Orkanen Katrina og Bush

Orkanen Katrina har lagt New Orleans under vand, og over 1000 frygtes dræbt. Endnu flere frygtes at dø, hvis ikke hjælpen kommer frem i tide. På de demokratiske blogs i USA breder opfatelsen af at de seneste dødsfald kunne være undgået, hvis ikke Bush havde sparet katastofeværnet FEMA væk - eller havde forberedt USA bedre til katastofen."I don´t think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees."
--Bush, to the knee-padded Dianne Sawyer on ABC’s Good Morning America, this morning (1/9-05).

  Before 9/11 the Federal Emergency Management Agency listed the three most likely catastrophic disasters facing America: a terrorist attack on New York, a major earthquake in San Francisco and a hurricane strike on New Orleans. "The New Orleans hurricane scenario," The Houston Chronicle wrote in December 2001, "may be the deadliest of all." It described a potential catastrophe very much like the one now happening.

NY Times: A Can´t-Do Government Link

På en række blogs beskriver de, hvordan Bush sparede katastofeværnet væk:

Political Animal: FEMA THEN AND NOW....So what does James Lee Witt, former director of FEMA in the 90s, think of his agency´s response to Hurricane Katrina? link

Political Animal: CHRONOLOGY....Here´s a timeline that outlines the fate of both FEMA and flood control projects in New Orleans under the Bush administration. Read it and weep. Link

The left coaster: Planning for Disasters link

Political Animal: EVACUATING THE POOR....Why did so many people who lacked the means to evacuate New Orleans get left behind?

Brian Wolshon, an engineering professor at Louisiana State University who served as a consultant on the state´s evacuation plan, said little attention was paid to moving out New Orleans´s "low-mobility" population — the elderly, the infirm and the poor without cars or other means of fleeing the city, about 100,000 people.
At disaster planning meetings, he said, "the answer was often silence." Link

It´s not that no one had thought of this problem. They just didn´t consider it important enough to spend any time on. Link

Blogs om Bush´ lederskab:

The left coaster: As the mayor of New Orleans tells us the worst, that in fact there will be thousands of deaths from Katrina, we can take comfort that our commander in chief is “monitoring” the situation...by flying over it at an altitude of 5,000 feet on his way back from his vacation. Link

The left coaster: The Media Take On Bu$h´$ Inaction link

Blogs om Partiernes hjemmesider:

Daily Kos: Compassionate something or other in action Link - Link