Posted on 08/25/2008 8:37:44 AM PDT by rrstar96
On one of his frequent visits to New Orleans, federal recovery coordinator Douglas O'Dell delivered a bruising critique of the Nagin administration on Thursday, saying "there is growing frustration" in Washington with the speed, efficiency and competence of City Hall's efforts to manage the local recovery after Hurricane Katrina.
O'Dell, who consults with dozens of federal, state and local agencies and troubleshoots regulatory logjams, said Mayor Ray Nagin's recovery director, Ed Blakely, often does not return his calls and seems to be operating under the premise -- erroneous, O'Dell thinks -- that a new presidential administration next year "will reload the cannon and start shooting money down here."
O'Dell's critique, developed over several interviews, came as The Times-Picayune accompanied him on an all-day New Orleans visit Thursday. The coordinator visits the area at least every other week to discuss a wide range of recovery issues with regional officials, his aides said.
(Excerpt) Read more at nola.com ...
Pelican State ping
Why does anyone think things can be better after Katrina? This suggests that they knew nothing of New Orleans before Katrina.
Ray Nagin is the person who was responsible for the fiasco that was Katrina response, and not the Federal government. Now the truth is coming out.
I think $126 billion, or about $525,000 for every man, woman, and child in pre-Katrina New Orleans, is probably enough of my tax dollars spent in a place where people live 8' below sea level and don't bother to insure their property. On top of that, you have a mayor running the recovery program who can't find his ass with his own hand. Finally, the people reelected that idiot after Katrina. It's time to pull the federal plug and let NO waste its own money, not mine.
Other than still paying for “displaced” Katrina refugees to live in hotels and get credits for Rtestrants, I’d like to see an audit of where the billions we’ve all been clipped for New Orleans so far.
If this isn’t the most pathetic corrupt place in the U.S. I can not think of what would be.
You have to wonder what Thomas Jefferson was thinking when he bought Louisiana from the French.
:^D
Do they not understand how long it take to setup shell Org’s and such to loot the federal $$$. Come on.
The $126 billion that you allude to was for all the gulf coast states that were impacted by hurricanes Katrina and Rita, not just for Louisiana or New Orleans. Also please show me where you get the idea that the majority of the people in New Orleans were not insured. As far as sea level goes, about half of the city is at or above sea level.
http://blog.nola.com/times-picayune/2007/04/study_bust_myth_that_new_orlea.html
Ok, so half the city is above sea level. What percentage of it that's below sea level didn't bother to insure their homes "because it's too expensive"? How much of the $126 billion has gone to NO and its environs? If the NO administration is so great, why does a good part of the city still look like the DMZ after almost three years? Finally, I really don't care what the answers are because I still think far too much money was poured into a city that is so corrupt that it can't even track the $57 million it got from the Army Corp of Engineers prior to Katrina for levy work. Nagin's 18 cronies were awarded contracts to do the work, but no one seems to know why no work was done but the money's been spent. Nagin, Jefferson, and a good number of the other politicians in LA are among the most corrupt in the country and I fail to see why any more of my tax dollars should end up in their freezers. If you want to continue to elect such bozos, go right ahead, but don't expect any more money from me.
I would have no way of knowing that percentage and my guess would be that you have no way of knowing it either. All I know is what I read and from what I read New Orleans has acquitted itself rather well when it comes to buying flood insurance.
Louisiana Residents Buy Flood Insurance While Many Others Don’t (From The National Association of Professional Insurance Agents)
"Shortly after Hurricane Katrina, some lawmakers criticized residents of New Orleans, one of the most vulnerable cities in America, for failing to buy federal flood insurance and then coming hat in hand and asking to be bailed out with federal money. Now, statistics prove that was not an accurate characterization.
