Only the Dems issue talking points?

[George Gervin's Afro]

http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/K/KATRINA_BROWNS_REGRETS?SITE=7219&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2006-08-29-08-17-01

I need to post the link or Yoni won't believe it.



Ex-FEMA Chief Blames Administration


AP Photo/SUSAN WALSH


WASHINGTON (AP) -- Former FEMA Director Michael Brown, who lost his job because of Hurricane Katrina, said Tuesday his biggest regret a year later is that he wasn't candid enough about the lack of a coherent federal response plan.

"There was no plan. ... Three years ago, we should have done catastrophic planning," Brown said, charging that the Bush administration and his department head, Michael Chertoff, "would not give me the money to do that kind of planning."

As levees broke down at Katrina's strike against New Orleans and people were forced from their homes, Brown said he sought futilely to get the 82nd Airborne Division into the city quickly.

Appearing on NBC's "Today" show, he was asked about positive statements he had made at the time about how Washington would come through for the storm victims, rather than leveling with the country about how bad the situation actually was.


"Those were White House talking points," Brown replied. "And to this day, I think that was my biggest mistake."

Brown said that at many intervals during the week the storm hit, he found himself asking, "Where in the hell is the help?"

"I have to confess ... you want to protect the president when you're a political appointee," he said, "so you're torn between telling the absolute truth and relying on those talking points. To this day, that is my biggest regret. "

Brown said he had been made the scapegoat for the government's slow response "because I'm the low man on the totem pole." He said he thought that President Bush and Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, should have shared in the blame.

He denied that he lacked qualifications to direct the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

"That's just baloney. I spent more time in my career in local government and in state government and in emergency management experience," Brown said. "But what I regret the most: I let the American public down. I am a fighter ... but for some reason, with Katrina crashing in on me, I didn't do it."

[Extra Stout]

On this, the one-year anniversary of Katrina, the most important failure still has not sunk in:

Even if it had been Tropical Storm Katrina, the levees on 17th Street and the Industrial Canal still would have failed.

Little has been reported on the fact that pilings which were supposed to be 30 feet deep were only 5 feet deep. That didn't happen by accident.

[boutons_]

But Army Corps of Engineers are untouchable saints due to the $Bs of pork they administer.

[Extra Stout]

But Army Corps of Engineers are untouchable saints due to the $Bs of pork they administer.
In this case, I believe that the Army Corps project manager that failed in project oversight would be liable for criminally negligent manslaughter, and the general contractor or sub that pulled the shenanigans with the pilings should be liable for several hundred counts of capital murder.

This could not have been a construction mistake. It would have required taking 30-ft pilings, burying them only 5 feet deep, then cutting off the balance with a torch. Save money on materials by defrauding the government, kill scores of people and destroy a city.

And the Corps had to be sleeping in their offices all day rather than checking on the Bauplatz in order to miss such obvious fraud.

Then, there's been the coverup to try to convince us it was caused by a once-in-a-generation hurricane. With the way those levees were compromised, if Katrina didn't knock them out, a strong winter storm could have.

[Obstructed_View]

It was well known for years that the levees wouldn't survive a storm surge of any size, and it was also well known that the entire city of NO is below the level of the water that surrounds it.

[Extra Stout]

It was well known for years that the levees wouldn't survive a storm surge of any size, and it was also well known that the entire city of NO is below the level of the water that surrounds it.
Your first sentence is patently false. It was well known that the levees could not handle a storm surge associated with a hurricane larger than Category 3.

The Industrial Canal and 17th Street levees failed after experiencing a storm surge of 5 feet. That is the equivalent of a strong Category 1 hurricane, not a once-in-a-lifetime monster storm.

These were not the not earthen levees, but rather were relatively new floodwalls. There is no excuse for failure under those circumstances. Insinuating that New Orleans' location sea level exculpates those responsible for the defective floodwall is about as intelligent as arguing that the builders of a defective aircraft are not liable for deaths because "it was well known that the entire airplane flies higher above the ground than a person can survive a fall."

[Obstructed_View]

My post was incomplete and sounded more argumentative than I intended. The pilings, as engineered, didn't go beyond the bottom of the 17th street canal. It wasn't going to survive Katrina no matter what. To use the airplane analogy, it would be like going after the seat belt manufacturers after a plane hits the ground at 400 miles an hour and everyone is killed. The point is that the size of the storm coming in was way more than the levees were designed to handle, and the citizens and the local government knew that with time to spare.



Your first sentence is patently false. It was well known that the levees could not handle a storm surge associated with a hurricane larger than Category 3.
That was in 1965, and the category 3 was estimated, since the scale hadn't been invented yet. The coastline has been subsiding in the intervening 40 years, which means the city is literally sinking and the marshland that exists as extra protection against a hurricane is disappearing.