Hurricane Aftermath (Political Observations)

Parent Cafe
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<p>I saw a more specific article earlier, but this article puts it in perspective. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.ngb.army.mil/news/story.asp?id=1738[/url]”>http://www.ngb.army.mil/news/story.asp?id=1738&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Thirty Years After Hurricane Camille: Lessons Learned, Lessons Lost
by Roger A. Pielke, Jr., Chantal Simonpietri, and Jennifer Oxelson
12 July 1999</p>

<p>

Source: <a href=“Hurricane Camille Report”>Hurricane Camille Report;

<p>

Source: <a href=“http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/28/AR2005082801050.html[/url]”>http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/08/28/AR2005082801050.html&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Policical blame is here- the levee funding was cut, even though the Army Corp of Engineers, and Mayor and the state begged for more money to shore up the levees. Bush and his administration cut the funding, and now, we have this mess.</p>

<p>Very short sighted planning. This was real. This was HERE. This was urgent. This was our own people on our own land, and we couldn’t spend the money to fix a problem here. And protect our people here.</p>

<p>I am glad people are going in and helping. That is wonderful.</p>

<p>But imagine if perhaps we had listened to the people of New Orleans several years ago who predicted the levees breaking. And did all they could to solve the problem, but the administration took away the funding in budget cuts.</p>

<p>No the administration is not to blame for the hurricane. Of course not. But they are to blame for not taking care of people here. The levees might still have given out, but because they were in such bad shape and the government money to fix the problem was nixed, well, we will be paying for it in a hundren times over. Not mentioning the lives, the illnesses and the rest.</p>

<p>And I heard a good idea, Instead of busing all those sick, wheel chair bound and elderly to Texas, bring in some ships. I am sure Florida has some ships- cruise, navy, coast guard, they could spare.</p>

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<p>fwiw:</p>

<p>the WSJ has an article discussing the levees today. According to the article, most levees holding back the Missisippi River were built by the Army Corp of Engineers, whereas, the levees holding back Lake Ponchatrain (now breached), was built “privately, or by local governments…”</p>

<p>The article further notes that the levees and floodwalls are typically constructed to withstand a Cat 3 hurricane, but Katrina was a Cat 4.</p>

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<p>If you’ve ever stood on the levees of New Orleans and watched the oil tankers navigate their way up 90 degree bends, you know that the levee system holding back the mighty Mississippi is nothing short of miraculous. that it has worked for so long is amazing. Every structure, including your house, is designed for certain natural disasters, ranging from a 30 year storm to a 100 year storm. This event is outside the parameters of design measures.</p>

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<p>When people are hurting, are in shock, have lost all they own and are facing a future that is unimaginable, they want to know their leaders understand the extent of the situation and are with them. There is comfort having a person in authority “name” what is happening, and name it correctly, precisely, so that people know the person in charge really gets it. Blame his speech writer or blame Pres. Bush if he was ad libbing, but this is not a trying time. A trying time is El Nino or the rising gas prices. This is, as cheers noted, a massive development in our country’s history. It’s a historic disaster and any president worth his salt would have scrapped previous plans (like he scrapped the rest of his vacation) and headed toward the disaster not away from it. Surely there was some place to stand in New Orleans or Mississippi yesterday. Surely, the governors and mayors and other elected officials were there. Part of the responsbility of POTUS is symbolic and personal. That’s all I’m saying. IMO, President Bush is not a great leader, yet he is serving during times of great need (9-11, War in Iraq, tsunami and now this). It is disappointing to have a leader who does not seem to emotionally connect with the citizens he serves. </p>

<p>Since this is a thread earmarked for political observations, I don’t think that it’s being too trivial to critize the President’s leadership.</p>

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<p>It was not outside the designs. THey had new plans, they were 80% done, but 80% is like 80%- a small whole allows for a big one. The Army Corp knew it needed to be fixed, and it wasn’t in great shape, the US Government had taken away much of the funding to even maintain the levees in the condition they needed to be in- read what the articles have said over the years- it was a disastor waiting to happen and we knew it</p>

<p>And to say using the words “trying” was supposed to be comforting somehow diminishes the devastation those people are going through.</p>

<p>And to go to a Veterans meeting instead, don’t care how long that was planned, in a crisis, plans are supposed to change…</p>

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<p>Some of the latest posts in this thread are pushing the heresy to a level rarely seen on College Confidential. </p>

<p>I am so happy to know that you’ll sleep better tonight having found the ultimate scapegoat. I am still surprised that you have only brushed on Florida … there you can have two Bushes for the price of one and blame the federal and the state leaderships at once.</p>