Aides to Donald Powell, the Bush administration's liaison to the disaster zone, have determined that is Louisiana was a more enthusiastic participant in the National Flood Insurance Program than any other state in the nation. Two out of three New Orleanians carried flood insurance -- 67 percent -- compared with a national rate of about five percent."
http://www.pianet.com/IssuesOfFocus/HotIssues/flood/3-21-06-11.htm
"I still think far too much money was poured into a city that is so corrupt that it can't even track the $57 million it got from the Army Corp of Engineers prior to Katrina for levy work."
Do you think that the ACOE would continue to hand over that kind of money and not ask for an accounting of the work being done? To my knowledge no one in the city has ever been indicted for levee fraud. The ACOE designed and built the levees. Before a Senate committee they admitted to design failures that led to the flooding of the city
Corps Chief Admits To 'Design Failure'
Thursday, April 06, 2006
By Bill Walsh
Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON -- In the closest thing yet to a mea culpa, the commander of the Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged Wednesday that a "design failure" led to the breach of the 17th Street Canal levee that flooded much of the city during Hurricane Katrina.
Lt. Gen. Carl Strock told a Senate committee that the corps neglected to consider the possibility that floodwalls atop the 17th Street Canal levee would lurch away from their footings under significant water pressure and eat away at the earthen barriers below.
"We did not account for that occurring," Strock said after the Senate Appropriations subcommittee hearing. "It could be called a design failure."
A botched design has long been suspected by independent forensic engineers probing the levee failures. A panel of engineering experts confirmed it last month in a report saying the "I-wall" design could not withstand the force of the rising water in the canal and triggered the breach.
But until Wednesday the corps, which designed and oversaw construction of the levees, had not explicitly taken responsibility for the mistake.
"We have now concluded we had problems with the design of the structure," Strock told members of the subcommittee that finances corps operations. "We had hoped that wasn't the case, but we recognize it is the reality."
http://www.nola.com/frontpage/t-p/index.ssf?/base/news-5/1144306231230500.xml
Nagin's 18 cronies were awarded contracts to do the work, but no one seems to know why no work was done but the money's been spent.
I guess the ACOE just felt like falling on their sword to protect "Nagin's 18 cronies". I'm no fan of Ray Nagin, but I'd be interested in seeing any articles you have that back up this accusation as I have never heard that particular urban legend.
10 - 4 on that one.
Two out of three New Orleanians carried flood insurance -- 67 percent -- compared with a national rate of about five percent."
My guess is that 95 percent of us don't live below sea level. I don't have flood insurance because there's never been a flood here. I'm probably not insured against an asteroid hitting my house, either. Comparing NO flood insurance rates to the rest of the country is just plain silly.
As to the 18 of Nagin's friends, that story was covered in the TP as I recall, so you should be able to find it there. Also, the ACOE has not let Nagin's administration handle its repair work distributions on the levies since Katrina. In fact, I have not seen any further indirect disbursements made by the ACOE through the Nagin administration since Katrina.
I stand by my earlier statement: You've had billions of federal dollars and hundreds of millions of private donations pumped into that city and there is damn little to show for it. I think you guys need to bootstrap yourself from here on, and I sure don't want any more federal dollars sunk into that pit of corruption.
Not so silly when you consider that between 1901 and 2000 there were 60 floods in the US and they were all over the country. Not living below sea level is no guarantee of never being flooded. Just ask the people of the Midwest who were flooded out in June of this year. Low risk doesn't mean no risk.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Floods_in_the_United_States:_1901-2000
If you look at the people in the Midwest who were flooded out, they are the same people who are always flooded out each time the Mississippi overflows its banks. The reason you don't hear them screaming like NO is because they have flood insurance...they live in a flood plain. Indeed, many mortgage companies require flood insurance when you live in a flood plain. You're killing your own case here, Bucko.
Ray Nagin is the person who was responsible for the fiasco that was Katrina response, and not the Federal government. Now the truth is coming out.
We knew that all the time. We were here! But, the press wouldn’t hear of it - it was all Bush’s fault. Blanco and Nogin - what a pair.
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