Collateral Damage
The images of devastation along the Gulf Coast are reminiscent of similar images in the wake of the recent Asian tsunami disaster. It looks like the sort of damage Americans are used to seeing in far away third world countries.
Hurricane Katrina was, indeed, a natural disaster of catastrophic proportions, a ferocious storm of a magnitude seldom seen or felt. However, it seems that the ensuing flooding that has turned New Orleans onto a festering cesspool may have been more made-made than few care to mention, and speaks volumes about the tragic direction in which this country is headed under this reckless administration.
According to Will Bunch, (senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News), writing in Editor & Publisher (www.editorandpublisher.com) following flooding in 1995 congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA. Over the next ten years the Army Corps of Engineers spent some $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations. $250 million in vital projects remained, but in 2003 federal funding slowed to a “trickle”. According to Mr. Bunch “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.”
Mr. Bunch reports that In June of 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."
Also that June the Corps' project manager Al Naomi went before the East Jefferson Levee Authority, and “essentially begged” for $2 million for urgent work for which Washington was now unable to pay. From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune:
"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them."
Following the 2004 hurricane season, one of the worst in history, the Bush budget featured “the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history”. The lack of funding lead to a hiring freeze, as there was no money to start new jobs.
One unfinished project was at the 17th Street Canal, site of the main breach on Monday, according to Mr. Bunch.
He cites The Newhouse News Service article published Tuesday night that observed, "The Louisiana congressional delegation urged Congress earlier this year to dedicate a stream of federal money to Louisiana's coast, only to be opposed by the White House.“
The catastrophe along the Gulf Coast is the ultimate in collateral damage from the insanity that is the war in Iraq. Billions in resources have already been wasted on this fiasco (with countless billions still to be wasted), and the dimwitted commander-in-chief drones on and on with his alarmingly delusional rhetoric. Urgent priorities at home give way to "freedom" in Iraq and a maniacally relentless tilting at windmills in the sand.
We can only hope that an increasingly restive public begins to finally reject this madness. Maybe they will realize what a disaster they have bought for themselves with this little man from Crawford. For while he is a comfortable distance from the twisted wreckage and the stench of death and suffering (for which he will never admit any measure of responsibility), it will be left for others to clean up the mess, which will take years.
Hurricane Katrina was, indeed, a natural disaster of catastrophic proportions, a ferocious storm of a magnitude seldom seen or felt. However, it seems that the ensuing flooding that has turned New Orleans onto a festering cesspool may have been more made-made than few care to mention, and speaks volumes about the tragic direction in which this country is headed under this reckless administration.
According to Will Bunch, (senior writer at the Philadelphia Daily News), writing in Editor & Publisher (www.editorandpublisher.com) following flooding in 1995 congress authorized the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, or SELA. Over the next ten years the Army Corps of Engineers spent some $430 million on shoring up levees and building pumping stations. $250 million in vital projects remained, but in 2003 federal funding slowed to a “trickle”. According to Mr. Bunch “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.”
Mr. Bunch reports that In June of 2004, Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; told the Times-Picayune: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us."
Also that June the Corps' project manager Al Naomi went before the East Jefferson Levee Authority, and “essentially begged” for $2 million for urgent work for which Washington was now unable to pay. From the June 18, 2004 Times-Picayune:
"The system is in great shape, but the levees are sinking. Everything is sinking, and if we don't get the money fast enough to raise them, then we can't stay ahead of the settlement," he said. "The problem that we have isn't that the levee is low, but that the federal funds have dried up so that we can't raise them."
Following the 2004 hurricane season, one of the worst in history, the Bush budget featured “the steepest reduction in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history”. The lack of funding lead to a hiring freeze, as there was no money to start new jobs.
One unfinished project was at the 17th Street Canal, site of the main breach on Monday, according to Mr. Bunch.
He cites The Newhouse News Service article published Tuesday night that observed, "The Louisiana congressional delegation urged Congress earlier this year to dedicate a stream of federal money to Louisiana's coast, only to be opposed by the White House.“
The catastrophe along the Gulf Coast is the ultimate in collateral damage from the insanity that is the war in Iraq. Billions in resources have already been wasted on this fiasco (with countless billions still to be wasted), and the dimwitted commander-in-chief drones on and on with his alarmingly delusional rhetoric. Urgent priorities at home give way to "freedom" in Iraq and a maniacally relentless tilting at windmills in the sand.
We can only hope that an increasingly restive public begins to finally reject this madness. Maybe they will realize what a disaster they have bought for themselves with this little man from Crawford. For while he is a comfortable distance from the twisted wreckage and the stench of death and suffering (for which he will never admit any measure of responsibility), it will be left for others to clean up the mess, which will take years.
posted by jvmuss at 9:24 PM
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