Yeah. I said it. I haven't given it too much thought, really, assumed it was just another hurricane. Wow. Hundreds dead, surely. Thousands?
<a href="http://flickr.com/photos/tags/hurricane+katrina">katrina on flicker</a>
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Lest we get overwhelmed with our own <a href="http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000087&sid=ao8dnVkYEo94&refer=top_world_news">bad news</a>.
My brother in-law, Tim, just got shipped outside of Boloxi, MI, and instead of helping out the flooded, they're still packing for Iraq, and leaving for the Middle East on Sunday. They have already been poorly received by locals for not helping. This war is so lame.
<img src="http://photos30.flickr.com/37432906_ab2946bc06_m.jpg">
It is only rivaled by "You're on Stilts!" Thanks for the post tgl...
Here he is, leading.
<img src="http://www.presidentialprayerteam.org/images6/20050901/request.jpg">
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If you don't believe in Christ, is it OK to be on the PPT? Seems like only Christ-directed prayer is appreciated.
<img src="http://us.news3.yimg.com/us.i2.yimg.com/p/ap/20050830/capt.capm10208301856.bush__capm102.jpg?x=380&y=325&sig=xlaGyc1Muc3K7iAJg1KmkA--">
I don't expect him out there rescuing people, but, come on! Where is Ari Fleischer when you need him? Bush needs a whisper in the ear or something: "Um, sir, the country is under <i>attack</i>, let's put the book down and look busy."
<a href="http://www.hurricanehousing.org/">MoveOn.org doing a great job,</a> and this site has already helped hundreds.
Still I must say (because there have been comparisons to atomic bombings), I am so glad it was not a bomb that caused all the destruction. Is there any way we can galvanize the Dept. of Homeland Security to such natural disasters? However, I have a weird feeling my bro-in-law would not be leaving Mississippi, if it was a bomb that displaced 500,000 people. Sad on both fronts.
The region represents less than 1% of GDP. N.O. has always had a tenuous relation with water (paging Pamsterdam: send your extra dykes!), so, I can see why the _economic_ reasons for rebuilding are not too great. Emotional, historical, humanitarian reasons... sure.
Talk of economics is purely didactic at this point.
The N.O. local government is getting criticized from the right because it's staunchly Democratic. The criticism is a bit hollow considering the extreme reductions in spending on infrastructure at the federal level that has happened in the past 5 years. (Not to mention racist, how many times have you heard people describe the "savages" that are looting and shooting up the city?)
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<i>--Feminazi </i>
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<i>--Feminazi </i>
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The evacuation plan for New Orleans (and probably most cities) relies on private vehicles. If you don't have one, or can't afford the gasoline, then you are out of luck.
Speaking of helping... I haven't done a thing. <a href="http://redcross.org">redcross.org</a> is the best bet, I guess.
Nice Wolcott post, by the way. Bush has spent the past four years politicizing the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001. The right can't suddenly call "uncle" now.
Anyone driving an SUV has absolutely zero right to bitch about things.
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Be <a href="http://cunningrealist.blogspot.com/2005/09/faith-based-preparedness.html">prepared</a>.
That TCR post points to <a href="http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/8/30/212451/290">this TPM</a> post, referencing the following article. This catastrophe was entirely predictable, if not preventable. By running budget deficits, worsened by tax cuts, we seriously compromise the infrastructures designed to keep us safe.
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June 8, 2004 Tuesday
SECTION: NATIONAL; Pg. 1
LENGTH: 1073 words
HEADLINE: Shifting federal budget erodes protection from levees;
Because of cuts, hurricane risk grows
BYLINE: By Sheila Grissett, East Jefferson bureau
BODY:
For the first time in 37 years, federal budget cuts have all but stopped major work on the New Orleans area's east bank hurricane levees, a complex network of concrete walls, metal gates and giant earthen berms that won't be finished for at least another decade.
"I guess people look around and think there's a complete system in place, that we're just out here trying to put icing on the cake," said Mervin Morehiser, who manages the "Lake Pontchartrain and vicinity" levee project for the Army Corps of Engineers. "And we aren't saying that the sky is falling, but people should know that this is a work in progress, and there's more important work yet to do before there is a complete system in place."
