StratBlog

My heart goes out to all those suffering the devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina.

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin’s stunning radio interview provides a compelling, emotional window into the situation. Compare his comments with those of FEMA director and other officials and it’s clear that local, state and federal government officials are not on the same page.

As shown by the links below, the effects caused by this hurricane have been predicted for years. So you have to wonder how and why we have arrived at the monumental failure that is ongoing in New Orleans.

The Big Easy On the Brink: If it doesn’t act fast, the city could become the next Atlantis (Time, July 2000):

“A Category 5 hurricane would come barreling out of the Gulf of Mexico. It would cause Lake Pontchartrain, north of New Orleans, to overflow, pouring down millions of gallons of water on the city. Then things would really get ugly. Evacuation routes would be blocked. Buildings would collapse. Chemicals and hazardous waste would dissolve, turning the floodwaters into a lethal soup. In the end, what was left of the city might not be worth saving.”

The foretelling of a deadly disaster in New Orleans: FEMA ranked hurricane scenario highly likely in ’01 (Houston Chronicle, December 2001):

“...earlier this year the Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked the potential damage to New Orleans as among the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country. The other two? A massive earthquake in San Francisco, and, almost prophetically, a terrorist attack on New York City.”

Big Blow in the Big Easy (US News & World Report, July 2005):

“‘If a hurricane comes next month,’ says Ivor van Heerden, director of Louisiana State University’s Center for the Study of Public Health Impacts of Hurricanes, ‘New Orleans could no longer exist.’”

Also see: Hurricane preparedness for New Orleans.

 

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