“Hurricane Pam” Reveals Administration’s Incompetence
“Hurricane Pam” Reveals Administration’s Incompetence
While President Bush has maintained that nobody could have “anticipated the breach of the levees,” more and more information is being revealed to demonstrate that the adminstration was fully aware of the catastrophic damage that could result if a hurricane were to strike the New Orleans region.
In July 2004, just over one year ago, FEMA held a five-day exercise at the State Emergency Operations Center in Baton Rouge to develop joint response plans for a catastrophic hurricane in Louisiana.
In the staged scenario developed by FEMA, a fictitious “Hurricane Pam” brought 120-mph winds and storms that “topped levees in the New Orleans area.” “More than one million residents evacuated and Hurricane Pam destroyed 500,000-600,000 buildings.”
The New Orleans Times-Picayune covered the FEMA exercise and reported that officials focused on six major issues. One of which was: “Removing floodwater from New Orleans, Metairie and other bowl-like areas where levees will capture and hold storm surge, possibly for days or weeks.” The hypothetical specifically posited the following:
The water would be high enough in parts of New Orleans to top 17-foot levees, including some along Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet, Zileski said. Some of the water pushed into Lake Pontchartrain would flow through a gap in the hurricane levee in St. Charles Parish, flow across land to the Mississippi River levee and be funneled south into Jefferson and Orleans parishes.
The fact is that FEMA anticipated the effects of Hurricane Katrina over a year before it actually hit the Gulf Coast region. There should be no excuse for the Bush administration’s incompetent management of the hurricane recovery efforts to date.
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Bush Playing Guitar
Bush eating cake
Bush playing golf
While people died.
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:14 amBush delivering a speech in Colorado comparing the Iraq war to World War II and himself to Franklin D. Roosevelt
While the levees burst in New Orleans.
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:23 amsigh
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:32 am9-24-05….The American People rip the White House apart with their bare hands so they can get at it’s contents.
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:32 amIf you rip apart the White House, you will find the lights are on but no one is home.
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:35 amI will be there.
http://unitedforpeace.org/ article.php?list=type&type=91
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:35 amI’m ashamed & embarrassed to be an American. W. is now on TV at a staged event in Mobile, Alabama with his cronie, Haley Barbor, tearing up over the disaster - showing his “compassion.” Too little - too late!
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:37 am“I don’t know who drafted his speech, but I doubt they were around back then,” - David Graham, a World War II Navy veteran who lives near San Diego, on Bush’s VJ Day speech.
http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_2987175
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:44 amYOU DEMOCOMMIES BETTER NOT SULLY OUR WHITE HOUSE WITH YER FILTHY HANDS. WE GOT GUNS. MINITMEN, TO THE WHITE HOUSE!
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:45 amThis should teach those who are listening that if you are poor, black, infirm, or in the hospital that Bush will treat you with as much compassion as he treats unarmed Iraqi civilians.
Impeach Bush. NOW!
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:48 am#7 - Was Gov. Barbour introduced as “Kyoto Protocol Derailer-in-Chief” ? I guess not.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/ robert-f-kennedy-jr/ afor-they-that-sow-the-_b_6396.html
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:49 amWhat the hell is wrong with these people. 3 Days late on foreign assistance. 5 Days late on National Guard deployment. 7 Days late on FEMA recognizing the disaster. 5 days late on the President recognizing the level of destruction. Days late on every front of the response to this disaster. DISGRACE!!
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:49 amI think there is a pattern here:
“I don’t think anybody could have predicted …that they would try to use an airplane as a missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile” - the hugely incompetent Condoleezza Rice.
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:51 amThe BBC sums up why this is a National Disgrace:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/4207628.stm
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:53 amI thought I’d seen it all, but when Bush showed up with his sleeves rolled up,and got out for a photo opt, while people in hospitals lay dieing….need I say more?
September 2nd, 2005 at 12:08 pmI heard this interview on NPR. One of the most telling pieces of information is that this guy said “According to the last census, there are 112,000 households in New Orleans that do not own any form of transportation.”
