Hurricanes
Interesting article surrounding the "knowledge" of a potential levee problem in New Orleans prior to Hurricane Katrina's landfall on the Gulf Coast:
AP Article
Basically it talks about a collection of videotapes that has FEMA officials, including Michael Brown, warning Bush and Chertoff about the potential of a levee disaster in New Orleans if and when Katrina hit the city. My personal favorite quotes are the ones making excuses:
"There's nothing new or insightful on these tapes," (Homeland Security Spokesman Russ) Knocke said. "We actively participated in the lessons-learned review and we continue to participate in the Senate's review and are working with them on their recommendation."
"I hope people don't draw conclusions from the president getting a single briefing," presidential spokesman Trent Duffy said, citing a variety of orders and disaster declarations Bush signed before the storm made landfall. "He received multiple briefings from multiple officials, and he was completely engaged at all times."
Personally, it seems to me that these statements are ridiculous. For these spokesmen to pawn these off as pointless is to attempt to falsify the idea to the public and make them forget the occurrences surrounding the disaster itself. Many of us knew something was going to happen to the city if a hurricane hit it at that strength. All of us know that it took Bush two days before he left his Texas ranch to deal with it. Dick Cheney was nowhere to be found. Condoleeza Rice (although not necessarily needed for this, but still a member of the cabinet) was buying shoes in New York. To say that he, while implying the others, were "actively engaged" in the plan seems like another attempt at historicism. They may have been engaged to some extent, but it was an engagement of disbelief at a potential disaster and/or the avoidance of a knowledge that something terrible was bound to happen.
While this is in the past, a lesson still needs to be learned. The idea of a securitization of environmental factors is necessary to engage in our personal and community risk assessment toward the world. It should also be a major long term economic and security assessment of not just the Homeland Security Department, but also the Commerce Department and the Department of the Interior. Even if global warming is not true, we are still entering a few decades of increased storms (if historical patterns are correct). Katrina will not be the last to hit these coasts, and if you couple these storms with the obvious increase in earthquake activity then an unpreparedness can cause even more problems than what happened to New Orleans in late August of 2005.
AP Article
Basically it talks about a collection of videotapes that has FEMA officials, including Michael Brown, warning Bush and Chertoff about the potential of a levee disaster in New Orleans if and when Katrina hit the city. My personal favorite quotes are the ones making excuses:
"There's nothing new or insightful on these tapes," (Homeland Security Spokesman Russ) Knocke said. "We actively participated in the lessons-learned review and we continue to participate in the Senate's review and are working with them on their recommendation."
"I hope people don't draw conclusions from the president getting a single briefing," presidential spokesman Trent Duffy said, citing a variety of orders and disaster declarations Bush signed before the storm made landfall. "He received multiple briefings from multiple officials, and he was completely engaged at all times."
Personally, it seems to me that these statements are ridiculous. For these spokesmen to pawn these off as pointless is to attempt to falsify the idea to the public and make them forget the occurrences surrounding the disaster itself. Many of us knew something was going to happen to the city if a hurricane hit it at that strength. All of us know that it took Bush two days before he left his Texas ranch to deal with it. Dick Cheney was nowhere to be found. Condoleeza Rice (although not necessarily needed for this, but still a member of the cabinet) was buying shoes in New York. To say that he, while implying the others, were "actively engaged" in the plan seems like another attempt at historicism. They may have been engaged to some extent, but it was an engagement of disbelief at a potential disaster and/or the avoidance of a knowledge that something terrible was bound to happen.
While this is in the past, a lesson still needs to be learned. The idea of a securitization of environmental factors is necessary to engage in our personal and community risk assessment toward the world. It should also be a major long term economic and security assessment of not just the Homeland Security Department, but also the Commerce Department and the Department of the Interior. Even if global warming is not true, we are still entering a few decades of increased storms (if historical patterns are correct). Katrina will not be the last to hit these coasts, and if you couple these storms with the obvious increase in earthquake activity then an unpreparedness can cause even more problems than what happened to New Orleans in late August of 2005.
posted by E Hawker at 7:53 PM
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