whoopsie...maybe we can hire halliburton now then

[Guest guest]

Wednesday, August 31, 2005 8:11 PM

Blumenthal Column

 

" No One Can Say they Didn't See it Coming "

By Sidney Blumenthal

 

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,372455,00.html

 

 

In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the

three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New

Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.

 

Biblical in its uncontrolled rage and scope, Hurricane Katrina has left

millions of Americans to scavenge for food and shelter and hundreds to

thousands reportedly dead. With its main levee broken, the evacuated city of

New Orleans has become part of the Gulf of Mexico. But the damage wrought by

the hurricane may not entirely be the result of an act of nature.

 

A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New

Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush

administration ordered that the research not be undertaken. After a flood

killed six people in 1995, Congress created the Southeast Louisiana Urban

Flood Control Project, in which the Corps of Engineers strengthened and

renovated levees and pumping stations. In early 2001, the Federal Emergency

Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New

Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a

terrorist attack on New York City. But by 2003 the federal funding for the

flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq

war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New

Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the

waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the

beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent

since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring

freeze. The Senate had debated adding funds for fixing New Orleans' levees,

but it was too late.

 

The New Orleans Times-Picayune, which before the hurricane published a

series on the federal funding problem, and whose presses are now underwater,

reported online: " No one can say they didn't see it coming ... Now in the

wake of one of the worst storms ever, serious questions are being asked

about the lack of preparation. "

 

More....

http://service.spiegel.de/cache/international/0,1518,372455,00.html

 

 

a blinding flash

hotter than the sun

dead bodies lie across the path

the radiation colors the air

finishing one by one