to the Americans, and that is what we have told them."

GERMANY: Has offered mobile units to provide clean water, military hospital facilities and medical aid.

ITALY: Has offered to "immediately" send aid and evacuation specialists, Italy's civil protection unit said. Authorities have prepared two military transport planes to fly amphibious vessels, pumps, generators, tents and personnel to New Orleans and other areas. They were awaiting word from U.S. officials, the unit said.

NETHERLANDS: Will provide teams for inspecting dykes and for identifying victims if there is a formal request from the United States. It will also send a frigate from Curacao to New Orleans shortly to provide emergency assistance, the government said.

RUSSIA: Has offered to help with rescue efforts, but is still awaiting a reply from Washington. "Above all with heavy transport planes, which can be loaded with helicopters and generators -- as there is no electricity in the area of the catastrophe," Defense Minister Sergei Ivanov said.

SPAIN: Expects to receive a formal request to release gasoline stocks to the United States and is prepared to grant it, an Industry Ministry spokesman said.

SWEDEN: The Rescue Authority said it was on stand-by to supply water purifying equipment, healthcare supplies and emergency shelters if needed.

UNITED KINGDOM: British Prime Minister Tony Blair has said Britain stands ready to help the United States in whatever way it can.

Middle East

SAUDI ARABIA - Saudi Refining, a Houston-based subsidiary of state oil firm Saudi Aramco, will donate $5 million to the American Red Cross to support relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina.

[Joe G]

Last Wednesday I was getting a haircut, and my barber, who is a veteren of the WWII generation, remarked rather sarcastically, "Isn't it great that all those countries around the world have offered to help us out, after all the times we've gone out and helped with thier disasters?" At that point, the media was focused exclusively on the unfolding story in N.O. and Mississippi, and I hadn't heard Bush's stated refusal of the aid of the world community. Of course, I was not going to get into a political debate with my barber either way. I would hope, however, that that list gets shown to every American who wrongly thinks that the world is against us or whatever. A good humbling is in order, I think.

[minew]

The right wing blogoshpere's (the source of that bus picture) attempt to turn this into Nagin-gate (blame the black democrat) is laughable, that is if anything about this could be humorous.

I do fault Nagin and other local officials for the Superdome plan because they knew it wouldn't work. It was used in the same way in 98 (Georges) and failed utterly, even though the storm didn't even hit. But the idea that New Orleans had the means to bus out everyone without cars or maintain its own levees is ridiculous. New Orleans is the poorest big city in the country - both in terms of people and government. The school system alone, the worst in the country, was 48 million dollars in debt this year. There is no tax base. What tax base there is isn't taxed due to the sacred homestead exemption. Oh, sure there's corruption and graft - lots of it. Mainly, there's just no money.

Back to the busses: according to the same site that posts the bus pictures (linked from Instapundit) the busses in the picture would have transported 13,000 people out of the city. That still leaves you with 100,000. Moreover, who gets on the busses? Who stands there with guns telling people who can get on and who can't?

The levee wall broke late Monday and people called the one working radio station (WWL870AM) to report that water was rising in Mid City, the lowest part of the city. Then someone from the station reported that there was a levee breach. From that point, it would have been clear to every official, federal, state, and local, who has looked at this problem what was going to happen. From that point, it should have been clear, that only a massive and swift federal response would help. It was announced about 11pm monday that there would be a 10AM Corps of Engineers meeting the next day. Guess even the Corps is infected by our manana culture.

As of Tuesday, locals began to say to each other and on the radio, including the mayor, that the army has to come in now, the feds have to do this. Most NOPD had already worked 36 and 48 hour shifts. 1500 police officers and 1000 firefighters were responsible for round-the-clock rescue and security needs of 150,000 stranded hurricane victims. People would remain stranded on interstates, in the Dome, and at the convention center UNTIL SUNDAY MORNING. This despite the fact that media and even ordinary local citizens could easily reach these locations via the Miss. River bridge (aka Crescent City Connection).

