It’s been building for quite a while, but the press is now in full throat over the anniversary of the disaster that struck New Orleans last year. Whatever governmental inadequacies were revealed in the first few days at the local, state and federal levels, no one can say that the feds don’t care enough – at least if by “caring,” you mean “throw a bunch of money at ‘em.”
The WSJ has a great deal more, but this chart from today’s lead editorial is certainly instructional:
You read that correctly – your federal government has spent $122.5 billion dollars on hurricane relief.New Orleans was a mess before Katrina struck. It’ll be a mess after reconstruction is done. It’ll just have cost the rest of us a very great deal of money.
Someone should have mentioned to the good President Bush that we already bought Louisiana and environs once already.
I don’t know. I thought the real issue might have been how well and quickly (or not) the government allocated and spent those dollars. “New orleans was a mess before Katrina struck. It’ll be a mess after reconstruction is done”. Sounds a little harsh, esp to those who called it home once upon a time.
Congress has approved $122.5b of Gulf Coast hurricane spending, but how much has been expended in south Louisiana? Nothing near NOLA’s share of those funds have made their way to the city, but, having direct experience, I can say that’s only part of the problem–the lesser part. The city and state don’t have the laws or leadership to conduct a rebuilding effort, even if given all of that money, in cash, right now.
It’s inimical to my own perceptions of what a federal system should be, but I’d hoped for a superimposed, federalized rebuilding program that rivaled the TVA in scope and magnitude. Because I love NOLA and know the local pols can’t get it done. I guess the Bush Administration and the Congressional majorities are a bit more true to their principals of federalism than me (on this matter) and it was not to be.
Instead of FDR or Hoover, NOLA is going to get a dose of Adam Smith and Thomas Hobbes, and the best we can hope for is that the local political elements will screw up their graft and patronage programs just as thoroughly as they botched the evacuation and rebuilding lobbying efforts.
…and because, historically, we’ve always been so successful with Reconstruction down in the Big Easy..
(see also: Longstreet, 1873/74, corruption, scalawags, carpetbaggers, etc..)
And did anyone see the interview Nagin did on 60 Minutes this past Sunday? When he was “poked” about the slow clean up in NOLA, his educated, sophisticated and mature response was? “Hey, you guys in NY can’t even fix a hole in the ground 5 years later.”
I know all the $122B isn’t being spent in NOLA or LA in general, but they are getting ALOT of money. And the rebuilding in flooded areas is starting already – you’d think they’d have learned. But I guess the guvmint handout is too good to pass up…
Sorry if that’s harsh. But I’m tired of funding reconstruction in areas that should never have been built on to begin with.
Michelle: it is harsh, but it’s the reality of the situation. NOLA is a city built in a bowl that sinks every year. And it’s very culture has created the poverty and nightmare that they are in now. I do truly feel bad about what happened to the people who lived thru Katrina, but at some point there has to be accountability and responsibility for what it was BEFORE the disaster. NOLA was not a pretty place then, and I agree with Lex – it never will be.
Sid, great comment.
I’m a conservative Republican, but when I read numbers like those, I feel my inner Libertarian screaming to break out.
re “full throat”
Good ‘un Lex. Here’s an appropriate link to the type hounds:
http://www.shanmonster.com/witch/wildhunt/hounds.html
Down here in the South we’ve had “Reconstruction.” Not so good.
Before Katrina we in Florida realised that FEMA is useless. We are on our own and after a storm, FEMA comes in and wastes money. The millions they spent was just random and not related to reason.
The dishonesty, bungling and incompetence of George Bush can be distilled into the story of the USS Bataan (LHD 5). Hurricanes have a ?
Down here in the South we’ve had “Reconstruction.” Not so good.
Before Katrina we in Florida realised that FEMA is useless. We are on our own and after a storm, FEMA comes in and wastes money. The millions they spent was just random and not related to reason.
The dishonesty, bungling and incompetence of George Bush can be distilled into the story of the USS Bataan (LHD 5). Hurricanes have a “no Navy ship” line which is plotted and updated with precision. The Bataan was instructed to follow Katrina as it traveled northward and was on station at the New Orleans sea buoy as soon as the storm passed.
