Experts blame Bush budget cuts for Katrina recovery problems

[Arlos]

According to Disaster experts, including former FEMA director and a Bush-appointed emergeny response manager, federal budget cuts and unpreparedness are major contributors to the scale of the disaster, as well as the failure to get recovery efforts on track over the entire region. (yes, New Orleans has its own issues with morons with guns)

DISASTER EXPERTS BLAME NEW FOCUS ON TERRORISM

By Seth Borenstein

Knight Ridder

WASHINGTON - With its focus on terrorism, the federal government was unprepared for Hurricane Katrina and so far has bungled the job of quickly helping the multitudes of hungry, thirsty and desperate victims, former top disaster officials said Wednesday.

The experts, including a former Bush administration emergency-response manager, told Knight Ridder that the government was not prepared, had scrimped on storm spending and shifted its attention from dealing with natural disasters to fighting terrorism. Deep budget cuts for flood control and hurricane preparation also have compounded the magnitude of the disaster.

At the center of the relief effort is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which was enveloped by the Department of Homeland Security with a new mission aimed at responding to the attacks of Al-Qaida.

``What you're seeing is revealing weaknesses in the state, local and federal levels,'' said Eric Tolbert, who until February was FEMA's disaster-response chief. ``All three levels have been weakened. They've been weakened by diversion into terrorism.''

In interviews Wednesday, several men and women who have led relief efforts for dozens of killer hurricanes, tornadoes and earthquakes chastised current disaster leaders for forgetting the simple Boy Scout motto: Be prepared.

Bush administration officials said they are proud of their response. Their first efforts emphasized rooftop rescues over providing food and water for victims who already were safe.

``We are extremely pleased with the response of every element of the federal government and all of our federal partners have made to this terrible tragedy,'' Secretary of Homeland Security Michael Chertoff said during a news conference Wednesday in Washington, D.C.

The agency has more than 1,700 truckloads of water, meals, tents, generators and other supplies ready to go in, Chertoff said. Federal health officials have started setting up at least 40 medical shelters. The Coast Guard reports rescuing more than 1,200 people.

But residents, especially in Biloxi, Miss., say they are not seeing the promised help, and Knight Ridder reporters along the Gulf Coast said they saw little visible federal relief efforts, other than search-and-rescue teams. Some help started arriving Wednesday by the truckloads, but not everywhere.

``We're not getting any help yet,'' said Biloxi Fire Department Battalion Chief Joe Boney. ``We need water. We need ice. I've been told it's coming, but we've got people in shelters who haven't had a drink since the storm.''

A FEMA official, James McIntyre, blamed the extent of devastation for slowing relief efforts. Roads were washed out and relief trucks were stopped by state police trying to keep people out of hazardous areas, he said.

The slow response and poor federal leadership is a replay of the mishandling of Hurricane Andrew in 1992, said former FEMA Chief of Staff Jane Bullock, a 22-year agency veteran.

Bullock blamed inexperienced federal leadership. She noted that Chertoff and FEMA Director Michael Brown had no disaster experience before they were appointed to their jobs.

The slowness is all too familiar to Kate Hale. As Miami's disaster chief during Hurricane Andrew, Hale asked: ``Where the hell's the cavalry?''

``I'm seeing the same sort of thing that horrified us after Hurricane Andrew,'' Hale said Wednesday. ``I realize they've got a huge job. Nobody understands better than I do what they're trying to respond to, but . . .''

Budget cuts have not made disaster preparedness any easier.

Last year, FEMA spent $250,000 to conduct an eight-day hurricane drill for a mock killer storm hitting New Orleans. Some 250 emergency officials attended. Many scenarios now playing out, including a helicopter evacuation of the Superdome, were discussed in that drill for a fictional storm named Pam.

This year, the group was to design a plan to fix such unresolved problems as evacuating sick and injured people from the Superdome and housing tens of thousands of stranded citizens. But funding for that planning was cut, said Tolbert, who also was disaster chief for North Carolina.

``A lot of good was done, but it just wasn't finished,'' he said. ``I don't know if it would have saved more lives. It would have made the response faster. You might say it would have saved lives.''

