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

MYTH: "The aftermath of Katrina will go down as one of the worst abandonments of Americans on American soil ever in U.S. history."--Aaron Broussard, president, Jefferson Parish, La., Meet the Press, NBC, Sept. 4, 2005 REALITY: Bumbling by top disaster-management officials fueled a perception of general inaction, one that was compounded by impassioned news anchors. In fact, the response to Hurricane Katrina was by far the largest--and fastest-rescue effort in U.S. history, with nearly 100,000 emergency personnel arriving on the scene within three days of the storm's landfall.

...reporting that the Red Cross "had prepositioned water, food, blankets and hygiene products for delivery to the Superdome and the Convention Center in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane, but were blocked from delivering those supplies by orders of the Louisiana state government, which did not want to attract people to the Superdome and/or Convention Center."

Che - 1300 dead is not massive.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has warned "it wouldn't be unreasonable to have 10,000" dead in the city, and most of them will end up here.

Also Balcks were considered 1/6 human at one point so I hope that is not your reasoning either

Posted by Squeaky at September 19, 2005 11:19 PM Rove never needed proof for his smear machine, why should I.

This was a century storm and no matter what Bush did it would've been an unprecedented disaster.

Squeaky - The media was talking about thousands being dead. Some were even saying 10,000, etc., etc. That would be massive. 1300 is bad. 1300 is too many. But it isn't "massive."

Specifically, their HIGH WATER EQUIPMENT being in Iraq when it should be at home where it really would've come in handy

More than 3,600 were on duty in Louisiana, primed to support civilian authorities with aviation assets, with security personnel to police and sheriffs departments, and with engineer equipment including high-wheeled vehicles that could plow through flood waters to rescue stranded victims.

Even though National Guard forces have been heavily engaged in the Global War on Terrorism, nearly 124,000 troops were available for duty in the 17 states along the storm's projected path, the National Guard Bureau reported. That averages to 78 percent of those states' total Guard strength. Another 6,000 were available in Texas, and a Guard spokesman pointed out that tens of thousands more could be drawn from the rest of the nation.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin declared a state of emergency Sunday and ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city

Jim, according to your man on the tape that was released, the government was ready to "first respond". They did not.

Remember. There aren't any spaceships circling the earth ready to beam equipment and people to the ground.

Dark Avenger - "We?" Do you have a mouse in your pocket.

In recent years, Bush repeatedly sought to slice the Army Corps of Engineers' funding requests to improve the levees holding back Lake Pontchartrain, which Katrina smashed through, flooding New Orleans. In 2005, Bush asked for $3.9 million, a small fraction of the request the corps made in internal administration deliberations. Under pressure from Congress, Bush ultimately agreed to spend $5.7 million. [...] "Flood control has been a priority of this administration from Day One," said White House press secretary Scott McClellan [...] The project, which is supposed to cost $744 million overall, has been shortchanged recently, according to advocates. The corps said it needed $62.5 million next fiscal year; Bush proposed $10.5 million. This provoked howls of protest from the Louisiana congressional delegation. "All of us said, 'Look, build it or you're going to have all of Jefferson Parish under water,' " recalled former senator John Breaux, a Democrat who is a Bush ally. "And they didn't, and now all of Jefferson Parish is under water."

As levees burst and floods continued to spread across areas hit by Hurricane Katrina yesterday, a former chief of the Army Corps of Engineers disparaged senior White House officials for "not understanding" that key elements of the region's infrastructure needed repair and rebuilding. [...] I said, 'Mitch, it doesn't matter if a terrorist blows the lock up or if it falls down because it disintegrates -- either way it's the same effect, and if we let it fall down, we have only ourselves to blame.' It made no impact on him whatsoever." [...] Parker -- who, along with members of his family, was forced to evacuate his Mississippi farm on Sunday night -- drew media attention (and the White House's ire) in 2002 by telling the Senate Budget Committee that a White House proposal to cut just over $2 billion from the Corps' $6 billion budget request would have a "negative impact" on the national interest. Parker also noted that cuts would mean the end of scores of contracts and the loss of tens of thousands of jobs. After Parker's Capitol Hill appearance, Daniels wrote an angry memo to President Bush, writing that Parker's testimony "reads badly. . . on the printed page," and that "Parker. . . [was] distancing [himself] actively from the administration." Parker, a former Republican congressman from Mississippi, was forced to resign shortly thereafter.

