Wait, wait -- FEMA was not wrong; the predictions were too DIRE!!

[Bumblebee]

The WH spin has found its effective spinner on the AP. "Some" question, mind you. It's not 10K (we think) so FEMA was reasonable in their slowness and the predictors were all wet!

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Katrina-Dire-Predictions.html

Some Question Dire Katrina Predictions

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Published: September 17, 2005

Filed at 1:23 p.m. ET

Ten thousand dead or more. New Orleans underwater for months. A ''closed'' sign across the city's bridges, barring all except emergency workers for who knows how long.

The dire predictions of death and devastation that came after Hurricane Katrina have, thankfully, proven to be not quite so dire. While unquestionably one of the worst natural disasters in U.S. history, both in terms of the human and financial toll, parts of the city will re-open this week. And, so far, the number of deaths seem to be substantially fewer than feared -- hundreds rather than thousands.

But even as these disparities have brought a sigh of relief, they've raised more questions: Were the numbers inflated? Was the media too uncritical in accepting such catastrophic forecasts? What are the ripple effects -- in the response, in public fears, in political blame -- from worst-case predictions?

Some disaster experts say the explanation is simple -- an honest effort from stunned officials to get a handle on a catastrophe. Others say it's human nature to brace for the worst, a tendency reinforced by media hungry for numbers and a political system that pours attention and money toward the biggest problems.

[nyhuskyfan]

1. All this was the result of an indirect hit...

The hurricane went down to a Category 4 before hitting land and it turned to the east just enough to make the Mississippi coast the hardest hit area. However, the backside of the hurricane that drove over New Orleans was enough to pound Lake Pontchatrain and push the water over the levees.

New Orleans didn't get the 25-foot storm surges that were feared.

And they haven't exactly gotten around to a final casualty count.

[bluestateguy]

2. Wait until the bill comes due

n/t

[opihimoimoi]

3. It was the (Intentional??) Delay that revealed Bushies Dark Side

5 Days w/o food/water is INEXCUSABLE?CRIMINAL/UNFORGIVING....and they covered it up with:

"well, Bush jus found out on Thursday".......? I guess no one thought to inform him? what the Hell kinda Team he got anyways??? LOLOs, or, unconcerned/uncaring kind of Team mates?

[patdem]

4. I say it is ROVE all over ...remember the 'we will bury our solders with

bulldozers' just before the Iraq war..then...oh, no we will bring them home for burial. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief and said..well the Pentagon is not THAT BAD!

Consider if Clinton had ROVE as a political advisor..it would have been leaked from the WH (anonymous source, of course) that Clinton had been caught having sex with underage girls, and toddler boys...THEN when the truth came out everyone would say "Well he JUST had sex with an intern..and a pretty cute one at that....no biggy"

Remember Nagin IS a republican...he just was FORCED to declare himself a Democrat in order to win the Mayor election in New Orleans. Nagin was the one who proclaimed 10,000 dead!

Viola...aint thing great! All we need are a few hundred billion (going to my buddies) and everything will just be peachy keen! :grr:

[Bumblebee]

8. True -- that was my fear right away when he started saying 10K

because that meant if it's less, it's by (Rove's) definition, good news!

[miss_kitty]

5. Right. That's why Chertoff was going to wait until the Chimperor

made it back to DC to move. Apparently he needed to have a top level meeting before tending to the catastrophe and:
a) they were unable to fly to Crawford;
b) they were unable to hook up a teleconference between DC and Crawford;
c) AWOL McFuckwit was physically unable to return to DC when The LA governor declared an emergency on 26 August and his ability to return was not available until Wednesday.

[maine_raptor]

6. Gee, this is one dog that won't be hunting this season

Anybody hands you that line, just say this:

"Ever heard the saying; Prepare for the worse, hope for the best? Seems to me someone experienced in disaster preparedness would know that."

Then take out your stopwatch and time how fast they run away.

[cmd]

7. Perhaps it was because the Mayor got the people to safety

Just like he was supposed to do. Forget the school buses; the problem was lack of generators to power the communications. The generators were in Iraq with the Louisiana Guard. Keep pounding this message.

[DoYouEverWonder]

9. FEMA wanted to convince everyone that New Orleans

that no one would be able to live there until they bulldozed the whole place down and rebuild it from scratch.

FEMA wanted everyone to believe that it would take at least 8 weeks or more before they could even get enough water out to see what was going on.

The death toll had little to do with their nightmare version of the world to come. I think the original estimate of 10,000 was not unreasonable. The fact that it may be much less is a testament to local and state officials who despite no help from the Feds were able to evacuated unprecedented numbers of people.

FEMA was just hoping to create a situation where no one could back no matter how many people died in the initial week or two after the disaster.

[RaleighNCDUer]

10. I said right from the beginning that they would pump up the numbers;

if they predicted 10,000, then the actual 2000 would look like a success.