[W126 Coupe] Thank you for the Chronology

[David Fatovic]

Come on up to Colorado.  I guess people here have been
giving so much to shelters up here, they are telling
people to stop bringing in anything but money!  I
don't know what the plan is to distribute everything
outside of the people who have been flown up here.

David

--- Richard Hogarth <R_Hogarth at Foundrycove.com> wrote:

> Ken, 
> thank you for submitting this accurate chronology. 
> While ya'll are arguing, We (i'm) are downhere
> in LA actully living this catastrophe. 
> If you have food and clothing that you wish to
> donate to help
> those living in high school gyms, tents and civic
> centers, call me and I'll
> help you arrange shipment. 
> -Richard Hogarth
> 337-494-7262
> Louisiana 
> 
>   _____  
> 
> From: mbcoupes-bounces at mbcoupes.com
> [mailto:mbcoupes-bounces at mbcoupes.com]
> On Behalf Of Ken Cribbs
> Sent: Monday, September 12, 2005 8:19 PM
> To: Mercedes Coupes Mailing Lists
> Subject: Re: [W126 Coupe] [Fwd: Fwd: This about sums
> it up.]
> 
> 
> Of course the state and local responses to Hurricane
> Katrina were
> inadequate; no one can reasonably disagree.  But
> decisions made by the Bush
> administration regarding federal agencies also
> contributed to the New
> Orleans disaster to a very large extent.  Consider
> the following timeline,
> which I received from a friend.  I haven't verified
> all the facts, but so
> far I haven't found any inaccuracies:
> 
> 
> 
> Chronology of events related to FEMA and flood
> control projects in New
> Orleans under the Bush administration. 
> 
> 
> 
> January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, his crony
> from Texas, as head of
> FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in
> disaster management.
> 
> 
> April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces
> the Bush
> administration's goal of privatizing much of FEMA's
> work. In May, Allbaugh
> confirms that FEMA will be downsized: "Many are
> concerned that federal
> disaster assistance may have evolved into both an
> oversized entitlement
> program...." he said. "Expectations of when the
> federal government should be
> involved and the degree of involvement may have
> ballooned beyond what is an
> appropriate level."
> 
> 
> 2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New
> Orleans as one of the
> three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing
> this country."
> 
> 
> December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA,
> Allbaugh announces his
> departure to start up a consulting firm that advises
> companies seeking to do
> business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy,
> Michael Brown, who, like
> Allbaugh, has no previous experience in disaster
> management.
> 
> 
> March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from its position as
> a cabinet-level agency
> and folded into the Department of Homeland Security.
> Its mission is
> refocused on fighting acts of terrorism.
> 
> 
> 2003: Under the new DHS organization chart, FEMA's
> preparation and planning
> functions are reassigned to a new Office of
> Preparedness and Response. FEMA
> would henceforth focus only on response and
> recovery.
> 
> 
> Summer 2004: FEMA denies Louisiana's pre-disaster
> mitigation funding
> requests. Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager
> Tom Rodrigue: "You would
> think we would get maximum consideration....This is
> what the grant program
> called for. We were more than qualified for it."
> 
> 
> June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for
> levee construction in New
> Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency
> management chiefs Walter
> Maestri comments: "It appears that the money has
> been moved in the
> president's budget to handle homeland security and
> the war in Iraq, and I
> suppose that's the price we pay."
> 
> 
> June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of
> the U.S. Army Corps of
> Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. One of
> the hardest-hit areas is
> the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project,
> which was created after
> the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson,
> Orleans and St. Tammany
> parishes.
> 
> 
> August 2005: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow
> motion catastrophe, Bush
> poses for photo-ops, cuts a cake for John McCain,
> plays guitar for Mark
> Wills, delivers an address about V-J day, and
> continues with his vacation.
> When he finally gets around to acknowledging the
> scope of the unfolding
> disaster, he delivers only a photo op on Air Force
> One and a flat,
> defensive, laundry list speech in the Rose Garden.
> 
> 
> 
> So: A crony with no relevant experience was
> installed as head of FEMA.
> Mitigation budgets for New Orleans were slashed even
> though it was known to
> be one of the top three risks in the country. FEMA
> was deliberately
> downsized as part of the Bush administration's
> conservative agenda to reduce
> the role of government. After DHS was created,
> FEMA's preparation and
> planning functions were taken away.
> 
> 
> Actions have consequences. No one could predict that
> a hurricane the size of
> Katrina would hit this year, but the slow federal
> response when it did
> happen was no accident. It was the result of four
> years of deliberate Bush
> Administration policy and budget choices that favor
> ideology and partisan
> loyalty at the expense of operational competence. 
> 
> 
> 
> Aloha,
> --Ken
> 
> 
> At 02:50 PM 9/12/2005, Dick wrote:
> 
> 
> Umm.  The picture while humorous if you take no
> political posture, does not
> belie the awful truth of the failed response in
> Louisiana.  I think that
> with time the truth will be told without the media
> hype and the terrible
> pressure the photos of the first few days told of
> the suffering of so many.
> 
> Ask your selves the following questions.
> 
> In your state should a disaster occur who are the
> primary responders?
> Does your state have a *EMA headquarters?
> Who do you expect to see FIRST after a disaster
> strikes?
> Your local PD?
> Your local FD?
> Your state's Guard?
> Or the Federal Government?
> When a disaster strikes and help from the outside is
> summoned, who is
> responsible for having the answers to the following:
> Where do you need help and what type of help do you
> need?
> Where are the most populated areas in this disaster
> area where you have
> coalesced evacuees?
> 
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