Group shows FEMA anticipated Katrina's destruction of New Orleans

Source: Raw Story

A major report published Wednesday by a Washington, DC-based watchdog shows that the Federal Emergency Management Agency anticipated the destruction that would result from a major hurricane striking New Orleans, yet failed to follow through on its own internal warnings.

"FEMA’s disaster planning was based on a set of predictions that proved to be remarkably accurate. In 2000-2001, FEMA looked at a population of New Orleans that was over 1.3 million people and predicted that when a catastrophic hurricane struck, the city would be flooded with 14-17 feet of water. One million people would evacuate and 250-350,000 people would be trapped in the city," according to the report, The Best Laid Plans: The Story of How the Government Ignored Its Own Gulf Coast Hurricane Plans.

...

Read more: http://rawstory.com/news/2007/Group_shows_FEMA_anticipated_Katrinas_destruction_0627.html

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Just keep pulling back the covers, and see what cockroaches come out.

This is criminal neglect. This is dereliction to duty. This is obscene.

how is that criminal?

take your pick

as I watched the coverage, and it became obvious that FEMA was going to stand around while the city drowned, "criminal negligence" was precisely the phrase that I used to describe the situation.

No doubt that was written by hold-overs from the Clinton years. You can't expect Brownie and Chertoff and BushCo. to be bothered to read that liberally biased crap.

:sarcasm:

to get all those brown people out of that city. They kept voting for the DemocRATS ya know.

an editorial from today's Time-Picayune.


http://www.nola.com/news/t-p/editorials/index.ssf?/base/news-4/1182924890177870.xml&coll=1

"Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath left New Orleans with widespread street damage -- the weight of floodwaters and heavy equipment used to clear debris and repair utility lines took a toll on an estimated 12,000 blocks.

<snip>
That must be a top priority for New Orleans. The city has a lot of ground to cover in a short amount of time, but New Orleans cannot risk losing street repair money. The Nagin administration needs to commit whatever resources are necessary to get this job done.

By the same token, FEMA ought to be willing to show some flexibility if the city shows it's making a concerted effort to deliver the list by the new deadline."

Sad, but not surprising, their callous disregard for human lives.

,

Bush has fucked with FEMA from day one of his administration - in fact, even before he took office, when he decided to name his former Texas chief of staff/campaign manager, Joe Albaugh, as Secretary of FEMA (back before 9/11 - when the head of FEMA enjoyed Cabinet level status).

Albaugh's "brief" was to gut and destroy FEMA, because the GOP attitude was, "Hey, if you don't have enough insurance and personal wealth to survive a disaster, that's your personal problem, and not the government's."

Albaugh was a vicious prick from the day he showed up at FEMA, cursing out and humiliating the FEMA professionals from the top down. He drove out hundreds and hundreds of professionals with invaluable institutional knowledge of how to work with state agencies and how to anticipate/prepare/mitigate etc., all kinds of natural disasters and epidemics. People took early retirement and/or went to jobs with state or private relief agencies. These professionals were not replaced. In addition to the normal amount of political appointees (a handful) which all presidents put in place, Bush placed many political types (such as inexperienced relatives of big donors) into several levels of upper and middle level management. When Katrina hit, there were 900 unfilled job slots in D.C. headquarters alone, not to mention unfilled job slots in the regional branches. Budget moneys and job slots initially designated for FEMA, were switched over to the black hole known as the Department of Homeland Security.

Katrina was the biggest disaster ever to hit the U.S., and FEMA was already underfunded and understaffed to deal with run-of-the-mill disasters. Nevertheless, as Katrina approached, the remaining, beleaguered FEMA civil servants (as opposed to Bush's people) did as they always do in the face of an upcoming disaster. All of the regional staffs around the country (7 regions) packed up and were ready to head for NOLA the week BEFORE THE HURRICANE MADE LANDFALL. All they needed was the expected go-ahead from the head of FEMA (Brown). Turns out Brown was told by Chertoff NOT to allow the staff to go to NOLA. Chertoff held off on that approval until 2 days after the hurricane hit.

You know, I expect posters on DU to be politically astute. How can anyone here NOT be aware that Bush has gutted every single federal agency under his control, so that the GOP can say, "See, government doesn't work - we have to privatise." It has come to light with FEMA because the MSM couldn't keep that agency's failures out of the news. But believe me, the same thing has happened at EPA,NOAA, Treasury, Education, - all of the agencies.

People here, sitting in the comfort of their homes and offices have one helluva great time trashing FEMA. Meanwhile, my FEMA friends are living under exhausting, primitive conditions at Greensburg, Kansas, starting out working 15 hours a day, 7 days a week, and having to sleep in tents in the Kansas summer heat. I'd sure like just once to ever read on DU, a thread of appreciation for the majority of FEMA workers - as if anyone here could appreciate the physical and psychological stress of working under the conditions they face in their chosen profession, let alone the mountain of crap and stress that Bush has laid on them for the past 6 years.

remind me again why he's still in office.