For further proof of what a sorry, callous, shitty response the Bush administration made to Hurricane Katrina, check the following timeline, which I'm updating almost on a daily basis as events unfold.
Bush & Co. were warned days in advance, and still Bush stayed on his five-week vacation and focused on ignoring the wishes of a mother of a soldier who died in Iraq to meet him.
The day after the hurricane hit, killing more than 1,000 people and leaving thousands more stranded and in danger of dying, Bush spoke about immigration with his Department of Homeland Security director and at a public forum in Arizona, did a birthday cake photo op, and attended at least one political fund-raiser on the West Coast, more than a thousand miles from the Gulf Coast. The next day, Bush tried to play guitar with a country singer as more people in New Orleans died.
Bush didn't even call for a task force to work on the federal response to the disaster until a full two days after the hurricane hit. In his first major address on the crisis three days after Katrina hit, Bush "seemed casual to the point of carelessness" and did not seem to understand the depth of the problem, according to news reports.
Meanwhile, Bush administration officials like Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice spent the days after the hurricane hit going shopping in New York for shoes that cost several thousand dollars and seeing a Broadway show and the U.S. Open. Vice President Dick Cheney was missing in action and believed to be finalizing the purchase of a $2.9 million mansion in Maryland. And Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld took in a San Diego Padres baseball game.
Five days after the hurricane hit, when the criticism of Bush's response to Katrina even reached the inner sanctum of the White House, Bush unleashed his campaign commander-in-thief Karl Rove to try to blame the slow response on Louisiana officials. Bush claimed no one knew the levees would break, despite reports from the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and New Orleans for years that would occur. In 2002, Bush's head of the Army Corps even resigned in frustration partly due to Bush's budget cuts for flood control.
The message to this story? If you are hit by a major disaster and clinging to your life as floodwaters threaten to drown you in your home, don't expect any help from the Bush administration. Bush & Co. are too busy going on vacation, attending sporting events, shopping for expensive shoes and homes and trying to hide from the mother of a son killed in a war they started to further their dreams of empire.
Thursday, August 25, 2005
KATRINA, A LEVEL ONE HURRICANE, HITS SOUTHERN FLORIDA, GENERATING HEAVY FLOODING AND KILLING AT LEAST SEVEN [from The Associated Press].
Friday, August 26
GOV. KATHLEEN BLANCO DECLARES STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA AS KATRINA PICKS UP SIGNIFICANT SPEED AS IT HEADS TOWARDS THAT STATE: [Office of the Governor].
GULF COAST STATES REQUEST TROOP ASSISTANCE FROM PENTAGON: At a Sept. 1 press conference, Lt. Gen. Russel Honoré, commander of the Katrina Joint Task Force, said that the Gulf states began the process of requesting additional forces on Friday, Aug. 26 [DOD].
Saturday, August 27
5 a.m. - KATRINA UPGRADED TO CATEGORY 3 HURRICANE: [CNN].
GOV. BLANCO ASKS BUSH TO DECLARE FEDERAL STATE OF EMERGENCY IN LOUISIANA: "I have determined that this incident is of such severity and magnitude that effective response is beyond the capabilities of the state and affected local governments, and that supplementary federal assistance is necessary to save lives, protect property, public health, and safety, or to lessen or avert the threat of a disaster [Office of the Governor]." FEDERAL EMERGENCY DECLARED, DHS AND FEMA GIVEN FULL AUTHORITY TO RESPOND TO KATRINA: "Specifically, FEMA is authorized to identify, mobilize, and provide at its discretion, equipment and resources necessary to alleviate the impacts of the emergency [White House]." Sunday, August 28
2 a.m. – KATRINA UPGRADED TO CATEGORY 4 HURRICANE: [CNN]. 7 a.m. – KATRINA UPGRADED TO CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE: [CNN]. LOUISIANA NEWSPAPER SIGNALS LEVEES MAY GIVE: "Forecasters feared Sunday afternoon that storm driven waters will lap over the New Orleans levees when monster Hurricane Katrina pushes past the Crescent City tomorrow [Lafayette Daily Advertiser]." 9:30 a.m. - MAYOR NAGIN ISSUES FIRST-EVER MANDATORY EVACUATION OF NEW ORLEANS, A CITY WITH ABOUT 500,000 RESIDENTS: "We're facing the storm most of us have feared," said Nagin. "This is going to be an unprecedented event [Times-Picayune]." 4 p.m. – NATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE ISSUES SPECIAL HURRICANE WARNING: In the event of a category 4 or 5 hit, "most of the area will be uninhabitable for weeks, perhaps longer. ... At least one-half of well-constructed homes will have roof and wall failure. All gabled roofs will fail, leaving those homes severely damaged or destroyed. ...Power outages will last for weeks. ... Water shortages will make human suffering incredible by modern standards [National Weather Service]." AFTERNOON - BUSH, FEMA DIRECTOR BROWN, DEPARTMENT OF HOMELAND SECURITY SECRETARY CHERTOFF WARNED OF LEVEE FAILURE BY NATIONAL HURRICANE CENTER DIRECTOR: Dr. Max Mayfield, director of the National Hurricane Center said, "We were briefing them way before landfall. ... It's not like this was a surprise. We had in the advisories that the levee could be topped [Times-Picayune; St. Petersburg Times]." LATE EVENING – REPORTS OF WATER TOPPLING OVER LEVEE: "Waves crashed atop the exercise path on the Lake Pontchartrain levee in Kenner early Monday as Katrina churned closer [Times-Picayune]." APPROXIMATELY 30,000 EVACUEES GATHER AT SUPERDOME WITH ROUGHLY 36 HOURS WORTH OF FOOD: [Times-Picayune]. Monday, August 29
Jackson Thoreau is a Washington, D.C.-area journalist/writer. His latest book, "Born to Cheat: How Bush, Cheney, Rove & Co. Broke the Rules, From the Sandlot to the White House," debuted at the Take Back America conference in June 2007. More info on (more...)
The views expressed in this article are the sole responsibility of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of this website or its editors.
How many times do I have to ask for a Criminal Probe?
Am I alone here? If the list above does not justify a criminal probe by the Louisiana Attorney- General or the New Orleans District Attorney's Office than I am a Chinese emperor. For goodness sake, people, the people of Louisiana were targeted for murder! Let them through their means of justice launch an investigation! There are supposed to be laws in this country. By launching the probe the State of Louisina will become a primary hunter instead of being a primary target. The probe will use the mechanism of justice, not the mechanism of politics. For goodness sake, I read and read and everyone makes the right statement but no right conclusion: it was a crime, investigate it as one.
by
Mark Sashine (72 articles, 19 quicklinks, 269 diaries, 4101 comments [131 recommended, 0 rejected]) on Thursday, Sep 8, 2005 at 8:19:49 AM
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