“In comments on Thursday, Sep. 1, in an interview with Diane Sawyer of ABC News, President George W. Bush said, “I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did anticipate a serious storm. But these levees got breached.”
In comments to the press on Sep. 3, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff remarked, “That ‘perfect storm’ of a combination of catastrophes exceeded the foresight of the planners, and maybe anybody’s foresight”, and called the disaster “breathtaking in its surprise.”
It’s not our fault,” said Army Lt. Gen. Russel Honore, in charge of the deployment of National Guard troops in New Orleans. “The storm came and flooded the city.”
Hurricanes are an inescapable part of nature’s way on the Gulf Coast. Nature doesn’t care about tax cuts and fiscal years and budget crunches. Nature doesn’t care that a city of 500,000 people situated below sea level lies in its path. It was certain that New Orleans would sooner or later get hit by a hurricane that would breach the levees. How could the director of Homeland Security not be familiar with this huge threat to the security of this nation? How could the President not know? How could all the presidents and politicians we elected, from Eisenhower to Clinton, not know?
The answer is that they all knew. But the politicians we elect don’t care about the poor people in New Orleans, because poor people don’t have a lobbyist in Washington. The poor people don’t make big campaign contributions, and those big campaign contributions are vital to getting elected. In all of the Congressional and Presidential races held over the past ten years, over 90% were won by the candidate that raised the most money.”
Read the rest at Dr. Jeff Master’s Weather Blog. A damn fine tirade, from a scientist.