Gov. Bobby Jindal has taken a stand, he said, "Those of us who lived through Hurricane Katrina -- we have our doubts." Paragraph 2 interesting also.
Well lets ask New Orleans' Mayor Ray Nagins.
I know Jindal will take the money, they need it.
I included a pic from a family vacation in New Orleans in Feb 07, Hurricane Katrina Victims living under a bridge. Are they still there or not?
6 comments:
Thanks for bringing up Katrina Jindal. The reason Katrina was so devastating was because of the LACK of federal spending. The US Army Corp had been saying for years that New Orleans' levees were weak and insufficient but the Republican government wouldn't fund repairs. Well... how did that turn out for your state's citizens Jindal?
Great point, I have so much to say about the Katrina issue. Jindal must get it together.
Umm, wait a minute here. I am no expert on Louisiana politics, but I read that it was the Republican government, I am assuming in Louisiana, that prevented the levees from being strengthened? Louisiana has had three Republican governors in the last 230 years. How can one blame the republicans on this issue?
Dear TRK,
According to Wikipedia:
"After the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, the Congress mandated the Corps of Engineers as the Federal agency responsible for design and construction of flood protection projects, to include those in Greater New Orleans"
AKA: The levees were federal, not state.
Also from wikipedia:
"On January 30, 2008, [US District Court Judge Stan] Duval ruled that even though the US Army Corps of Engineers was negligent and derelict in their duty to provide flood protection for the citizens of New Orleans, he was compelled to dismiss a class action lawsuit filed against the Corps for levee breaches after Hurricane Katrina. He cited the Flood Control Act of 1928 which protects the federal government from lawsuits when flood control projects like levees break."
In as many words: The federal government messed up in order to save money from going to the Army Corp of Engineers. Instead that money went to the Army to go fight a war over WMDs which just happen to be nonexistent. Minor detail though.
Certainly the full responsibility does not lie on the Republican party, however Katrina was an incident that offered proof of why we need a strong federal government. Jindal tried to use it to justify the absence of federal intervention when instead MORE was needed (shall I even mention the utter failure of FEMA - the head of which (Michael Brown) was appointed by GWB when his prior experience had nothing to do federal emergencies but rather as "Judges and Stewards Commissioner for the International Arabian Horse Association, (IAHA), from 1989-2001. After numerous lawsuits were filed against the organization over disciplinary actions[5], Brown was forced to resign." The failure of FEMA was not the failure of federal government but the failure of GWB and his appointments.
Ok, so you site Wikipedia, questionable at best, but it gets back to a law that was put into place eighty years ago by Congress. However, if you look at section three from the wikipedia search it states that "local entities must maintain completed projects." From Cornell University Law School:
"Except when authorized by the Secretary of the Army upon the recommendation of the Chief of Engineers, no money appropriated under authority of sections 702a and 702g of this title shall be expended on the construction of any item of the project until the States or levee districts have given assurances satisfactory to the Secretary of the Army that they will
(a) maintain all flood-control works after their completion, except controlling and regulating spillway structures, including special relief levees; maintenance includes normally such matters as cutting grass, removal of weeds, local drainage, and minor repairs of main river levees;
(b) agree to accept land turned over to them under the provisions of section 702d of this title;
(c) provide without cost to the United States, all rights-of-way for levee foundations and levees on the main stem of the Mississippi River between Cape Girardeau, Missouri, and the Head of Passes.
No liability of any kind shall attach to or rest upon the United States for any damage from or by floods or flood waters at any place: Provided, however, That if in carrying out the purposes of sections 702a, 702b to 702d, 702e to 702g, 702h, 702i, 702j, 702k, 702l, 702m, and 704 of this title it shall be found that upon any stretch of the banks of the Mississippi River it is impracticable to construct levees, either because such construction is not economically justified or because such construction would unreasonably restrict the flood channel, and lands in such stretch of the river are subjected to overflow and damage which are not now overflowed or damaged by reason of the construction of levees on the opposite banks of the river it shall be the duty of the Secretary of the Army and the Chief of Engineers to institute proceedings on behalf of the United States Government to acquire either the absolute ownership of the lands so subjected to overflow and damage or floodage rights over such lands."
But you plainly said that "the Republican government wouldn't fund repairs." To me, you pointed the finger directly at one party. Both sides messed up big in Louisiana. The State Government, led by Democrats dropped the ball, and the federal government, led by Republicans was clueless. Yes bad appointments were made, but that happens everywhere (a tax cheat heading up the Treasury for example). The levees were an issue long before the war with Iraq, and there was plenty of time to finance the levee system, but neither party did, state of federal.
I spent a total of five months down there helping to rebuild some of the houses that were affected by Katrina. Many of the people I came into contact with saw it as a natural disaster that no one could stop. It happened and they wanted to move on from it, not sit around and argue about who was responsible. Much like the argument is now about the economy, no one wants to sit around and point fingers, but just want it fixed and move on. The bigger problem Louisiana has now is trying to get people to move back into the area. There are still homes that I have worked on that remain vacant as of three weeks ago.
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