Post Katrina- Disaster updates.

[Martin Le Acadien]

Guess who his Test subjects were for his final Exam!

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Iraq war and corruption caused Katrina delays




Iraq war delayed Katrina relief effort, inquiry finds

Relief efforts to combat Hurricane Katrina suffered near catastrophic failures due to endemic corruption, divisions within the military and troop shortages caused by the Iraq war, an official American inquiry into the disaster has revealed.

The confidential report, which has been seen by The Independent, details how funds for flood control were diverted to other projects, desperately needed National Guards were stuck in Iraq and how military personnel had to "sneak off post" to help with relief efforts because their commander had refused permission.

The shortcomings in dealing with Katrina have rocked George Bush's administration. Michael Brown, director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, has resigned from his post and polls show that a majority of Americans feel the President showed inadequate leadership.

The report was commissioned by the Office of Secretary of Defence as an "independent and critical review" of what went so wrong. In a hard-hitting analysis, it says: "The US military has long planned for war on two fronts. This is as close as we have come to [that] reality since the Second World War; the results have been disastrous."

The document was compiled by Stephen Henthorne, a former professor of the US Army's War College and an adviser to the Pentagon who was a deputy-director in the Louisiana relief efforts.

It charts how "corruption and mismanagement within the New Orleans city government" had "diverted money earmarked for improving flood protection to other, more vote-getting, projects. Past mayors and governors gambled that the long-expected Big Killer hurricane would never happen. That bet was lost with Hurricane Katrina."

The report concludes that although the US military did a good job in carrying out emergency missions, there were some serious shortcomings.

The report states that Brigadier General Michael D Barbero, commander of the Joint Readiness Training Centre at Fort Polk, Louisiana, refused permission for special forces units who volunteered to join relief efforts, to do so. General Barbero also refused to release other troops.

"The same general did take in some families from Hurricane Katrina, but only military families living off the base," the report says. "He has done a similar thing for military families displaced by Hurricane Rita. However, he declined to share water with the citizens of Leesville, who are out of water, and his civil affairs staff have to sneak off post in civilian clothes to help coordinate relief efforts." The report says deployment in the Iraq war led to serious problems. "Another major factor in the delayed response to the hurricane aftermath was that the bulk of the Louisiana and Mississippi National Guard was deployed in Iraq.

"Even though all the states have 'compacts' with each other, pledging to come to the aid of other states, it takes time, money and effort to activate and deploy National Guard troops from other states to fill in".

Mr Henthorne's report states: "The President has indicated several times that he wants the US military to take a more active role in disaster management and humanitarian assistance.

"There are several reasons why that will not happen easily. (1) Existing laws will not allow the police powers the military will need to be effective. (2) The military is not trained for such a mission and (3) the 'warfighter insurgency' within the US military does not want such a mission and will strongly resist it. Not one civil affairs unit was deployed for either hurricane."

The report concludes: "The one thing this disaster has demonstrated [is] the lack of coordinated, in-depth planning and training on all levels of Government, for any/all types of emergency contingencies. 9/11 was an exception because the geographical area was small and contained, but these two hurricanes have clearly demonstrated a national response weakness ... Failure to plan, and train properly has plagued US efforts in Afghanistan, Iraq and now that failure has come home to roost in the United States."

hmmm. :x

 

[no1important]

RE: Post Katrina- Disaste

New Orleans laying off about half of work force

Thats pretty sad it had to happen.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

WANTED: New leader (a leader) for America

Wanted a leader for America

By Noam Chomsky

10/05/05 "ICH" -- -- AS THE survivors of Hurricane Katrina try to piece their lives back together, it is all the clearer that a long-gathering storm of misguided policies and priorities preceded the tragedy.

Government failures at home and the war in Iraq found a confluence in Katrina’s wake that graphically illustrates the need for fundamental social change, lest we suffer worse disasters in the future.

In a pre-9/11 report, the Federal Emergency Management Agency had listed a major hurricane in New Orleans as one of the three most likely catastrophes to strike the United States. The others: a terrorist attack in New York and an earthquake in San Francisco.

New Orleans had become an urgent priority at FEMA since January, when the agency’s now-departed director Michael Brown returned from touring the tsunami devastation in Asia.

"New Orleans was the No. 1 disaster we were talking about," Eric L. Tolbert, a former FEMA official, told The New York Times. "We were obsessed with New Orleans because of the risk."

A year before Katrina hit, FEMA conducted a successful simulated-hurricane drill for New Orleans, but FEMA’s elaborate plans were not implemented.

The war played a role in the failure. National Guard troops that had been sent to Iraq "took a lot of needed equipment with them, including dozens of high-water vehicles, Humvees, refuelling tankers and generators that would be needed in the event a major natural disaster hit the state," The Wall Street Journal reported. "A senior Army official said the service was reluctant to commit the 4th brigade of the 10th Mountain Division from Fort Polk, because the unit, which numbers several thousand soldiers, is in the midst of preparing for an Afghanistan deployment."

