"I suppose that's the price we pay."

[WilliamPitt]

http://www.mediainfo.com/eandp/news/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1001051313

Did New Orleans Catastrophe Have to Happen?
'Times-Picayune' Had Repeatedly Raised Federal Spending Issues

By Will Bunch

Published: August 30, 2005 9:00 PM ET

PHILADELPHIA Even though Hurricane Katrina has moved well north of the city, the waters may still keep rising in New Orleans late on Tuesday. That's because Lake Pontchartrain continues to pour through a two-block-long break in the main levee, near the city's 17th Street Canal. With much of the Crescent City some 10 feet below sea level, the rising tide may not stop until it's level with the massive lake.

New Orleans had long known it was highly vulnerable to flooding and a direct hit from a hurricane. In fact, the federal government has been working with state and local officials in the region since the late 1960s on major hurricane and flood relief efforts. When flooding from a massive rainstorm in May 1995 killed six people, Congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA.

Over the next 10 years, the Army Corps of Engineers, tasked with carrying out SELA, spent $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations, with $50 million in local aid. But at least $250 million in crucial projects remained, even as hurricane activity in the Atlantic Basin increased dramatically and the levees surrounding New Orleans continued to subside.

(snip)

In early 2004, as the cost of the conflict in Iraq soared, President Bush proposed spending less than 20 percent of what the Corps said was needed for Lake Pontchartrain, according to a Feb. 16, 2004, article, in New Orleans CityBusiness.

On June 8, 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."

...more...

[beyurslf]

1. This needs to be the issue. Why did Bush cut the funding for

this? Look at what it has caused.

[quispquake]

2. Thanks Will!

This is one of the most important pieces of the New Orleans story...Most of this damage didn't have to happen...greed and mismanagement by Bushco in cutting the funding to the levees & taking the National Guard out of Louisiana made what was a bad problem into a total disaster (like everything else they touch).

[KittyWampus]

3. Hopefully some of the mediawhores will rouse themselves from their

torpor and report this.

[stillcool]

4. i always wondered how they would handle...

another national tragedy. After 9/11 I was glued to the television for days. Now, i can't bare to watch any of it. Reading about what they say is bad enough. There is and will continue to be a black-out of things that reflect negatively on him.

[In_The_Wind]

5. Bush could have made a decision to save lives ...

Novel concept, making changes for progress rather than death and destruction. Wouldn't that have been nice.

[WilliamPitt]

6. .

[proud patriot]

7. I sent that out to friends and family

Thanks for posting Will :hi:

[Nikki Stone 1]

8. This, along with the completely inadequate response to Katrina,is the real

story

[proud patriot]

9. Sam Seder now reading this on AAR n/t

[SOteric]

10. The most irritating part, to my thinking

is that the Bush Administration pushed us into war in Iraq on falsified information, and used the notion of further terrorist attacks to raid the coffers of every city in America to fun 'Homeland Security.' (I realise that not everyone in this country shares my perspective on this, but I still believe it a valid perspective).

No one is learning from the failures of the levee in New Orleans. No cities are saying "holy smoke, we'd better no be sinking so much into potential terrorist attacks and we'd best be taking care of our major issues."

Here in Seattle we're zoned for earthquakes and we've had a few notable ones. Our bridges need to be retrofitted and they've needed it for quite some time. It's not possible to get around in this area without crossing a bridge. We've spent so much on 'mandatory' Homeland Security issues we've already had to reduce our police and fire departments in personnel just to afford those requirements.

I'm very certain other cities and towns struggle with these same issues.

It irritates me, seeing this from my perspective. I feel like we've all be sent to chase our tails while the country crumbles around us.