FEMA was not alone in cutting hurricane spending in New Orleans and the surrounding area.

Federal flood-control spending for southeastern Louisiana has been chopped, from $69 million in 2001 to $36.5 million in 2005, according to budget documents. Federal hurricane protection for the Lake Pontchartrain vicinity in the Army Corps of Engineers' budget dropped from $14.25 million in 2002 to $5.7 million this year. Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu requested $27 million this year.

Both the New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper and a local business magazine reported that the effects of the budget cuts at the Army Corps of Engineers were severe.

In 2004, the Corps essentially stopped major work on the now-breached levee system that had protected New Orleans from flooding. It was the first such stoppage in 37 years, the Times-Picayune reported.

``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,'' Jefferson Parish emergency-management chief Walter Maestri told the newspaper.

The Army Corps' New Orleans office, facing a $71 million cut, also eliminated funds for a study on how to protect the Crescent City from a Category 5 storm, New Orleans City Business reported in June.

Further complicating the relief effort, three top officials from Louisiana's emergency-management office were indicted recently for the misuse of funds from Hurricane Ivan last year.

Being prepared for a disaster is basic emergency management, experts said.

In the 1990s, for example, while planning for a New Orleans nightmare scenario, the federal government figured it would predeploy nearby ships with pumps to remove water from the below-sea-level city and have hospital ships nearby, said James Lee Witt, who was FEMA director under President Clinton and won bipartisan praise on Capitol Hill.

Bush administration officials said a hospital ship would leave from Baltimore on Friday.

``These things need to be planned and prepared for; it just doesn't look like it was,'' said Witt, a former Arkansas disaster chief.

FEMA said some of its response teams were prepared. The agency had 18 search-and-rescue teams and 39 disaster medical teams positioned outside storm areas and moved them in when the hurricane died down

-Arlos

[Tadpole]

bush fucks up

what is new

[araby]

The Mayor said that they've been asking for Federal assistance for years. the levees breaking are unbelievable, but the hurricane was too and these people have nowhere to go. if they don't have family, where will they go? how will they get jobs or make money or how will these children go to school? the majority of this group they keep showing on CNN are black people...not to mention it's the same footage as usual. the hospitals need supplies and help, the staff are starting their own iv's because they are weak and have no food.and the fact that they can't do anything with these people is mind-blowing. this is such a fucking mess. our gas went from 2.79 to 3.30 today. If you aren't with the group from the superdome to the the astrodome, they will turn you away. people are pissed, they are surviving. the looters make me sick, the one woman I saw with diapers was okay...the rest of them can fester there.

[kaharthemad]

I think blame for this could fall on alot more administrations shoulders then just Bush this time people. They knew this was going to happen years ago and did nothing. You have a bad call on the Levee reinforcement of major coast line cities to withstand a hurricane force 5 was veto'd by a different administration. You have FEMA that looks like someone needs to do some revamping in a already outdated group.

Prospected moves of the city should have been done and actual plans written up for a LONG time. The problem is I dont think the people we voted in (all of them) wanted to even think about this.

As a society we are fairly complacent and we are hard to see long term problems. We only have to look at our dependancy on foriegn oil for this, and 4 Planes that almost destroyed our Governmental infrastructure 4 years ago. Had we looked at the situation properly, say 30 years ago we would have been braced for this. Instead we swept all our problems under a mat for a while and catered to all the wonderful politcal interest groups, from the tree humping druids, peace activists, on down to the oil companies.

That being said. I would like to hear possible non partisan ideas on how things could have been improved and could be improved in areas like this.

My suggestions:

Since NO is mainly descimated why not move it up the coast a bit or change how the place is built.

Reinforce Levees in major cities where a hurricane or Typhoon is possible.

Start Driling off the coast of Florida, the area set aside by law in ANWR and a few other places that have oil and start producing our own oil.

Start building Refineries inside the US. None have been built in 30 years, now more than ever we need to be independant of others. In doing this it will generate more jobs for alot of people in the communities where these are placed.

Build plans for emergency evacuation of major urban areas, including provisions for cracking down on looters to evacing refugees. This includes multiple disaster scenerios for each major city.

