Hurricane Protection A Low Priority For Bush
Hurricane Protection A Low Priority For Bush
Below is a history of funding for the Lake Pontchartrain and Vincinity Hurricane Protection project. (Note: This was the levee system that broke. Due to lack of funding, major construction stopped in 2004 — the first such stoppage in 37 years.)
2004:
Army Corps request: $11 million [Link]
Bush request: $3 million [Link]
Approved by Congress: $5.5 million [Link]2005:
Army Corps request: $22.5 million [Link]
Bush request: $3.9 million [Link]
Approved by Congress: $5.7 million [Link]2006:
Bush request: $2.9 million [Link]
Today, Scott McClellan claimed that “flood control has been a priority of this administration from day one.” This figures show that the administration has consistently budgeted far less that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has requested for flood control in Louisiana. And over the last several years, the gap between what the Corps requested and what the administration budgeted has increased.
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Bush is busy now memorizing the 5th amendment. Thanks for the info. Nico.
September 1st, 2005 at 2:42 pmThis is just so typical. I am not even shocked by this stuff anymore. I put nothing past these rotten, thieving, lying bastards.
September 1st, 2005 at 2:44 pmPeople are dead and dying inside the SuperDome
http://www.cnn.com/ 2005/ WEATHER/ 09/ 01/ katrina.impact/ index.html
Welcome to Bush’s Amerika
September 1st, 2005 at 2:45 pmBush should be talking to his lawyers about what his defense will be when he’s brought up on charges of crimes against humanity
September 1st, 2005 at 2:46 pmDear Think Progress
I do not think I have ever thanked you folks for doing an outstanding job, so thank you!
September 1st, 2005 at 2:46 pmThe should send the police to the white house and arrest BUsh and take him away to Guantanamo in handcuffs
September 1st, 2005 at 2:47 pmHe’s probably preparing for a lot of “I don’t recall clearly” answers, and to strengthen that claim, he’s giving this state of the whatever speech right now with a hangover.
September 1st, 2005 at 2:49 pmThere is soooooooooo much lying now that it has become just a joke! Unless I heard incorrectly- chertoff stated that 1400 troops per day for three days– What the hell does this mean? If that is what he said- then there have been NO TROOPS arriving before today? WTH
September 1st, 2005 at 2:56 pmbilljpa@aol.com
I believe the reactor of American political discourse is going to finally reach a critical mass in the coming weeks. I think we are witnessing the destruction of the GOP as events catch up to policy. No longer will hiding under the rocks of denial and arrogance be an option. Let us all throw salt on these slugs!
September 1st, 2005 at 2:57 pm#5…I join you in the ‘thanks’
September 1st, 2005 at 2:57 pmI agree with Citizen80203. Thanks Think Progress. My new hobby of reading blogs as found a great starting point.
Nothing the Bush has done suprises me. What has really surprised me is him getting a second term. That was a big surprise.
Too bad 1800+ dead, 15000+ injured and tens of thousands more hard working soldiers in Iraq won’t be able to help rebuild the lives of those unfortunate souls in the South.
Let’s not forget the poor souls in Bahgdad. That was a terrible thing to happen.
September 1st, 2005 at 2:57 pmTo Bush’s credit, he has abdicated his responsibilities and has asked Clinton to do his job for him. There’s some hope for the stranded.
September 1st, 2005 at 2:59 pmOMG this is so horrible. I can only imagine the terror those people are experiencing. Aren’t we fighting a war on terror?
What is the deal with them having to break into the food service kitchen to get food and water at the superdome??? Didn’t anybody think to look there? It’s been, what, 4 days???
And Bush is talking about Zero-Tolerance. There you have it folks. The most important thing to do is arrest the people who are breaking the law and evacuate them to prison. They’re even setting up temporary courtrooms!
Why can’t they air drop pallets of water and MREs? How long will it take to get 25,000 people out of there one bus at a time? This is a tragedy beyond all previous understanding of tragedy. This is AMERICA. This is NOT SUPPOSED TO HAPPEN HERE.
September 1st, 2005 at 3:15 pmCorrect me if I’m wrong here, but I’m starting to think Bush might need to rethink those tax cuts before we end up cutting into our domestic budget.