Bureaucratic manoeuvring also trumped the risk of natural disaster. Former FEMA officials told The Chicago Tribune that the agency’s capabilities were "effectively marginalised" under President George W. Bush when the agency was folded into the Homeland Security Department, with fewer resources and extra layers of bureaucracy, a "brain drain" as demoralised employees left and a completely unqualified Bush political crony put in charge.

Once a "tier-one federal agency," FEMA now isn’t "even in the back seat," Eric Holdeman, director of emergency management in King County, Washington, told The Financial Times. "They are in the trunk of the Department of Homeland Security car."

Bush funding cuts in 2004 compelled the Army Corps of Engineers to reduce flood-control work sharply, including badly needed strengthening of the levees that protected New Orleans. Bush’s 2005 budget called for another serious reduction — a speciality of Bush-administration timing, much like the proposed sharp cut in security for public transportation right before the London bombings in July 2005.

A disregard for the environment was another factor in this perfect storm. Wetlands help reduce the power of hurricanes and storm surges, but Sandra Postel, a water-policy expert, wrote in The Christian Science Monitor that wetlands were "largely missing when Katrina struck," in part because "the Bush administration in 2003 effectively gutted the ‘no net loss’ of wetlands policy initiated during the administration of the elder Bush."

The human toll of Katrina is incalculable, especially among the region’s poorest citizens, but a relevant number is the 28-per cent poverty rate in New Orleans — more than twice the national rate. During the Bush administration the US poverty rate has grown, and welfare’s limited safety net has been weakened further.

The effects were so striking that even the right-wing media were appalled by the scale of the class-based and race-based devastation. While the media were showing vivid scenes of human misery, the back pages reported that Republican leaders wasted no time in "using relief measures for the hurricane-ravaged Gulf coast to achieve a broad range of conservative economic and social policies," The Wall Street Journal reported.

Those agenda-promoting measures include suspending rules that require payment of prevailing wages by federal contractors and providing displaced schoolchildren with vouchers — another underhanded blow at the public-school system. They included lifting environmental restrictions, "waiving the estate tax for deaths in the storm-affected states" — a great boon for the population fleeing New Orleans slums — and in general making it clear once again that cynicism knows few bounds.

Lost in the flood is a concern for the needs of cities and for human services. The larger agenda of enhancing global domination and domestic concentrations of wealth and power takes precedence.

The images of suffering in Iraq, and in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, could hardly depict the consequences more dramatically.

 

[no1important]

Hurricane response was 'genocide,' victim says

A teaser:

Most witnesses tell Congress panel race played a role.

WASHINGTON -- Victims of Hurricane Katrina told Congress on Tuesday that they were held at gunpoint, treated like criminals and left to sleep next to dead bodies because the government at all levels failed to protect them as they tried to escape flooding waters.

In an emotional and sometimes contentious hearing, most witnesses said they believe racism played a key part in the aftermath of the disaster and that they still lack basic services and fear that promised help and housing will never arrive.

Patricia Thompson, a lifelong resident of New Orleans, told a harrowing tale of trying to escape floodwaters with her family only to be neglected and mistreated by police.

"We slept next to dead bodies. We slept on streets ... next to human feces and urine," she said. "The way we were treated by police was demoralizing and inhuman. They made everybody lie on the ground with their hands on their heads, even babies." [/teaser]

Shame on all levels of government from FEMA to "W". What a disgrace for the self proclaimed richest, greatest country in the world. I too agree race played a factor. If the rich areas were devastated instead of the poor areas help would of been a lot faster. The US Government, State of Louisiana, FEMA all screwed up bad and big time.

 

[no1important]

Katrina evacuees decry Mardi Gras plans

A teaser:

NEW ORLEANS -- Some Hurricane Katrina refugees stuck in hotel rooms and unfamiliar surroundings across the United States are in no mood to party, and they are decrying the city's plans to hold a Mardi Gras celebration in February.

"This is not the time for fun. This is the time to put people's lives back on track," said Lillie Antoine, a 51-year-old refugee stuck in Tulsa, Okla.

City officials announced last month that New Orleans would hold an abbreviated Mardi Gras celebration. Civic boosters say the festivities can help revitalize New Orleans' economy, lift morale and show the world that the city is on its way back. [/end of teaser]

This is not the time for fun, indeed. They should be spending money on rebuilding and getting people who were uprooted back home. But of course since most uprooted are poor........

 

[jimmoyer]

This is not the time for fun, indeed. They should be spending money on rebuilding and getting people who were uprooted back home. But of course since most uprooted are poor........
------------------------------------quote of article-----

Wrong !!

If you've ever seen a dirge march Orlean jazz style, you would feel emotionally that such a statement above is wrong on one level.

