National Weather Service declares New Orleans hit by two hurricanes

[Pharlo]

The first hurricane to hit the Louisiana city of New Orleans arrived August 29. Katrina, a category 4 hurricane, made landfall early Monday morning with highly damaging 125 mph winds. After 12 hours of torrential rains, howling winds, and destruction, Hurricane Katrina was downgraded to a tropical storm and headed north towards Tennessee.

As Tropical Storm Katrina sped towards the Ohio River Valley, a distinctly North American post storm weather phenomenon known as a 'FEMA response' reared its ugly head.

Previous to landfall, the National Weather Service tracked each of the fledgling storms. And while Hurricane Katrina was raging towards the Gulf Coast from the Atlantic Ocean, the even more deadly Hurricane FEMA was hurling towards the soon to be devastated region in a series of starts and stops from its Washington DC point-of-origin.

Unlike its predecessor Katrina which moved off quickly, Hurricane FEMA stalled over the afflicted region - preventing assistance from reaching its victims for five days. While waters continued to rise in the city of New Orleans, Hurricane FEMA was accompanied by a political spin of Biblical proportions, resulting in a low pressure of hot air causing distress from the heat to plague the residents of New Orleans already beleagured by continued flooding, a lack of food, potable water, electricity and medical assistance...

...While the destruction of property, loss of life, and the cost of reconstruction of the combined catastrophes remains to be determined, a Louisiana official has stated that once the costs have been calculated it will be found that Hurricane FEMA was the more devastating and deadly of the two storm systems that struck the area...

...When asked about the rating of a storm with the destructive properties of Hurricane FEMA, a spokesman for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration admitted that "While Hurricane FEMA is the most catastrophic storm we have ever had hit the US, it is only rated as a category one under the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. The problem with FEMA wasn't the wind gusts which usually cause the most damage in a storm of this type. Instead, most of the damage that FEMA generated was due to the rising water, and the political spin and the accompanying inaction which kept it circling around an already affected area. This compounded the effect and created more problems. Honestly, Hurricane FEMA is beyond our classification. We never expected to be hit by a storm of this type. Perhaps we need to update our rating system to incorporate the 'FEMA response' into the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale."


On Edit: Spelling

[BrklynLiberal]

1. Nominated, and greatly appreciated.

:toast: :thumbsup:

[kikiek]

2. Love that. Couldn't describe FEMA better.

[PublicWrath]

3. Bravo!

[EC]

7. ditto

[Sgent]

4. LOL

[fearnobush]

5. Hurricane Katrina or Hurricane FEMA - who killed more?

Most excellent post.

[babylonsister]

6. The teams ready and able to work in concert with FEMA

boggles the mind. This was a major clusterfuck.

Here are some threads to mull over:



FEMA won't accept Amtrak's help in evacuations
http://news.ft.com/cms/s/84aa35cc-1da8-11da-b40b-00000e...

FEMA turns away experienced firefighters
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/5/105538/7048

FEMA turns back Wal-Mart supply trucks
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspec... ;en=1d14ebfbd942a7d0&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

FEMA prevents Coast Guard from delivering diesel fuel
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/05/national/nationalspec... ;en=1d14ebfbd942a7d0&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss

FEMA won't let Red Cross deliver food
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05246/565143.stm

FEMA bars morticians from entering New Orleans
http://www.zwire.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=15147862& ;BRD=1817&PAG=461&dept_id=68561&rfi=6

FEMA blocks 500-boat citizen flotilla from delivering aid
http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/3/171718/0826

FEMA fails to utilize Navy ship with 600-bed hospital on board
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0509... ;cset=true

FEMA to Chicago: Send just one truck
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-050902dale...

FEMA turns away generators
http://www.wwltv.com/local/stories/WWLBLOG.ac3fcea.html

FEMA: "First Responders Urged Not To Respond"
http://www.fema.gov/news/newsrelease.fema?id=18470

[Spazito]

8. Well done!

[Nothing Without Hope]

9. So very true. FEMA BLOCKED aid, caused the deaths of who knows how many

thousands, is STILL blocking aid. And then there is the multiply confirmed case of how FEMA cut the emergency phone line in Jefferson Parish without any warning or explanation. The local authorities repaired the line and then had to post armed guards TO PROTECT AGAINST FEMA CUTTING THE LINE AGAIN!!!

I do think that one of FEMA's secret missions is to be sure that New Orleans is totally destroyed and the Bush Administration sees as vermin (AKA poor people, especially those with dark skin) cleared out. Then the site can be extremely profitably "redeveloped," with more oil refineries, shipping infrastructure, and resorts for the idle rich. It's clear the neocons want the city cleared. With these guys, it's always power and money, so what do you think is going on? They wipe out a conclave of Dem voters, yes, but it's the LAND that's really valuable.

And yes, I DO think that the blocked funding for levee maintenance (they sink and deteriorate as is well known) and then the non-show of the Black Hawk helicopter(s) that were supposed to patch the levee breaches just after the storm to PREVENT THE CITY BEING DROWNED were both deliberate. And if that gets this post deleted, so be it. At this point, it seems to me that anyone who thinks what is STILL happening is all incompetence is the one with the kookier theory.