September 1st, 2005 at 3:46 pmbushco has been concerned with flooding. Flooding their donating class with more tax refunds so the poor have to pay for EVERYTHING! & guess what? When it’s all said and done, they will blame the poor BECAUSE THEY DIDN’T GIVE ENOUGH!
How can we squeeze more blood out of this turnip?
September 1st, 2005 at 3:49 pmDoes anyone else beside me remember the good old days of the Clinton WH, 6 short years ago?? Talk about a drop from the top.
September 1st, 2005 at 3:53 pmThe class war against the people of New Orleans started long before Katrina. For the details, see:
“New Orleans Pays the Death Tax.”
September 1st, 2005 at 3:53 pmBad. And Getting Worse
The latest from New Orleans and beyond.
September 1st, 2005 at 4:01 pmHere is something I bet Red and NED hadn’t noticed: the words ‘flood control’ have 4 o’s in them and something Bush can mention in a news conference: there is one “o” for each year since 9-11.
September 1st, 2005 at 4:46 pmGood job. The numbers are really much worse though. Just ask Senator Landrieu.
The usually VERY rightwing Chicago Tribune had this to say…
Despite continuous warnings that a catastrophic hurricane could hit New Orleans, the Bush administration and Congress in recent years have repeatedly denied full funding for hurricane preparation and flood control.
That has delayed construction of levees around the city and stymied an ambitious project to improve drainage in New Orleans’ neighborhoods.
For instance, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers requested $27 million for this fiscal year to pay for hurricane-protection projects around Lake Pontchartrain. The Bush administration countered with $3.9 million, and Congress eventually provided $5.7 million, according to figures provided by the office of U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.).
Because of the shortfalls, which were caused in part by the rising costs of the war in Iraq, the corps delayed seven contracts that included enlarging the levees, according to corps documents.
Similarly, the Army Corps requested $78 million for this fiscal year for projects that would improve draining and prevent flooding in New Orleans. The Bush administration’s budget provided $30 million for the projects, and Congress ultimately approved $36.5 million, according to Landrieu’s office.
September 1st, 2005 at 5:01 pmThis is indeed the best blog.
September 1st, 2005 at 5:02 pmBush should be getting prepared for judgment soon.
Cuts for all domestic funding with an eye toward bankrupting the government so it can all be privatized is backfiring on him with such force, his presidency may not survive. It is my fervent hope that the media and the public will not let this latest disgrace die from lack of sustained attention as every other scandal and crime of this administration.
Apparently the Republican Congress won’t act against him. The press has been asleep at the wheel. It is only us regular folks who can make this impeachment happen. Lying about oral sex is so inconsequential compared to the lying and stealing - now raping - this bastard has done to America.
Thanks for all the blogs providing the real truth about this tragedy. I can’t help but think of the tens of thousands of OUR TROOPS stuck in Hell in IRAQ while their families and friends fates are UNKNOWN and GRIM in HELL at HOME. Now we truly understand what SHOCK and AWE is to an innocent civilian population. IMPEACH THE WHOLE GANG NOW!
September 1st, 2005 at 7:11 pmBush should declare war on Mother Nature and her accomplice “Katrina” for using a waepon of mass destruction and initiate a global war on hurricanes.
September 2nd, 2005 at 2:32 amYou all are nuts!!! Seriously, do you read what you write? Do you realize that you are blaming a person for a natural disaster? How do you know that if they built the levees up that it would have stopped it? This was a hurricane you idiots. I really feel sorry for all of you for taking this terrible situation and using it to spread your hatred for a person that had nothing to do with it. Try reading a little history about the levees in NO before you post bs like this.
September 2nd, 2005 at 5:19 amPerhaps Steven would be so kind as to favor us poor ignorant ranters and blasphemers with links to the information he so righteously ’suggests’ is extant in the literature. So sayeth a transplanted Louisianian who spent many days and nights walking, driving, biking and parking on, around and over the levees of the Mississippi.
September 2nd, 2005 at 5:42 amOh, and just to mention, my brother and his family, who own their very own plot of now-toxic unreal estate in the Big Easy, are safely in the arms of family out-of-state.
Perhaps now is the time to give thought to those who aren’t so fortunate — untold tens of thousands who have yet to be delivered from the poisonous cesspool that much of NOLA has become — and so many more in Mississippi and Alabama who are suffering and will continue to suffer for weeks and months ahead.
