Katrina Rebuild Hinges on Who Will Pay (AP)

(Well. I guess we all always knew what was truly important to these people.)

Dec 4, 12:30 PM EST

Katrina Rebuild Hinges on Who Will Pay

By MATT CRENSON
AP National Writer

Three months after Hurricane Katrina, we know that damage is enormous. We know that it will cost billions of dollars to rebuild New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast.

What we don't know is where the money will come from. Louisiana's congressional delegation introduced legislation in September calling for a $212 billion federally funded rebuilding effort; fiscal conservatives scotched the proposal.

Even a more modest request for $32 billion to strengthen Louisiana's flood defenses so they could withstand a Category 5 hurricane - the current standard is Category 3 - has drawn a tepid response from the Bush administration. "Hopefully that decision will be made sooner rather than later," said Donald Powell, the White House's top hurricane reconstruction official, during a recent trip to Louisiana.

Only the federal government has pockets deep enough to pay for a massive reconstruction effort. But there is a significant difference of opinion over whether - and if so, how - the government should raise the money. "This kind of major public works project has to be a state and federal partnership," said Andy Kopplin, executive director of the Louisiana Recovery Authority, which was created by governor Kathleen Blanco to advance the state's reconstruction.

<http://staging.hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KATRINA_WHO_SHOULD_PAY?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2005-12-04-12-30-09>
(more at link above)

congress critters and to keep the heat on the government. We need the help, we can't do it alone and it isn't right that any American citizen should be living in 3rd world conditions anywhere, especially on our own shores.

Has he begun to understand the seriousness of the situation yet?

He made some really insensitive statements not long after Katrina blew north. Has Sen. Sessions visited the area yet?

:shrug:

It doesn't look like he's much concerned about the Gulf Coast, looks like he's too busy telling lies to "Old Money" Republicans in Eufaula, AL

<http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?BRD=2235&dept_id=439676&newsid=15679656&PAG=461&rfi=9>

... when there are bridges-to-nowhere to be built, and innocent Iraqis to be slaughtered?

Amazing how all of these 'Americans' in office were happy to throw taxpayers' dollars around like there was no tomorrow on an endless war, tax breaks for their wealthy friends, etc. But when it comes to assisting their fellow citizens, who are in dire straits through no fault of their own -- suddenly we have to be 'fiscally responsible'.

Dis.Gusting.

Don't know if we'll ever see such a headline in the Times-Picayune, which fulsomely endorsed King Dumbass** twice, but we should.

In September, Bill Clinton advocated increased taxes to pay for Katrina reconstruction and the cost of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. But President Bush has vowed not to raise taxes, or even to roll back the tax cuts he made during his first term in office.

"There needs to be a vision at the federal level - a vision for what the city of New Orleans is going to look like and what's going to happen to the 600,000 households that have been displaced," said Matt Fellowes, a senior research associate at the Brookings Institution.

Clue phone, Matt: there needs to be a vision at the federal level for a hell of a lot of other things, too. Only 11 months 'til the midterms...

And now, it's time for Morans on Parade:

That means people who "live on a mountain in the middle of the desert" are sharing the cost of rebuilding a coastal city below sea level, said Robert P. Hartwig, a senior vice president and chief economist at the Insurance Information Institute. It also means that today's children and their children will ultimately shoulder the burden of paying to rebuild the Gulf Coast.

Goodness, Mr. Hartwig, what a fine point you make. :sarcasm: And who, may I ask, shall pay if the said desert is struck by a punishing drought, or the said mountain is engulfed by a wildfire, or even turns out to be a volcano? Huh?

"At some level it makes sense that the federal government should help, but there should be a lesson," de Rugy (of AEI -Ed.) said. "People who have behaved in a completely irresponsible way by not taking any insurance should lose something."

Say, Ms. de Rugy, aren't you late for your interview with O'Really? or something? Many Gulf Coast residents, both in New Orleans and on the Mississippi coast, were told by FEMA that they did not need flood insurance because they either weren't in a flood zone or their homes were raised to the "proper" flood elevation -- which was greatly exceeded by Katrina, a catastrophe far beyond the "100-year storm".

To reiterate, "People who have behaved in a completely irresponsible way by not checking their facts before spouting off to reporters should lose their credibility." :P

Another fine article along similar lines is here:

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-orleansrisk4dec04,1,7777349.story?coll=la-headlines-nation

Lost amid continued talk of billions in federal aid is the fact that most homeowners and businesses are being left to make the toughest calls on their own. Lost is that New Orleans' recovery — which President Bush once suggested would be one of the largest public reconstruction efforts the world had ever seen — is quickly becoming a private market affair.

"My constituents have pretty much concluded that it's up to us to put our neighborhood back together and get on with our lives," said Republican city council member Jay Batt, who represents the Lakeview neighborhood just west of Vignaud's. Ah, the irony...

edit: italics

I'm not to sure that people living in the "100 year flood" zones even were able to get FEMA Flood Insurance, wasn't it limited to the "25 year flood" zones?