One final note about the evacuation and preparation: there was no time. As of Friday morning, Katrina was a minor storm headed for the Florida panhandle, according to the NWS. I checked a local news site at about noon and noticed that N.O. was suddenly in the western edge of the cone (even though 4 or 5 computer models had shifed over us). I made reservations in Baton Rouge, where we had planned to go anyway Sat morning to visit friends. Six hours later (Friday @6pm), the track had Katrina pointed at the Miss Gulf Coast as a 4. Most people I talked to hadn't even heard. It was Friday, they had been at work, they were going out. When we got up Sat. we saw that it was still coming at us. We left at about 10 AM and there was hardly any traffic on the road. The local evacuation plan was enacted. It is a 50-hr staged evacuation. The storm made landfall 45 hours later. The fact that 80% of the population got out with basically no notice, many just hours before the storm hit, is amazing. In terms of telling people to get out, I do not fault local officials. They did it as clearly and urgently and as soon as possible, period.

[RDK]

It's interesting, in retrospect, to go back and look at the stories following the hurricane but before the levee breech and flooding. From last Monday's L.A. Times...

Hurricane Lashes a City Abandoned

Category 4 Katrina aims for New Orleans, where the haves flee and the have-nots hunker down.

By Scott Gold, Times Staff Writer

NEW ORLEANS — Bill Rau, the 45-year-old owner of a French Quarter antique shop that sells diamonds and 18th century clocks, flew his family to Dallas on Sunday, not because he knew anyone there but because it was the only way he could get out of town.

He thought about driving but feared that Hurricane Katrina — a menacing storm with sustained winds of at least 155 mph expected to strike before 7 this morning — would catch up with him while he sat in traffic.

So he spent $3,000 and bought the only tickets he could find: six one-way, first-class seats to Dallas.

John Higgins was struggling in a different way. The 49-year-old man hobbled through New Orleans as the wind picked up, carrying what he owned — a purple comb, a radio and a pack of instant coffee — on his back.

The homeless shelter where Higgins usually stayed had closed because of fears that Katrina would destroy it. He had no car, no money and nowhere to go, so he was trying to make his way to the Louisiana Superdome, the downtown arena that had hosted Super Bowls and Bob Hope but was pressed into service as a storm shelter.

To some degree, Katrina was an equalizer, leaving Rau and Higgins clawing their way to safety.

But it also served as a reminder that this is a city of haves and have-nots. And on Sunday, by and large, the former got out of town — about 1 million of the metropolitan area's 1.6 million people, officials said — and the latter were left behind.

"Ain't that life?" Higgins asked.

Those who remained in New Orleans, a large part of which sits below sea level, will probably wake this morning to calamity.

At midnight PDT on Monday, Katrina was downgraded to Category 4 from Category 5, the rating given to the most powerful hurricanes. Only three Category 5 hurricanes have struck the United States. The last was Hurricane Andrew, which pummeled Florida in 1992.

Katrina grew after hitting Florida's east coast Thursday as a Category 1 hurricane, causing 11 deaths before blowing across the state into the Gulf of Mexico, lifting fuel from the warm water.

New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation for the first time in the city's history, calling the storm a "once-in-a-lifetime event."

"The city of New Orleans has never seen a hurricane of this magnitude hit it directly," Nagin said as he and Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco announced the evacuation at a news conference. "This is awesome."

The National Hurricane Center in Miami issued dire warnings about the storm's magnitude. By midnight, Katrina was moving northwest at 10 mph and had sustained winds of 160 mph and higher gusts. Hurricane-force winds extended 105 miles in every direction from the center, and tropical-storm-force winds stretched out 230 miles. The eye of the hurricane measured about 30 miles in diameter.

The Louisiana coast could experience storm surges as high as 28 feet, 15 inches of rain and tornadoes, the National Hurricane Center said. A 28-foot storm surge would be the highest ever recorded, officials said.

Katrina had developed into what leading forecasters had been worrying about for years: a mammoth storm bearing down on a densely populated coastal flat.

Bill Read, a meteorologist at the National Hurricane Center in Miami, said Katrina was the fourth-largest Atlantic hurricane ever measured, behind Gilbert in 1988, Allen in 1980 and the 1935 Labor Day hurricane, which occurred before tropical storms were named.

