News New Orleans disaster predicted in 2001

Though I want to believe you, do you have any links about the levee money?

EDIT: Never mind, I found http://www.tpmcafe.com/story/2005/8/30/212451/290 [Broken] myself. Apparently, they required $11 million for the levees, and for the first time in 37 years, they didn't get what they needed. In the Bush administration's proposed budget, they were going to get a whopping $3 million, though Congress bumped it up to $5.5 million (half of what they needed). Construction actually stopped on the levees for this reason. It's good to know that his priorities are in order.

 

Yeah, it was known that it could happen at any time for a lot longer than 2001.

I can remember seeing news programs about how New Orleans is slowly sinking and will inevitably end up like Venice, and since it's on the Gulf Coast it's set up for a humanitarian disaster. Just like what happened.

Last year there was a big hurricane that veered away from NOLA at the last minute, you could tell be the evacuations and the voices of the authorities that they were really, really scared. You could see the same thing this time as Katrina approached. There was a meteorologist on the Weather Channel who's voice was cracking Sunday night as he was reporting that the hurricane would hit NOLA. He obviously knew what was going to happen, and was visibly frightened. I've never seen that in a weatherman before.

Yeah, those three thousand Louisiana National Guard members in Iraq sure would be helpful right now. Just goes to show you.

 

Here's another one.

http://www.commondreams.org/headlines05/0831-04.htm [Broken]

 

Why do you hate America?

 

Before anyone tries to rebut this by saying that the "liberals" who are touting this against the Bush administration said nothing about it when the budget was proposed, remember these two things:

1. The media did not report about this budget cut on a large scale. The only media that did report about it was the New Orleans local media, which leads me to my second point...
2. Louisiana's a red state, and no one complained for that reason. Say what you will, but it's hard to find out that a problem exists when the people affected by it don't say anything about it.

 

Political cheap shot?

Look. It's the job of the office of the President of the United States to take care of things like this, and Bush done f*cked up.

I think the only reason you're defending him is because you voted for the guy, and you can't admit you've made a mistake.

People are dying because this guy is incompetent.

To quote the snake, "you knew I was a snake."

 

Did Bush cause the hurricane? No.

Could the levee funds he cut have prevented the flooding? Possibly.

Could the 3,000 Louisiana National Guardsmen in Iraq saved lives if they were where they were supposed to be? Definitely.

Could the numerous National Guard helicopters and highwater vehicles currently in Iraq have saved lives? Undoubtedly.

Did Bush f*ck up? Yup.

And thousands of displaced victims and relief workers, both right and left, agree.

But hey, at least he cut his vacation from 37 days to 35 days so he could view the damage from Air Force One.

 

Some notes-

"If and when the President decides to step up..." sarcastically said Admiral Timothy Keating, head of Northern Command, on the military readiness to respond to the disaster.

Both Governor Blanco and Louisiana Mayor Nagin have complained to the media about the lack and poor coordination of the response. Mayor Nagin has made serious complaints to WWL of Louisiana of "too many chefs." Although he hopes they can solve the problem and get things straightend out.

Jean Meserve, reporting from NOLA, recently recieving notice for her emotional reporting of residents being trapped in their attacks and drowning as people are unable to help them, has stated there's a serious shortage of national gaurdsmen.

Joe Albaugh, head of FEMA, is a Bush appointee and his former campaign manager. There's serious questions about his qualifications. He's been giving press conferences with conflicting information about what's happening in NOLA (e.g. stating the water was receding while it was rising.) And claiming the impact on the nations economy will be negligable.

Bush flew back to washington from his 35 day vacation, having spent the night at a luxury resort in San Diego for a fund raiser. Four days after the hurricane hit he gave brief speech, telling the american people that New Orleans is underwater that that it's a bad situation, while frequently slurring and mispronouncing words.

When asked of what he thought of the speech, a refugee boy from Biloxi told MSNBC reporter, "He ain't President no more. President Bush don't know what he's doing."

Ironically, the boy's comment was more grammatically correct than Bush's speech.

 

Maybe in your blind rage you just skipped over Russ's post completely... In any case, look at it again.

 

hey Russ.

I heard this week, something I had forgotten. That NO is "sinking" because it doesn't have accumulation in the flood plain every year, as it would if it were allowed to flood. The flooding is prevented because we have a city there, after all.

Any idea how much it has "sunk" in the past few decades, in other words would the height differential have affected the planning on the levees decades ago?

 

Now the predictions are that the final toll will be ~10,000.