And then, there's this:

New Orleans Levee Was Doomed; Report Blames Army Corps of Engineers

BY BOB MARSHALL
c.2005 Newhouse News Service

NEW ORLEANS -- The floodwall on New Orleans' 17th Street Canal levee was destined to fail long before it reached its maximum design load of 14 feet of water because the Army Corps of Engineers underestimated the weak soil layers 10 to 25 feet below the levee, Louisiana's forensic levee investigation team concluded in a draft copy of a report expected to be released next week.

That miscalculation was so obvious and fundamental, investigators said, they "could not fathom" how the design team of engineers from the corps, local firm Eustis Engineering and the national firm Modjeski and Masters could have missed what is being termed the costliest engineering mistake in American history.

The failure of the wall and other breaches in the city's levee system flooded much of New Orleans when Hurricane Katrina slammed ashore Aug. 29, prompting investigations that have raised questions about the basic design and construction of the floodwalls.

"It's simply beyond me," said Billy Prochaska, a consulting engineer in the forensic group known as Team Louisiana. "This wasn't a complicated problem. This is something the corps, Eustis, and Modjeski and Masters do all the time. Yet everyone missed it -- everyone from the local offices all the way up to Washington."

<http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/marshall1201052.html>
(more at link above)

If anyone is uncomfortable about the source, here's the same artical in the Cleavland Plain Dealer: <http://www.cleveland.com/news/plaindealer/index.ssf?/base/news/1133457373181730.xml&coll=2>

It was destroyed by Katrina, but not just by the storm surge. The winds and tornadoes took off the roof and caused it to collapse before the storm surge came in.

I have a fight in front of me. :argh:

:hug:

:hug:

...for Hurricane Survivors that we recently got the Admins to start?

Here's the link and the mission statement:

The DU Hurricane Survivors Group is a place for DU members from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South-west Texas, and Southern Florida and elsewhere who are or have been victims of the recent Hurricanes to check-in, meet each other, trade accounts, offer advice or just show support for their fellow survivors. It is also a place for posting Hurricane related news stories, which seem to have been bumped from the front pages, if they are still being reported at all.

<http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=360>

I hope to see you there, and if you look down thread, looks like we found another New Orleans Resident, DeltaLady, I just invited her too.

promises were nothing but photo ops. I will call my reps, but sonce they are all Pugs, I doubt it will help. Let's all call please. New Orleans shall not be forgotten; we must keep the heat on.

At least, New Orleans gets some airtime. You hear nothing about Mississippi on the news.

:kick:

I used to believe in the basic decency of my country and countrymen. Now I see that I was wrong. To those who share our pain, our outrage, I embrace you as brothers and sisters. To those who have turned away, I can only hope that you remember us when you are in your hour of need, that you are haunted by your turning aside, that you come to know how bottomless despair can be. The storm took too many of our loved ones and most if not all of our material possessions, but blind self serving politicians are demanding our last shred of dignity as well. "Sooner rather then later?" Is three months not enough? This administration and its cohorts seem determined to crush any vestige of hope that remains in our broken hearts. We are alive, but unable to move forward in the healing process; Rome is burning and they are fiddling.

but somehow mesmerizing to some who are drawn in by their constant appeals to self-serving greed coupled with harsh condemnation of anyone who isn't one of 'them'.

The inaction is bad enough; but now there is rw radio rhetoric that is feuling an anti "Katrina victim" campaign... as if by virtue of geography those whose families, friends, communities and homes have been devastated - are now somehow to be pitted against the listeners to the rw hate machine. GRRRRR. The heart and soul of our nation is breaking.

We just recently petitioned the DU Admins and got them to start a Hurricane Survivors Group, and you are one of the people we were hoping to find and invite to participate in the Group.

Here's the mission statement:

The DU Hurricane Survivors Group is a place for DU members from Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, South-west Texas, and Southern Florida and elsewhere who are or have been victims of the recent Hurricanes to check-in, meet each other, trade accounts, offer advice or just show support for their fellow survivors. It is also a place for posting Hurricane related news stories, which seem to have been bumped from the front pages, if they are still being reported at all.

Here's the link: <http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topics&forum=360>

I hope to see you there! :hug:

Protecting and rebuilding a great city is an excellent use of our collective resources. It is far better than tax cuts for the rich or wars for Halliburton. We are all in this together, and we damn well better act like it. Even if large borrowing is required, there will be something to show for it.

it's FAR more important to give more tax cuts to the already very, very wealthy. I mean, isn't NOLA mostly BLACK? It's not as if the suffering people are Bush's cronies, or anything important like that. Damn the greedy SOBs for their unfeeling, uncaring ways. As a taxpayer, I would far, far rather help my brothers and sisters who were devastated by Katrina, than put more money into the Bush cronies pockets.

The tragedy is that they don't give a damn what I, or you, or any other little guy think. If you can't pour money into their coffers, you may as well not exist. Bastards, all of them.

-Chimp