Why are the media still calling Katrina a "natural" disaster?

[begin_within]

Sure, the hurricane did damage a lot of buildings and property. But the flooding and loss of lives - the big disaster - was a man-made disaster, in my opinion.

[valerief]

1. They're an arm of the do-nothin' gummint. Of course, they'll dodge blame.

[msongs]

2. man made by living below sea level first, then providing faulty protection second nt

[EFerrari]

16. The Netherlands puts us to shame. Most of that place is below

sea level and they built levees that actually work -- not this ACOE on the cheap and we'll lie to you about it stuff.

[scrinmaster]

17. The Netherlands don't get hit regularly by hurricanes.

[EFerrari]

18. The infrastructure they have in place now was put there in response to one.

I didn't know that and iirc, heard that on Amy's show this morning.

[waiting for hope]

3. It was said on KO tonight -

It was a man made failure because the levees broke - and they should not have. The problem is that is the big argument between flood insurance (Gov't) and the Homeowners insurance....It was the flooding - NO, it was the Hurricane and the bullshit continues to go back and forth.

[Gregorian]

4. Well, Bush IS natural.

And there you have one answer. Probably not the one you're looking for. Although I think your question is rhetorical.

I'd like to know why our president still can't say nuclear. So many question, so few answers.

[bdamomma]

10. he can't say it cause he is dyslexic, that is why people protect and

pledge their loyalty to him.

[Gregorian]

12. I'd be dyslexic too if I were raised by an Iron Maiden.

There should be a screening process to weed out damaged goods from occupying 1600 Penn.

[jobycom]

5. Mississippi got hit by a 30 foot wall of water that destroyed the first half mile

of coastline all the way down the beach. That was a natural disaster.

New Orleans East, the Lower 9th, the Ninth, and St. Bernard Parish were flooded when waves topped levees along the Lake, the Mississippi River-Gulf Outlet Canal, and the Industrial Canal, causing several levee failures. That was a combination of factors--the levees were only built to handle a Category Three storm surge, and they were hit by a stronger surge which topped the levees, but they still should not have failed.

The further west one gets, the harder it is to blame Katrina for anything more than providing the water. The major breaches were caused by faulty designs in the flood walls, and in the case of the 17th Street Canal, by faulty engineering. These levees were never topped, meaning the water simply flowed through the canals towards the Lake. This was a failure of man, especially since Katrina had winds equivalent to a Category One this far west. A good thunderstorm may have eventually caused these levees to fail.

Katrina was a natural disaster, but it was one whose damage should have been minimized by engineering and by quick response afterwards, at least in New Orleans. Not much would have save the Mississippi Coast.

[HeeBGBz]

6. It was a natural disaster in Mississippi

With flooding and loss of life. A 30 ft storm surge is pretty fkd up.

[txwhitedove]

14. Amen. We heard sounds like explosions....

ah, it was just the houses and big concrete bridge magically disappearing.
The sounds alone were horrific. Then the water came up...

[cgrindley]

7. Cause it was like a hurricane or something (nt)

[Caria]

8. code

According to a fundy (dem, BTW) friend of mine, "natural disaster" is code in some BAC circles for "God's Will."

[bdamomma]

9. they shoud talk to those people who heard something that nite

like a bomb, or do I have this on:tinfoilhat:

[begin_within]

11. Yeah, why is that not allowed to be talked about, even 2 years later?

I posted something about that right here a year ago, and the thread was locked five minutes later. Why can't the possiblity of deliberate sabotage of the levees even be discussed, let alone covered in the media? I thought we had free speech in this country.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. It fits the classification of a Level FIVE

NATURAL disaster...

Reaching for the disaster manager hat on that one

I know there are plenty of elements that make you think otherwise, but no storm, no failure of levies

Now here is the classification

Level One Local response usually one ambulance

Level Two, your classic MCI, where you have many local vehicles

Level Three: Regional aide is needed

Level Four: National

Level Five: International

[EFerrari]

15. NOLA was not a natural disaster. Those f*heads knew the levees

were breached and didn't warn anyone.

But, that was NOLA, not the rest of the Gulf Coast.

[merh]

19. For those of us in Mississippi it was a natural disaster

NOLA was not the only city that was destroyed by Katrina.

I wish you folks would try to understand that.

.