Tears for Waterworld

We knew this would happen.

"They did anticipate breaching of the levees, that the pumps wouldn't work," said Natural Hazards Center Director Kathleen Tierney. Louisiana and New Orleans "couldn't get the federal assistance they needed. They knew they were living on a time bomb." (from L.A. Times)

After the first big national emergency, what did we do? Um, made a colorful chart and started making people take their shoes off at airports.

America pays people to think thoughts that defy imagination, though it then often ignores their recommendations. In early 2001, experts with the Federal Emergency Management Agency set out to rank the likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing America. According to the Houston Chronicle, they were a terrorist attack in New York, a major earthquake in San Francisco and a major hurricane in New Orleans.

In this case, two out of three is bad.

"It is our job at FEMA to think the unthinkable in terms of disasters, and to prepare for those that will become catastrophic," Joe Allbaugh, FEMA's then-director, told a conference of the National Emergency Management Association four years ago. "I want our most vulnerable communities to plan for the worst. ... A major earthquake or Category 5 hurricane in an urban area would stretch our current response and recovery capabilities to the breaking point."

The date of this conference: Sept. 10, 2001.(via St. Louis Post-Dispatch)

And, oh, yeah, started a multi-billion dollar war, diverting money from one of those other "unthinkable" -- but entirely, apparently possible -- disasters:

Bush administration funding cuts forced federal engineers to delay improvements on the levees, floodgates and pumping stations that failed to protect New Orleans from Hurricane Katrina's floodwaters, agency documents showed on Thursday. ...

Since 2001, the Army Corps has requested $496 million for that project but the Bush administration only budgeted $166 million, according to figures provided by the office of Louisiana Democratic Sen. Mary Landrieu.

Congress ultimately approved $250 million for the project during that time period.

Another project designed to shore up defenses along Lake Pontchartrain was similarly underfunded, as the administration budgeted $22 million of the $99 million requested by the Corps between 2001 and 2005. Congress boosted spending on that project to $42.5 million, according to Landrieu's office. (via Reuters)

But we're so damn capable and prepared. We don't need any damn international help.

Jamaica was among the nations offering what help they could. But the Kingston embassy, while stating its appreciation for the support, politely declined the offers, saying in a statement: "The United States Government is not yet requesting international assistance at this time."(from Jamaican Observer)

Just new shoes.

Just moments ago at the Ferragamo on 5th Avenue, Condoleeza Rice was seen spending several thousands of dollars on some nice, new shoes (we’ve confirmed this, so her new heels will surely get coverage from the WaPo’s Robin Givhan). A fellow shopper, unable to fathom the absurdity of Rice’s timing, went up to the Secretary and reportedly shouted, “How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying and homeless!” Never one to have her fashion choices questioned, Rice had security PHYSICALLY REMOVE the woman. (via Gawker)

And a picture for the presidential scrapbook.

Here, the president wonders if daughter Jenna will have to miss Mardi Gras this year.

But rest assured, some more dollars for the suffering rich. 'Cause they really earned it.

Washington (Sept. 2, 2005) - With Congress preparing to reconvene in early September, Senate Majority Leader William H. Frist said a vote to fully repeal the estate tax will be tops on the to-do list.

Frist, a Tennessee Republican, has not wavered publicly from statements that the either the first or second bill of the September session would be a vote on a bill to repeal the estate tax beginning in 2005 -- meaning a vote is scheduled for the week of Sept. 6.(via WebCPA)

But rebuilding a poor people's city? Eh.

One question already on the table is whether it is wise for the federal government to fund the reconstruction of New Orleans, a city built mostly below sea level in a location that has proved vulnerable. House Speaker J. Dennis Hastert (R-Ill.) expressed reservations about that in an interview with an Illinois newspaper published Thursday.

"It doesn't make sense to me," the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights quoted Hastert as saying. "And it's a question that certainly we should ask." (via L.A. Times)

But, Denny, some people don't think so:

New Orleans is one of the nation's most iconic cities, and after the calculable costs of Hurricane Katrina are tallied, after they count the casualties and the destroyed houses, it will be time for a different kind of accounting. Some of the places and pieces that make this city irreplaceable will have to be replaced.

"This is a special place. It sounds funny, but there are a lot of mornings when I walk outside and look around and think, 'I am lucky to live here,' " said Sylvia Atkins, 42, who was born and raised in the working-class neighborhood of Gentilly. "We'll miss that. I still feel lucky. But it's going to be a while before I do that." (from L.A. Times)

She said, 'a while,' not 'never again.' It will be hard, but the Big Easy deserves new life, though it will have to come from someone not so unfeeling.

Different situation, same story:

But this president does not know what death is. He hasn't the mind for it. You see him joking with the press, peering under the table for the weapons of mass destruction he can't seem to find, you see him at rallies strutting up to the stage in shirt sleeves to the roar of the carefully screened crowd, smiling and waving, triumphal, a he-man.

He does not mourn. He doesn't understand why he should mourn. He is satisfied during the course of a speech written for him to look solemn for a moment and speak of the brave young Americans who made the ultimate sacrifice for their country.

But you study him, you look into his eyes and know he dissembles an emotion which he does not feel in the depths of his being because he has no capacity for it. He does not feel a personal responsibility for the 1,000 dead young men and women who wanted to be what they could be. (E.L. Doctorow, The Unfeeling President, via truthout)