So, for all of the right wing whackos that have been posting about how these people wanted to stay, I say go f**k yourself.
Lets put a conservative 3 people in each of those households, even though we know there probably more.
3 * 112,000 = 336,000
Right now they are saying that there could be upwards of 300,000 refugees. Could these be the same people? Is that why there is no response? Is the administartion dragging it’s feet, so that some of these poor people die off?
September 2nd, 2005 at 12:14 pm#9
BTW: We have guns too. See you there.
September 2nd, 2005 at 12:17 pmThis is sick. If the 300,000 refugees were blond haired, blue eyed, country club elites do you think it would take as long as it has to extract them?
Bush and those around him are anything but compassionate.
September 2nd, 2005 at 12:35 pm#16 Spudgeboy - I heard the same statistics this morning - it may have been on Air America — This is a national disgrace — a White House disgrace. This is what happens when incompetence is elected - a guy one “could have a beer with” and when he appoints his friends, and campaign donors to crucial positions in government.
September 2nd, 2005 at 1:34 pmThe man and his team have got to go. NOW.
JCGofW
September 2nd, 2005 at 1:35 pmI think these people are guilty of being PWB.
Poor While Black. Like Sudan, Darfur, and now even in our own country — the darker your skin the less important you are to this white, fair-haired blue-eyed boy king born with a silver spoon in his mouth.
I think BushLuver is a joke.
September 2nd, 2005 at 1:36 pmLess than 2 months ago, Cuba was able to move 1.7 million people on short notice. The whole civil defense is embedded in the community to begin with. People know ahead of time where they are to go. They come to your door and knock, and tell you, evacuation is coming, then they come and tell you, now. If no electricity, they have runners who communicate from a headquarters to central locations what is to be done.
Cuba’s leaders go on TV and take charge. but not only the leaders are speaking. The TV weatherpeople are knowledgeable. and the population is well educated about hurricanes.They not only evacuate. it’s arranged beforehand where they will go, who has family where. not only pickup is organized, delivery of people is organized.
Merely sticking them in a stadium is unthinkable. shelters all have medical personnel, from the neighborhood. They have family doctors in Cuba (!), who evacuate together with the neighborhood, and already know who, for example, needs insulin.
If they evacuate to a countryside high school — a last resort — they have dormitories there.
They also have veterinarians and they evacuate animals. they begin evacuating immediately, and also evacuate TV sets and refrigerators, so that people aren’t relucatant to leave because people might steal their stuff.
It’s not throwing money at the problem. it’s not financial capital, it’s social capital. the u.s. in this sense has zero social capital.
Dealing with hurricanes in Cuba, as compared with how it’s done in the U.S., is similar to the differences in how they deal with medicine. it’s not reactive; It’s proactive. they act as early as possible. the U.S. doesn’t have civil defense, it has civil *reaction.*
September 2nd, 2005 at 2:55 pmCuba would be a wonderful place to live, wouldn’t it Mondo? I’m sure you can tell us about their liberty and rights.
September 2nd, 2005 at 3:19 pmCreamy,
You mean like secret renditions of citizens without access to lawyers? You mean the death penalty? You mean harrassment by the secret police for stating public dissent? You mean put on a watch and travel list without access to why/how or removal from that list?
Oh wait, those are all things that occur in the US…
You have such a great talent for missing the point. Despite the horrific civil rights problems of cuba (and the US), at least they have a near 100% literacy rate, free healthcare and actual coordinated disaster relief. If I’m going to have my rights taken away by a dictator (george), I at least expect the same basic facilities and capabilities at Cuba. We’re worse now - we’re a banana republic where we get all of the crap of a latin american dictatorship, with none of the social support of a cuba…
September 2nd, 2005 at 3:28 pmCreamy Goddess is either Ann Coulter or Laura Ingraham.
September 2nd, 2005 at 4:09 pmNo - it’s really Rush Lintball.
