It is obvious that slashing the Army Corps of Engineers budget and preventing levee maintenance amplified the damage from Katrina. New Orleans, our nation's largest seaport, must be abandoned as a result.
This is the fault of the Bush Administration. Katrina was a natural disaster. The flooding of New Orleans was preventable. In 2001, FEMA reported that a hurricane striking the Big Easy was one of the three most likely disasters to strike the U.S. By 2003, funding for federal flood control projects including levee maintenance was cut by President Bush.
The Bush Admin framed the global war on terror around homeland security. But the Dept of Homeland Security was configured to fight terrorism, not respond to natural disasters.
The Bush Admin has failed us. Our homeland is not secure. Our national guard is not present to prevent looting. Hospital supply trucks are being held up at gunpoint. Television reporters are being threatened, police are unable to protect the refugees. Police are being shot. Shots are being fired at military helicopters, causing the evacuation of the Superdome to be further delayed. Gas profiteers are jacking up prices. The president was asked this morning on ABC if gas companies should forego profits by 20%, a bipartisan call. His response was a weak, "Everybody should give to the Red Cross," and then he changed the subject.
Where is our homeland security? Where is our president? He's in bed with the oil companies.