Hurricane George-How the White House Drowned New Orleans-by Greg Palast

[kpete]

Hurricane George
How the White House Drowned New Orleans

Published August 23rd, 2007 in Articles
by Greg Palast
August 23, 2007

............

This is what an inside source told me. And it makes me sick:

“By midnight on Monday, the White House knew. Monday night I was at the state Emergency Operations Center and nobody was aware that the levees had breeched. Nobody.”

The charge is devastating: That, on August 29, 2005,

the White House withheld from the state police the information that New Orleans was about to flood. From almost any other source, I would not have believed it. But this was not just any source. The whistle-blower is Dr. Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, the chief technician advising the state on saving lives during Katrina.

I’d come to van Heerden about another matter, but in our talks, it was clear he had something he wanted to say, and it was a big one. He charged that the White House, FEMA and the Army Corp hid, for critical hours, their discovery that the levees surrounding New Orleans were cracking, about to burst and drown the city.

Understand that Katrina never hit New Orleans. The hurricane swung east of the city, so the state evacuation directors assumed New Orleans was now safe - and evacuation could slow while emergency efforts moved east with the storm.

But unknown to the state, in those crucial hours on Monday, the federal government’s helicopters had filmed the cracks that would become walls of death by Tuesday.

Van Heerden revealed:

“FEMA knew at 11 o’clock on Monday that the levees had breeched. At 2p.m. they flew over he 17th Street Canal and took video of the breech.”

Question: “So the White House wouldn’t tell you the levees had breeched?”

Dr. Van Heerden: “They didn’t tell anybody.”

Question: “And you’re at the Emergency Center.’

Dr. Van Heerden: “I mean nobody knew. The Corps of Engineers knew. FEMA knew. None of us knew.”

..........................

That leaves the big, big question: WHY? Why on earth would the White House not tell the city to get the remaining folks out of there?

The answer: cost. Political and financial cost. A hurricane is an act of God - but a catastrophic failure of the levees is a act of Bush. That is, under law dating back to 1935, a breech of the federal levee system makes the damage - and the deaths - a federal responsibility. That means, as van Heeden points out, that “these people must be compensated.”


more at:
http://www.gregpalast.com/hurricane-georgehow-the-white-house-drowned-new-orleans/#more-1821

[KeepItReal]

1. Let me guess: Bush & Co did another effin cost benefit analysis. NOLA lost.

People died, thousands more remain homeless, and yet somehow "impeachment is off the table".

[seemslikeadream]

2. WHY? Why on earth would the White House not tell the city to get the remaining folks out of there?

georgie does not like black people

[pacalo]

10. Look at his record. He represents the rich & powerful only

& he has a punitive & contemptuous attitude toward those who vote Democratic.

See how differently & more expediently the Hurricane Betsy recovery was handled by LBJ in 1965: http://tapes.millercenter.virginia.edu/exhibits/betsy/

[Raster]

21. The simple, fact of the matter is that they purposefully left people to die.

The bush* White House made the decision to to take no action. In fact, agents of the bush* administration hindered rescue efforts and delayed aid. This wasn't incompetence. This was dereliction of duty and MURDER.

[Karenina]

23. Dead-eye Dick referred to it as the

"Katrina Exercise."

[Gonzo Gardener]

26. LIHOP again..... n/t

[Raster]

28. Absolutely. Welcome to DU!

:hi:

[Mnemosyne]

3. Needs a good

:kick::kick::kick::kick::kick:
:kick::kick::kick::kick:
:kick::kick::kick:
:kick::kick:
:kick:
I cannot believe that things are still coming out that can boil my blood this way.

No wonder some shutdown and won't listen anymore, such sorrow.

Thanks kpete, for all you do. It matters.

[CGowen]

6. He was running around for months and telling this, but not many noticed it

Friday, 20 April 2007, 12:46 pm


...

The other thing I found that they didn't like is that how did those people who were left in the water, how did they drown? And I discovered, talking to the head of the LSU, Louisiana State University Hurricane Center--the people running the hurricane evacuation--they told me, the Chief, a guy named Ivor van Heerden, had been holding this information to himself, he couldn't stand it any more, he said, "Someone's got to speak out. Let me lose my job." What he was saying is that George Bush's White House--he emphasised the "White House"; not just the government--the White House knew 20 hours or so before the levees burst that they were cracking apart and the city was gonna flood.

He was running the operation at the hurricane center in Lousiana, the state of Louisiana, and they stopped evacuating New Orleans. They were all congratulating each other. Katrina never hit the city, it went east of the city, so they were evacuating east. The White House didn't tell them that the levees were failing, and those things collapsed and 1500 people drowned. So people think it's bad; think that George Bush screwed up. It's worse than that. It's worse than that.