Officials said Katrina rivaled Hurricane Camille, a notorious Gulf of Mexico storm that smashed into the Mississippi coast in August 1969 — wiping out entire stretches of shoreline, destroying more than 5,600 homes and killing 259 people.

"At the moment, this one is stronger than Camille," Read said. "It's got everything we warn about going for it: It's large and it's going for vulnerable areas of the coast, so storm surge will be bad."

Nagin said as many as 30,000 people had sought shelter at the Superdome by 5 p.m. and thousands more were in line, though the city had repeatedly urged residents to consider the arena a shelter of "last resort." About a dozen other shelters had been opened, although some were full and people were turned away.

The mayor said people should be prepared to stay in shelters for as long as five days and should bring their own provisions. If power went out, electricity could remain off in parts of the city for six weeks, Nagin said.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency, which coordinates disaster assistance, was sending teams with food, water, ice and generators to areas across the southeastern United States, said Natalie Rule, a spokeswoman.

In addition to supplies, the federal agency has prepared search-and-rescue teams and disaster medical units. "They'll move in as soon as it's safe," Rule said.

President Bush signed emergency disaster declarations for Mississippi and Alabama, a move that will allow federal officials to coordinate more quickly with state and local officials. He signed a similar declaration for Louisiana on Saturday. State officials in Louisiana and Mississippi expect flooding.

In the Gulf of Mexico, oil companies shut platforms and evacuated workers. One oil rig recorded a 65-foot swell.

Tens of thousands of people fled low-lying coastal areas in Louisiana and surrounding states Saturday and Sunday, and officials said many pockets of New Orleans were as they should be — virtually deserted. In other areas, the mayor's evacuation order prompted chaos.

Fistfights broke out at convenience stores when managers tried to close; one store clerk was forced to enlist a customer to lock and unlock the door to let the last customers out. Two dozen people were seen banging on the glass windows of a large hardware store, begging for plywood and other supplies.

By noon, traffic was bumper-to-bumper for 15 miles in any direction.

In the heart of New Orleans, a sense of dread settled over the streets. Although it is one of the most visited places in the nation, it is not a wealthy city. And it was clear that thousands of people did not have the means to evacuate. One man sat forlornly on a street corner with a backpack and an umbrella. Another man walked down Canal Street carrying only a pillow.

Many tourists were stranded; several people wept at Louis Armstrong International Airport, unable to get a flight or a rental car.

Pam Hendrix, a graphic designer, was in Houston on business when she realized how dangerous the storm was getting. She was one of the few people flying into New Orleans but said, "We're only coming home so we can turn around and leave."

As soon as she arrived home, she said, her family and pets would load into a car and drive to Monroe, La., where relatives lived.

"We're all just crossing our fingers that we have jobs and homes to come back to," she said. "The infrastructure of this city is so fragile. I don't know if the city can recuperate from something like this. No one knows what's going to happen because this has never happened before."

As with many powerful hurricanes, much of the damage that Katrina will leave behind will probably come from flooding.

Nagin said he expected the storm to send water over the levees that protected New Orleans. If that happens, he said, it could take two weeks for the city to pump the water out.

Even the historic French Quarter, though it sits at a higher elevation than much of the surrounding city, could be under 20 feet of water.

Equally threatened, although less conspicuous, were low-lying regions like Terrebonne Parish, southwest of New Orleans. Sheriff Jerry Larpenter said about half of the parish's 110,000 residents had evacuated. The morning could bring disaster for the area's mostly poor population, he said.

"I don't know of too many of [the area's houses] that could withstand a [Category] 5," he said. "These people are living from check to check. They don't have the luxury of renting a camper and leaving town."

After dark, a caravan of vehicles on Interstate 10 was moving at a snail's pace through Baton Rouge. The drive northwest from New Orleans, which ordinarily takes an hour and 10 minutes, was dragging on for as much as 10 hours, said Melvin L. "Kip" Holden, mayor-president of Baton Rouge.

