"No One Can Say they Didn't See it Coming" By Sidney Blumenthal

From Der Spiegel (English edition) and Salon

A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken. After a flood killed six people in 1995, Congress created the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, in which the Corps of Engineers strengthened and renovated levees and pumping stations. In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City. [#3: major earthquake in San Francisco - a] But by 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze. The Senate had debated adding funds for fixing New Orleans' levees, but it was too late.
...
The Bush administration's policy of turning over wetlands to developers almost certainly also contributed to the heightened level of the storm surge. In 1990, a federal task force began restoring lost wetlands surrounding New Orleans. Every two miles of wetland between the Crescent City and the Gulf reduces a surge by half a foot. Bush had promised "no net loss" of wetlands, a policy launched by his father's administration and bolstered by President Clinton. But he reversed his approach in 2003, unleashing the developers. The Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency then announced they could no longer protect wetlands unless they were somehow related to interstate commerce. [apparently keeping New Orleans section of the Gulf Coast functional for oil production doesn't count as interstate commerce. -a]

In response to this potential crisis, four leading environmental groups conducted a joint expert study, concluding in 2004 that without wetlands protection New Orleans could be devastated by an ordinary, much less a Category 4 or 5, hurricane. "There's no way to describe how mindless a policy that is when it comes to wetlands protection," said one of the report's authors. The chairman of the White House's Council on Environmental Quality dismissed the study as "highly questionable," and boasted, "Everybody loves what we're doing."

Psychic about a major disaster? Wanna buy a bridge?

That declaration from the White House last week, saying that a major disaster existed in Louisiana, specifically most of the areas (such as Jefferson Parish) that are now under water? Had nothing to do with Hurricane Katrina - though some Bush supporters would have you believe it was a pre-emptive offer of help.

That was their response SEVEN WEEKS after Tropical Storm Cindy caused flooding and other damage. That's right - clean-up for Cindy was on hold for seven weeks, while the White House did nothing - and Bush was on vacation for most of that time.

Wonder how long it will take them to respond to this? Oh, yeah, they're still not doing a whole lot.

Case in point: Adm. Timothy Keating on CNN earlier today.
"As you know, as you just said, initially, principally a local law enforcement effort. If and when the president decides to step it up and use active duty forces, we will be, and it would be at almost certainly the request of the governor of Louisiana or Mississippi... we would be able to respond with any number of options."

IF and WHEN? This has been coming for nearly a week, and it happened a few days ago - and Bush/the White House hasn't ordered in HELP?

A naval hospital ship was just leaving the East coast today - it'll be four days before it arrives near New Orleans.


Damnit, this is stuff a COMPETENT President sets in motion RIGHT AWAY. He doesn't sit on his ass (when he's not doing photo ops like receiving a guitar from some country singer or posing with John McCain and a birthday cake) and withhold assistance that is likely going to mean the difference of hundreds, if not thousands of lives lost!