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Yuck...
Damn damn damn...
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/even...VvBHNlYwNzc20-
Warning: above pic has a dead body in it, the caption's a tear jerker too.
I've read a couple articles about FEMA being rolled into Homeland Silliness. Quite a few municipal, county, and state emergency orgs seem to be very unhappy with the new situation. HS might be in for some serious criticism once the urgency of Katrina catastrophe is passed.
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washingtonpost.com
Destroying FEMA
By Eric Holdeman
Tuesday, August 30, 2005; A17
SEATTLE -- In the days to come, as the nation and the people along the Gulf Coast work to cope with the disastrous aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, we will be reminded anew, how important it is to have a federal agency capable of dealing with natural catastrophes of this sort. This is an immense human tragedy, one that will work hardship on millions of people. It is beyond the capabilities of state and local government to deal with. It requires a national response.
Which makes it all the more difficult to understand why, at this moment, the country's premier agency for dealing with such events -- FEMA -- is being, in effect, systematically downgraded and all but dismantled by the Department of Homeland Security.
Apparently homeland security now consists almost entirely of protection against terrorist acts. How else to explain why the Federal Emergency Management Agency will no longer be responsible for disaster preparedness? Given our country's long record of natural disasters, how much sense does this make?
What follows is an obituary for what was once considered the preeminent example of a federal agency doing good for the American public in times of trouble, such as the present.
FEMA was born in 1979, the offspring of a number of federal agencies that had been functioning in an independent and uncoordinated manner to protect the country against natural disasters and nuclear holocaust. In its early years FEMA grew and matured, with formal programs being developed to respond to large-scale disasters and with extensive planning for what is called "continuity of government."
The creation of the federal agency encouraged states, counties and cities to convert from their civil defense organizations and also to establish emergency management agencies to do the requisite planning for disasters. Over time, a philosophy of "all-hazards disaster preparedness" was developed that sought to conserve resources by producing single plans that were applicable to many types of events.
But it was Hurricane Andrew, which hit Florida in 1992, that really energized FEMA. The year after that catastrophic storm, President Bill Clinton appointed James Lee Witt to be director of the agency. Witt was the first professional emergency manager to run the agency. Showing a serious regard for the cost of natural disasters in both economic impact and lives lost or disrupted, Witt reoriented FEMA from civil defense preparations to a focus on natural disaster preparedness and disaster mitigation. In an effort to reduce the repeated loss of property and lives every time a disaster struck, he started a disaster mitigation effort called "Project Impact." FEMA was elevated to a Cabinet-level agency, in recognition of its important responsibilities coordinating efforts across departmental and governmental lines.
Witt fought for federal funding to support the new program. At its height, only $20 million was allocated to the national effort, but it worked wonders. One of the best examples of the impact the program had here in the central Puget Sound area and in western Washington state was in protecting people at the time of the Nisqually earthquake on Feb. 28, 2001. Homes had been retrofitted for earthquakes and schools were protected from high-impact structural hazards. Those involved with Project Impact thought it ironic that the day of that quake was also the day that the then-new president chose to announce that Project Impact would be discontinued.
Indeed, the advent of the Bush administration in January 2001 signaled the beginning of the end for FEMA. The newly appointed leadership of the agency showed little interest in its work or in the missions pursued by the departed Witt. Then came the Sept. 11 attacks and the creation of the Department of Homeland Security. Soon FEMA was being absorbed into the "homeland security borg."
This year it was announced that FEMA is to "officially" lose the disaster preparedness function that it has had since its creation. The move is a death blow to an agency that was already on life support. In fact, FEMA employees have been directed not to become involved in disaster preparedness functions, since a new directorate (yet to be established) will have that mission.
FEMA will be survived by state and local emergency management offices, which are confused about how they fit into the national picture. That's because the focus of the national effort remains terrorism, even if the Department of Homeland Security still talks about "all-hazards preparedness." Those of us in the business of dealing with emergencies find ourselves with no national leadership and no mentors. We are being forced to fend for ourselves, making do with the "homeland security" mission. Our "all-hazards" approaches have been decimated by the administration's preoccupation with terrorism.
To be sure, America may well be hit by another major terrorist attack, and we must be prepared for such an event. But I can guarantee you that hurricanes like the one that ripped into Louisiana and Mississippi yesterday, along with tornadoes, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, floods, windstorms, mudslides, power outages, fires and perhaps a pandemic flu will have to be dealt with on a weekly and daily basis throughout this country. They are coming for sure, sooner or later, even as we are, to an unconscionable degree, weakening our ability to respond to them.
