NYT: Waters Recede (in So. La.) Leaving Frustration (and anger: FEMA?Who?)

[DeepModem Mom]

Waters Recede, Leaving a Trail of Frustration
By JERE LONGMAN and MICHAEL BRICK
Published: September 26, 2005


....Water began to retreat in the submerged low-lying bayou country of South Louisiana on Sunday, but anger welled as residents and officials of Terrebonne Parish, which includes Houma, began to survey the storm-surge damage. This is one place where Hurricane Rita was the worst recent storm; Hurricane Katrina brought only minimal wind damage to the area.

As Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco toured the area and called for $20.2 billion in federal money to strengthen the levee and pumping systems along the state's inundated coastal region, she found herself preaching to a sympathetic, if waterlogged, congregation.

For years, state residents and politicians have criticized what they believe is the federal government's indifference to the erosion of Louisiana's marshland and barrier islands that has lessened the state's buffer against major storms....

***

Frustration seemed to spark like downed electrical wires in the bayou communities just south of here. Emergency management and law enforcement officials complained that the Federal Emergency Management Agency had yet to declare the parish a disaster area.

"FEMA? Who?" Jerry J. Larpenter, the sheriff of Terrebonne Parish, said dismissively, echoing the complaints of many officials elsewhere after Hurricane Katrina....


http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/26/national/nationalspecial/26houma.html

[0007]

1. American is back on tract again.

Two neighbors paddled about in pirogues, Cajun canoes, and spoke of seeing deer on a nearby levee and a couple of redfish, a saltwater variety pushed up from the gulf, swimming through the front yard.

"That's barbecue material," Mr. Monroe said."

It was also noted today that the economy is returning to normal. A homeless man was seen sleeping soundly in a brand new refrigerator card board box.

Tomorrow we'll see junior's poll numbers back in the high 90's.

God Bless America and the Angels protecting our troops.

[Nothing Without Hope]

2. THIS IS AN OUTRAGE!!! WHERE IS THE PRESS??? WHERE IS CONGRESS??

Why is the Bush Administration being allowed to get away with this??

They only have interest in strategically important places - New Orleans and Houston - and wealthy places. The huge areas of the South devastated by Katrina and now by Rita are of no interest to them and they are letting the people just be abandoned - starving and homeless.

The press is letting them get away with it. AGAIN. This is MURDEROUS.

And why they hell isn't this on the Greatest Page???

[DeepModem Mom]

3. You're right -- I'm afraid they're waging a fairly successful...

p.r. campaign designed to convince people that they learned from Katrina and have been on top of things with Rita. It appears to me that the failure, especially of FEMA, continues.

ON EDIT: Adding an example from LAT, "This Time, Federal Response Is Praised" --

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x1805543

[DeepModem Mom]

4. Adding DemsUnited's LBN post about federal failure in Texas --

E&P : Katrina Redux? Beaumont Paper Finds Federal Storm Failure in Texas

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x4887408