Conall wrote:
>--- In
DSN_KLR650@yahoogroups.com, "saverinm" wrote:
>
>
>>I thought this was a KLR group, not a kook democrat blog.... These
>>levees and pumps were in s*&t condition long before Jan. 21, 2001
>>mainly because of the historically corrupt and incompetent New
>>
>>
>Orleans
>
>
>>gov't...
>>
Actually, the levees were in quite good condition (note that the levees
are *NOT* maintained by the New Orleans government -- the levees in
question are federal levees, maintained by the Corps of Engineers with
assistance from the local levee board, which is appointed by the
governor), over the past ten years they'd received tens of millions of
dollars worth of repairs including over four million dollars worth in
the past year alone (required a property tax hike, which peeved off a
lot of people but the levee board has broad taxing authority), but there
were known weak points that needed repair. I suggest that you go read
the Times Picayune series (it is on the web on their web site) from
three years ago. THE VERY LEVEE THAT BROKE AT THE EXACT PLACE IT BROKE
was listed as one of the weak spots they found in their computer
modeling of the levee system. Everybody knew this. It was in the process
of being fixed, and there were giant sandbags stashed nearby to shore it
up in case of a storm.
It is unknown whether those sandbags were actually deployed. But even
if they had been deployed, New Orleans was toast. The water came over
the SHIP CHANNEL floodwalls, which are the newest, sturdiest, highest
parts of the levee system. Game over. That's a Category 4 hurricane
storm surge. New Orleans' levee system was only designed to protect
against a Category 3 hurricane's storm surge.
The pumps are historically problematic, but they also had received a lot
of work over the past ten years. All in all, New Orleans' pump and levee
system was as good as it had ever been, within the constraints of its
basic design, which had been put in place in the 1940's when New Orleans
reached its current size. Unfortunately, its basic design was not
capable of handling more than a category 3 hurricane -- a limitation
which was known by *everybody*. I mean, it was in the friggin' New
Orleans newspaper! I know that the Cheerleader-in-chief doesn't read
newspapers (probably makes his lips hurt), but surely he has someone on
his STAFF who reads them?!
>> If all of these people stated below knew about the
>>
>>
>problem,
>
>
>>why
>>
>> didn't they do something about it!!!
>>
>>
Like what? Louisiana is a poor state. The levees are sinking (since they
are very heavy and are sitting on mud), and it is all they can do to
keep the levees high enough to cope with a Category 3 hurricane. There
was supposed to be a study to detirmine how to protect against stronger
hurricanes, and Louisiana was even willing to match the federal funds
with funds of their own, but the federal funds were cut. But that
wouldn't have helped either since any action to raise the floodwalls to
deal with a Category 4 or Category 5 storm was long in the future.
>Glad you asked, In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New
>Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But
>the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44
>percent to pay for the Iraq war.
>
>
>
While it may feel good to blame Bush, the fact is that for the past ten
years New Orleans has been trying to get funding for a study as to how
to survive a Category 4 hurricane. No matter who was President, they
couldn't get the money out of the Feds. It certianly didn't help that
funding was gutted over the past 3 years in order to fund the Mess in
Mesopotamia, but inadequate funding is a long-term issue.
What the Bush Administration *CAN* be blamed for is the piss-poor
federal response. FEMA was gutted in order to pay for the Department of
Homeland Security, and now is incapable of responding to natural
disasters of this sort. I watched an interview with the Mayor of New
Orleans, who was looking very, very tired. Now, this dude is a very cool
cat, tired is generally all he looks no matter how hostile the audience.
But the interviewer played him the clip of President Bush issuing his
checklist of stuff sent by the Feds to help out, food, water, blankets,
etc. and he became almost visibly upset, saying something along the
lines of, "Where is it, then? We don't have it here. We have no food, no
water, we're dying here."
FEMA hasn't even provided the evacuation busses that they typically
provide. The Governor of Louisiana has been reduced to begging for
SCHOOL BUSES to handle moving the evacuees, issuing a state order that
all school districts and all sheriff's departments provide at least two
school busses with two armed deputies each in addition to the drivers in
order to handle an evacuation that obviously wasn't getting done by
FEMA. But Louisiana is a poor state, and just doesn't have the resources
to handle a disaster that affects 1/5th of its population. They require
federal help -- and aren't getting it, except for token amounts that
aren't getting where they're needed.
One wonders what would have happened if the people left behind in New
Orleans had been white and rich, rather than poor and black. One wonders
whether Dear Leader would have personally swooped into New Orleans in
Air Force One and rescued his good buddies and pals in that case, as
part of his No Billionaire Left Behind plan for America's future. I
watched video of black leaders wondering this same thing, including one
who wondered whether it was a conspiracy to eliminate the poor black
population of New Orleans in order to save money on welfare (for the
record I don't think so, I think it's just typical Bush Administration
incompetence... I can cope with the Bushie's policies, but the
incompetence rankles). It's a desperate situation, and the Moron in
Chief saying "well, nobody ever thought the levees could break"... man,
that is just wrong, SO wrong, of COURSE levees designed for a Category 3
hurricane would break when subjected to a Category 4 hurricane,
everybody knew it from Mrs. Miller's kindergarten class on up to, well,
obviously not on up to the head of FEMA, who apparently is as
incompetent as everybody else Bush appoints, from a National Security
Advisor who ignores a memo entitled "Bin Laden detirmined to strike
inside America" because it doesn't give the terrorists' friggin' flight
itenerary, to a CIA chief who sees phantom weapons of mass destruction
where there aren't any and gets the Medal of Freedom as his reward for
this massive incompetence. Didn't think that a Category 5 hurricane
would overwhelm levees designed to cope with a Category 3 hurricane?
Dolt. Dolt Dolt Dolt Dolt Dolt. Sh*t.
When this is all over, tens of thousands will be dead -- and most of
them will have died *after* the hurricane, because the Federal
Government has become so incompetent, so inept, so divorced from
reality, so incapable of governing its way out of a paper bag, that they
didn't realize that a category 4 storm hitting a city designed to
weather a category 3 storm would be a disaster.... I'm just glad that
Fats Domino survived. For now, anyhow. But unless they get food and
water to the Superdome and Convention Center...