Lyin Ryan is back. This is gonna be great fun!
September 2nd, 2005 at 5:48 pmLyinSteed,
I’m back from my vacation - I see you’re still saying 100% of the opposite of truths. Haven’t you started your prozac yet? Don’t you have a life? Why are you bothering your ‘valuable’ time on a liberal site? Are you that pathetic that you have nothing more important to do with your time? Go to new orleans and pack sand bags, it’s more appropriate to your skill level and you’d have more positive impact on the world that you’ve obviously ever had before…
September 2nd, 2005 at 7:19 pmThis is the final proof of the utter stupidity and incometence of the Bush Administration and thier moronic leader. George Bush has had his head up his ass ever since he was 16 years old, and now it’s so far up their the “Jaws Of Life” couldn’t get it out.
The failure of the Federal Govt. to help it’s own people, is a sickening example of just how callous and incompetent Republicans and George Bush really are.
September 2nd, 2005 at 7:44 pmFema and Homeland security are nothing but billion dollar out sourcing departments. They just sign contacts for stuff…gas masks, radiation suits, new fire engine for nowhere whereever. What you see happening in NO will be the reponse to bird flu or a dirty bomb. I want my money back.
September 2nd, 2005 at 8:08 pmIf America had a nearly 100% literacy rate, Dumbya wouldn’t be pRESIDENT.
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:09 pmEver since this “administration” seized office there has been nothing but devastation and death for this nation and its people. From the careless attitude toward reducing money for strengthening levees, to global warming, to the lies and arrogance of going to war, and the complicity in allowing 9/11 to happen;it’s typical of the GOP spin and grin.
September 2nd, 2005 at 11:32 pmWhile all of this happens, there is great profit for Halliburton in Iran, Afghanistan, and now New Orleans, for, yes, Halliburton will take care of the cleanup.
VOTE REPUBLICAN! Let’s have another four years, or more, of disasters from the masters. While the Big Easy goes under, our great commander strums the guitar and plays golf. What compassion, what leadership, he’s outdone Nero, and this time he avoided any reference to a pet goat. The man has class.
VOTE REPUBLICAN and thank God…who, by the way, works in strange ways.
You forgot eating cake with McCain (the jackal) and Condi-sleezy-rice buying thousands of dollars worth of shoes….
Did you know a woman approached kinda-sleezy rice and said how dare you buy shoes while this disaster is happening? Never wanting her fashion called into question, she had security REMOVE this unwanted pest.
LET ‘EM EAT CAKE….
This is Eva Peron on sterroids….
September 3rd, 2005 at 1:25 amI am livid!
What a bunch of crap! Dumbya was off his ass and into Florida (because it was an election year) and had everyone taking care of the hurricane damage IMMEDIATELY.
Goes to show you, if you are poor, gay, or black (or any combination of the above) you DON’T DESERVE TO LIVE.
September 3rd, 2005 at 1:27 amAnd don’t even get me started on the FEMA idiot saying donate to Pat Robertson….
hypocrit.
September 3rd, 2005 at 1:28 amBush Administration Had Reason To Know About Levee Problems ********** I don’t know who wrote this tripe. If I find out I may pay them a visit for a history lesson.
This inane and utterly temper tantrum knavery comment ignores that this problem was started in LBJ’s Admin, continued in Nixon’s, Ford’s, Carter’s, Reagan’s, Bush’s, Clinton’s before it got to the current government.
A Kennedy even claimed that if Bush had signed the Kyoto Treaty it would have ended global warming and thus solved the hurricane problem.
The other question remains, “What were all you finger pointing nincompoops doing during the previous seven presidential administrations?
Enough of your empty-headed chicanery and buffoonery you unemployable wipers of other people’s bottoms!
CB
September 3rd, 2005 at 4:35 pmIf you get sick because you didn’t duct tape your windows, well that’s your own damn fault! You can’t be relying on us to clean up the mess in your neighborhood! You should’ve left your house in the first place! We warned you already! Don’t you watch tv and pay attention to those little color meter things?!
