Comments on: Markets continue to assess Katrina’s impact;oil soars and Bush releases reserves - Yahoo! News http://leftnews.org/archives/2005/08/31/2313/ News And Views From The Left Sat, 22 Nov 2008 04:49:12 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.6 By: Ross Peterson http://leftnews.org/archives/2005/08/31/2313/#comment-800 Ross Peterson Thu, 01 Sep 2005 00:18:52 +0000 http://leftnews.org/archives/2005/08/31/2313/#comment-800 On National Public Radio, I picked up Open Source tonight to listen to interviews from leaders from the New Orleans cultural scene discuss the flooding and evacuation. When an historian cited Times Picayune coverage of how money that would have gone to strengthen the 17th Street Canal levee (where the first big breech occurred 40 hours ago, the anchorman seemed to cut her off for a break to do station i.d. But he did ask other guests about it. Those trying to raise emergency support funds did not want to touch the controversy . . but it was obvious this was something HOT. Well, maybe you can find the Open Sources interviews archived at the WGGBH site, but you don't need to. Here is what I found at CounterPunch.com today -- ". . . articles in the New Orleans Times-Picayune and public statements by emergency management chiefs in New Orleans make it clear that the Bush administration slashed the funding for the Corp of Engineers' projects to strengthen and raise the New Orleans levees and diverted the money to the Iraq war. "Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, told the New Orleans Times-Picayune (June 8, 2004): "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us." Quoted in -- Another Terrible Casualty of the Iraq War How New Orleans was Lost By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS http://www.counterpunch.com/ ---------------- Additional quotes (at counterpunch.com) IN New Orleans After Katrina by Cockburn / St. Clair August 31, 2005 As the New Orleans Times-Picayune has reported in a devastating series of articles over the last two years, city and state officials and the Corps of Enginners had repeatedly requested funding to strengthen the levees along Lake Pontchartrain that breeched in the wake of the flood. But the Bush administration rebuffed the requests repeatedly, reprograming the funding from levee enhancement to Homeland Security and the war on Iraq. This year the Bush administration slashed funding for the New Orleans Corps of Engineers by $71.2 million, a stunning 44.2 percent reduction from its 2001 levels. A Corps report noted at the time that "major hurricane and flood protection projects will not be awarded to local engineering firms. . . . Also, a study to determine ways to protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for now." Work on the 17th Street levee, which breached on Monday night, came to a halt earlier this summer for the lack of $2 million. "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay," Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana told the Times-Picayune in June of last year. "Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us." These are damning revelations. On National Public Radio, I picked up Open Source tonight to listen to interviews from leaders from the New Orleans cultural scene discuss the flooding and evacuation.
When an historian cited Times Picayune coverage of how money that would have gone to strengthen the 17th Street Canal levee (where the first big breech occurred 40 hours ago, the anchorman seemed to cut her off for a break to do station i.d.
But he did ask other guests about it. Those trying to raise emergency support funds did not want to touch the controversy . . but it was obvious this was something HOT.
Well, maybe you can find the Open Sources interviews archived at the WGGBH site, but you don’t need to. Here is what I found at CounterPunch.com today –

“. . . articles in the New Orleans Times-Picayune and public statements by emergency

management chiefs in New Orleans make it clear that the Bush administration slashed

the funding for the Corp of Engineers’ projects to strengthen and raise the New Orleans

levees and diverted the money to the Iraq war.

“Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, told the New

Orleans Times-Picayune (June 8, 2004): “It appears that the money has been moved in

the president’s budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose

that’s the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be finished, and

we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.”

Quoted in —
Another Terrible Casualty of the Iraq War
How New Orleans was Lost
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS

http://www.counterpunch.com/
—————-
Additional quotes (at counterpunch.com)

IN
New Orleans After Katrina
by Cockburn / St. Clair
August 31, 2005

As the New Orleans Times-Picayune has reported in a devastating series of articles

over the last two years, city and state officials and the Corps of Enginners had

repeatedly requested funding to strengthen the levees along Lake Pontchartrain that

breeched in the wake of the flood. But the Bush administration rebuffed the requests

repeatedly, reprograming the funding from levee enhancement to Homeland Security

and the war on Iraq.

This year the Bush administration slashed funding for the New Orleans Corps of

Engineers by $71.2 million, a stunning 44.2 percent reduction from its 2001 levels. A

Corps report noted at the time that
“major hurricane and flood protection projects will not be awarded to
local engineering firms. . . . Also, a study to determine ways to
protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane has been shelved for
now.”

Work on the 17th Street levee, which breached on Monday night, came to a halt earlier

this summer for the lack of $2 million.

“It appears that the money has been moved in the president’s budget to handle

homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that’s the price we pay,” Walter

Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana told the

Times-Picayune in June of last year. “Nobody locally is happy that the levees can’t be

finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security

issue for us.”

These are damning revelations.

]]>