The writer is director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.
© 2005 The Washington Post Company
Yuck...
Damn damn damn...
http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/even...VvBHNlYwNzc20-
Warning: above pic has a dead body in it, the caption's a tear jerker too.
Here's a pic Mandy found showing an outer band of Katrina. With all the rotation evident in the clouds, its no wonder they drop so many twisters.
Kori and timvp,
If you adopt a girl dog, will you name her Katrina?
Almost every picture I saw today from the air had oil and other things on the surface of the water. It was flat out nasty.
You're right about that picture AHF. man, the poorest of the poor always take it the worst.
Someone was asking about the prison earlier...
Inmates sitting on the bridge with armed guards.
New annoucement from the Mayor
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin is "very upset" that an attempt to fix the breach in the levee at the 17th Street canal has failed, and he said the challenges that the city is facing have "escalated to another level."
"The sandbagging that we had hoped would happen didn't materialize today, so the water continued to rise at that particular location," he said.
In an exclusive interview with WDSU anchor Norman Robinson, Nagin said the rising water has caused the generators to stop operating because the water got too high. Due to that, Nagin said he's been advised by the head technician at the sewage and water board that water in the east bank area of Orleans and Jefferson parishes will rise to levels equal to Lake Pontchartrain.
"It's going to rise to 3 feet above seal level. For example, St. Charles Avenue is 6 feet below sea level, there will most likely be 9 feet of water on St. Charles Avenue," Nagin said.
Also, if residents are in a part of city that is 10 feet below sea level, Nagin said the levels will probably rise to 13 feet of water.
He said the "bowl is now filling up" and the entire city will soon be underwater.
Someone was asking about the prison earlier...
Inmates sitting on the bridge with armed guards.
So the prisoners leave before everyone else???
Speaks for itself. Flat out amazing.
Damn. That's horrible. I wonder if we're going to see mass graves for the sake of sanitation.http://news.yahoo.com/photos/ss/even...VvBHNlYwNzc20-
Warning: above pic has a dead body in it, the caption's a tear jerker too.
This is ing sad. I can't find a better word for her.
It was just reported on KCAL that the bridge over the Lake was destroyed in parts, as was the I-10 bridge. From the video it was obvious it was the bridge over Lake Ponchatrain.
Looks like one oil rig didn't do so hot, this one is just off shore of Dauphin Island, MS.
Superdome looking like an island...
Just saw about the looting.
Let them have the food.
But anything other than food?? Uhhh, yeah, crack down on that.
Dont think Charles needs a freakin PS2 for free beause of a disaster.
Wonder where the inmates are now, and what they plan on doing about the population. Being a prison guard can't be a fun job in the first place, and having to guard that many violent people out in the open with a disaster staring you in the face only adds to the degree of difficulty.
Someone was asking about the prison earlier...
Inmates sitting on the bridge with armed guards.
Thanks for the photos. There's so many subplots in place here.
Interesting baseline. The way I heard it earlier tonight, the I-10 bridge was perpendicular to the storm surge, hence it got torn up.
The Causeway bridge runs N-S and was more parallel with the storm, and received considerably less damage.
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One note about the levee, the one that we all saw the pics of is NOT the problem levee that is filling the city. They showed another levee just now on CNN with a hole in it that is causing the damage, this one looks like it could be plugged fairly easily.
I'm guessing the other one is the industrial canal that they're not "as worried" about.
Look at this shot of Gulfport... unreal.
Like I said, the looters. While they're busy plotting what to steal, others are plotting how to get the out of there. This situation will take care of itself.
When CNN broadcast those prisoners live, I laughed because Wolf Blitzer had no idea what they were.
I saw the orange and Jess and I both knew they were prisoners right off the bat. I think Wolf finally realized what was going on when he saw the men with shotguns all over the place.
Maybe I can find a jetski real cheap in a couple months.. something beat up..
Someone asked about people without jobs down there in the aftermath. I know it's going to be difficult but I'd say go vintage WPA and give anyone who wants one a job helping clean up.
Just a thought..
Do you think some group of people are like holed up tonight somewhere...
protecting water and food at gunpoint.. like Night of the living dead?
Err that's "Dawn of the Dead 2004".
Last edited by Vashner; 08-31-2005 at 01:00 AM.
There was a story about shop owners sitting outside their businesses with shotguns, FWIW.
That's a great idea. I hope someone in power is thinking around the same lines.
Damn this thread is already to 2k+ posts.
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