"Katrina and Cronyism"

My friends in New Orleans are either deciding what to pack, or deciding to hunker down. There's an ominous mass gaining power in the Gulf. And in Denver tonight, exactly three words were spoken that served as a shout-out from the powerful and the would-be powerful to a city on its knees: "Katrina and cronyism." That's the sum total of the verbiage from the podium of the DNC about the "greatest man-made engineering disaster in American history." That's what people in New Orleans have to cling to as they hope, and pray, that the same Corps of Engineers that mis-engineered them into six weeks of catastrophic flooding have done it better this time, even though the timeline for "this time" didn't call for real protection until three years from now. Gustav didn't read the Corps' schedule.

UPDATE: For more on this topic than you'll hear in a year's worth of political conventions, check this out:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2008/aug/27/hurricanekatrina.usa

For more Huffington Post coverage of the Democratic National Convention, visit our Politics @ the DNC page, our Democratic Convention Big News Page, and our HuffPost bloggers' Twitter feed, live from Denver.

Comments

[JAUG]

Just a friendly reminder. The city of New Orleans did indeed survive Katrina, the city did not survive the 60 years of budget cuts, mismanagement and lax levee inspections. In other words, it was the MAN MADE disaster that took out the city, not Mother Nature, she just showed us how futile ANY attempt to fight her is, kinda like going against the political machines.

[katscomments]

George W. made the decision to not scale back on his ranch vacation in 2005 when Katrina hit, leaving thousands of low-income victims languishing in peril. Now Gustav threatens their RNC political coverage on the very anniversary... Could there be a better example of karma? Heck of a job, Brownie...

[JOnzey]

Leave the historic property to be bought out by people not from New Orleans which was happening before the storm and continues to this day.

[PandaMan]

Hey here's a crazy idea -- why don't we just MAKE :30 and :60 spots showing Katrina, the Bush/McCain Cake Fest, Harry's quote about "the greatest man-made disaster" super-ed over Bush's face, maybe "great job, brownie" v/o as we see McCain, and then...."while McCain slept after a city drowned, Barack Obama came to New Orleans to help rebuild neighborhoods, a city, and this country, one family at a time, one house at a time." something like that. C'mon, you're smart people, you can get the script and video together.

Don't make it compicated, just make a bunch of them, post em to YouTube, we vote on the ones we like most, get one of the cable networks to pick up a story about crowdsourcing and Katrina, and off we go, right?

[Nooneyouknow]

It's hard for me to believe that racism isn't involved in the Dems' calculations about mentioning Katrina. I think Obama's advisors, and maybe the man himself, are doing some twisty calculus about what a black man can and can't say to an electorate that's largely racist. I think a lot of people think of NOLA/Katrina as something that didn't happen to people, but black people. It's extremely unlikely that the Dems' failure to hammer Bushco and and "Birthday Boy" McCain for their murderous negligence around Katrina is an accident. The photo of Bush and McCain with his birthday cake, juxtaposed with photos of NOLA, would be a devastating political attack; so where are the Dems, and why aren't they all over McCain?

[INTJ]

Perhaps instead of blaming God, Bush, FEMA, the Red Cross, and the Army Corps of Engineers, someone should speak the truth: that if you build a city on the coast, in a bowl, below sea level, next to a lake, in Hurricane Alley, eventually something bad can and will happen. It was only a matter of time, and the sheer arrogance it takes, to believe that it could have been "prevented" by anything other than relocating to higher ground in the first place, is staggering.

[Harry Shearer - Huffpost Blogger]

So how about some actual truth: more than half of populated New Orleans is at or above sea level, the city iwas built one hundred miles inland from the Gulf Coast, and every city on the east and gulf coasts is in "hurricane alley".

[doctorj2u]

Thank you for the link Harry. I missed that article. It is AMAZING to me how much better the news coverage is in Great Britain and Canada. When did the American press stop reporting the news?

[Bulbul]

Harry, the third night of this extravaganza, I could not take any more, did we need to waste so much, when their own is about to hit by the scorn of nature , yet again. Sorry, to be politically incorrect, but some of us need to. Obama does not need my money now, just send some to humane ...

[DrJeffDrJeff]

Pardon my mistake please. The second to last sentence should have read:
Add in the incompetence and it's a wonder that more lives weren't lost.

[DrJeffDrJeff]

Please correct me if I'm wrong, but I've been given to understand that the levees were built with a safety margin of 1.4 to 1. Considering that the levees are essentially packed dirt, I find this pretty weak. In mechanical engineering, where metal comes from the foundries with testing certificates stating exactly how strong it is, safety factors under 2.0 to 1 are rarely used. Safety factors of 4 to 1 or greater aren't uncommon. Even without the incompetence from the cops on the beat to the White House, that was a disaster waiting to happen. Add in the incompetence and it was a disaster waiting to happen. Considering the amount of mud to go around, I'm actually surprised that New Orleans and Katrina were even mentioned at the convention.

[Harry Shearer - Huffpost Blogger]

Re: safety factor, you're basically correct. With regard to levees which are supposed to protect millions of people, that's the factor the Corps uses, far lower than the factor it uses for dams used to protect agricultural land. Also, in the Corps' cost-benefit calculations, the benefit of saving lives and property is not allowed to be factored in.

[Bulbul]

Last time even the ever trusted Red Cross failed us , I am sure you posted before the org. we can depend on. Appreciate, if you give us the info again.....

[Bienville]

The safety factor used was 1.3:1. Apparently, this is Corps doctrine for farmland, while a FS of 1.5:1 should have been used for populated areas.

It seems pretty low to me, too, given the unreliability of things like the reliability of in situ soils, but that's what it is.