In reality, levee building is a long-term undertaking. Section by section, earth is piled into walls as high as 20 feet to protect land on the east bank of the Mississippi River from water that a slow-moving Category 3 hurricane could shove out of Lake Pontchartrain and Lake Borgne. But the levees gradually settle into southeast Louisiana's mucky subsoil, and every few years, the corps comes back, section by section, to pile on more dirt in what insiders call a "lift."
"It has always been part of our long-range plan to raise each section of the levee four or even five times," said Al Naomi, the corps' senior project manager. "After that, we think the levee might have stabilized and not need further raisings."
Time for next lift
It's time now for the next lifts in a number of places that have sunk 2 to 4 feet from their design elevations. These include in Kenner west of the Pontchartrain Center, Metairie between Causeway Boulevard and Clearview Parkway, Norco and St. Rose in St. Charles Parish, the Bayou Sauvage area of eastern New Orleans, and remote marshland areas of eastern St. Bernard Parish.
The subsidence is expected.
What's new, said Morehiser and Naomi, is that the agency has run out of money for the next round of lifts. Naomi said this is the first time a lack of money has stopped major corps work on the levees since the project began in 1967.
"I can't tell you exactly what that could mean this hurricane season if we get a major storm," Naomi said. "It would depend on the path and speed of the storm, the angle that it hits us.
"But I can tell you that we would be better off if the levees were raised, . . . and I think it's important and only fair that those people who live behind the levee know the status of these projects."
Levees on the east bank of New Orleans, as well as some in eastern St. Bernard Parish, are among the area's oldest and have had several lifts. Corps engineers said the next lift might be the last they need.
But the levees on the east bank of St. Charles and Jefferson parishes are much younger, and most stretches have had only one or two lifts.
"This project isn't expected to end for another 13 to 15 years," Morehiser said. "They aren't really finished levees at this point. We don't even turn them over to their local sponsors until we consider them stable, which is years from now."
The levees are designed to handle a storm surge of 11 feet, and every additional foot of levee above that is intended to contain waves that otherwise would top the levee. The height of individual levee segments vary.
"When levees are below grade, as ours are in many spots right now, they're more vulnerable to waves pouring over them and degrading them," Naomi said. "We're not below storm-surge elevation yet, but we will be if we stop raising our levees as they subside."
Bush budget falls short
The Bush administration's proposed fiscal 2005 budget includes only $3.9 million for the east bank hurricane project. Congress likely will increase that amount, although last year it bumped up the administration's $3 million proposal only to $5.5 million.
"I needed $11 million this year, and I got $5.5 million," Naomi said. "I need $22.5 million next year to do everything that needs doing, and the first $4.5 million of that will go to pay four contractors who couldn't get paid this year."
Naomi said the corps already owes four contractors more than $2 million for hurricane protection work they've done this year without pay, and he expects the figure to climb to about $4.5 million by Sept. 30, the end of the federal fiscal year.
The challenge now, said emergency management chiefs Walter Maestri in Jefferson Parish and Terry Tullier in New Orleans, is for southeast Louisiana somehow to persuade those who control federal spending that protection from major storms and flooding are matters of homeland security.
"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," Maestri said. "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."
...madness...
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Members of the Somerville High School Orchestra played selections from "The Sound of Music" outside of the Davis T stop the other day. Their violin case overflowed with cash, and it was all going to the Red Cross. Way to go, SHSO!
I think most Americans agree that one of the proper roles of government is to provide disaster relief, even disaster protection.
Who in the F would think that this sort of insane total disregard for human life could happen so blatantly and on such a grand scale in a supposedly developed country, hm? It just fills me with rage.
I need to listen to Nagin's speech again.
I almost feel sorry for Brown, as he won't be able to show his face again, let alone get a job. Wait, stike that, maybe Bush will give him a <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Condi_Rice">promotion!</a>
Michael Brown -- judging by the yardstick used to measure Paul Bremer and George Tent -- gets a Medal of Freedom for this.
Of course, the $10.5 billion is for the entire Gulf Coast, and levees don't protect against wind damage.
I do know that DHS security spending is $40 per person in Montana and $11 per person in New York. Priorities I must not be able to undertand, evidently.
Speaking of priorities: Is Cheney _still_ on vacation? Maybe he just went from vacation to undisclosed location.
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That's an ugly opinion piece.
At the end of the day, this is a national tragedy calling for a national response. What the hell have we been doing for four years if we watch a Cat. 4 hurricane approach a major distribution hub for oil and grain; knowing that the city is vulnerable to flooding; and it takes _days_ to get relief to the city? We got food to Banda Aceh in a shorter time frame.