We are talking about possibly a million or more Americans who suddenly have lost homes, family, friends, pets, all their belongings and many of the memories that they represent… I can hardly begin to imagine their suffering.
I say set aside the attention being paid to those currently in power and, instead of blaming them for what they did not do, take what clothes, blankets, toys, food, blood, spare rooms, and money we can spare and offer it to help those in such dire need.
Then, when it is time, for those who are truly and knowingly responsible for the many failures that led up to this debacle — may they have their day in the spotlight.
September 2nd, 2005 at 6:25 amThe section that failed and flooded the city was recently upgraded and was not on the list for further upgrades. If anyone is at fault it is the engineers who did not plan for overflow undermining the concrete wall from the rear.
September 2nd, 2005 at 9:15 amYes, but the reason it wasn’t slated for further upgrades is not because it didn’t need it. It’s because the funding was cut and they could only address the absolutely most severe areas. As the Corps has said, a very wide cross-section of the levees needed further upgrading but they didn’t have the funds to do so.
This also refutes Steve’s silly outburst as well; incorrectly claiming people are blaming Bush for a hurricane when we are blaming him for a total lack of preparedness.
That, and that he was off eating cake, and Condi was buying shoes on 5th Avenue, while New Orleanans were drowning.
It’s taken 7 days to react to this natural disaster. One can only imagine how slow BushCo will react once there is a terrorist attack.
That now TWO national disasters on Bush’s watch that we were warned about and did little. It’s funny how these things just seem to keep following the little silver spooner around, eh? Must be the fault of that damn liberal media again.
September 2nd, 2005 at 12:55 pmI found no mention of the New Orleans wetlands issue. Wetlands help create a flood buffer by naturally controlling the water. Bush has undermined wetlands protection by favoring development on the wetlands that were needed to NARURALLY help control flooding. Also, just like FEMA being under funded and administered by a complete incompetent sycophant, the wildland fire program that is tasked with managing natural disasters is facing more budget cuts for 2006 FY. We lost 12 firefighters this summer that were used to staff engines and crews last year in Montana and it looks like we won’t be able to fund even our fire lookouts next year, let alone hire a seasonal firefighting workforce. As a fire management officer who is being asked to help with logistical support in New Orleans at the same time my forest has active fires, what am I to do? I could provide an easy answer if all my leadership positions were funded. THEY ARENT, reason being this war in Iraq and the above mentioned sycophants in DC.
September 2nd, 2005 at 2:37 pmWell New Orleans is where I was born and raised most of my life before we moved to Tennessee, when I see the tragedy that is taking place it just helps to reinforce a statement I heard when I was young “When has the rich ever given a damn about the poorâ€.
As our federal government has over the past 20 years been running too and fro trying to solve everyone else’s problems in the world, we seem to have forgotten about our own people at home. And New Orleans is just the magnifying glass this country needed to maybe bring it to light.
We seem to be able to find money for every other country in the world, every disaster that comes along we are the first on the ground, but as the old saying goes “charity starts at home†we can seem to approve 300 million dollar per plane (FY-22) for our military but can not seem to approve 22.5 million to help protect one of our countries most prized cities?
And its not just New Orleans, it across our whole country, we are setting ourselves up for a “French Revolution†there is no more “Middle Class†there is the haves and the have not’s! There are those people who live from paycheck to paycheck in an endless cycle of trying to pull there life to the next rung of existence.
The whole while, The White House, Congress and our State Government Fat Cats literally steal the food out of people’s mouths.
To quote a saying…â€It’s a big S*#@ sandwich and as usually the poor is going to eat almost all of itâ€
September 2nd, 2005 at 4:33 pmSteve, why is it that you and all your “blame Bush last’rs” refuse to recognize that this administrations actions in cutting funds to the Army Corps of Engineers for the last four years (many of whom have worked for the last year for NO PAY because THEY realized the stakes and actually gave a damn about people) lead to an entirely predictable result - years of predictions of this very outcome. The adminstration - all of it- must be held accountable for their actions. Is there anything that Bush has put a hand to that didn’t turn to a pile of shit? The total absence of leadership (till he called in his dad and Bill C.)is criminally negligent at best. So what is the RNC response in these trying times? Repeal the estate tax.