Start researching at a high clip altenative fuel.

[Tacks]

In a stunning turn of events, Kahar tries to say Bush isn't to blame...who would have guessed.

[araby]

While kahar's post is awesome, I have to agree that you can't turn away from the fact that Bush did in fact cut their money. I don't know how you argue with that.

[Lyion]

Here's a tip, don't build your fucking city under sea level near the Ocean.

When your city is in a bowl, and they tell you to evacuate days ahead of time, you might want to do it.

We've been pushing the Mississippi the wrong way for years, and maybe we'll get a clue, move the city, and not fuck with mother nature, instead of wasting billions.

This message brought to you by the Captain Obvious society of America.

In a stunning turn of events, Kahar tries to say Bush isn't to blame...who would have guessed.

Yes, and your response was equally stunning and original.

[Tacks]

As if 101930850385 other fucking morons haven't said the exact same thing as you just did captain hypocrite?

blow me old man

[Zanchief]

Let's move Florida away from the Hurricanes and California away from the earthquakes. Man those states are just a waste of fucking money. Relocation is WAY easier.

[araby]

Here's a tip, don't build your fucking city under sea level near the Ocean.

When your city is in a bowl, and they tell you to evacuate days ahead of time, you might want to do it.

We've been pushing the Mississippi the wrong way for years, and maybe we'll get a clue, move the city, and not fuck with mother nature, instead of wasting billions.

This message brought to you by the Captain Obvious society of America.

In a stunning turn of events, Kahar tries to say Bush isn't to blame...who would have guessed.

Yes, and your response was equally stunning and original.

The city actually started above sea level and over time grew into the lower areas. There are ways to rebuild the coast, pumping sand from the ocean onto the coast and preserving the sea side is one. they haven't been able to get the money.
That's not to say that you aren't right about the evacuation, and the ability of so many people to do so and the refusal to do it.
I live below sea level, I went through hurrican Hugo, and believe me, when storms start to brew in the Atlantic, people here watch it and prepare to leave.

there will always be a coast, and beaches, and people will always want to live there. That's the price to pay I suppose, but it's no different than everyone who lives on fault lines being "too stupid" to move. It's not practical.

[Martrae]

Then you've made your choice knowing full well the consequences, why should you expect everyone else to bail you out when disaster hits?

Americans aren't self-sufficient anymore. We rely too much on the government to hold our hands and pick us up when we fall. I very much fear we are about to reap the effects of that mentality. It wouldn't take much atm for the country to topple into anarchy, I think.

[araby]

Then you've made your choice knowing full well the consequences, why should you expect everyone else to bail you out when disaster hits?

Americans aren't self-sufficient anymore. We rely too much on the government to hold our hands and pick us up when we fall. I very much fear we are about to reap the effects of that mentality. It wouldn't take much atm for the country to topple into anarchy, I think.

Perhaps we aren't self-sufficient, due to our own desires to make everything easier for ourselves. What would you do if you were born into that area? Would you one day think, "I'm living below sea level, and in spite of everything I have including family, roots, a job and life being here, I'm leaving." I'm not sure people can do this as easily as everyone expects.

I don't think that there is anything wrong with expecting some help from the government in this crisis. Of course people should also be helping themselves and each other. We live in "the greatest country in the world" and these people have provided entertainment and the streets of their city to other Americans who frequent there all year. These states are a part of the country. Country-wide support is not only expected but necessary.

[Zanchief]

Then you've made your choice knowing full well the consequences, why should you expect everyone else to bail you out when disaster hits?

Americans aren't self-sufficient anymore. We rely too much on the government to hold our hands and pick us up when we fall. I very much fear we are about to reap the effects of that mentality. It wouldn't take much atm for the country to topple into anarchy, I think.

Well why don't you overreact, Martrae. There's a difference between holding peoples hands and allowing thousands of gallons of water to destroy a city.

I think "saving a city from destruction" is pretty high on the “to do” list of most governments. Or is it only a concern if it's the fault of Arabs?

Please Mr. President, can you save my family ravaged by floods?

No. Work harder next time and buy yourself a dinghy.

I know you’re always pushing this small government agenda that’s been beaten into you, but I think you’re missing the point.

