Katrina, Category 5 Hurricane

[kimmy]

I recall last year during the Florida hurricanes that some were snickering that God must be sending the Bush family a message. This sort of snickering came to a dead silence when Indonesia was devastated by the tsunami. Turns out that natural disaster as political commentary isn't really all that funny after all. And as potentially a million or more people are left without homes and drinkable water, and likely have no jobs for a long time to come, the notion that people are somehow still trying to find ways to turn this into political commentary is rather obnoxious. Keep in mind that the hardest hit are not the Bush family or the SUV drivers or the oil company executives, but the poor.

I also feel quite sad to think of all the historical things that must have been destroyed.

-k

[Montgomery Burns]

Please stop spewing garbage here, eh!

If you are going to make these kind of sicko accusations back them up with links which you obviously left out as they don't exist. The Guardian newpaper is one the English speaking most credible international publications.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

I swear you, Eureka and Black Dog live in a cocoon.

All you had to do was type "Guardian calls for Bush's assassination" into Google's search engine if you doubted me. Is that too difficult?

I'm sure you can do it.

Then when clicking one of the links that come up, you will see that the Guardian pulled the article, and issued a limp apology.

The Guardian newpaper is one the English speaking most credible international publications.

Yeah. As we all know, credible newspapers always give out addresses of Clark County, Ohio (a critical Ohio county in the US election) voters and encourage their readers to write them and tell them who to vote for (Kerry). But it backfired as Bush took the county again. Perhaps the people of Clark County resented foreigners named Nigel telling them who to vote for?

*Counting down the minutes until Mirror calls this a "sicko accusation" and demands links to prove it, even though anyone with the slightest knowledge of world affairs knows that Al Guardian did this*

[Black Dog]

I'm surprised someone hasn't blamed it on bush.

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.

...

The 2004 hurricane season, as you probably recall, was the worst in decades. In spite of that, the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction in hurricane- and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history. Because of the proposed cuts, the Corps office there imposed a hiring freeze. Officials said that money targeted for the SELA project -- $10.4 million, down from $36.5 million -- was not enough to start any new jobs. According to New Orleans CityBusiness this June 5:

The district has identified $35 million in projects to build and improve levees, floodwalls and pumping stations in St. Bernard, Orleans, Jefferson and St. Charles parishes. Those projects are included in a Corps line item called Lake Pontchartrain, where funding is scheduled to be cut from $5.7 million this year to $2.9 million in 2006. Naomi said it's enough to pay salaries but little else.

"We'll do some design work. We'll design the contracts and get them ready to go if we get the money. But we don't have the money to put the work in the field, and that's the problem," Naomi said.

There was, at the same time, a growing recognition that more research was needed to see what New Orleans must do to protect itself from a Category 4 or 5 hurricane. But once again, the money was not there. As the Times-Picayune reported last Sept. 22:

That second study would take about four years to complete and would cost about $4 million, said Army Corps of Engineers project manager Al Naomi. About $300,000 in federal money was proposed for the 2005 fiscal-year budget, and the state had agreed to match that amount.

But the cost of the Iraq war forced the Bush administration to order the New Orleans district office not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money, he said.

Link.

Also:

"With thousands of their citizen-soldiers away fighting in Iraq, states hit hard by Hurricane Katrina scrambled to muster forces for rescue and security missions yesterday -- calling up Army bands and water-purification teams, among other units, and requesting help from distant states and the active-duty military.

...

National Guard officials in the states acknowledged that the scale of the destruction is stretching the limits of available manpower while placing another extraordinary demand on their troops -- most of whom have already served tours in Iraq or Afghanistan or in homeland defense missions since 2001.”

-Washington Post, Wednesday, August 31

Just for you, B. Max.

[B. Max]

The usaul suspects have had to reel this one in from the outer edge of the lunatic fringe to blame it on bush. They've been studying this since the sixties to come up with a plan for new orleans, just for this kind of an event. Would another ten years and 50 million do it. The time for study was over years ago and something if anything should have long ago been in place. The dough headed germans blaming bush because he and the senate wouldn't sign onto kyoto. As if signing kyoto would have made any difference goes to show how stupid the people that did, and what a farce the whole thing is. There have been several climatologists in the media over the last couple of days debunking the crackpot nonsense about the storm and global warming too.

[Melanie_]

If you are touched by the devastation that this hurricane has caused and want to help:

American Red Cross (800) HELP NOW (435-7669) English; (800) 257-7575 Spanish

Operation Blessing (800) 436-6348

America's Second Harvest (800) 344-8070

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Lets not forget that other areas of the world are also struggling with similar catastrophes, and don't have the financial might of the US to help their people rebuild.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/asiapcf/08/2...soon.deaths.ap/

[mirror]

So the devastation in New Orleans actually is Bush's fault because he took the money for the levees and used it to go to war in Iraq. How tragic for his own people in the deep South.

[mirror]

World shows compassion for victims of Katrina

Venezuela's government, which has had tense relations with Washington, offered humanitarian aid and fuel if requested.

Even those Venezuelans, scumbags according to Pat Robertson, are offering to help.

[B. Max]

So the devastation in New Orleans actually is Bush's fault because he took the money for the levees and used it to go to war in Iraq. How tragic for his own people in the deep South.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

How naive some people are.

[mcqueen625]

We're going to get shafted by both the oil industry and governments even though our oil does not come from that area, by increased costs.