Marines and sailors being who they are, the Bataan sprung into action. The flight deck became a man-made hurricane, and the ship sent landing craft up the channel. We can bitch about Marines, but they know a thing or two about disasters, there might have been a few useful items tossed onto a LCAC. The Bataan’s helo crews began life saving efforts and the radio reports from the landing craft indicated tremendous damage. The ship’s complement began making preparation to move up river.
The Bataan was soon chopped to FEMA and the nonsense began. She was ordered to recall her boat, which was now closer to New Orleans that the Bataan and the ship was sent east. She kept up rescue efforts, but with less effectiveness as the flight deck drew further and further away. She was ordered to Biloxi, then to Pensacola then back to New Orleans. “There is a tremendous amount of frustration here, that we have assets stacked up ready to go,” said one officer who asked not to be identified. “All we can do is nudge the folks at FEMA and say, ‘How about if we do this or that?”
I’ve lived through major hurricanes and I’ve seen amphibious assault ships of the United States Navy in action. Had they been left alone to render aid, the Bataan and her marines would have changed the entire dynamics of post-Katrina New Orleans. Six operating rooms, state-of-the-art digital X-ray capabilities, fully functional laboratory, blood bank, 14-bed intensive care unit, 46-bed patient care ward, four battle dressing stations, 600 bed hospital, trucks, mobile generators, bulldozers cranes, etc., etc. and etc. FEMA shuttled this asset, which the Navy had positioned at the exact point where it could do the most good, back and forth across the gulf doing nothing with it.
The lie, which pisses me off, it that a law, posse comitatus, prevented the Navy from assisting. We southerners, not enjoying your last reconstruction, convinced Congress to pass a law keeping the military from engaging in law enforcement. Nixon, Bush and the king-loving right wing hate this law. They said, posse comitatus keeps us from using the Navy and Marine Corps from doing law enforcement, therefore, we could not send them in. It is a lie.
U.S.S. “BOSTON”
San Francisco, California,
May 10, 1906
S I R:-
I have the honor to make the following report concerning the part taken by this vessel in the relief of the sufferers in the late catastrophe in the city of San Francisco, California, and the part taken by the marine guard and crew of this vessel in the preservation of order and property along the water front from Clay street to and including Pier #20.
2. The BOSTON left San Pedro, California, at 3:10 a.m., April 21st 1906, with five (5) car-loads of provisions, some bedding and some clothing, contributed by the relief association of Los Angeles, California. When about eighteen (18) miles east of Santa Barbara, California, I communicated with the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Squadron, through the wireless stations at Point Arguello, Farallon Islands and Mare Island, stating the amount of provisions on board and the probable time of arrival.
3. On the 22nd, while at sea, a wireless message was received from the Commander-in-Chief, Pacific Squadron, directing that the BOSTON should proceed to the Folsom street wharf and discharge her relief stores and have her marine guard ready to land
Nothing kept the Navy from rendering the same aid in 2006 New Orleans that it rendered in 1906 San Francisco except the bungling of our administration. No law prohibits sailors from tying up to pier and feeding people. Lex, grab the CO of the Bataan ply him with alcohol and find out if I’m full of BS.
Ima,
I don’t want to get into this but you’ve been watching too many Clinton era disaster movies….FEMA ain’t no action agency with a overarching command center..since when has a state or local government given over OPCON to an agency like FEMA up front. Who predicted the levees would break? Howard Dean? Obviously, FEMA was broke then and probably now if people think of it as a military command..Blanco and that idiot Naggin ended up giving the feds control only after they both realized it was C.Y.A. time..And the stupid bozos left living there re-elected ‘em!
Be carefull with the facts or us’n them dam Yankees will come down there and give you some more comitatus!
B2
If there were no FEMA, the CO of the USS Bataan would have carried on. Her flight deck was in full operation, running SAR on the devastated gulf coast. Helicopter pilots flying from its deck were some of the first to begin plucking stranded New Orleans residents. Of course the right-wing won?
If there were no FEMA, the CO of the USS Bataan would have carried on. Her flight deck was in full operation, running SAR on the devastated gulf coast. Helicopter pilots flying from its deck were some of the first to begin plucking stranded New Orleans residents. Of course the right-wing won’t believe what is written in a newpaper, the MSM, but the Chicago Tribune reported this:
“A 135-foot landing craft stored within the Bataan, the LCU-1656, was dispatched to steam up the 90 miles of Mississippi River to New Orleans. It took a crew of 16, including a doctor, and its deck was stacked with food and water. The craft carries enough food and fuel to remain self-sufficient for 10 days. Moving up through the storm’s flotsam, the crew couldn’t believe the scene.
