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Arthur wrote: For
a catastrophe that was predicted for 50 years there was just about no disaster
plan in place. Criminal. There will be plenty of blame to
go around. e.g., why weren't the levees better protected. why
weren't the pumps equipped with emerg. power. why weren't the fleet of
New Orleans city buses pressed into service for those "who had no cars or
couldn't otherwise drive." etc. Well, a cynical
reply as to the lack of Bush preparation to the threat in the Gulf Coast is
that those states were not swing states, like Florida. Already, Bush’s
choice to head up FEMA is under scrutiny. After the GAO suggested changes in
1992, Clinton appointed James Lee Witt, who is credited with reorganizing and revitalizing it. But Bush’s
2 appointments have been his 2000 campaign manager and now an Oklahoma lawyer
whose only other emergency management experience was as an assistant city
manager. In other words, he restored FEMA to its previous history as a
backwater place to award political buddies and fundraisers. The Bush-Cheney White House has a
well-documented history of pushing political appointments onto scientific,
medical, environmental and national security positions. What was the name of
that guy from New York – Guliani’s former police chief – better known as a
Rambo talker than a problem-solver? As to the
question of city buses – a good one – where would those people have been taken?
Did FEMA have plans to evacuate hundreds of thousands to other sports domes in
the South? I’ve heard that the
storm pumps in NO were only prepared to deal with heavy rains – 4-5 inches –
not flooding from the lake. I’ve worked with civil and structural engineers and
have great sympathy for the problem they’re facing. You can bet that those who
are warning about similar problems in other areas are getting a friendly ear
from hometown mayors and governors today. Are these
people destined to live in concrete houses and trailers, as survivors of
Hurricane Andrew have in Florida? Think of the economic impact of 9/11 and
multiply that several times. The shortage of fuel has already hit jet fuel
prices, and the ripples are just beginning. |
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