Obama team prepared for another Katrina-like storm

[babylonsister]

Obama team prepared for another Katrina-like storm
By Sam Youngman
Posted: 08/30/09 01:29 PM


The Obama administration says it is prepared to handle a major natural disaster on par with Hurricane Katrina.

President Barack Obama's White House and agencies are winning high marks from both Democrats and Republicans for efforts at both rebuilding and preparing for other storms, four years after Katrina destroyed the Gulf Coast and damaged the Bush administration’s legacy.

The Obama team went to work quickly after taking office, with Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano issuing a department-wide directive -- including to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) -- on Jan. 27 to ensure integration between state and federal agencies in planning for disasters.

On Jan. 28, Napolitano ordered a department review of plans to address Katrina's "lingering impacts," according to a White House fact sheet. And then on Jan. 29, FEMA announced an approved $23 million in Hazard Mitigation Grant Programs "to cover the entire cost of elevating 48 residential properties in Orleans Parish to the Advisory Base Flood Elevation."

more...

http://thehill.com/leading-the-news/obama-team-prepared-for-another-katrina-like-storm-2009-08-30.html

[eleny]

1. But but I thought that the gubmint couldn't do anything right

I'm so confused!

[MUAD_DIB]

2. That's what the Rebublidims always say and they

never fail to live up to that when they're in office.

[eleny]

3. O, I get it - this is all a huge excercise in projection

I think you hit the nail on the head.

[Cha]

4. This is so wonderful to have People in Charge who

know what they're doing and have the passion and compassion to carry it through.

bush+cheney's "legacy got damaged" because they didn't do a fucking thing to help before or after Katrina. And, didn't I read that Michael Brown(heckava job, brownie) might be doing some whistle blowing on his war criminal scared shitless bosses?:scared::scared:

[jwirr]

5. That is good but there is another aspect of Katrina that needed attention.

Is the levee strong enough to deal with a cat-5 or more? It was fixed but was it completely repaired as it should have been before Katrina?

[DatManFromNawlins]

6. No.

Not only are the levees not high enough to deal with a Cat-5 storm, but a significant portion of Southeastern Louisiana's population is completely vulnerable to ANY storm that should happen to flood the area, because we can't get the feds to fund levees to buttress these locations. A cat 5 storm could potentially put the Monsanto plant responsible for the world's RoundUp supply and a nuclear facility under 15 feet or more.

[GreenPartyVoter]

8. Not. Good.

[jwirr]

7. I am trying to reply to the above answer to my first post but cannot

get in. So I will hope this is the next post. That is even worse than I thought. If Monsanto cannot poison us one way they will try another. If those two facilities flood out it will be hell to pay for all people within miles. We are not prepared until it is safe from the levees breaking.

[mucifer]

9. Harry Shearer's columns about Prez Obama's response to the poverty there

is VERY depressing. Hopefully something will CHANGE. From Shearer's column btw he lives in New Orleans and is an activist there doing the best he can:

I'm just angry that New Orleans, which did not bring about its own disaster, is watching a second consecutive president trash his glib promises to "rebuild it better".

Obama supporters chided me, back in January and February, to "give him some time, he's only been in office for a month/two months/three months." I guess they knew what I didn't, that the presidency gets easier as you go along, that progressively fewer surprises get dumped on your desk as time passes. Obama's remarks about New Orleans during the campaign were anodyne boilerplate, and what he's giving us now is more of the same. He won't even do the obligatory photo-op in the city on 8/29; he told the Times-Picayune he'll come down "before the end of the year". He didn't say which year.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/harry-shearer/playing-the-inside-game_b_266746.html

[lunatica]

10. For years I've thought of our government as just a football game

The ball just gets passed from one side to the other depending on who's in power. But the net result is we take one step forward and two back during Republican years and two forward and one back during Democratic years. The total ends up dead center with everything canceling everything out. It's just easier to live through the Democratic years because it's a gentler time.

[Arkana]

11. I thought they meant this in the metaphorical sense for a second

until I read the article.