WSJ: As U.S. Mobilizes Aid, Katrina Exposes Flaws in Preparation (part I)

[question everything]

As U.S. Mobilizes Aid, Katrina Exposes Flaws in Preparation

Despite Warnings, Officials Say There Wasn't Clear Plan For a New Orleans Disaster

Bush: Recovery to 'Take Years'

By ANN CARRNS and CHAD TERHUNE in Atlanta, KRIS HUDSON in Baton Rouge, La., and GARY FIELDS in Washington
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 1, 2005; Page A1

(snip)

Despite decades of repeated warnings about a breach of levees or failure of drainage systems that protect New Orleans from the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, local and federal officials now concede there weren't sufficient preparations for dealing with a catastrophe of this scale. Guidelines for coordination of emergency operations between state, federal and local agencies were also incomplete.

Local officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found they lacked critical equipment and materials to use in repairs if levees breached. Management of the city's flood-control system is fragmented among local agencies and the state and federal governments. State and federal officials sniped about each other's efforts yesterday as at least two breaches in the city's defenses remained open.

(snip)

The city's evacuation plan -- initially praised for removing 80% of the metropolitan area's 1.4 million people -- failed to empty the city of thousands who remained in low-lying neighborhoods prone to flooding. Once the floodwaters began to deluge large parts of New Orleans, stranding thousands on their rooftops or leaving them trapped in attics, authorities lacked an overall program for search-and-rescue operations on the water. Ad-hoc rescues undertaken by police, fire, wildlife and military bodies, along with untold volunteers, saved hundreds of people Monday night. It wasn't clear how many people had been plucked from the rising floodwaters, but the Coast Guard said it rescued more than 1,250 people so far. Other local officials estimated that some 3,000 to 5,000 rescues had been made.

(snip)

Emergency workers in New Orleans complained that provisions hadn't been made for them to eat or sleep. Some rescue convoys assembled to look for survivors were forced to wait for hours, while managers repeatedly altered plans for where they would be sent.

(snip)

As law-enforcement and relief agencies began to reach disaster-stricken zones in Louisiana and Mississippi, officers on the ground reported major difficulties communicating with each other due to conflicting radio frequencies and reliance on the heavily damaged cellular telephone networks. Some said Louisiana's "smart-zone" system, run by the state police and designed to keep emergency personnel in contact with each other, worked less often than it failed.

(snip)

The scene was starkly different in Florida a year ago, after Hurricanes Charley and Frances roared in. Then, federal agencies pulled off a tour-de-force rescue, quickly pouring in billions of dollars to help distressed residents and more still after two more storms, Ivan and Jeanne, followed. President Bush visited the scene within 48 hours. Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, the president's brother, took personal responsibility for managing much of the relief effort. While Floridians experienced delays and frustrations, FEMA generally received high marks. Tractor-trailers with ice, water and other supplies waited at the state border until the storms passed and then rushed to the hardest-hit areas. National Guard troops were on the scene quickly directing traffic, keeping looters out of damaged neighborhoods and throwing ice in people's car trunks. Aid stations opened to serve food and take applications for cash grants.

(snip)

--Aaron Lucchetti and Jeff D. Opdyke in New Orleans, Valerie Bauerlein in Gulfport, Miss., Ken Wells in Baton Rouge, and Neil King Jr. and Michael Schroeder in Washington contributed to this article.

Write to Ann Carrns at [e-mail], Chad Terhune at [e-mail], Kris Hudson at [e-mail] and Gary Fields at [e-mail]

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112546519831627644,00.html

[berni_mccoy]

1. The Shit has officially Hit the Fan for the Bush Regime

Their Reign of Terror is coming to an end.

