Tag: Hurricane Katrina

Why Weren’t the Levees Reinforced Yesterday?

Jon Ponder

Harry Shearer at the Huffington Post:

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin just told WWL TV in New Orleans that the project to fill the breach in the 17th St Canal flood wall with sandbags didn’t fail — the sandbags were never tried. Nagin suggested that, after repairing the breach had been made the top priority in discussions with state, federal and Orleans Parish Levee Board officials this morning, someone had apparently “reprioritized” the helicopter earmarked for the sandbag assignment.

The result: unless somebody thinks of something in the next 12 to 15 hours, Nagin said, currently dry areas of New Orleans, including the French Quarter and the Garden District, will be inundated to a point three feet above sea level. Nagin blamed the situation on “too many chiefs”, and darkly suggested that some officials — unnamed — failed to grasp the severity of the situation.

UPDATE: Nagin said basically the same thing to WDSU TV in New Orleans. But he did not repeat the incendiary statements in an interview with CNN’s Aaron Brown shortly afterward.

Flashback: Bush Cuts Vacation Short to Intervene in Schiavo Case

Jon Ponder

“Everyone recognizes that time is important here,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. “This is about defending life.”

If politics and ideology are at stake, President Bush will cut short his vacation – immediately, as he did on March 19, 2005:

President Bush is changing his schedule to return to the White House on Sunday to be in place to sign emergency legislation that would shift the case of a brain-damaged Florida woman to federal courts, the White House said Saturday.

“Everyone recognizes that time is important here,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. “This is about defending life.”

But when tens of thousands of Americans are homeless and millions are without power, water, sewage and emergency services, he makes a few stops in California, goofs around with a guitar, heads back to his second home in Texas to get a good night’s sleep and then returns to work.

And keep in mind, these are Red staters who are in crisis. They are fools for supporting this president and his party – but they still have our heartfelt sympathy for what they’re living right now, and the horrors to come.

Hat tip to West Coast

Bush Fiddles (with a Guitar) While New Orleans Floods

Jon Ponder

Message: I Don’t Care

Left: President Bush plays a guitar presented to him by Country singer Mark Wills, right, backstage after the president gave a speech in San Diego.

Right: Meanwhile, flood waters are rising in the city of New Orleans, where thousands of people are homeless. Fires are burning throughout the city, and looting has been reported in the Central Business District and beyond. Emergency services are stretched past capacity. Food and potable water are scarce. In counties along the Gulf Coast of the Deep South, millions are without power. Property damage from the storm is projected to be greater than Hurricane Andrew, the previously most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history.

Rock on, George!