September 3rd, 2005 at 6:22 pmMSNBC Saturday 09.03.05: Rita Crosby interviewed Dr. Van Heerden from L.S.U. regarding the Hurricane Pam FEMA exercise. He said that he gave a disk with all the data to a representive of the White House. We do not, yet, know what happened to the information in the “chain of command”. Dr. Van Heerden said that a woman from FEMA, who did not like the predictions being made by those involved in the exercise, that “Americans don’t sleep in tents.” Rita Crosby asked Dr. Van Heerden what he would say to her now and he responded, “I’de ring her neck.”
“Government is responsible for the governed.” Franklin Delano Roosevelt
This administration does not know the meaning of the word.
September 3rd, 2005 at 8:04 pmIs it true that Dick Cheney is still on holiday?
I guess he also needs to,”..get on with my life.”
Here is a link to a timeline of the White House actions from the British press: http://news.independent.co.uk/ world/ americas/ article309938.ece
September 3rd, 2005 at 8:15 pmFunding for the levee reinforcement and repairs in the Louisiana had been cut over the years. Funding for the Iraq war in which BushCo gets to share in doing contract works is still increasing. What a shame!!
http://www.latimes.com/ media/ graphic/ 2005-09/ 19282292.gif
September 3rd, 2005 at 9:56 pmTo the unsung heroes of Hurricane Katrina, those people who are helping in every way imaginable to find and sustain human life in the face of tragedy, we are forever in your debt and stand in awe of the tremendous self-sacrifice that all of you have made in order to help your fellow man.
To those of you in positions of power, who have hesitated and, in doing so, contributed to the devastation throughout Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, and who are now working hard to place blame on everyone but yourselves, may I remind you of the following…
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. –That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, –That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness…But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them … it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
SOMEONE NEEDS TO ANSWER FOR THIS CRIME AGAINST OUR OWN CITIZENS
September 5th, 2005 at 10:49 amThere is an issue antecedent to the criminal inadequacy of the government’s response in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. That is its failure to avert the catastrophic loss of human life, in numbers which we cannot now know but which in days to come will be revealed to our everlasting horror and shame. The figure of 112,000 households in New Orleans without private transportation was known to FEMA officials as they engaged in the “Hurricane Pam” preparedness exercise of July, 2004. Yet no plan was in place to evacuate those persons ahead of a storm which almost exactly parelled the theoretical “Pam”, except that Katrina was stronger and more menacing. The swirling mass in the Gulf of Mexico took days to reach the gulf coast. It gave FEMA, whose job it is to mitigate damage by action, fair warning of its ferocity. Every corpse under the fetid waters which stand in the streets of New Orleans will haunt the American conscience as silent witness of this administration’s depraved indifference to human life.
September 5th, 2005 at 5:10 pmSources inside “The Bridge” (state/federal/military response center) indicate that the ball was dropped by both the Mayor of New Orleans AND mostly by the Governor(es) of Louisiana. Federal assistance cannot be requested without the State government making the requistion.
September 6th, 2005 at 10:39 amTrue, drummer1159, but as Nagin said in his now infamous radio interview, the tsunami victims didn’t need to “request” aid.
Also, Bush declared southeastern Louisiana and southwestern Mississippi disaster areas before the hurricanes even hit, so federal aid would be available - in that light, it was already their responsibility. They dropped the ball. I’m not saying Blanco and Nagin aren’t responsible in some ways - I’m pretty Blanco has some heavy responsibility to shoulder in this - but the federal govm’t screwed up big time. There’s no covering their arses on this one.
I live an hour from New Orleans and I’ve been watching all of this very closely. All of the administration’s pretty words at this point can’t get the story out of my head of a 10 year-old girl being raped and her throat being cut in the dank, dark bathrooms of the Superdome while she waited for rescue with thousands of others who have similar horror stories. Our govm’t is responsible for more deaths than Katrina - that is terrifying and unacceptable.
