Who's to blame for state of New Orleans?

[deminks]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060819/ap_on_re_us/katrina_who_s_to_blame

NEW ORLEANS - In many ways, New Orleans is a huge crime scene, with bodies and victims and fingerprints — many, many sets of fingerprints. But who did it? Who is responsible for this mess, for a barely functioning city with large swathes still uninhabited — or uninhabitable — a year after Hurricane Katrina?

But the roll of those accused of failing New Orleans is a long one: State and local officials who had no good plan for the disaster, and now preside over a languid recovery. A president who at first seemed remote from the cataclysm, and then made promises that have not been fully realized.

So many did not live up their responsibilities, says G. Paul Kemp, a Louisiana State University engineer and member of Team Louisiana, a group of forensic engineers examining how the flooding occurred. Every time anyone points that out, "people say, `Oh, we don't want to play the blame game. We've got to get things moving.'"

But to Lakeview resident Pascal Warner — who walks through clouds of mosquitoes attracted by a neighbor's fetid, sludge-covered swimming pool still filled with stagnant Katrina floodwater — a year seems like a pretty long time.

More at the link. A fairly good summary.

[uppityperson]

1. Who's to blame for the rest of Katrinad places? MS, AL, LA/

New Orleans has the extra problem of flooding post Katrina, but the rest of the coast is still a disaster. Literally.

Here is another story entitled "Bush fulfills few promises to Gulf Coast", lots of promises, what little is being done.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060819/ap_on_go_pr_wh/katrina_promises_1

[Rosemary2205]

7. Thank you

I wish more people would remember there's a lot more than just NOLA that needs rebuilt.

[uppityperson]

10. NOLA is sexy but a whole lot else needs help

big city gets hurricaned, then flooded, people die, media coverage, etc etc etc. Need to keep saying there is a whole lot of elsewhere that also got majorly destroyed and needs help.

[slackmaster]

2. Partial list off the top of my head

Army Corps of Engineers
Every Presidential administration since the founding of the country
State of Louisiana
City government
Citizens who prepared poorly for the storm
God
Jesus
Osama Bin Laden
Guy who says he killed JonBenet
About 400 guys and some women

[Poppyseedman]

4. Every Presidential administration since the founding of the country ?

Well, technically speaking, every administration after the Louisiana Purchase.

The Spanish had it before then, so add them to your list

[JVS]

3. General Sherman for not destroying the area during the civil war

That might have helped to prevent the current situation

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. Bill Clinton. He has to figure in there somewhere.... especially

when he tried to allocate funds for levee repair/renovation/strengthening.

[Swamp Rat]

6. The buck stops where?

[sandnsea]

8. Stupid political ideologies

The federal government that we currently have that REAALLLY doesn't believe in helping people help themselves. Local government that doesn't understand that they're dealing with a federal government that doesn't believe in helping people help themselves. And a population with a long running hatred of government and belief that they shouldn't ask government to help people help themselves, who I don't blame by the way - but that belief leaves them not knowing they're going to have to do a little spitting and kicking to get what they have a right to.

From my view point anyway.

[Greyhound]

9. The folks at Carlyle would be the top of my very lengthy list. n/t