[xaoshaen]

Yeah, Bush slashed the budget for flood relief. He's such an evil monster, he completely bypassed Congress, who are constituionally responsbile for establishing budgets, went Louisiana and mugged them for their disaster response funds. That right up there with "He should have mobilized the National Guard earlier".

Did anyone get a chance to read Michael Moore's "open letter"? It's pretty hilarious if you have a basic knowledge of US civics. Sadly, a great many people don't and will probably be nodding sagely in agreement as they read it.

[Lyion]

This has been a known problem for New Orleans for a long time. You can argue the response wasn't quick enough, and you can argue that we didnt throw enough hundreds of millions at the problem, but again even if it had the full cash promised before there is still no guarantee it would make any difference, despite what you are hearing or reading in very partisan articles. An awful lot of money has already been used there.

We have spent hundreds of millions. Partisans are letting crazy unfounded accusations fly that if Bush had not cut the funding over the last 2 years then things would be fine there. That is a red herring ad hoc political attack. It is also bullshit.

We can't protect a populace from a Cat 4/5 Hurricane by building higher levees - levees solely protect property. You get them the hell out of the way. If the Corps is wrong about what it takes and the people are not fully evacuated, then they die.

In regards to spending the Corps of Engineers is doing in New Orleans, it's interesting if you look at simple facts, versus partisan attacks:

The Corps' New Orleans district in 2003 spent about $409 million on construction contracts, dredging and maintenance for the state's waterways, real estate purchases, private sector design contracts and in-house expenditures, according to the Corps. That more than doubles the $200 million the district spent in 1991.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said Thursday that a lack of funding for hurricane-protection projects around New Orleans did not contribute to the disastrous flooding that followed Hurricane Katrina.

In a telephone interview with reporters, corps officials said that although portions of the flood-protection levees remain incomplete, the levees near Lake Pontchartrain that gave way--inundating much of the city--were completed and in good condition before the hurricane.

However, they noted that the levees were designed for a Category 3 hurricane and couldn't handle the ferocious winds and raging waters from Hurricane Katrina, which was a Category 4 storm when it hit the coastline. The decision to build levees for a Category 3 hurricane was made decades ago based on a cost-benefit analysis.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/loca ... &cset=true

[Tacks]

The decision to build levees for a Category 3 hurricane was made decades ago based on a cost-benefit analysis.

Someone needs to be stoned.

[Zanchief]

Yeah, Bush slashed the budget for flood relief. He's such an evil monster, he completely bypassed Congress, who are constituionally responsbile for establishing budgets, went Louisiana and mugged them for their disaster response funds. That right up there with "He should have mobilized the National Guard earlier".

Did anyone get a chance to read Michael Moore's "open letter"? It's pretty hilarious if you have a basic knowledge of US civics. Sadly, a great many people don't and will probably be nodding sagely in agreement as they read it.

Compare the speed and efficiency of the response to…say, the relief sent to Florida?

Makes you wonder.

Yes, its a different situation.

[Tacks]

I bet if Bin Laden had destroyed the levee's and flooded the city that they would have the situation under control long ago.

[araby]

I bet if all the footage you've seen on CNN were of white people chanting "we want help" it would be different also.

[xaoshaen]

Compare the speed and efficiency of the response to…say, the relief sent to Florida?

Makes you wonder.

Yes, its a different situation.

Yeah, so different it doesn't make me wonder at all...

[xaoshaen]

I bet if all the footage you've seen on CNN were of white people chanting "we want help" it would be different also.

I'll take that bet. Have you seen the suburbs of New Orleans?

[Arlos]

Bush has gotten unprecedented cooperation from the republicans in congress on most of what he has wanted. Yes, Congress has voted on the funding, but it's been a Republic-run congress for the entire time he's been in office, with the sole exception of the Senate being 51-49 for a short time. So no, while Bush himself didn't vote the funding values in, his tame little acolytes in the House and Senate did.