FEMA and DHS were caught flatfooted on this, has our $30 BILLION a year been well spent? I think not. What might happen if we get hit by something with no warning?
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The Washington Times is very similar to the Onion. It's great for laughs. My favorite was when they made fun of Paul Tsongas for dying of cancer.
Great Openner:
"He's (Bush) getting it as well from his critics, many of whom can't believe their great good luck, that a hurricane, of all things, finally gives them the opening they've been waiting for to heap calumny and scorn on him for something that might get a little traction."
Utter bile. Does this guys have horns? "Good luck." I'd love for him to tell that to family ripped apart by Katrina to their face.
"Then the governor, Kathleen Blanco, resisted early pleas to declare martial law..."
Martial Law? What about the State of Emergency she declared 3 days before the storm hit?
<a href="http://www.talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/week_2005_09_04.php#006415">Hilarious.</a>
"Mayor Nagin, who you might think would be looking for a place to hide, and Gov. Blanco, nursing a bigtime snit, can't find the right word of thanks to a nation pouring out its heart and emptying its pockets."
Mmm, yeah and Giuliani should have bailed on NYC too. Can you imagine staying in the City you are the leader of during a catastrophe? And Blanco "can't find the words of thanks" for a National leader who played politics, instead of helping?
Great Post. Better than today's <a href="http://www.kingfeatures.com/features/comics/mallard/about.htm">Mallard Filmore</a>
Sorry, rladew, I thought you were pointing out a particularly cogent argument against holding the President responsible. Here's one that is less inflammatory, but still high in <a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/06/opinion/06tierney.html">hackitude</a>. Oh, how one misses Bill Safire.
priceless:
"We aren't referring here to the storm surge of recrimination blaming post-Katrina problems on everything from Iraq, to tax cuts, to his refusal to endorse the Kyoto Protocol."...
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The next line from which you quote:
"The American public knows this was an epic natural disaster and won't fall for political opportunism. By the same token, Americans also won't have much patience for White House claims that state and local officials were the greater incompetents."
Exactly. Were talking about straight up <a href="http://www.rideside.net:8080/drupal/node/1670#comment-12477">accountabilty.</a>
"The President has admirably refused to give up on Social Security..." Huh?
I'd say that's a fair piece.
"But the truth is that federal revenues are rising by an estimated $262 billion--or roughly 14%--this year thanks to the growth that followed the 2003 tax cuts. Republicans have been far too defensive on tax cuts, and Katrina is an opening to explain their necessity and to push for making them permanent. "
Not-to-Subtle award: Implying tax cuts helped the economy.
Please WSJ, we know better.
There is scientific evidence that global warming attributes to more violent and frequent storms during the hurricane season. It is completely plausible that we ignore global warming at our short-term peril. Global warming is not an issue that could effect us 100 or 200 years down the road, we might be seeing it right now.
The OJ also sneers at the needs of local politicians, however, if we spent the $10 million or so per year they needed we wouldn't be faced with a $20 billion --minimal-- price tag now. At least, the damage might have been lessened.
The OJ points to the failure of the DHS, Bush's legacy of Big Government. That's a start.
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If you had asked me two weeks ago why New Orleans was important to the nation, I might have shrugged, "Why should we keep this sub-sea-level town afloat?" NO, like Las Vegas, is a testament to man's urge to live in the stupidest places. It might come as no surprise that it was the French that first decided to put a town at the mouth of the Mississippi River, on a tidal plain, next to a lake. Turns out NO is an excellent port town, it provides access to barges that ply the Big Muddy. Pipelines, pipelines, pipelines. Lots of oil flows there, as much as I think $3.50 a gallon gas is good for the environmental health of the nation, I can't see it being good for the economic health. So, I guess I can see why it's economically important to rebuild there.
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The OJ gripes about the $20 billion that might be spent in the aftermath of Katrina.
If three times the number of Americans died from Katrina as died on 9/11, can I be assured of three times the spending on infrastructure upgrades as has been spent on security upgrades? Heck, I'd settle for three times the amount of money spent on just the Iraq war (nearing $200 billion) in order to provide access to health services and education along the Goluf Coast and other areas prone to natural disaster (since that seems the best way to avoid being a casualty of one).
Not a chance.
Heading to the ballgame...
Like I said before, all these politicians on both sides yell and scream at each other while people in need of assistance fall through the cracks.
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