New Orleans a Harbinger of What's To Come?

[Keeyth]

Originally posted by DLR'sCock
It is as simple as this. Two Levees gave way because they obvioulsy needed repair and were in a weakened state, and they didn't get repaired because the monies were cut every year. What was the figure? $446 million was supposed to be allocated to the Hurricane Levee Project, but they only receieved $168 million since 2001? If you don't have the money to do the maintenance and repair work, how does it get done? Where did that money? Iraq and Homeland Security, who BTW oversee FEMA.

Actually the levees were only designed to handle a catagory 3 Hurricane, not a catagory 5. They knew this, but did not want to spend the money on it as it was not deemed "cost effective".

So now they have to spend billions... ...smart, huh?

[LoungeMachine]

Forget "dirty bombs" or jets into skyscrapers.

They only need to hit a dam.

Standing Water = The New WMD

[FORD]

Originally posted by Guitar Shark
I know, just keeping you on your toes.

FORD, my understanding is that people have been talking about reinforcing the levees in NO since the 90s, if not before. Don't place all of your blame on the "BCE."

What I'm saying is that there were specific funds allocated to the Army Corps of Engineers to deal with this specific problem, and that those funds were specifically cut by the BCE in order to divert the money to the illegal invasion and occupation of Iraq. And this was AFTER a FEMA study ranked the likelihood of a devastating hurricane in New Orleans to be equal to that of a terrorist attackin New York City which as we all know, also happenned in recent memory.

The third scenario on that list is for the "Big One" to hit San Francisco. (Mezro, if you're reading this, you might want to look at those odds) Considering Jeb has already proclaimed the citizens of SF "an endangered species", I wonder what federal projects will get cut there. Or what state projects they'll force Herr Gropenator to cut?

[LoungeMachine]

The Neo Cons want to shift blame to local authorities, and if I were in their shoes with the administration looking more incompetent by the day, I wouldn't blame them.

But.

Is it, or is it NOT the....


FEDERAL [ as in national ]

EMERGENCY [ as in cat. 5 hurricanes ]

MANAGEMENT [ as in oversee, prepare for, and take charge]

AGENCY [ as in OUR agents looking out for US ]



If not NOW, when ?

If not THERE, where?



What good is having a "FEMA" is you're just using it to reward your cronies with no experience in Federal, Emergency, or Management [unless you count horses]????????