I like the dig Kahar got in on Clinton there too. Obviously,

Federal flood-control spending for southeastern Louisiana has been chopped, from $69 million in 2001 to $36.5 million in 2005, according to budget documents. Federal hurricane protection for the Lake Pontchartrain vicinity in the Army Corps of Engineers' budget dropped from $14.25 million in 2002 to $5.7 million this year.

is Clinton's fault, eh? Remember, NO survived the hurricane itself fairly well. What fucked it was the levee system protecting it from Lake Ponchetrain giving way. You know, the same budget that had been slashed by almost 2/3 in the last 3 years, despite one of the Louisiana Senators asking for 27 million this year.

Oh, and how about this gem:

In the 1990s, for example, while planning for a New Orleans nightmare scenario, the federal government figured it would predeploy nearby ships with pumps to remove water from the below-sea-level city and have hospital ships nearby, said James Lee Witt, who was FEMA director under President Clinton and won bipartisan praise on Capitol Hill.

Bush administration officials said a hospital ship would leave from Baltimore on Friday.

So, lets see, during Clinton's administration, they had plans in place to pre-station pump ships and multiple hospital ships offshore to move into the area as soon as the hurricane had passed over, to help dry out the city and deal with the wounded. Bush administration, what happened to those plans? They have NO pump ships even mentioned as being asked to move, and the first hospital ship hasn't even left port YET. Bush directly appoints the people that run FEMA. So, who's fault is THAT fuckup?

Who's fault is it that the National Guard is mostly overseas, not here, you know, GUARDING THE NATION?

Now, as for some of Kahar's other comments:

Since NO is mainly descimated why not move it up the coast a bit or change how the place is built.

Do you honestly not realize how patently ridiculous this statement is? One of the oldest cities in the US, one of the busiest ports in the world, that *MUST* be located at the mouth of the Mississippi to handle all the shipping traffic, not to mention the probably hundreds of billions of dollars of personal and business property that you're calling for just abandoning and bulldozing.... Wow. And I thought Mindia had the lock on completely left-field utterly asinine comments. It's perfectly possible to have a city, or even much of a country below sea level. Look at the Netherlands. They just have a FAR more comprehensive system of levees and flood control measures than places like New Orleans does, because they were willing to spend the money on it.

What WOULD fix the problem long term is removing some of the levee systems in the area (not that directly face NO), which will allow the silt the Mississipi carries to rebuild the wetlands. There used to be > 50 miles of wetlands between NO and the gulf. Now, there's < 20. Those wetlands are a critical buffer for storms like this, and how hard a pounding NO took is directly related to that reduction.

Reinforce Levees in major cities where a hurricane or Typhoon is possible.

This one is a good suggestion, but only applies to cities with situations like New Orleans that need to be protected from water apart from the ocean. There's no way you can protect cities on an ocean from the storm surge of a major hurricane. Simply impossible, unless you want to go back to medieval times and build 35 foot walls around the perimiter of every city. Not exactly feasable. Oh, and Typhoons only happen in the Pacific ocean, and can't hit the mainland coast, so in protecting anywhere from typhoons, you're talking Hawaii, and again, you aren't protecting them from the primary storm surge, period.

Start Driling off the coast of Florida, the area set aside by law in ANWR and a few other places that have oil and start producing our own oil.

Oh sure, lets completely fuck up what few unspoiled places we have left in this country, just to help improve the profits of the oil companies. We couldn't POSSIBLY spend money on converting public vehicles to run on things like natural gas or biodiesel, and work on a crash program of biodiesel production instead. Gee, the fact that if we no longer needed to import petroleum diesel would cut our dependency on foreign oil far more than the amounts we could pump out of ANWR would do so is irrelevant, huh?

Start building Refineries inside the US. None have been built in 30 years, now more than ever we need to be independant of others. In doing this it will generate more jobs for alot of people in the communities where these are placed.

If a refinery can be built that won't completely fuck up the air, water, ground, etc., then maybe we can biuld a couple. But a gigantic polluter, belching out poisons into the air and toxic wastes into the groundwater? Hell no.

Build plans for emergency evacuation of major urban areas, including provisions for cracking down on looters to evacing refugees. This includes multiple disaster scenerios for each major city.

Finally, a good suggestion. Do see above though, where such a plan existed for NO 10 years ago, and was ignored by the current FEMA administration.

