Archived posting to the Leica Users Group, 2005/09/01
[Author Prev] [Author Next] [Thread Prev] [Thread Next] [Author Index] [Topic Index] [Home] [Search]CNN just reported a few minutes ago that despite years of discussion about this kind of storm hitting NOLA, there was NO plan to deal with it. george lottermoser <imagist@imagist.cnc.net> wrote:> Baloney - there is no reason they shouldn't be planning for these kind of > events. I know for sure the British Military plans for massive Disaster and > Civil Defence missions such as this - at one time I was involved in just > such planning. ------------------------------ Subject: Bush cuts N.O flood control $$ 44% to pay for Iraq - Salon.com In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war. By Sidney Blumenthal Aug. 31, 2005 | Biblical in its uncontrolled rage and scope, Hurricane Katrina has left millions of Americans to scavenge for food and shelter and hundreds to thousands reportedly dead. With its main levee broken, the evacuated city of New Orleans has become part of the Gulf of Mexico. But the damage wrought by the hurricane may not entirely be the result of an act of nature. A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush administration ordered that the research not be undertaken. After a flood killed six people in 1995, Congress created the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, in which the Corps of Engineers strengthened and renovated levees and pumping stations. In early 2001, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a terrorist attack on New York City. But by 2003 the federal funding for the flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring freeze. The Senate had debated adding funds for fixing New Orleans' levees, but it was too late....... more: "No one can say they didn't see it coming": http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2005/08/31/disaster_preparation/ind ex.html -- regards, George Lottermoser, imagist _______________________________________________ Leica Users Group. See http://leica-users.org/mailman/listinfo/lug for more information __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com