[question everything]

2. WSJ: As U.S. Mobilizes Aid, Katrina Exposes Flaws in Preparation (Part II)

As U.S. Mobilizes Aid, Katrina Exposes Flaws in Preparation

By ANN CARRNS and CHAD TERHUNE in Atlanta, KRIS HUDSON in Baton Rouge, La., and GARY FIELDS in Washington
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
September 1, 2005; Page A1

(snip)

Local officials and government engineers have long known the risks faced by the city. A publicly funded study begun in 2002 concluded that a slow-moving Category 3 hurricane would flood "the bowl of New Orleans north of the Mississippi River, locally known as the East Bank." Katrina hit New Orleans as a stronger Category 4 storm, and the East Bank is an area of the city that has sustained major damage. That study also identified at least 110,000 people who would need assistance in being evacuated, including the elderly and those with medical problems. Three years ago, an article in Civil Engineering magazine indicated that the region was ill-prepared and that the original levee system was based on "rudimentary storm modeling that, it is now realized, might underestimate the threat of a potential hurricane."

The Bush administration has consistently tussled with Congress over efforts on Capitol Hill to boost funding for the Army Corps. President Bush in 2002 fired his own Army Corps chief, former Mississippi congressman Michael Parker, after Mr. Parker backed lawmakers' efforts to push through a number of big projects, including a $188 million proposal to build a massive flood-control pump for the lower Mississippi River.

After last summer's deadly hurricane season, Army Corps engineers compiled a list of about $18 billion in projects needed to shore up Louisiana's levees and other flood defenses. But this June, the Army Corps' New Orleans district heard from Washington that under a House proposal it could expect its annual budget to fall by as much as 20 percent in 2006, to $272 million from $343 million. The Senate in July proposed slightly increasing the funding for the New Orleans district, and a compromise measure between the two chambers was supposed to be worked out in September.

Separately, the Army Corps also has supported a proposed $2 billion package of projects intended to restore Louisiana's dramatic loss of wetlands over the past 40 years, which experts say increased New Orleans's exposure to massive flooding.

Bush administration officials defended their spending on the Army Corps generally but declined to discuss New Orleans projects. The Army Corps has a long history of pork-barrel projects and cost overruns, which the Bush administration has sought to rein in.

(snip)


Donald Glynn, from nearby Glynn, La., wanted to put a 22-foot shallow draft river runner at the agency's disposal. "Somebody called yesterday and left a number for me to call but that number doesn't answer, and I don't know where I'm supposed to go or what I'm supposed to do," Mr. Glynn told receptionists at the office.

"I'm a licensed captain. I have CPR training and experience in search and rescue," he said. "We're ready to go if we could just find out where and when that might be."

--Aaron Lucchetti and Jeff D. Opdyke in New Orleans, Valerie Bauerlein in Gulfport, Miss., Ken Wells in Baton Rouge, and Neil King Jr. and Michael Schroeder in Washington contributed to this article.

Write to Ann Carrns at [e-mail], Chad Terhune at [e-mail], Kris Hudson at [e-mail] and Gary Fields at [e-mail]

URL for this article:
http://online.wsj.com/article/0,,SB112546519831627644,00.html

[aquart]

3. They say "flaws", I say "fissures."

[The_Casual_Observer]

4. ooooh, how could this be? How could we have made such a mistake?

We will have to "move on" now, it's "over", we can be "stronger" next time.

[applegrove]

5. Flaws in planning? *** You. Bush purposely didn't sent the army in.

He had a meeting on Monday:

Q: Send army in

A: No

He created a vacuum. Pretending the Pentagon is "hurt" or they didn't know what was going on is crap.

[Nikki Stone 1]

6. It sounds to me like they are blaming the local officials, not Bush

Take a look at the beginnings of sentences:

" local and federal officials now concede there weren't sufficient preparations..."

"Local officials and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers found they lacked critical equipment and materials to use in repairs if levees breached."

"Management of the city's flood-control system is fragmented among local agencies and the state and federal governments"

Stick local officials as the first subject and THAT'S what gets stressed. The WSJ is finessing the language so that the truth in regard to the Feds doesn't seem so bad. The local officials are being focused on (1st subject) and repeated. They are the fall guy here.

[question everything]

7. But, read the second installment (part II)

about how the Army core of engineers was trying to get more funding to strengthen the levees. I guess they did not have that congressman from Alaska who got $250 million for the bridge to nowhere