At the airport in New Orleans, antique shop owner Rau stood in line for chicken sandwiches with his daughter, fretting about the damage the water could bring but relieved that his family wouldn't be around to face the storm.

Rau owns two homes in the New Orleans area. One, which is 6,000 square feet, was finished three weeks ago. It is on the shore of Lake Pontchartrain north of the city, where significant flooding is expected. Rau said he tried to bring some items into the house before his family left but, he said, "I think it's all moot."

"I'm sure it will be gone," he said of the house. "We had five good nights there."

Higgins, the homeless man, was taking it one night at a time.

By 4 p.m., sheets of rain began to fall and high winds kicked up clouds of dust. Higgins connected with two homeless friends whose shelters had also closed, and the three were trudging through the streets of downtown trying to get to the Superdome. Higgins said he had been there once before, to see the rock band Boston in the 1980s.

"This will be a little different, I guess," he said.

Higgins was joined by Harry Oswald, 52, who had thick glasses and a towel tucked into the neck of his shirt to absorb sweat, and Leon Raines, 41, who was smoking the remnant of a cigarette he had found on the ground. They had tried several homeless shelters. Then they tried to nap in a park, but the wind picked up and safety became their main concern.

Together, the three walked up a ramp leading to the upper tier of the Superdome. They had, collectively, two bottles of water. Officials made no promises that they would be able to deliver food or water into the arena anytime soon.

A member of the National Guard stopped the three and sent them downstairs to get in line.

Two hundred feet below were 10,000 people — women holding babies, men in wheelchairs, bored children. They carried pillows, bottles of water, Spider-Man sleeping bags, loaves of bread and cans of tuna in suitcases, shopping carts and garbage bags.

Nearly two hours later, as the skies darkened rapidly, the three men were finally at the doors of the Superdome, bickering about how long they would have to remain inside. Higgins insisted it would be "a few hours." Raines said, "We could be there for a few weeks!"

Oswald tried to quiet them. "Well, we'll be inside soon," he said. "We've been walking the streets all day, man. It'll be good to sit down."

[Matthew]

WTF????? You mean to tell me a major city that is on the coast, below see level, and no one in FEMA thought a levee breach could take place?

Chertoff: Katrina scenario did not exist

However, experts for years had warned of threat to New Orleans

Sunday, September 4, 2005; Posted: 8:49 a.m. EDT (12:49 GMT)

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Defending the U.S. government's response to Hurricane Katrina, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff argued Saturday that government planners did not predict such a disaster ever could occur.

But in fact, government officials, scientists and journalists have warned of such a scenario for years.

Chertoff, fielding questions from reporters, said government officials did not expect both a powerful hurricane and a breach of levees that would flood the city of New Orleans.

"That 'perfect storm' of a combination of catastrophes exceeded the foresight of the planners, and maybe anybody's foresight," Chertoff said.

He called the disaster "breathtaking in its surprise."

But engineers say the levees preventing this below-sea-level city from being turned into a swamp were built to withstand only Category 3 hurricanes. And officials have warned for years that a Category 4 could cause the levees to fail. (See video of why the levee's breech was devastating -- 1:53)

Katrina was a Category 4 hurricane when it struck the Gulf Coast on September 29.

Last week, Michael Brown, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, told CNN his agency had recently planned for a Category 5 hurricane hitting New Orleans.

Speaking to "Larry King Live" on August 31, in the wake of Katrina, Brown said, "That Category 4 hurricane caused the same kind of damage that we anticipated. So we planned for it two years ago. Last year, we exercised it. And unfortunately this year, we're implementing it."

Brown suggested FEMA -- part of the Department of Homeland Security -- was carrying out a prepared plan, rather than having to suddenly create a new one.

Chertoff argued that authorities actually had assumed that "there would be overflow from the levee, maybe a small break in the levee. The collapse of a significant portion of the levee leading to the very fast flooding of the city was not envisioned."

He added: "There will be plenty of time to go back and say we should hypothesize evermore apocalyptic combinations of catastrophes. Be that as it may, I'm telling you this is what the planners had in front of them. They were confronted with a second wave that they did not have built into the plan, but using the tools they had, we have to move forward and adapt."

