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Old September 1st, 2005, 06:10 PM
Judy G. Russell Judy G. Russell is offline
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Join Date: May 2005
Location: NJ
Posts: 13,076
Default Say WHAT????

In an interview with ABC this morning, George W. Bush said: "I don't think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees."

Huh? That's the one thing I heard over and over and over, in the hours and days while Katrina was bearing down on NOLA. "The levees." "The levees might give way." "If the levees go, the city will be under water." "All that stands between New Orleans and disaster is the levees." To quote a CNN piece from the 28th:
Quote:
"After Betsy these levies were designed for a Category 3," said Sheriff Jeff Hingle of Placquemines Parish, just southeast of New Orleans. "You're now looking at a Category 5. You're looking at a storm that is as strong as Camille was, but bigger than Betsy was size-wise. These levies will not hold the water back. So we're urging people to leave. You're looking at these levies having 10 feet of water over the top of them easily."
From USA Today on the 28th:
Quote:
For years, forecasters have warned of the nightmare scenario a big storm could bring to New Orleans, a bowl of a city that's up to 10 feet below sea level in spots and dependent on a network of levees, canals and pumps to keep dry from the Mississippi River on one side, Lake Pontchartrain on the other.

The fear is that flooding could overrun the levees and turn New Orleans into a toxic lake filled with chemicals and petroleum from refineries, as well as waste from ruined septic systems.
Even Fox News said it:
Quote:
"This is a once in a lifetime event," Mayor Ray Nagin (search) said. "The city of New Orleans has never seen a hurricane of this magnitude hit it directly."

The mayor said a direct hit by Katrina's storm surge would likely top the levees that protect the city from the surrounding water of Lake Pontchartrain (search), the Mississippi River (search) and marshes. The bowl-shaped city must pump water out even during normal times, and the hurricane threatened electricity that runs the pumps.

Nagin said he spoke to a forecaster at the hurricane center who told him that "this is the storm New Orleans has feared these many years."
Maybe everybody was HOPING the levees wouldn't fail, but c'mon: there wasn't any reason to evacuate the whole city EXCEPT the fear that the levees would be breached or would fail. So... why weren't we more prepared? Why wasn't the federal government gearing up, big time, over last weekend? Why weren't troops and supplies on the move towards the region as the residents were being asked to move out of the region?

It looks right now as though literally thousands of New Orleanians are going to lose their lives to hunger, thirst, heat and disease because we couldn't get help to them in time.

Appalling. It's just appalling.
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