If you know anything about the Blues, it's making music of the pain, the sorrow.

The statement in that article is also RIGHT.

But not to the exclusion of a dance and music of your pain.

Human beings need expression and this Mardi Gras will be the most special one of all.

My daughter will be going to Indian U of Pa next year and the chairman of the music dept is an older black woman who's mom lost her home down there.

She's saying this won't be "the day the music died....drove my chevy to the levee and singing..."

And so she played an old jazz tune I never heard before and we white parents all sat stunned.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

http://www.opednews.com/articles/opedne_stuart_m_051213_irs_may_bankrupt_kat.htm

jim. Music , soul and Mardi Gras ARE the New Orleans. It is their personna.....their depth, and their being. their essence.

and it will play on. They have mastered the capture of feelings, despair and hardship with their song/ tunes. They have a long history of pain.(be it from abuse, prejudice , neglect )........and the pain continues.

 

[jimmoyer]

If anything, the media will show this Mardi Gras, and we need no sermons, we need to feel.

We need to feel.

We're numb most of the time.

One more story. I read this story in a Trout Magazine about a family that has a fishing boat down there and they told this fantastic story, about searching for their boat and they found it, with black paint written on it:

"This Boat Saved 400 Lives. Thank You. Karmis"

And then they searched for this guy who used this boat.

 

[no1important]

Outcasts in their own state, Katrina evacuees settle in

A teaser:

BATON ROUGE, La. — On the northern outskirts of Baton Rouge, FEMA workers are working feverishly to finish the third and fourth of their massive post-Katrina trailer villages.

One with 573 trailers in Baker opened in early October and filled up within weeks. Another opened Nov. 4 near the Baton Rouge airport.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency plans to open two other villages near the airport and 15 throughout Louisiana. Seven villages are under construction in Mississippi, and trailers by the hundreds have been streaming daily into East Texas.

The federal government set aside more than $2 billion for 125,000 trailers and mobile homes to house the neediest of the estimated 1.5 million people displaced by Katrina.

Negotiating sites for the villages — large vacant tracts next to transportation lines and employment centers and, most important, amenable neighbors — has been the hardest part.

The fear of instant, and perhaps permanent, slums is the main reason why civic leaders in Louisiana parishes such as Lafayette, St. Landry, St. Martin, Iberia and Tangipahoa have turned away FEMA attempts to develop village sites.

At the newest of the post-Katrina villages, a fenced-in compound of 198 trailers in Baton Rouge, federal workers say they will do everything possible to help evacuees get resettled into houses and apartments.[/end of teaser]

Fenced in? wtf? 8O I do not believ the US Government is doinge enough, but I guess they need money for the illegal occupation and torture flights.

Click above link for the rest of the article.

 

[jimmoyer]

The fear of instant, and perhaps permanent, slums is the main reason why civic leaders in Louisiana parishes such as Lafayette, St. Landry, St. Martin, Iberia and Tangipahoa have turned away FEMA attempts to develop village sites.

At the newest of the post-Katrina villages, a fenced-in compound of 198 trailers in Baton Rouge, federal workers say they will do everything possible to help evacuees get resettled into houses and apartments.

-----------------------no1important----------------

Money does not automatically presto cure the problem
as you can see here with local authorities not able
to handle the Fema villages in their home area.

It's going to take years no matter how much money
is thrown at the problem.

It's not just New Orleans, it's an area the size
of England.

It's more hard work and discussing what the best
answers are than it is just throwing money that
will get this job done.

As you can see the local authorities aren't too
embracing of handling too quickly too many of the
evacuees and FEMA did put up those trailers pretty
damn fast --- the size of the villages are daunting
to the locals in Baton Rouge.

You have to have the people first to do this
hard job, and not everybody is qualified.

And you need agreement
on what to do with the many conflicting opinions of
even the locals who don't want to be told what
to do by outsiders.

You can throw all the money you want.

But the real indicators are the people.

 

[Ocean Breeze]

Are these massive "trailor villages " temporary??? What is supposed to be the next phase of this?? New homes???

these poor people have been through so much.....and it never seems to end..

 

[jimmoyer]

It's just going to take awhile and a lot of hard work.
And nothing is going to be perfect. And the headlines
will scream it everytime, but this is truly hard
work, involving many opinions of the locals who
disagree with each other legitimately and who
recoil at federal outsiders who are fumbling but
trying.

But the best stories are the volunteers
unencumbered by superiors and regulations, doing the
hard grunt work.

The owners of a boat finally
found it beached on land with a big sign painted
on it: Thank You. This Boat saved 400 lives.

It's the story of a kid commandeering a school bus
and evacuating people while the local authorities
in the mayhem could not insure anyone to drive
the schoolbuses out of there before the flooding.

We have to be somewhat more understanding
but still have the press prod the issues.

No doubt a lot of mistakes are yet to be made
as consensus is reached on what to do about
a million issues.