'Catapulting' Katrina. - Democratic Underground

reprehensor

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Tue Sep-06-05 09:25 AM
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'Catapulting' Katrina.

"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."

- President George Walker Bush, May 24th, 2005.

The flooding in New Orleans was foretold over and over again.

'Drowning New Orleans'
October, 2001
http://sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=00060286-CB58-1315-8B5883414B7F0000

'Keeping Its Head Above Water'
New Orleans Faces Doomsday Scenario
December 1, 2001
http://www.hurricane.lsu.edu/_in_the_news/houston.htm

'Washing Away'
2002
http://www.nola.com/hurricane/?/washingaway/part1.html

'City in a Bowl'
September 20, 2002
http://www.pbs.org/now/printable/transcript_neworleans_print.html

'Disaster in the Making'
September 22, 2004
http://www.indyweek.com/durham/2004-09-22/cover.html

'A Way Out' ( Despite advances, the subject of evacuation has been a widely overlooked issue within the transportation field.)
April, 2004
http://hurricane.lsu.edu/_in_the_news/tmemag0404.htm

'A Disaster Waiting to Happen'
September 28, 2004
http://www.bestofneworleans.com/dispatch/2004-09-28/cover_story.html

'Gone With the Water'
October, 2004
http://www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/

What if Hurricane Ivan Had Not Missed New Orleans?
Novermber, 2004
http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/o/nov04/nov04c.html

------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Bush administration crippled FEMA.

Ex-officials say weakened FEMA botched response

By Frank James and Andrew Martin
Washington Bureau
Published September 3, 2005

WASHINGTON -- Government disaster officials had an action plan if a major hurricane hit New Orleans. They simply didn't execute it when Hurricane Katrina struck.

Thirteen months before Katrina hit New Orleans, local, state and federal officials held a simulated hurricane drill that Ronald Castleman, then the regional director for the Federal Emergency Management Agency, called "a very good exercise."

More than a million residents were "evacuated" in the table-top scenario as 120 m.p.h. winds and 20 inches of rain caused widespread flooding that supposedly trapped 300,000 people in the city.

"It was very much an eye-opener," said Castleman, a Republican appointee of President Bush who left FEMA in December for the private sector. "A number of things were identified that we had to deal with, not all of them were solved."

James Lee Witt to the Rescue - Again.

I‘ve talked to emergency managers across this country, and firefighters across this country, and they told me … “You know what,” they said, “what done to FEMA is like driving heart in emergency management in this country.”

cannot expect a federal agency, like FEMA, to be able to fulfill its role and its responsibility to the American people you take away the resources and … a lot of the funding. have to work every day, every month, every week, to be able to make sure you partner with state and local emergency management, firefighters, to be able to respond together.

And if you don‘t plan, prepare, and exercise together, then you - it‘s difficult to respond together.

The mitigation prevention program in FEMA was a strong program. When we reorganized FEMA, we put in a division for mitigation prevention, working with state and local government, to minimize risk. It is almost null and void now…

FEMA contracted Innovative Emergency Management to 'lead the development of a catastrophic hurricane disaster plan for Southeast Louisiana and the City of New Orleans'.

In July, 2004, they held the 'Louisiana Catastrophic Hurricane Planning Workshop' it went like this;

Driven by a predetermined scenario, entitled Hurricane Pam, the participants developed 15 functional plans over the course of the week, including: pre-landfall activities; unwatering of levee enclosed areas; hazardous materials; billeting of response personnel; distribution of power, water, and ice; transport from water to shelter; volunteer and donations management; external affairs; access control and re-entry; debris; schools; search and rescue; sheltering; temporary housing; and temporary medical care.

The scenario involved a slow-moving Category 3 storm making landfall near Grand Isle in the early morning. In the scenario, the storm, sustaining winds of 120 mph at landfall, spawned tornados, destroyed over 75% of the structures in its path, and left the majority of New Orleans under 15–20 feet of water. The workshop was sponsored by FEMA and LOHSEP, with a weather scenario designed by the National Weather Service and damage and consequences developed by IEM, Inc. of Baton Rouge. IEM, Inc. also facilitated the workshop sessions.

From November 29–December 3, over 90 participants met in New Orleans to continue planning for three topics: sheltering, temporary housing, and temporary medical care. These three topics were chosen by the workshop’s Unified Command as areas that needed continued group planning.

The outcome of these workshops is a series of functional plans that may be implemented immediately. Along with these plans, resource shortfalls were identified early, saving valuable time in the event an actual response is warranted. It is because of the dedication of every workshop participant that Louisiana is much better prepared for a catastrophic hurricane.

More here.

A clear case of 'privatization' as failure has rarely been seen.

Storm Exposed Disarray at the Top

By Susan B. Glasser and Josh White
Washington Post Staff Writers
Sunday, September 4, 2005; Page A01

...Despite four years and tens of billions of dollars spent preparing for the worst, the federal government was not ready when it came at daybreak on Monday, according to interviews with more than a dozen current and former senior officials and outside experts.

Among the flaws they cited: Failure to take the storm seriously before it hit and trigger the government's highest level of response. Rebuffed offers of aid from the military, states and cities. An unfinished new plan meant to guide disaster response. And a slow bureaucracy that waited until late Tuesday to declare the catastrophe "an incident of national significance," the new federal term meant to set off the broadest possible relief effort.

Born out of the confused and uncertain response to 9/11, the massive new Department of Homeland Security was charged with being ready the next time, whether the disaster was wrought by nature or terrorists. The department commanded huge resources as it prepared for deadly scenarios from an airborne anthrax attack to a biological attack with plague to a chlorine-tank explosion.

But Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said yesterday that his department had failed to find an adequate model for addressing the "ultra-catastrophe" that resulted when Hurricane Katrina's floodwater breached New Orleans's levees and drowned the city, "as if an atomic bomb had been dropped."

FEMA takes brunt of hurricane relief criticism

BY MICHELLE MITTELSTADT
The Dallas Morning News

Though disaster planners have long ranked a direct hurricane strike on New Orleans as one of the top three catastrophic scenarios facing the United States, authorities have lagged badly in evacuating the sick and vulnerable, passing out food and water, deploying military assets and quelling rampant lawlessness. And while the Superdome has long factored in disaster preparedness plans as the city's main hurricane refuge, no supplies were stocked there before the storm hit Monday.

Dr. Michael Lindell, a senior scholar at Texas A&M's Hazard Reduction and Recovery Center, said he cannot comprehend why federal officials had not deployed equipment and relief supplies before Katrina struck - or mobilized to relieve clearly outflanked state and local resources.

"If it's a Category 5 hurricane, then frankly it doesn't take an Einstein to figure out that it's going to overwhelm local capacity and that they are going to be in a world of hurt," he said, referring to the storm that fell to Category 4 by the time it hit shore. "You don't have to wait until there are bodies floating around in the water to start activating the National Guard."

Many disaster relief specialists blame FEMA's stumble on its diminished standing within the government and a relentless focus on terrorism prevention by the agency's new overseers.

In a post-Sept. 11 reorganization, FEMA joined 21 other agencies in a new Homeland Security Department, stripped of the Cabinet rank that had allowed it to report directly to the president. And, in a further department shuffle in July, FEMA lost its historic mission of working with state and local governments on preparedness plans before disaster strikes.

The administration has been trotting out representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers to say that they didn't see the 'break' in the levee coming. But nearly in the same sentence they admit that the flooding was foreseen.

But there was a change in leadership at the Corps in 2002.

Ex-Army Corps officials say budget cuts imperiled flood mitigation efforts

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.

Mike Parker, the former head of the Army Corps of Engineers, was forced to resign in 2002 over budget disagreements with the White House. He clashed with Mitch Daniels, former director of the Office of Management and Budget, which sets the administration's annual budget goals.

"One time I took two pieces of steel into Mitch Daniels' office," Parker recalled. "They were exactly the same pieces of steel, except one had been under water in a Mississippi lock for 30 years, and the other was new. The first piece was completely corroded and falling apart because of a lack of funding. 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."

Daniels, now governor of Indiana, did not respond to a request for comment.

Fire the employees that counter your agenda. Just another day in Bushworld. Damn the consequences.

On the front cover of the Mississippi Press, the boldest headline was 'Where's FEMA?' They were still waiting as of Sunday;

Where's FEMA?

by Natalie Chambers
THE MISSISSIPPI PRESS
September 4, 2005

PASCAGOULA — County and municipal officials are asking aloud ‘Where’s FEMA?’

As word spread of temporary housing needs beginning to be met in neighboring Harrison County, more questions are being asked in Jackson County.

Leaders here can only hope that they are next on the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s list.

An estimated 100,000 of 135,000 Jackson County residents are in need of housing assistance following Monday’s landfall of devastating Hurricane Katrina, county officials were told by a Red Cross’ national representative. They also need a dependable supply of water, ice, food and other necessities.

-

As the reality of Katrina’s magnitude was realized, Blanco moved as required under the Stafford Act;

Blanco’s letter requesting Emergency aid under the Stafford Act, August 27th

President Bush legally puts the ball in Chertoff and Howard’s court, August 27th

FEMA issues press release, August 27th

Katrina goes Category V, Blanco requests expedited response, August 28th

{sound of ball dropping}

The Times-Picayune was at the new ground zero and watched inaction in action;

Despite the city’s multiple points of entry, our nation’s bureaucrats spent days after last week’s hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city’s stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.

Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.

Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.

Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.

The National Hurricane Center warned Chertoff and Brown about the magnitude of damage Katrina could inflict;

Dr. Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, told the Times-Picayune Sunday afternoon that officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, including FEMA Director Mike Brown and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, listened in on electronic briefings given by his staff in advance of Hurricane Katrina slamming Louisiana and Mississippi—and were advised of the storm’s potential deadly effects.

"Mayfield said the strength of the storm and the potential disaster it could bring were made clear during both the briefings and in formal advisories, which warned of a storm surge capable of overtopping levees in New Orleans and winds strong enough to blow out windows of high-rise buildings," the paper reported. "He said the briefings included information on expected wind speed, storm surge, rainfall and the potential for tornados to accompany the storm as it came ashore.

"We were briefing them way before landfall," Mayfield said. "It’s not like this was a surprise. We had in the advisories that the levee could be topped."

Chertoff told reporters Saturday that government officials had not expected the damaging combination of a powerful hurricane levee breaches that flooded New Orleans.

-

What we saw last week was the result of incompetence at the Federal Level, a blind faith in ‘privatization’ and ‘downsizing’ to ‘fix’ problems with big government, and when the chips were down, instead of accepting responsibility for the turtle-paced response, Brown and others chose to blame the victims for ‘choosing not to leave’.

By contrast, Vancouver Rescue, from Canada, was on the ground in Kenner on September 1, operational in St. Bernard Parish on September 2.

In Mayor Negin’s famous radio SOS, he said FEMA had not even set up a command center in NOLA on September 1.

CRONYISM KILLS