Bury Me Broken

A Lengthy Post on Implications of Katrina

This post from Darksyde of DailyKos discusses Katrina in detail including the implications of reduction in oil refining, lack of response in spite of ample warning and federal emergency response under the Department of Homeland Security. It is a lengthy post but worthy of the full read:

And there may be plenty of blame to go around of why we allowed ourselves to be so self delusional as to think the 100 year storm only happens every 100 years - and somehow, the politicians always had another 101 years to go before the 'Big One' would strike. But even that is not what I am so angered at. No -- what angers me the most - is the total and transparently obvious Disaster of our Disaster Relief programs. When pressed by reporters, the latest and greatest of excuses for these delays are include blaming looters and snipers -- for the seemingly snail's pace of disaster relief coordination, and implementation. I have a REALLY big problem with the State and Federal GOV'T that sat on their hands when they were told in no uncertain terms a CATASTROPHE was coming - with no less than 24 hrs notice. Why weren't they better positioned logistically to handle this? They were told in advance there would be a catastrophe. Exactly what level of warning do they need before they get the confirming message' of an impending attack? You know, where you raise the color code to orange or red - or whatever color of the day seems appropriate? Evidently, the code breakers at the Pentagon didn't think the level of chatter was high enough to unduly frighten people. Either that, or maybe there is still a back log of English written e-mails and government transmittals that had that CATEGORY 5 Hurricane Warning, along with the government intercepted high resolution image showing the enemy was already sneaking up on us from the south. Coming by ocean, to avoid having to go through those long lines of customs.

Go give it a read.

posted by niteskolar @ 2:17 PM