Posted on 09/17/2005 10:35:29 AM PDT by THEUPMAN
RITA BEAMISH Associated Press Writer
As far back as eight years ago, Congress ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to develop a plan for evacuating New Orleans during a massive hurricane, but the money instead went to studying the causeway bridge that spans the city's Lake Ponchartrain, officials say.
The outcome provides one more example of the government's failure to prepare for a massive but foreseeable catastrophe, said the lawmaker who helped secure the money for FEMA to develop the evacuation plan.
"They never used it for the intended purpose," said former Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La. "The whole intent was to give them resources so they could plan an evacuation of New Orleans that anticipated that a very large number of people would never leave."
(Excerpt) Read more at ap.onlineathens.com ...
Very interesting - the initial paragraphs in the article indicate that FEMA dropped the ball, but if you read on, the money was moved to the state level and then squandered.
Just walked in the door? Check your deposits maybe.
BTTT
I guess this is Bush's fault too.
That possibility was one of the concerns that led Congress in 1997 to set aside $500,000 for FEMA to create "a comprehensive analysis and plan of all evacuation alternatives for the New Orleans metropolitan area."
Frustrated two years later that nothing materialized, Congress strengthened its directive. This time it ordered "an evacuation plan for a Category 3 or greater storm, a levee break, flood or other natural disaster for the New Orleans area."
The $500,000 that Congress appropriated for the evacuation plan went to a commission that studied future options for the 24-mile bridge over Lake Ponchartrain, FEMA spokesman Butch Kinerney said.
The hefty report produced by the Greater New Orleans Expressway Commission "primarily was not about evacuation," said Robert Lambert, the general manager for the bridge expressway. "In general it was an overview of all the things we need to do" for the causeway through 2016.
Lambert said he could not trace how or if FEMA money came to the commission. Nor could Shelby LaSalle, a causeway consulting engineer who worked on the plan.
LaSalle said it would be "ludicrous" to consider his report an evacuation plan, although it had a transportation evacuation section, dated Dec. 19, 1997. That part was tacked on mainly to promote the causeway for future designation as an official evacuation route, LaSalle said.
"We didn't do anything for FEMA," he added.
Asked why the congressional mandate was never fulfilled, Barry Scanlon, senior vice president in the consulting firm of former FEMA Director James Lee Witt, said he believes the agency did what it needed when it gave the money to the state.
DOn't miss this enlightening article....Can't believe it from AP
From the article:
Asked why the congressional mandate was never fulfilled, Barry Scanlon, senior vice president in the consulting firm of former FEMA Director James Lee Witt, said he believes the agency did what it needed when it gave the money to the state.
"FEMA received an earmark which it processed through to the state as instructed by Congress," Scanlon said, Witt is now a private consultant to Gov. Kathleen Blanco, D-La., on the Katrina aftermath.
Eight years ago, hunh?
Just think, wasn't Mary Landrieu elected to the Senate in 1996. Last time I checked, the Senate is part of Congress. And, and let's not forget John Breaux, D-LA, Senate, too! WOW.
Malfeasance in office. Liars, liars, pants on fire...
everything with everybody is "he said,she said".
There has to be documentation re: fund requisition,fund distribution etc...and who signed off on it.
Should I read this BEFORE or after I bathe? :)
They should rearrange a couple of the letters to call it what it really is...LAME.
Before
OTOH the truth is coming out .....which is GOOD news.
earmark, eh? It was explained that earmark is the congressional euphemism for "pork." IOW, we didn't think we had to account for it. Kinda thin defense.
:) --- OK, I'll read this while I run the water.
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Asked about any earlier FEMA-funded plan, Mark Smith, spokesman for the state Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said, "To the best of our knowledge we can find no information on this."
Congress' 1999 language directed that FEMA consult with that state agency as well as the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.
FEMA's parent agency, the Homeland Security Department, did provide $75,000 to print 1 million evacuation maps that were distributed this year for the state's updated transportation evacuation blueprint, state transportation spokesman Mark Lambert said.
That plan used phased evacuation orders and reverse-flow traffic patterns to avoid the highway snarls New Orleans saw during Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
But that plan was designed for traffic management, not to provide transportation or contingencies for the infirm, elderly and poor who could not get out on their own, officials said.
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