[I Miss Trudeau]

Nah, pat has his sights set on lefty pinko these days.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

What? Robertson is now calling for the assisination of Jesus? Fitting, I guess, given that he and is ilk have already mangled him beyond recognition.

[mirror]

I wonder if the beleagured city of New Orleans will ever be rebuilt in its present location. I have heard estimates of $55 billion in costs to do it. Does it make sense to rebuild in such a precarious hurricane area, and below sea level? And we are bound to get hit with more and more severe storms as a result of global warming. They might want to consider rebuilding somewhere else that is safer.

Good article about the NO geography:

New Orleans: Loss of wetlands opens floodgates to disaster

I wonder if Vancouver will someday face the same type of crisis as NO is experiencing right now. I have heard that if the Fraser River overflows its banks which it has in the past Richmond could be flooded.

Too bad money is so delusional that it thinks it can outfox nature. We ignore the scientists at our peril.

[crazymf]

http://www.wlbt.com/

A link to helo coverage. Unreal.

[Black Dog]

We're going to get shafted by both the oil industry and governments even though our oil does not come from that area, by increased costs.

There's a simple way to avoid that, you know: decrease yous consumption.

[mirror]

Check out the blatant racism in the reporting here:

White folks "find" food in grocery store

Non white folks "loot" a grocery store

[mirror]

New Orleans slips toward anarchy

I knew the US had some serious problems before but I can honestly say I never expected anything like this. Thank goodness in Canada we have at least begun the difficult task of removing guns from our civilian population. Watching what is going on in New Orleans confirms that we are doing thew right thing. All guns from all civilians should be removed as this is insanity.

[Black Dog]

How naive some people are.

Tell me about it. I am sure there's people naif enough to think there's no connection between the breach of the levees and the Bush adminisration's decision to cut the funds to fix those same levees, in order to divert that specific funding to Iraq. Or the decision to cancel open up parts of the wetland buffer zone between New Orleans and the gulf for development. All this despite warnings from the Federal Emergency Management Agency that in the event of a "New Orleans hurricane scenario...the city's less-than-adequate evacuation routes would strand 250,000 people or more, and probably kill one of 10 left behind as the city drowned under 20 feet of water. Thousands of refugees could land in Houston.

Economically, the toll would be shattering. Southern Louisiana produces one-third of the country's seafood, one-fifth of its oil and one-quarter of its natural gas. The city's tourism, lifeblood of the French Quarter, would cease to exist. The Big Easy might never recover." (Link)

Yet some people are still naive or ignorant enough to make statements like:

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

- George W. Bush, August 31, 2005

[mirror]

R&B legend Fats Domino, 77, missing in New Orleans

Hopefully he and his family are found alive.

[mirror]

Why no mention of race or class in TV's Katrina coverage?

Being poor is no fun anywhere I'm sure, but you certainly don't want to be be poor in America.

[Riverwind]

Yet some people are still naive or ignorant enough to make statements like:

"I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

- George W. Bush, August 31, 2005

From http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/sto...1/BNStory/Front

Mr. Fischetti's article, “Drowning New Orleans,” is hauntingly prophetic about what actually transpired this past week.

“If a big, slow moving hurricane crossed the Gulf of Mexico on the right track, it would drive a sea surge that would drown New Orleans under 20 feet of water,” he wrote nearly four years ago. The article also predicted that surging water could fill Lake Pontchartrain, which would cause a flood of epic proportions in the city.

The article goes on to say:

Despite the desperate pleas for funding, the plan was slashed by the Bush administration in 2003 by $200-million. A senate committee then authorized only $375-million in spending.

I think it is pretty obvious that the funding was denied because the Bush regime needed to pay for this useless war in Iraq.

[Cartman]

Maybe Bush should cut taxes. That way people, who know how to spend their money best, will get together and build the appropriate infrastructure on their own.

[Riverwind]

---

[Riverwind]

Maybe Bush should cut taxes.  That way people, who know how to spend their money best, will get together and build the appropriate infrastructure on their own.

That is the most ironic comment since the kind of infrastructure needed to prevent disaster in New Orleans would have never been paid for by individuals: it requires a well funded national government since individual cities/regions can rarely raise the cash required to build adequate protection.

In fact, the shortages that will show up around the US as a result of the Mississippi ports being shut down demonstrates how natural disasters are always a national - not a regional problem.

[Cartman]

My apologies Sparhawk, I have not posted here in some time so many people might not have realized I was being sarcastic. I suspect, however, that this sentiment is still held by many.

[Riverwind]

My apologies Sparhawk, I have not posted here in some time so many people might not have realized I was being sarcastic.  I suspect, however, that this sentiment is still held by many.

The scary thing is there are people who would make that kind of comment in complete seriousness

[Argus]

Despite the desperate pleas for funding, the plan was slashed by the Bush administration in 2003 by $200-million. A senate committee then authorized only $375-million in spending.

I think it is pretty obvious that the funding was denied because the Bush regime needed to pay for this useless war in Iraq.

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

Nonsense. The war in Iraq is not that expensive. As has been repeatedly demonstrated, it is small change compared to the economic cost of years of war in Korea and Vietnam when the US was smaller and poorer. No, funding was cut in order to cut taxes and because New Orleans was 2/3 black, and 75% Democrat. The current administration sees funding as a means to buying votes and helping out its friends. There were no friends or votes to be had in New Orleans so putting money there would have been a waste.

Short sighted and stupid? Sure. You're surprised?