But New Orleans, state and federal officials have long painted a very different picture.

"We certainly understood the potential impact of a Category 4 or 5 hurricane" on New Orleans, Lt. General Carl Strock, chief of engineers for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, said Thursday, Cox News Service reported.

Reuters reported that in 2004, more than 40 state, local and volunteer organizations practiced a scenario in which a massive hurricane struck and levees were breached, allowing water to flood New Orleans. Under the simulation, called "Hurricane Pam," the officials "had to deal with an imaginary storm that destroyed more than half a million buildings in New Orleans and forced the evacuation of a million residents," the Reuters report said.

In 2002 the New Orleans Times-Picayune ran a five-part series exploring the vulnerability of the city. The newspaper, and other news media as well, specifically addressed the possibility of massive floods drowning residents, destroying homes and releasing toxic chemicals throughout the city. (Read: "Times-Picayune" Special Report: Washing awayexternal link)

Scientists long have discussed this possibility as a sort of doomsday scenario.

On Sunday, a day before Hurricane Katrina made landfall, Ivor van Heerden, director of the Louisiana State University Public Health Research Center in Baton Rouge, said, "This is what we've been saying has been going to happen for years."

"Unfortunately, it's coming true," he said, adding that New Orleans "is definitely going to flood."

Also on Sunday, Placquemines Parish Sheriff Jeff Hingle referred back to Hurricane Betsy -- a Category 2 hurricane that struck in 1965 -- and said, "After Betsy these levees were designed for a Category 3."

He added, "These levees will not hold the water back."

But Chertoff seemed unaware of all the warnings.

"This is really one which I think was breathtaking in its surprise," Chertoff said. "There has been, over the last few years, some specific planning for the possibility of a significant hurricane in New Orleans with a lot of rainfall, with water rising in the levees and water overflowing the levees," he told reporters Saturday.

That alone would be "a very catastrophic scenario," Chertoff said. "And although the planning was not complete, a lot of work had been done. But there were two problems here. First of all, it's as if someone took that plan and dropped an atomic bomb simply to make it more difficult. We didn't merely have the overflow, we actually had the break in the wall. And I will tell you that, really, that perfect storm of combination of catastrophes exceeded the foresight of the planners, and maybe anybody's foresight."

Chertoff also argued that authorities did not have much notice that the storm would be so powerful and could make a direct hit on New Orleans.

"It wasn't until comparatively late, shortly before -- a day, maybe a day and a half, before landfall -- that it became clear that this was going to be a Category 4 or 5 hurricane headed for the New Orleans area."

As far back as Friday, August 26, the National Hurricane Center was predicting the storm could be a Category 4 hurricane at landfall, with New Orleans directly in its path. Still, storms do change paths, so the possibility existed that it might not hit the city.

But the National Weather Service prediction proved almost perfect.

Katrina made landfall on Monday, August 29.

Tens of thousands of people in New Orleans who did not or could not heed the mandatory evacuation orders issued the day before the storm made landfall were left in dire straits.

"I think we have discovered over the last few days that with all the tremendous effort using the existing resources and the traditional frameworks of the National Guard, the unusual set of challenges of conducting a massive evacuation in the context of a still dangerous flood requires us to basically break the traditional model and create a new model -- one for what you might call kind of an ultracatastrophe," Chertoff said.

He vowed that the United States "is going to move heaven and earth" to rescue those in need.

Edited September 4, 2005 by Matthew

[ejp626]

Maybe the only positive thing out of this horror is that the media have decided to stop playing nice with and/or be buffaloed by this administration. I don't know about the US version of CNN, but the international CNN ran some of those quotes and then had many statements, generally from others within the government showing that Chertoff was woefully misinformed at best and more likely simply lying about not being forewarned. They then showed half a dozen reports and disaster training exercises that foresaw this exact scenario of the levees breaking down.

At the very least, FEMA has to be taken out of Homeland Security and restaffed with professionals, since most of the top people left in disgust after the reorganization.