Linkmeister

Disbelief

I meant to post this earlier, but I got sidetracked.

Why does FEMA seem so ineffectual? Well, here's an article from September 2004 which gives a hint as to why it's been such a colossal failure so far in Katrina.

Among emergency specialists, "mitigation"--the measures taken in advance to minimize the damage caused by natural disasters--is a crucial part of the strategy to save lives and cut recovery costs. But since 2001, key federal disaster mitigation programs, developed over many years, have been slashed and tossed aside. FEMA's Project Impact, a model mitigation program created by the Clinton administration, has been canceled outright. Federal funding of post-disaster mitigation efforts designed to protect people and property from the next disaster has been cut in half, and now, communities across the country must compete for pre-disaster mitigation dollars.

[snip]

. . .some in-need areas have been inexplicably left out of the program. "In a sense, Louisiana is the flood plain of the nation," noted a 2002 FEMA report. "Louisiana waterways drain two-thirds of the continental United States. Precipitation in New York, the Dakotas, even Idaho and the Province of Alberta, finds its way to Louisiana's coastline." As a result, flooding is a constant threat, and the state has an estimated 18,000 buildings that have been repeatedly damaged by flood waters--the highest number of any state. And yet, this summer [2004] FEMA denied Louisiana communities' pre-disaster mitigation funding requests. (Emphasis mine)

Watching the cable networks, I've come to the conclusion that there has never in the history of this country been such a collision between human need and governmental incompetence. The richest country in the world, and we can't seem to organize a refugee operation for our own people? This humanitarian disaster should be laid directly at the feet of Bush and his tax-cutting warmongering friends.

Via Kevin Drum.

Posted by Linkmeister at September 1, 2005 05:12 PM | TrackBack