Katrina: One Year Later

[lawyerlee]

If you do one thing today to remember Katrina, please read this article by Greg Pallast. Please don't be suprised if this seems to have a certain slant - Greg Pallast is a progressive investigative journalist.

Katrina: One Year Later (http://www.unobserver.com/layout5.php?id=2567&blz=1)
HURRICANE EXPERT THREATENED FOR PRE-KATRINA WARNINGS
A Greg Palast special investigation for Democracy Now!
DON'T blame the Lady. Katrina killed no one in this town. In fact, Katrina missed the city completely, going wide to the east.

It wasn't the hurricane that drowned, suffocated, de-hydrated and starved 1,500 people that week. The killing was done by a deadly duo: a failed emergency evacuation plan combined with faulty levees. Behind these twin failures lies a tale of cronyism, profiteering and willful incompetence that takes us right to the steps of the White House.

Here's the story you haven't been told. And the man who revealed it to me, Dr. Ivor van Heerden, is putting his job on the line to tell it.

Van Heerden isn't the typical whistleblower I usually deal with. This is no minor player. He's the Deputy Director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center. He's the top banana in the field -- no one knew more about how to save New Orleans from a hurricane's devastation. And no one was a bigger target of an official and corporate campaign to bury the information.

[Aimee]

While I agree that there was a colossal failure on all levels, it's not just the current presidential administration's fault that the levees were substandard. It's years and years of citywide, statewide and federal corruption that led to that happening. By the time Katrina was on the way, it was really too late to do anything about it, other than get the people out who had no means to leave on their own, which, as we know didn't happen.

These problems aren't just a result of the last 6 years. They're a result of the last 60 years of bidness as usual in NOLA.

[lawyerlee]

I know you're right, Aimee. I just thought this article shed some light on what is going on behind the scenes that we might not hear about otherwise. It's certainly not the whole story and doesn't highlight any single reason for what happened.

[Aimee]

Oh, I understand why the article was written and why you posted it. It's just frustrating as a lifelong local to the area, to see the problem oversimplified as being a result of the current administration. Yes, they are a large part of the problem with the response to this storm specifically. But the problems with the levees, the city and state government? They go much, much deeper and farther into the past than the last decade. So deep that I fear things will never really change :(

[ThreeYell]

ITA with Aimee and I'm never one to give the current administration a pass. The problems go back as long as the levees do. If you want more of the whole story of why Katrina happened in New Orleans, read Breach of Faith by Jed Horne.

I'm still perplexed at the criticism of the evacuation. The vast, vast majority of people who could leave did leave and they left in an orderly and relatively speedy way. The contraflow worked. Of course there should have been plans in place to evacuate those who couldn't leave on their own, but what American city has those plans? Just look at what happened in Houston when Rita was coming to see how most places would handle an evacuation.

[jnettie]

Thanks for posting, Lawyerlee!

I also watched the whole 4 hours of Spike Lee's documentary last night. I sat with my jaw in my lap when he showed the NOLA levees - piddly cement walls - juxtaposed to the dikes in Amsterdam - huge metal walls buttrased by metal poles. They are also easily twice as high. I believe Amsterdam has never had a break in their dikes in hundreds of years.