September 22, 2004: The Times-Picayune reported that a pilot study on raising the height of the levees surrounding New Orleans had been completed and generated enough information for a second study necessary to estimate the cost of doing so. The Bush administration "ordered the New Orleans district office" of the Army Corps of Engineers "not to begin any new studies, and the 2005 budget no longer includes the needed money." [...] Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) report from before September 11, 2001 detailed the three most likely catastrophic disasters that could happen in the United States: a terrorist attack in New York, a strong earthquake in San Francisco, and a hurricane strike in New Orleans. In 2002, New Orleans officials held the simulation of what would happen in a category 5 storm. Walter Maestri, the emergency coordinator of Jefferson Parish in New Orleans , recounted the outcome to PBS' NOW With Bill Moyers: Maestri, September 2002: Well, when the exercise was completed it was evidence that we were going to lose a lot of people. We changed the name of the [simulated] storm from Delaney to K-Y-A-G-B... kiss your ass goodbye... because anybody who was here as that category five storm came across... was gone.

Why lie? Because he could. He and Karl and their malignant spin crew thought no one in the media would do any follow-up, that they'd move right on to the next spin cycle and never bother to look in the bottom of the washer for that one lost sock.

Is the Levee System a Federal, State or Local Responsibility?

So Bush directly asks Blanco post storm if the levees have broken. Blanco (given free pass by TL) says no.

... and I've got my sheepskin so I don't do homework anymore.

Yes Dark Avenger can feel comfortable to use the word "we" ....

Concern about corruption in Louisiana is seen as one reason behind Washington's reluctance to hand over more money to rebuild after Hurricane Katrina. Under the new levee proposal, which residents will consider in a statewide September referendum, there will be two boards on the east and west banks of the Mississippi River with common engineering and ethical rules.

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."

In July 2004, more than 40 federal, state, local and volunteer organizations practiced this very scenario in a five-day simulation code-named "Hurricane Pam", where they had to deal with an imaginary storm that destroyed over half a million buildings in New Orleans and forced the evacuation of a million residents. At the end of the exercise Ron Castleman, regional director for the Federal Emergency Management Agency declared: "We made great progress this week in our preparedness efforts. "Disaster response teams developed action plans in critical areas such as search and rescue, medical care, sheltering, temporary housing, school restoration and debris management. These plans are essential for quick response to a hurricane but will also help in other emergencies," he said. In light of that, said disaster expert Bill Waugh of Georgia State University, "It's inexplicable how unprepared for the flooding they were." He said a slow decline over several years in funding for emergency management was partly to blame.

Took me under 60 seconds to find the above. Reforms, funds seen lifting New Orleans recovery 18 Feb 2006 01:28:10 GMT Source: Reuters By Stuart Grudgings BATON ROUGE, Feb 17 (Reuters) - An expected $4.2 billion in new federal funds and a state agreement to reform New Orleans' levee system have raised hopes for the city's recovery after Hurricane Katrina, Louisiana lawmakers said on

After AP's broadcast this week showing some of the Katrina briefings, the Homeland Security Department refused Thursday to release videos from five other days immediately before and after Katrina hit. The agency insisted last year _ in response to AP's requests under the Freedom of Information Act _ there were no such tapes. Now it acknowledges more tapes exist.

Let me answer you this way.

Bush asked for $20M more than the House wanted to give.

The Army Corps of Engineers considers a breach a hole developing in a levee rather than an overrun. The story should have made clear that Bush was warned about floodwaters overrunning the levees, rather than the levees breaking.

Let me answer you this way. There are calls for investigation of the New Orleans levee board. And actually Bush asked for $20M more than the House wanted to give.

Of course the real question becomes this. If you live in an area that is below sea level, and has been flooded before, maybe you should tax yourselves for protection rather than asking Aunt Matilda in Denver to pay for it.

So Bush directly asks Blanco post storm if the levees have broken. Blanco (given free pass by TL) says no. You protest too much. Provide us some links, charlie. Don't let the moon(bats) get in your eyes.

