Month: September 2005

Here’s a great photo essay that documents the timeline of damage caused to New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina and the subsequent levee breaks.

Firefighters: We Were Misused In Katrina Rescue Efforts

n a document that went out from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the agency asked for firefighters with very specific skills and who were capable of working in austere conditions. When they got to a center in Atlanta, they found out their jobs would be public relations.

“Our job was to advertise a phone number for FEMA,” said Portage Assistant Fire Chief Bill Lundy. “We were going to be given shirts and hats with a phone number on it and flyers, and sent to shelters, and we were going to pass out flyers.”

Goodness I love The Onion…and sometimes, I really need it.

Talking Points Memo is working on a timeline of events leading up to and following Hurricane Katrina.

Take your time…not like it’s an emergency or anything: FEMA Chief Sent Help Only When Storm Ended

The government’s disaster chief waited until hours after Hurricane Katrina had already struck the Gulf Coast before asking his boss to dispatch 1,000 Homeland Security workers to support rescuers in the region — and gave them two days to arrive, according to internal documents.

If you missed Mayor Nagin on Nightline this past Sunday, here’s a partial transcript.

That says that people value their property, and were protecting property, over human life.

Official says feds warned of storm’s potential:

Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center, said yesterday that officials with the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and the Department of Homeland Security — including FEMA Director Mike Brown and Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff — listened in on electronic briefings given by his staff before Hurricane Katrina slammed Louisiana and Mississippi and were advised of the storm’s potential deadly effects.

“We were briefing them way before landfall,” Mayfield said. “It’s not like this was a surprise. … I keep looking back to see if there was anything else we could have done, and I just don’t know what it would be,” he said.

Chertoff said Saturday that government officials had not expected the damaging combination of a powerful hurricane and levee breaches that flooded New Orleans.

It’s so much fun, it’s now official policy: White House Enacts a Plan to Ease Political Damage

In a reflection of what has long been a hallmark of Mr. Rove’s tough political style, the administration is also working to shift the blame away from the White House and toward officials of New Orleans and Louisiana who, as it happens, are Democrats.

Ms. Rice did not return to Washington until Thursday, after she was spotted at a Broadway show and shopping for shoes, an image that Republicans said buttressed the notion of a White House unconcerned with tragedy.

These officials said that Mr. Bush and his political aides rapidly changed course in what they acknowledged was a belated realization of the situation’s political ramifications.

[Emphasis mine]

Changes in Saturn Rings Baffle Scientists

New observations by the international Cassini spacecraft reveal that Saturn’s trademark shimmering rings, which have dazzled astronomers since Galileo’s time, have dramatically changed over just the past 25 years.

Everyone is suffering, but as always, the have-nots suffer more: In Tale of Two Families, a Chasm Between Haves and Have-Nots.