If New Orleans dissapeared, would anyone care?

[Zeuslax]

Bush was on vacation. Rice was shoe shopping. CatLax and Sonny are out of touch.

wow!

[Adam Gamradt]

Third reply to my own self! Yea!

Let me put it to you guys in terms you may understand.

When one of my players fail, I fail. Responsibility and accountability go up the chain of command, not down. Get it?

Yes Nagin failed in many colorful ways, but this was obvious, even at the time. That we failed to take charge of the situation, knowing it was out of control, is a failure of leadership at the highest level.

For crying out loud, the head of FEMA didn't know there were people stranded in the Superdome. He found out while doing an interview on NPR. The feds were clueless, the local government helpless.

I don't care who deserves blame.

I care about what's being done to remedy the underlying problems, so that this doesn't happen again.

[Sonny]

I meant to say that Nagin should have done more to facilitiate/implement the evacuation of the city. (Mostly prior to the Hurricane's landfall.) Afterwards, local folks are ALWAYS the first responders.

Let's not make this personal Adam, OK?

[Adam Gamradt]

Gotcha. I agree with your assesment of Ray Ray.

[sohotrightnow]

You're doing a helluva job Brownie!

[Sonny]

Check out this book from Tulane Professor Douglas Brinkley, called the Great Deluge:
Link to Amazon.com

The same author that wrote positive books on Jimmy Carter and John Kerry, puts a lion's share of the blame on Blanco and Nagin. I guess it's just easier to take pot shots at the Bush and the Feds.

P.S. Do any of the "locals" take any responsibility for living in a city below sea level in a Hurricane prone area?

I care about what's being done to remedy the underlying problems, so that this doesn't happen again.

Here is a start - Don't let the government bail out people that live in a Hurricane zone. If they want to live there, let them buy private insurance. If they can't afford it, too bad.

[shrekjr]

Here is a start - Don't let the government bail out people that live in a Hurricane zone. If they want to live there, let them buy private insurance. If they can't afford it, too bad.

I love it! Sonny for President!!!!!!!

[ZagGrad]

Sonny wrote:
Here is a start - Don't let the government bail out people that live in a Hurricane zone. If they want to live there, let them buy private insurance. If they can't afford it, too bad.

What about people who may face tornados? Earthquakes? Fires? Can we say the same thing? "Well, you chose to live there knowing full well..."

Also, I wonder how many people in NO thought the same way about Hurricane survivors in Florida and now, having had what happened, have changed their mentallity...

[mbuff]

Projects were ongoing to repair the levee's, but funds were diverted to Homeland Security and the Iraq War.

If you look at the numbers, the funding went down drastically, after 2001.

State and local governement, while not without fault, were way ahead of the federal government.

The present levee system was authorized by Congress following hurricane Betsey in 1965. Congress mandated that the Army Corp of Engineers add to the earthen levees protection against a Cat 3 hurricane. The NO Sewer & Water Board then nixed the idea of flood gates on the lake after that thus compounding the problem that currently exists. To say that funding was cut in 2001 makes no difference. What about the 36 years prior to 2001?

The manditory evacuation was ordered on the 28th.

I'm not exactly sure of the date without looking at my fishing license but I flew into NO on that Friday morning and drove down to the Suburban Rod & Gun Club in East Pointe-a-la-Hache, Plaquemines Parrish and at 0930 on Saturday morning, we were all told by a police officer that the parrish was under a mandatory evacuation order and we had to leave and head north. Blanco was still telling folks via TV to stock up on those crackers and peanut butter because the power might be out for a couple of days. It took us the better part of the day to pull out boats and load trailers and help secure the club but the airport was closed by the time finally got back to NO. We did not use the ferry but drove around and came up thru the 9th Ward and nobody down in the 9th looked too concerned about anything at that point. Business as usual on the corners. I don't think NO was under a mandatory evacuation at that point either.

Billy Tauzin and Matt from LSU can fill you in more on the levee/river and NO history. Matt flew over the Suburban R&G Club and sent me some video about a week after the storm. Sadly, the 100+ year old club does not exist anymore.

[CATLAX MAN]

Projects were ongoing to repair the levee's, but funds were diverted to Homeland Security and the Iraq War.

If you look at the numbers, the funding went down drastically, after 2001.

Please give us all a break here. To blame the failure of the levees on the amounts of funds that may have been diverted to Homeland Security & the Iraq War is, at best, rhetoric or naivete, but more likely it is a big pile of doo doo. Sorry, that does not fly. One has nothing to do with the other.

You don't seem to get the bigger picture here. Where have the interested parties (City of New Orleans & State of Louisiana) been for the last 30 years or so when this issue could have been addressed? This is not a responsibility of the federal government. It is the state's responsibility to maintain its infrastructure. The federal government will provide funds for some of these projects, but it is not their responsibility to see that it gets done. If it didn't get done, it is because the local governments failed in the carrying out of their duties.

[mbuff]

The Mississippi River levee system is actually about 2500 miles long from Cape Giradeau, MO to the delta. The levees are constructed by the federal government but are maintained by local governments and districts. The Army Corp of Engineers does inspections of maintenance and construction authorized by Congress.

So to build up the levee system around NO to Cat 4+, Congress would have to authorize the Corp to do the construction and then fund it. I think it works this way because the Mississippi is a 'Navigable Waterway' much like the Intracoastal that runs up from FL.

Someone who is/was in the Coast Guard can probably confirm this because I think the USCG has jurisdiction on the Mississippi.

[horn17]

Catlax, you are a genius.....

Brilliant!!!

[Kilroy]

Projects were ongoing to repair the levee's, but funds were diverted to Homeland Security and the Iraq War.

If you look at the numbers, the funding went down drastically, after 2001.

Please give us all a break here. To blame the failure of the levees on the amounts of funds that may have been diverted to Homeland Security & the Iraq War is, at best, rhetoric or naivete, but more likely it is a big pile of doo doo. Sorry, that does not fly. One has nothing to do with the other.

You don't seem to get the bigger picture here. Where have the interested parties (City of New Orleans & State of Louisiana) been for the last 30 years or so when this issue could have been addressed? This is not a responsibility of the federal government. It is the state's responsibility to maintain its infrastructure. The federal government will provide funds for some of these projects, but it is not their responsibility to see that it gets done. If it didn't get done, it is because the local governments failed in the carrying out of their duties.

According to some sources, the Army Corps of Engineers is responsible for building and maintaining the levees - athough others say it is the responsiblilty of the Orleans Levee District. So, apparently, you are both right - and wrong. I'm not sure if we even know to this day who is ultimately responsible for levee infrastructure in New Orleans.

Norm "Weasel" Coleman had this to say last December, ""My mom didn't raise dumb kids, and I'm a little confused as to who has ultimate responsibility..." Please try to keep in mind, whether or not his mom raised dumb kids is not the point. Although I would tend to disagree with him, in case you are wondering.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/POLITICS/12/15/ ... index.html

Adam appears to be right, however, about the funding cuts...

"Amid the largesse, however, Congress and the administration have made targeted cuts, some of them in Louisiana. As New Orleans City Business noted earlier this year, the Corps' construction budget for the district has gone from $147 million in fiscal 2001 to $82 million in fiscal 2005. Scores of projects, from efforts to build levees, canals and pumping stations to bridge improvements -- all of which deal with flood mitigation -- are incomplete. (The administration's fiscal 2006 budget proposal cut construction funding for the district even further, to $56 million.)"

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/co ... 01912.html

http://www.govexec.com/dailyfed/0905/090105jv1.htm