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Discussion Board -> Non-art Website Issues -> HELP NEW ORLEANS
We at the Corps knew what was going to happen, and we said so, but our advice fell on deaf ears. Our budget was cut to the bone. Almost every project immediately stopped, because we had been existing on the promise of money - not the actual money itself. Most of the contractors who did the work went out of business or laid off all their employees and left town. This is why the levees were neglected, and ultimately why that wave swamped the 9th ward when it overtopped the now-reduced levees.
When the worst happened the federal governement's response was too little too late. By the time Mayor Nagin shamed the president into doing something it was already too late for thousands of people who perished in their attics awaiting help that never came. Wal-Mart got there before FEMA, and disaster relief isn't even their jobs. For heaven's sake, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police got there three days before the federal government! It turned out that the president had put a hack in charge of FEMA, and the guy panicked when the worst occurred. It was individuals that made a difference in spite of our government. The local Coast Guard did bang-up work as did the New Orleans and Jefferson Parish Police Departments. When Bush finally got his head out of that place he had it it was too late for many.
There are those saying now isn't the time to be placing blame for this tragedy. I say, "No! Now is exactly the time to placing blame." Let's do it now before Janet Jackson's breast or some cat in a tree distracts the nation from the deaths that have devastated our city. We all know who is responsible for this. The fault does not lie with the local officials who have been screaming for years to rebuild the levees. It lies with those who ignored them, so they could finance a war and three tax cuts that put what, $500 in our pockets? I'm mad as hell, and come election time I'm not going to take it any more.