O_O .. Bush said "No one knew the levees would break"

Hobbes

I am not making this up. Check out the footage.

http://mediamatters.org/items/200509020001

dbnavan

what a gob***** who made this man the most powerful bloke on the planet, TWICE!!!!

bounty

whats so bad about saying that?

Hobbes

To add to that he goes on "That I am not expecting much from outside countries". O_O

dbnavan

bounty wrote:

whats so bad about saying that?

he sent guys into iraq in about 12 hours we are now on day 3 of something that happened in his own country. And help is on its way what are they doing walking there??

Hobbes

bounty wrote:

whats so bad about saying that?

If you read the full article you would see that numerous organisations have been warning of this situation happening for years. Some of these are even part of his his administration. His administration cut funding, moved the engineers to Iraq and fired anyone who spoke out about it.

Now he is saying no one told him it would happen? I mean wtf.

TheBigLebowski

dbnavan wrote:

he sent guys into iraq in about 12 hours we are now on day 3 of something that happened in his own country. And help is on its way what are they doing walking there??

12 hours because they were waiting at the doorstep. Unfortunately they didn't know it was going to be this bad so they weren't prepared.

Bush said that nobody anticipated that the levees would break. I think that's a fair comment. They have had plenty of hurricanes hit New Orleans before without them breaking. Some experts did suggest that the levees could go at some stage but nobody said it was going to happen this time for definite.

leeroybrown

Seeing that the Levees were designed to withstand grade 3 hurricane then there's a relatively high chance that they'll give way during a grade 5 hurricane.

bonkey

bounty wrote:

whats so bad about saying that?

Why was the below-sea-level city ordered to evacuate before the storm struck if they didn't think there was a problem?

Incidentally, there are reports that quite a number of organisations have been saying that the levees were doubtful against a force 3 (which they were designed for) due mostly to the change in seaward geography since their inception, and that they needed urgent upgrading.

jc

bonkey

TheBigLebowski wrote:

12 hours because they were waiting at the doorstep. Unfortunately they didn't know it was going to be this bad so they weren't prepared.

They had a force 5 headed to land on US soil. Only 3 hurricanes of such strength had ever made land in the US , and in every case it was catastrophic.

THe fact that the storm abated to less than that (F3, I believe) in the last 12 hours before landfall is no issue....all the signs during the window of preparation was that this was indeed going to be horrendously bad. So either someone took a gamble that the 5 would drop to a 3 and not cause any unforseen problems....or there was a level of unpreparedness which dearly needs to be accounted for.

Bush said that nobody anticipated that the levees would break. I think that's a fair comment.

So why did they recommend to people to evacuate the city?

They have had plenty of hurricanes hit New Orleans before without them breaking.

Not of the force that struck. Certainly not of the force that looked likely to strike (as I mentioned, it thankfully weakened at the last possible moment).

And do you know, as a matter of interest, how many previous hurricanes have resulted in an evacuation warning for the city?

Some experts did suggest that the levees could go at some stage but nobody said it was going to happen this time for definite.

For definite? Please.

Many people have warned the levees were not up to the job any more. There was additional funding to re-inforce them, but federally-imposed budget cuts led to those plans being shelved.

Why were they recommending, planning and trying to do all of this upgrading if they believed there wasn't any real possibility of a breach during a major storm?

Bush got caught with his pants down. He was on holidays while his nation underwent a disaster of epic proportions, and if you ask me he was put in front of the spotlight before he was both up to speed on what happened and on what the best stance to take was. He fluffed it, by trying to brazen his way through with the "we're doing a great job, and no-one did anything wrong" attitude that has typified this administration's stance on almost all issues whether it be accurate or not.

Only this time, it fell on its face. The media wasn't going to sing along - not while its something this big on domestic soil. The only question is whether or not anyone has the cojones to ever follow it up.

My guess is that the head of FEMA will catch the bullet for Bush on this one.

jc

the_syco

bonkey wrote:

My guess is that the head of FEMA will catch the bullet for Bush on this one.

Meh. FEMA became useless once they were incorporated into Homeland Security.