The design was even further low-balled, at a stated 100-year return frequency. Forensic analysis of the design and construction indicates that mistakes and invalid assumptions led to and actual return frequency of about 50-75 years. Dams in this country are design at 100,000-year and 1,000,000-year return frequency, and many of them protect mostly farmland. Holland designs its system to a 10,000-year standard.

Nice, huh? I wonder why people in New Orleans are pissed.

[raker]

Maybe Democrats' dropping "Katrina and cronyism" is worse than if they said nothing at all. They've reduced the disaster in New Orleans to a political symbol, something in their quiver to pretend to care about every two or four or six years, as though it weren't a real place that is a continuing story of government neglect and human misery. We know what the Republicans have done to the city, but what have the Democrats done for New Orleans lately?

[doctorj2u]

Raker,
I agree with you. I will be voting for Obama, not because I think it will make any difference to New Orleans, but to PUNISH my party (Republican) for abandoning an American city and an American region. At least the Democrats can do no worse. That is an impossiblity. Never again should the response to tragedy be based on politics!

[abeattie]

Harry, what's happening down there?

Everybody is so busy choking on McCain's pick for veep and Obama's speech that I can't find news on the national services. What's the planning look like for the evacuation? What are the odds that the city survives a cat 3 or 4?

[Harry Shearer - Huffpost Blogger]

I was in Denver till yesterday, now I'm in LA. Check with NOLA.com and wwl.com to get the latest. That's what I'm doing....

[doctorj2u]

It looks like evacuation will start Saturday. The levees will only hold for a cat1 or 2. The services in the city will consist of burying the 86 unidentified and unclaimed bodies and the ringing of bells at the time the hurricane hit.
Nagin mentioned something yesterday that was interesting to me. He said some people are resistent to evacuation because they fear the government will not allow them back into the city ever again. He also said to keep out an eye for people that are withdrawn or can't complete tasks. The psychological toll of the new storm is very hard on people that are still living with the horrible toll of Katrina.

[Bienville]

There is almost no chance te levees will survive a Cat 3 storm. It all depends on the direction and the timing, of course.

But, the original design was so weak, the damage from 3 years ago was so great, and repairs are so incomplete, the levees will hardly stand a surge of more than 5 or 6 feet.

You aren't going to find this kind of information on national services. Don't make me laugh (bitterly).

It's far more sensational to run B-reels of boarding-up and evacuating.

[DS1Roger]

I agree the Katrina issue should be brought forward in it's full splendor.
Keep in mind that the local inept politicians from the Mayor all the way to governor were all Democrats. Money sent down for the purpose of working on the dikes were diverted into other pork projects.
Yes indeed mention Katrina with pride!
I won't defend the inept response of the US government response. That disaster covers both parties. Beware of the subject if you bring it up.
Plenty of mud to be thrown around.

It's the 21st century and we aren't running elections any different than when Rome was founded. Why?
Part of the loyal opposition.
I may disagree with your views but I respect your rights to keep them

[Harry Shearer - Huffpost Blogger]

You're incorrect re: the levees and funding. All funds for levee design and construction were under the undisputed control of the US Army Corps of Engineers. Local levee boards had responsibility only for maintenance--keeping the grass mowed, removing tree stumps, etc....

[DS1Roger]

Quote:
Criticism from politicians, activists, pundits and journalists of all stripes was directed at the local and state and governments headed by Mayor Ray Nagin of New Orleans and Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco. Nagin and Blanco were criticized for failing to implement New Orleans' evacuation plan and for ordering residents to a shelter of last resort without any provisions for food, water, security, or sanitary conditions. Perhaps the most important criticism of Nagin was that he delayed his emergency evacuation order until 19 hours before landfall, which led to hundreds of deaths of people who (by that time) could not find any way out of the city.

Touche! I may have some facts wrong about the levees. Won't be the first or last time I am wrong. But I am correct about the local political responses.

[Bladernr1001]

I posted yesterday on this board. It is a well known fact that spending on all types of infrastucture (including levees) has decreaased as a % of total government spending. We woud rather blow the wad on wealth distribution programs (programs that are bankrupting us as we speak)

Spending on infrastucture is boring, long term and mostly out of site compared to sexier things like entitlements, subsidies, graft, kickback and all the other things that pols use to get re-elected. Very few pols ever get called to the carpet for diverting infrstucture funds (the MSM usually makes some mention of it during the actual crisis but few pepople really listen) so tragedies like Katrina will keep on happening regardless of which party is in power.

Just another unintended consequence of our "entitlement" society.

[bobpomeroy]

The only thing which sickens me more than the neocon practice of shifting the subject when their brayings are confronted with facts, is our constant and over-stated vehement whining over the prioritizing of issues presented for resolution. We all want our hobby horse at the top of the list, waving the loudest flags. So just for a little while, after the convention, lets just focus on one thing -- electing Obama, so that the hope he instills in people can play out into the massive human effort required for the saving of the American Dream from the republican credo of profiteering. TY

[GuidedByEwoks]

Correction: apparently Jimmy just didn't want to give a speech and suggested filming in New Orleans. So nothing to do with the eye.
This is from the Atlanta Journal- Constitution 8-26-08

“I noticed it was almost the third anniversary of Katrina hitting the Gulf Coast,” Carter said. Republican presidential candidate John McCain, Carter said, “didn’t go down there until the following March. For one visit. And then he didn’t go back again for another 12 months. Whereas Obama’s been down there more than I have.

“What I tried to do in my presentation was show the difference in the two parties in their basic attitudes toward people who are in need. That was the message I was asked to deliver and I tried to do it. And I thought the film would be the most vivid presentation, rather than making a speech and telling what I experienced.”