[Leica] planning for disaster

[scott at adrenaline.com (Scott McLoughlin)]

I try to keep my head above water politics wise, especially in such
a horrible situation such as this. But this little stroke of political "bad
luck" - or judgement, rather - really, really pisses me off.

Protecting the tax payers here at home need be the #1 priority of
any political administration.

I imagine it's hard to calculate the human lives, and physical
capital, cost by this little budgetary trade off, but one can imagine.

Scott

george lottermoser wrote:

>>Baloney - there is no reason they shouldn't be planning for these kind of
>>events. I know for sure the British Military plans for massive Disaster 
>>    
>>
>and
>  
>
>>Civil Defence missions such as this - at one time I was involved in just
>>such planning.
>>    
>>
>------------------------------
>Subject: Bush cuts N.O flood control $$ 44% to pay for Iraq - Salon.com
>In 2001, FEMA warned that a hurricane striking New Orleans was one of the
>three most likely disasters in the U.S. But the Bush administration cut New
>Orleans flood control funding by 44 percent to pay for the Iraq war.
>
>By Sidney Blumenthal
>
>
>Aug. 31, 2005  |  Biblical in its uncontrolled rage and scope, Hurricane
>Katrina has left millions of Americans to scavenge for food and shelter and 
>hundreds to thousands reportedly dead. With its main levee broken, the 
>evacuated city of New Orleans has become part of the Gulf of Mexico. But 
>the 
>damage wrought by the hurricane may not entirely be the result of an act of 
>nature.
>
>A year ago the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed to study how New
>Orleans could be protected from a catastrophic hurricane, but the Bush
>administration ordered that the research not be undertaken. After a flood
>killed six people in 1995, Congress created the Southeast Louisiana Urban
>Flood Control Project, in which the Corps of Engineers strengthened and
>renovated levees and pumping stations. In early 2001, the Federal Emergency
>Management Agency issued a report stating that a hurricane striking New
>Orleans was one of the three most likely disasters in the U.S., including a
>terrorist attack on New York City. But by 2003 the federal funding for the
>flood control project essentially dried up as it was drained into the Iraq
>war. In 2004, the Bush administration cut funding requested by the New
>Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for holding back the
>waters of Lake Pontchartrain by more than 80 percent. Additional cuts at the
>beginning of this year (for a total reduction in funding of 44.2 percent
>since 2001) forced the New Orleans district of the Corps to impose a hiring
>freeze. The Senate had debated adding funds for fixing New Orleans' levees,
>but it was too late....... more:
>
>"No one can say they didn't see it coming":
>
>http://www.salon.com/opinion/blumenthal/2005/08/31/disaster_preparation/ind
>ex.html
>  
>