From the Guardian -
Katrina comes home to roost
President Bush is to blame for the scale of the disaster as a result of his
administration's policies and actions
Sidney Blumenthal
Friday September 2, 2005
The Guardian
Biblical in its uncontrolled rage and scope, the storm has left millions of
Americans to scavenge for food and shelter, and hundreds 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 Hurricane Katrina may
not entirely be the result of an act of nature.
A year ago the US 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, the Congress created the Southeast Louisiana
Urban Flood Control Project. Operated by the corps of engineers, levees and
pumping stations were strengthened and renovated. In 2001, when George Bush
became president, the Federal Emergency Management Agency issued a report
stating that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the three most
likely potential disasters - after a terrorist attack on New York City. But
by 2003 the federal funding essentially dried up as it was drained into the
Iraq war. By 2004, the Bush administration cut the corps of engineers'
request for holding back the waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80%.
By the beginning of this year, the administration's additional cuts, reduced
by 44% since 2001, forced the corps to impose a hiring freeze. The Senate
debated adding funds for fixing levees, but it was too late.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/katrina/story/0,16441,1561356,00.html
Alison Croggon
Blog: http://theatrenotes.blogspot.com
Editor, Masthead: http://masthead.net.au
Home page: http://alisoncroggon.com
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