RECOVERED HISTORY

SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, 2001 - A major hurricane could swamp New Orleans
under 20 feet of water, killing thousands. Human activities along the
Mississippi River have dramatically increased the risk, and now only
massive reengineering of southeastern Louisiana can save the city. . .
If a big, slow-moving hurricane crossed the Gulf of Mexico on the right
track, it would drive a sea surge that would drown New Orleans under 20
feet of water. "As the water recedes," says Walter Maestri, a local
emergency management director, "we expect to find a lot of dead bodies."
New Orleans is a disaster waiting to happen. The city lies below sea
level, in a bowl bordered by levees that fend off Lake Pontchartrain to
the north and the Mississippi River to the south and west.

And because of a damning confluence of factors, the city is sinking
further, putting it at increasing flood risk after even minor storms.
The low-lying Mississippi Delta, which buffers the city from the gulf,
is also rapidly disappearing. A year from now another 25 to 30 square
miles of delta marsh--an area the size of Manhattan--will have vanished.
An acre disappears every 24 minutes. Each loss gives a storm surge a
clearer path to wash over the delta and pour into the bowl, trapping one
million people inside and another million in surrounding communities.
Extensive evacuation would be impossible because the surging water would
cut off the few escape routes. Scientists at Louisiana State University,
who have modeled hundreds of possible storm tracks on advanced
computers, predict that more than 100,000 people could die. The body
bags wouldn't go very far.

http://www.sciam.com/article.cfm?chanID=sa006&articleID=00060286-CB58-1315-8B5883414B7F0000






WASHINGTON MONTHLY - Here's a timeline that outlines the fate of both
FEMA and flood control projects in New Orleans under the Bush
administration. Read it and weep:

January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, a crony from Texas, as head of
FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.

April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush
administration's goal of privatizing much of FEMA's work. In May,
Allbaugh confirms that FEMA will be downsized: "Many are concerned that
federal disaster assistance may have evolved into both an oversized
entitlement program. . . " he said. "Expectations of when the federal
government should be involved and the degree of involvement may have
ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level."

2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of
the three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country."

December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh announces he
is leaving to start up a consulting firm that advises companies seeking
to do business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy, Michael Brown,
who, like Allbaugh, has no previous experience in disaster management.

March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from a cabinet level position and folded
into the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is refocused on
fighting acts of terrorism.

2003: Under its new organization chart within DHS, FEMA's preparation
and planning functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness
and Response. FEMA will henceforth focus only on response and recovery.

Summer 2004: FEMA denies Louisiana's pre-disaster mitigation funding
requests. Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue: "You
would think we would get maximum consideration. . . This is what the
grant program called for. We were more than qualified for it."

June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction in
New Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management chiefs
Walter Maestri comments: "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."

June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps
of Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. One of the hardest-hit
areas is the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was
created after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson,
Orleans and St. Tammany parishes.

August 2005: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion catastrophe,
Bush mugs for the cameras, cuts a cake for John McCain, plays the guitar
for Mark Wills, delivers an address about V-J day, and continues with
his vacation. When he finally gets around to acknowledging the scope of
the unfolding disaster, he delivers only a photo op on Air Force One and
a flat, defensive, laundry list speech in the Rose Garden.

http://www.washingtonmonthly.com/archives/individual/2005_09/007023.php