...

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/HL0704/S00338.htm

[tanyev]

4. K & R

[EFerrari]

5. K&R

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

7. K&R! Please keep kicked! eom

[KeepItReal]

22. DONE!

<eom>

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

29. ......

:)

[uppityperson]

8. k&r. Levee failure and aftermath was an act of mrbush

[moodforaday]

9. K&R

[Kool Kitty]

11. Kick.

:kick: There isn't a hell hot enough for these bastards.

[juajen]

12. This is devastating to so many of us who are still traumatized

because of this huge catastrophe. I believe NOLA will survive and will eventually overcome the huge obstacles in its path; but, it will take years. Please, for the love of humanity, do not forget New Orleans and Southeastern Louisiana. We need volunteers, money, prayers, positive thoughts and political activism. This needs to be pounded in the heads of the Congress on a daily basis, and, frankly, a lot of us are simply exhausted by the magnitude of the problems.

It wouldn't hurt if more people sent regards to a very dear woman, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco. She has been brave, compassionate and stoic. The pugs are getting ready to completely take over this state. God help us; another drowning.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

13. Watching the inaction on TV was traumatizing

seeing all those people begging for help and being left on overpasses - I always thought of it as "depraved indifference". Where were the helicopters with water and tents and food? In a perfect world, George Bush would have been forced to resign over this alone.

And, I don't think we ever got even close to an accurate death toll. Somewhere there are still lists of missing people

[FredStembottom]

18. In a perfect world?

Simply in a normal, non-corrupted, pre-neocon world!

[Bluebear]

14. Murderers. nt

[blogslut]

15. I missed this

Big, pointy booted cowboy kick!

[blogslut]

16. I missed this

Big, pointy booted cowboy kick!

[malaise]

17. There are no acts of gods

hurricanes are weather phenomena.
Bush should be dragged away in chains.

[rudy23]

19. Where are the Democrats on this?

We could impeach, convict, and win on this information alone, but the Dems won't touch it. They won't touch recovery, they won't touch anything having to do with accountability---most of them haven't even been down here. It's really making me sick. First we cave on Iraq, then we sell out on the FISA bill, but this really takes the cake. Especially our presidential candidates, save for Edwards. Deafening silence.

[KeepItReal]

24. Precisely.

<eom>

[SpiralHawk]

20. Republicons = lies and incompetence

What a pack of freaking homelanders

Why do republicons HATE AMERICA?

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

25. Kick! eom

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

27. When Katrina was in Florida and tracking to Lousiana, Northcom was

waiting for instructions from the WH to assist. There was an audio BBC interview with one of the officers of Northcom, and I wish I knew where I could find it. I just found this site that references it.
http://www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com/archives/5167.html
Northern Command isn’t happy
Posted September 5th, 2005 at 12:14 pm

Share This | Spotlight | Permalink

Because Northern Command oversees all active-duty military operations inside the United States, it’s also responsible for organizing the relief operations on the Gulf Coast. There are early indications, however, that NorthCom officials aren’t entirely pleased with the orders they’ve received of late from the president.

There’s an interesting BBC World News report (brought to my attention by my friend Darrell) in which NorthCom Lt. Commander Sean Kelly explained the military’s efforts which, in addition to military support, include distribution of medical supplies, search and rescue operations, distributing food and water, and meeting transportation needs. (Note: the server hosting the video seems to be overwhelmed. This is a direct .mpg link, which is also slow right now, but keep trying.)

When the BBC noted the criticism of the government’s slow response, Lt. Commander Kelly explained that NorthCom was ready to go well in advance of Katrina making landfall, but suggested the president didn’t make the right call at the right time.

“Northcom started planning before the storm even hit. We were ready when it hit Florida, because, as you remember, it hit the bottom part of Florida, and then we were planning once it was pointed towards the Gulf Coast.

“So, what we did, we activated what we call ‘defense coordinating officers’ to work with the states to say, ‘OK, what do you think you will need?’ And we set up staging bases that could be started.

“We had the USS Bataan sailing almost behind the hurricane so once the hurricane made landfall, its search and rescue helicopters could be available almost immediately So, we had things ready.

“The only caveat is: we have to wait until the president authorizes us to do so. The laws of the United States say that the military can’t just act in this fashion; we have to wait for the president to give us permission.”

continued at the above link

BTW.. In searching BBC, it seems that they scrubbed the interview. I remember it when it was still up at the site.