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<p>Have you not read about the levees? Guess not. This was a disastor just waiting, that those in the know, knew would happen several years ago. Money was planned to be given by the Feds to fix this security issue, but was taken away. Sure, it should be talked about. Bush blames Clinton for 9-11 in many ways, we can’t blame Bush and his budget and poliicies for anything at all. This was a colosull error of the budget process. A gross oversite at best, a negligent decision to not take care of our own borders and coasts…</p>

<p>But, hey, he aint’ responsible for nuthin, I guess, Buck doesn’t even reach him</p>

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<p>Bush and Katrina:
A time for action, not aloofness</p>

<p>AS THE EXTENT of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation became clearer on Tuesday — millions without power, tens of thousands homeless, a death toll unknowable because rescue crews can’t reach some regions — President Bush carried on with his plans to speak in San Diego, as if nothing important had happened the day before. </p>

<p>Katrina already is measured as one of the worst storms in American history. And yet, President Bush decided that his plans to commemorate the 60th anniversary of VJ Day with a speech were more pressing than responding to the carnage. </p>

<p>A better leader would have flown straight to the disaster zone and announced the immediate mobilization of every available resource to rescue the stranded, find and bury the dead, and keep the survivors fed, clothed, sheltered and free of disease. </p>

<p>The cool, confident, intuitive leadership Bush exhibited in his first term, particularly in the months immediately following Sept. 11, 2001, has vanished. In its place is a diffident detachment unsuitable for the leader of a nation facing war, natural disaster and economic uncertainty. </p>

<p>Wherever the old George W. Bush went, we sure wish we had him back"</p>

<p>Manchester Union Paper-New Hamshire</p>

<p>They said it very well</p>

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<p>

</p>

<p>The blog has a long excerpt from the Times-Picayune article by Sheila Grissett:
<a href=“http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/8/30/212451/290[/url]”>http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/8/30/212451/290&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>This is my first sight of the coffee house cafe paper. could you say more about its origins?</p>

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<p>Can we agree that Bush didn’t/isn’t performing up to some expectations? Fine. SOME Americans are disappointed. </p>

<p>That’s hardly heresy, xigs. Who cares? His response is not at the crux of the event and will not be recorded as more than a footnote. OTOH, security IS at the crux of the event.</p>

<p><a href=“http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/31/katrina/main808193.shtml[/url]”>http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2005/08/31/katrina/main808193.shtml&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Bookworm,
TPMcafe is an offshoot of Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall’s blog. The cafe has a team of regular contributors including Josh and it also has a place for reader comments. Josh is a highly respected blogger that considers himself moderate although I would imagine some of those on this site who support Bush might not think so. He is a graduate of Princeton and got his PHd in history from Brown. He’s always very well researched and tends to be a calm and reasoned voice amongst moderate to left leaning blogs.</p>

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<p>Bookworm,
I think I might have misunderstood your question. When I reread it, it looked like you might have been asking for the origins of the paper that tpmcafe was sighting.</p>

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<p>Here’s a link to an article that talks about the history of the levees and how federal and local funding fell short in the last few years. </p>

<p><a href=“http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313[/url]”>http://www.editorandpublisher.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

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<p>Bookworm:</p>

<p>The article excerpted by Josh Marshall in his Talking Points Memo Cafe blog is from the New Orleans Times-Picayune, THE main paper in NO.<br>
It discusses the likely effect of diversion of funding from levee maintenance to Homeland Security-related priorities in the wake of 9/11. New Orleans vulnerability to The Big One has been known for a long time, as has the poor state of its levees.
Josh Marshall is a moderate liberal, a sort of Andrew Sullivan of the left.</p>

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<p>The socioeconomic realities of New Orleans…a decades long tinderbox…</p>

<p>As the following article says, an estimated 200,000 people in the underclass were left behind–by the people they serve. Those are the faces beamed across the globe: poor, terrified, resigned American faces.</p>

<p><a href=“http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article309469.ece[/url]”>http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/article309469.ece&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

<p>On my television screen, as one woman wails and asks why they have been abadoned when so much was done for Tsunami victims on the other side of the globe. No hotels or motels offered for those poor American victims? They are ferried to…another Astrodome? </p>

<p>Pitiful.</p>

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<p><a href=“http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313[/url]”>http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313&lt;/a&gt; </p>

<p>“On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: ‘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.’” </p>

<p>“At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars.”</p>

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<p>It looks so bad right now. We look like we left the poorest, the elderly, the minorities behind, and we did. And when are building and cleanup starts, those that need the work wll be in another state, out of sight…</p>

<p>And were the buses that came in filled with food…I understnad they were driven in, what about filling them with mcdonalds, or burger king food and water. If you can bring in a bus, you can bring in water…</p>

<p>What an embarassment…and nightmare…and those that told me they, well, they have lots of food and water, we saw those 1000 national guard troops unloading it…well well, seems to have worked really well</p>

<p>And now I hear a baby died at the superdome…</p>