September 6th, 2005 at 11:58 amWhy hasn’t the Hurricane Pam study by FEMA(2004) not been in the TV news or in the press?
Hurricane Katrina largely follows the Pam disaster prediction.
David R. Dilley
September 7th, 2005 at 4:29 pmEast Lansing, Michigan
Sadly, given the extent and depth of the hurricane ‘PAM’ simulation —- together with the fact that it was conducted *within* Louisiana —- we must conclude
the obvious: This Is Murder!!
Have A Healthy, Prosperous Day!
September 8th, 2005 at 7:01 pm—robert
From FEMA’s own assessment of the “Hurricane Pam” exercise dated July 23, 2004…
“State resources are adequate to operate shelters for the first 3-5 days. The group planned how federal and other resources will replenish supplies at shelters.”
Obviously, the Governor of LA did not check her e-mail that day, as she was clearly left clueless that it was up to her state’s agencies to care for the displaced persons after a major hurricane for up to 5 days. Besides, anyone who lives in a hurricane zone, and does not know that if one hits that you may be “on your own” for several days is sticking their head in the proverbial sand.
September 9th, 2005 at 1:12 pmDear Mrs. Roosevelt,
We need you right now. We believe that you would not be of the opinion that the survivors of this recent Hurricane, “…were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them.” (Barbara Bush 10/05/05) Despite your privileged upbringing we believe that you would comprehend and thus never consider making such a uncompassionate statement. We need someone, like you, who pioneered equality for all americans without class distinctions. Mrs. Roosevelt if you could put in a good word to Mr. Roosevelt - we sure could use him and his philosophy that, “Government is responsible for the governed.” If we had a government that understood that now many lives could have been saved.
Sincerely,
Daniel Dieter Abt
September 9th, 2005 at 10:01 pmTucson, AZ
It won’t matter how many terrorists we flush out of caves in Iraq, and Iran and any other country, if we allow the people that the president is sworn to protect, die in a natural disaster, that could have been minimized, right here at home.
God bless America, God help America.
As it stands, today, in the eyes of Americans, like me, who watched our President’s response to the total failure of everything we entrusted him with, our motto seems to be - United we stand if you are rich and/or productive citizens, but if you aren’t, and if you are divided from those by economics and race, you are on your own, and ‘Brownie’ will do a “Heck of a job†in letting you drown.
Amen.
September 10th, 2005 at 8:41 pmOur government has once again showed its true colors, our very lives mean nothing as long as they get what they want, WAR, MONEY, and POWER OVER US!!! When does it stop, do we need to take things into our own hands and get rid of our so called government! How many more people have to suffer and die before this government takes care of our country and its own soil and people. We the people have become nothing but parisites in our governments eyes, this disastrous event never had to be this bad if the government had taken care of our homelands first and formost.
September 11th, 2005 at 1:07 amI really think that George Bush should be impeached for all tghe pain and suffering he has caused America.
September 12th, 2005 at 6:05 pmGeorge Bush’s statement that he takes responsibility for the sluggish response of the government in coming to the aid of Katrina’s victims strikes me as coming from the mouth of the murderer after he’s been tried and convicted with irrefutable facts. If there is a smoking gun in this tragedy, George Bush is holding it.
September 13th, 2005 at 5:03 pmGive me a break… The Mayor and Governor are to blame. Where did all the money paid to the state and city go that was to be used for planning and upgrades. Billions have been wasted by the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor and they should be held accountable. The federal government cannnot force the Mayor to activate school busses and evacuate the population.
If you want to blame the federal government then you would need to truly put them in charge. A federal police department; a federally sellected mayor, and a federally selected governor.
Do you really want that? I don’t think so. The answer is to elect quialified honest people at the state and local level. Good luck in Lousiana.
There is a reason that Mississippi, Florida and Alabama did not have the problems that Lousiana did. Look at the leadership.
Think
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