FEMA ignored warnings, cut levee maintenance funds drastically, and chose to allow it to happen in spite of the warnings
Media Manipulation by Bush Administration regarding Katrina:
Touring the breached 17th street levee site yesterday with the President, I saw what I believed to be a real and significant effort to get a handle on a major cause of this catastrophe. Flying over this critical spot again this morning, less than 24 hours later, it became apparent that yesterday we witnessed a hastily prepared stage set for a Presidential photo opportunity; and the desperately needed resources we saw were this morning reduced to a single, lonely piece of equipment. .
http://www.fromtheroots.org/story/2005/9/3/19542/97952The open-air food distribution point Bush visited in front of the cameras Friday was torn down immediately after the president and the herd of 'news people' had left and that others which were allegedly being set up were abandoned at the same time, according to German TV.
http://www.warandpiece.com/blogdirs/002504.htmlHundreds of City Fire Fighters from all over U.S. volunteered to aid New Orleans but were only used as props for President Bush’s photo ops. From all across the nation, local fire departments have sent firefighters -- many of them trained in emergency medicine and search-and-rescue techniques -- to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina. The Federal Emergency Management Agency requested the help. But when the firefighters arrived in Atlanta, loaded down with the firefighting gear FEMA told them to bring, they were sent to a hotel to wait. Some of them have been waiting for three or four days now. Some have been assigned to sit through an eight-hour class on topics that included sexual harassment. And some have been dispatched to the disaster area to work as human props behind George W. Bush as he toured the destruction.
http://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/09/07/firefighters/index.htmlhttp://www.salon.com/politics/war_room/index.html?blog=/politics/war_room/2005/09/07/brown/index.htmlWASHINGTON -- The government's disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina already had struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security employees to the region -- and gave them two days to arrive, according to internal documents.
Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, sought the approval from Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff roughly five hours after Katrina made landfall on the morning of Aug. 29. Brown said that among duties of these employees was to "convey a positive image" about the government's response for victims.
The same day he wrote Chertoff, Brown also urged local fire and rescue departments outside Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi not to send trucks or emergency workers into disaster areas without an explicit request for help from state or local governments. Brown said it was vital to coordinate fire and rescue efforts. (this would insure there was no aid)
Meanwhile, the airline industry said the government's request for help evacuating storm victims didn't come until late Thursday afternoon. The president of the Air Transport Association, James May, said the Homeland Security Department called then to ask if the group could participate in an airlift for refugees. Wednesday, September 07, 2005 BY TED BRIDIS Associated Press
Brown exaggerated qualifications on resume and during confirmation hearings
http://www.salon.com/news/feature/2005/09/10/brown/index.htmlNew Orleans levee protection needs lost out to Iraq funding
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 several 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. Yet after 2003, the flow of federal dollars toward SELA dropped to a trickle. The Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the war in Iraq, as well as homeland security -- coming at the same time as federal tax cuts -- was the reason for the strain. At least nine articles in the Times-Picayune from 2004 and 2005 specifically cite the cost of Iraq as a reason for the lack of hurricane- and flood-control dollars. ...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 ...
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