September 2nd, 2005 at 5:50 pm[…] Think Progress reports on funding for protecting New Orleans against hurricanes. 2004: Army Corps request: $11 million [Link] Bush request: $3 million [Link] Approved by Congress: $5.5 million [Link] […]
September 2nd, 2005 at 9:10 pmThis is a response to # 24: Brent:
You are the ignorant onbe: This a is Structural Engineering problem: If BUSH had not cut the budget, the Corp of Engineers would have re-inforced the Leevees for a category 5 hurican: So DUMMY, thisd is Bush’s ignorance and Stupidty can caused this preoblem
September 3rd, 2005 at 6:09 amTo begin with I am a REDNECK,Christian,Republican(?)And I am really disappointed in our (GOD-FEARING????)
September 3rd, 2005 at 11:21 amPresident.Am I the only one that sees the timing of giving the Gaza strip to the Jew and American hating Palestinens and Mother Natures(GOD)wrath, Katrina. The U.S. co-signed on the treaty that said the Arabs would play fair and not bomb the Jews anymore and guess what as soon as the last Jew was out of the gaza strip the mortar attack began and homicide bombers went back to work killing Jews.I am not a Jew lover but a Jew never Killed a member of my family.God Bless America
There seems to be some dispute about whether or not additional funding would have made any difference. A former head of the Army Corps of Engineers claimed that it would, while the current one claims that it wouldn’t.
http://news.yahoo.com/ s/ chitribts/ corpslackoffundsdidnotcontributetoflooding
Incidentally, I’m not claiming that this excuses their lack of funding… if this had been a Cat 3 hurricane, it probably would have caused the same failures, and that *would* have been prevented by proper funding. However, in this particular case, funding wouldn’t have helped.
September 3rd, 2005 at 7:31 pmThe entire argument about funding or not funding is important, but sidetracks us from the simple fact that people were stranded on overpasses (and the nightly news) without food or water or shelter. This argument is about fixing blame somewhere, and we should be arguing that helicopters should have been sent to rescue people and once safe, we can figure out what needs to be done to make rescue part of the first plan of action in the next disaster.
September 4th, 2005 at 3:32 pmZed #35
If Bush’s appointee in the Corp of Engineers would make comments claiming that Bush’s cuts didn’t have any affect, then it MUST BE TRUE! :>)
The Bush administration would NEVER lie about anything!
The savings by the Bush administration were enormous. Almost $30 million. We all know that spending 4 cents per American for each year over three years would have destroyed the economy!
September 4th, 2005 at 3:36 pmHere is your link…
http://www.cnsnews.com/ViewNation.asp?Page=\Nation\archive\200509\NAT20050907a.html
Like I said. Know your facts about something before you spout off about it. Also, please check into the facts about what FEMA’s response is supposed to be.
Oh…one more thing…
Meanwhile, the Louisiana Senator who’s been telling everyone about how the Federal government should have stepped right in, first thing, and done everything, has a bit about FEMA on her web site (pre-Katrina, of course):
http://landrieu.senate.gov/services/agencies.cfm
“DISASTER ASSISTANCE
Emergency management operations for disasters include three phases: preparedness, response, and recovery. In the preparedness phase, state and local governments administer emergency preparedness programs with ongoing activities to help ensure that they are ready to respond to disasters. The Louisiana Department of Emergency Preparedness is responsible for all initial damage assessment prior to federal involvement.
“The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) partially funds disaster assistance and emergency preparedness programs. Victims whose immediate needs are not met by voluntary relief organizations, such as the Red Cross and the Salvation Army, can register with FEMA.”
And riding a bike on a levee qualifies you to what? Tell me how the biking on the levees are?
September 9th, 2005 at 1:22 amBush should be talking to his lawyers about what his defense will be when he’s brought up on charges of crimes against humanity
Comment by cmw
If I were you I’d be worried about what happens to you when we reinstitute the Sedition Act. Can you do 20 years?
September 14th, 2005 at 7:54 pm[…] "Today, Scott McClellan claimed that “flood control has been a priority of this administration from day one.” This figures show that the administration has consistently budgeted far less that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has requested for flood control in Louisiana." read more […]
May 27th, 2006 at 3:29 am[…] “Today, Scott McClellan claimed that “flood control has been a priority of this administration from day one.†This figures show that the administration has consistently budgeted far less that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has requested for flood control in Louisiana.” read more […]
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