That tape does prove Kanye mistaken though. It's not that shrub doesn't care about Black People. He doesn't give a damn about anybody. Blanco and Nagin will have to face the voters soon enough. Bush should have to face a firing squad.

The House of Representatives wants to cut the New Orleans district budget 21 percent to $272.4 million in 2006, down from $343.5 million in 2005. The House figure is about $20 million lower than the president's suggested $290.7 million budget.

The day before the storm hit, Bush was told there were grave concerns that the levees could be overrun. It wasn't until the next morning, as the storm was hitting, that Michael Brown, then head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, said Bush had inquired about reports of breache

But outside of trying to find something to complain about, the issue of who knew what when is moot because nothing could be done until FEMA arrived. Which it did in record time.

Do you have a mouse in your pocket

It's a heck of a clown act ya got goin' on there, jim. That's for sure. The only thing you've proved is that you can't grasp the fact that if I mention brake fluid, you interpret that as though I'm saying a car doesn't use gasoline.

It seems wholly unlikely that anyone who actually witnessed the administration's response to Katrina would have any expectation at all of seeing "the president asking piercing questions that punctured the fog of the moment and inspired bold action." I mean, we saw what happened, and the boldest action taken by the administration came when Michael Chertoff was inspired to blame everything on Kathleen Blanco.

the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requested $27 million for this fiscal year to pay for hurricane-protection projects around Lake Pontchartrain. The Bush administration countered with $3.9 million, and Congress eventually provided $5.7 million

Chertoff could have turned on the television. On the August 30 broadcast of NBC's Today, NBC Nightly News anchor Brian Williams reported at 7:05 a.m. ET, "There has been a huge development overnight ... the historic French Quarter, dry last night and it is now filling with water. This is water from nearby Lake Pontchartrain; the levees failed overnight." [...] Just hours after the storm passed on Monday, August 29, FEMA director Brown confirmed that the potential for catastrophic flooding remained. In an interview with Brown, NBC Today co-host Matt Lauer noted, "In New Orleans, in particular, they're worried about the levees giving way or the canals not holding,

Brown: "We've provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they've gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day" [...] But on September 1, NBC News photojournalist Tony Zumbado reported on MSNBC Live: "I can't put it into words the amount of destruction that is in this city and how these people are coping. They are just left behind. There is nothing offered to them. No water, no ice, no C-rations, nothing, for the last four days."

One of the hardest-hit areas of the New Orleans district's budget is the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes. SELA's budget is being drained from $36.5 million awarded in 2005 to $10.4 million suggested for 2006 by the House of Representatives and the president.

Louisiana National Guard Said Before Katrina That It Needed Equipment Back From Iraq If It Is To Respond To A Natural Disaster.[ABC 26 WGNO, 8/1/05]

SEPT. 9, 7:30 a.m. Walter Maestri, emergency management director, Jefferson Parish: ...We've got resources all over the place that aren't being used where they should be, and nobody knows about it. Let me come to our issues. First and foremost, we have still not received since the storm any of our gasoline and diesel shipments. [...] The second issue: generators for our sewer system. As you recall on the last conference call before the storm hit, we requested the gen. packs. They are still not here. [...] [Col. Jeff Smith, deputy director, state Office of Homeland Security and Emergency: ]: Walter, on the Kansas folks, do you have a FEMA liaison that's there with you joined at the hip? Maestri: I've spoken to him about all of these issues, but we still continue to have these problems. Smith: So the liaison is aware of this, but nothing is happening? Maestri: That's right.[...] Smith: I assume you are talking about the emergency food, the water the MRES and the ice. Has that been requested and turned down, or are you just requesting it now? Maestri: We requested it, have requested it, been requesting it, and nothing's come. [...] Oiler: I can certainly agree with Dr. Maestri, we set up a list of priorities. ... I'd like to know where the generators are. Maestri: They said it's coming, it's coming, but nothing's arrived.... They are supposedly pre-positioned across the country and can be flown in at a moment's notice. They ballyhooed that to us in PAM and all these other exercises. Now when we are on our knees, nothing's available.

charliedontsurf1 - Your problem charley is that the res