‘We saw a lot of dead animals, dead horses, floating cows, dead alligators,’ said Rodney Blackshear, LCU-1656′s navigator. ‘And a lot of dogs that had been pets. But no people.’ Near Boothville, La., the storm surge had lifted a construction crane and put it on top of a house. Near Venice, the crew members considered going ashore to examine the damage, but dogs drove them back.
‘I didn’t want any of my guys in there,’ said Bill Fish, who commands LCUs and who went on the river trip. ‘Everything was decimated. It was the storm surge.’ Then the Bataan was ordered to move to the waters off Biloxi, Miss., and LCU-1656 was ordered to return. The landing craft was 40 miles from New Orleans, but it wouldn’t be able to deliver its cargo.
http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-0509040369sep04,1,4144825.story
“Could we do more?” said Capt. Nora Tyson, commander of the Bataan. [Lex, the Captain; he’s a chick!] ” Sure. I’ve got sailors who could be on the beach plucking through garbage or distributing water and food and stuff. But I can’t force myself on people. We’re doing everything we can to contribute right now, and we’re ready. If someone says you need to take on people, we’re ready. If they say hospitals on the beach can’t handle it … if they need to send the overflow out here, we’re ready. We’ve got lots of room.”
http://www.libertypost.org/cgi-bin/readart.cgi?ArtNum=107927
Bob, you have heard the propaganda, all of which are deliberate lies spread by your administration. There is no rule, law or statute which would have prevented the USS Bataan from steaming up the Mississippi tying up to the pier and rendering aid. That is exactly what happened in San Francisco in 1906, and exactly what should have happened in 2006. Instead, Homeland Security sent the USS Bataan up and down the Gulf Coast uselessly. I don’t know why we impeach a president who lied about sex with a fat girl and let this retard stay in office, but hey, I live in Florida. My vote don’t count.
Oh, and Bob,
I thought you were anti-terrorist, but I guess terrorism is only bad when your state is not sponsoring it. I guess you forgot about WTS, the modern inventor of terror as a tactic.
I remember the Bataan being off the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The hospitals along the Mississippi Gulf Coast were in bad shape. I believe it has desalination capabilities. It helped us. The water that managed to trickle through the city systems was not drinkable. Plus, with all the hospitals being overwhelmed it was a great comfort knowing it was there.
That being said, it would have been put to better use in New Orleans.
And Mississippi has been using the Federal disaster aid wisely. Two bridges(destroyed) on a major highway are being rebuilt. City water and seawge lines(badly damaged) are being repaired. Block grants are helping communities rebuild. Money is also being used to rebuild or repair fire and police stations that were destroyed or damaged.
From what I understand about the Federal disastre aid, application has to made that shows checks and balances on how the money is used.
Another thing I want to mention, the Coast Guard, the Marines, the Seabees, the Air Force, the Navy, and the National Guard did an outstanding job. I cannot thank them enough.
IMA,
It must be the propadanda working on me Ima. All I can see are visions of all those school buses underwater, the overwieght cops lootin a WalMart and all the while Ray Naggin eating buffet on the 20th story of that big ol’ hotel…
I’ve been brainwashed, eh?
B2
Yep,
Because your response has nothing to do with the post. As the WSJ pointed out, throwing money at NO is not helping. Clearly, FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency did more harm than good. If the Federal Government can’t help, why have a Federal Government?
Regime change begins at home.
Ima – if you don’t want another reconstruction (your post #9) in the south, then don’t take the federal money (I know you are in FLA, but you get your fair share of fed dollars each time a hurricane hits there too). It’s simple – just say no and handle it yourself.
Oh wait, in the case of NOLA, I refer to B2′s comment #s 10 & 14 above. The whole thing was mismanaged from the start, on the ground by the locals. Bush and the current administration aren’t perfect – none are. But they aren’t to blame for Katrina, for the levees breaching, and for how the locals handled it from the start.
And if you want to stay on topic, what does terrorism have to do with the post?
Ima,
The Federal government is the Postal Service, right?
Try this: run right down to local post office and tell them to finish up in Iraq. ASAP.
They’re the feds, ain’t they?
B2