Posted on 03/05/2009 1:10:07 PM PST by 2ndDivisionVet
NEW ORLEANS — Two members of President Barack Obama's cabinet said Thursday they are disturbed by the extent of damage that remains 3 1/2 years after Hurricane Katrina and pledged to speed the pace of rebuilding across the Gulf Coast.
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan announced creation of new federal-state review teams to resolve funding disputes and a five-year, $50 million housing program.
"What we have seen today makes us disturbed, angry even, to see some of the families living the way that they have," Donovan said from a 9th Ward housing development rebuilt since the storm and catastrophic levee breaches. "We pledge to you our partnership for a new beginning in New Orleans and across the Gulf."
State and local officials, who have complained that bureaucracy and funding disputes are slowing the rebuilding work, said they were encouraged by the visit. Napolitano is scheduled to take a helicopter tour of Mississippi's Gulf Coast on Friday.
The two were joined by Craig Fugate, Obama's pick to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"We've heard some encouraging words today," Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal said. "Action will be critical now."
Napolitano and Donovan did not make direct reference to the Bush administration, which was widely criticized for its response to Katrina and, by many in the region, for red tape that tied up rebuilding dollars. The Obama administration has pledged a fresh look at the recovery work.
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin welcomed what he sees as "more of a willingness to do a fix" of FEMA.
(Excerpt) Read more at ap.thecabin.net ...
No, wait, those folks didn't vote for "The One". They are also a bunch of bitter rednecks clinging to their God and their guns!
“They are also a bunch of bitter rednecks clinging to their God and their guns!”
Hey, not all of us bitter clingers are rednecks!
...and we never hear a thing about Galveston.
just curious, does anyone remember how long it took south florida to recover from andrew..??..was it weeks...monthes...years...??...
FL took some major hits too. Eight or so hurricanes over two years. JEB was governor, and unlike Blanco he was competent and left office respected.
Why would any maroon want to rebuild the Ninth Ward? It was a below sea level slum before Katrina.
More money down the black hole of Nawlins and into Ray And Jef’s freezers..................
LOL, True, maybe the money for Katrina was being diverted to freezers all over the state.
Yes, and how many decades did the Demonrats control LA and NO? All those years to reinforce/fortify against a Category 5, yet when it happens it’s all Bush’s fault.
“What we have seen today makes us disturbed, angry even, to see some of the families living the way that they have...”
It makes me angry, too. These people are a bunch of deadbeat bastards who have never worked a day in their lives, couldn’t get on government provided buses to get out of town, and won’t get off their asses to rebuild their community.
I am actually damn pissed off about it!
I have met retirees from two different church groups that went to New Orleans after the storm... Both told stories of the tenents/owners of houses they were working on sitting and watching them work while drinking and smoking pot... They couldn’t even be bothered to get drinking water for the workers...
Both groups left after a week or two... I heard of at least one case of mugging and more of tools, etc. being stolen...
Yep. That’s the kind of change we can expect much more of.
It’s the change that FDR and LBJ brought us.
“Hey, not all of us bitter clingers are rednecks!”
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Yes you are! You’re one of us, only rednecks really know how to cling bitterly. All those other clingers just wear high heels and dresses and try to get a section eight discharge.
Amen to that - and the vast majority of those still suffering in Galveston and surrounding areas are poor minorities of one sort of another
No.
Army Corps Admits Design Flaws in New Orleans Levees
By Ralph Vartabedian
June 02, 2006
The Army Corps of Engineers acknowledged Thursday that design defects in the levees protecting New Orleans caused the majority of flooding during Hurricane Katrina and that the disaster would almost certainly trigger reforms in how the federal government protected the American public.
The corps said its 40-year effort to construct a hurricane protection system for southern Louisiana had resulted in a set of piecemeal projects that "was a system in name only," a recognition that a wide range of errors, weak links and incomplete construction was at the heart of the massive damage that occurred Aug. 29.
The corps released a 6,000-page report written in the couched language of government engineers but which delivered a stunning set of findings about errors made in the design of storm walls and earthen levees that failed during Katrina.
http://articles.latimes.com/2006/jun/02/nation/na-levee2
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