Start researching at a high clip altenative fuel.

Hey, another good suggestion! We do already have an alternative fuel though, you know. One that can power every single diesel-powered vehicle in the united states without using a single drop of petroleum. Biodiesel.

You want to do this quickly? Re-legalize industrial hemp, give subsidies to growers. Hemp requires no irrigation, no fertilizers and no pesticides. It is, as they say, a weed, and can grow just about anywhere. (and no, it can't be smoked to get high, it effectively has a THC content of 0.) While the hemp is growing, you institute a crash building project of biodiesel processing stations. It's a simple chemical process to do the conversion, so it's not like building a normal refinery. Hemp matures, you harvest same. Seeds are pressed for the oil. The plant fiber can be used for paper, animal feed, clothing, rope, whatever. So, farmer gets to profit on every portion of the crop he's raised, and there's no waste leftover. Processing stations convert the raw hempseed oil into useable fuel, and distribute it around the country for use in any diesel engine. Hell, you can even set up oil recycling stations, for used food-grade oils that restaurants throw out, etc. because that can be converted into biodiesel too.

Not to mention, you've created a bunch of new farming jobs, including ones that can be held by the now-dying small family farmer, cause it's a cheap as hell crop to raise. You also cut down the need for logging, as hemp paper is actually better quality paper than wood-pulp, so no more need to cut trees to turn into Charmin. You've also slashed our dependency on foreign oil, and with effectively no environmental impact. Now, if incentives are made to the auto industry to produce diesel vehicles for the consumer market, combined with increase hybrid production, and guess what even further happens to our dependency on foreign oil, and without a single drop of new drilling.

Of course, the petroleum companies will fight this tooth and nail, and given how in bed with them Bush & Co. are, it'll never happen. But it WOULD work.

-Arlos

[kaharthemad]

As for the Levee system it was a bill that went thru during Clintons Administration. a bill that would have funded 4 billion dollars for reinforcing of walls, damns and levee's in areas such as NO. like I said it is as much Bush's fault as it is others. Your right the area survived it was the levees that failed...all of which were requested to be reinforced. The house passed that bill as did the senate. Senate witha 2/3 majority. So why was it turned down at the white house?

I do not doubt some of the fault lies on Bush but others are at fault as well.

As for the wonderful idea Arlos had of rebuilding NO in a fucking salad bowl for the next storm. BRILLIANT!'

But I guess you would consider it just find to take another 10billion out of the pockets of actual tax payers to cover the cost when the next storm rolls in huh? If we dont want to move NO over or up and rebuild then what do you suggest? stick it right there and we wait for the next Cat 5 Hurricane to come thru? this time lets hope the thing hits it head on?

Amazing...had we listened to the Indians down there in the first place that actually suggested not building the fucking city on the coastline we might not be looking at this situation today.

As for ANWR, the area in ANWR the was set aside BY LAW for drilling was set aside years ago. I take it you have not done any research on the drilling techniques that would be used up there. Frankly I could give a fuck less if the goddamn carribou are inconvienced. not my problem. If evolution wanted them to make the decisions for our race they would have given them Thumbs and a IQ higher then most of the people that are protecting them.

You mention Hemp growing and setup BIOdiesel substations...thats all fine and good man but what about all your 'poor and huddled dumbmasses" that cant afford the new fuel product. do we give them money out of your pockets?
Fact is people bitch because gas prices are high, you bitch because we are dependant on oil but you seem to think that thats ok and whine when we give you alternatives.

Reconversion to a biodiesel for millions of cars is not feasible, and as a matter of fact I doubt anyone but the 'evil rich' will buy one right off the bat. The fact is we are completely dependant on oil from the Gulf because people like you stone walling it.

[kaharthemad]

PS I left his name out of my original post because I did not want to go there. that levee bill has been brought 5 times in 5 different adminstrations and noone has deemed it ncessary. Clinton was just the last time.

[mappatazee]

Jesus Fucking Christ. He's like a junior high student giving a 'speech'. He's just FUCKING READING and LOOKING UP from time to time. He isn't saying anything. Jesus, what the fuck is wrong with him?