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California State University, Dominguez Hills
University of Wisconsin, Parkside
Created: September 11, 2005
Latest Update: September 11, 2005
jeannecurran@habermas.org
takata@uwp.edu
Analyzing Leadership and Management in Hurricane KatrinaAs we begin to pick up the pieces and the lives that Hurricane Katrina interrupted so unceremoniously, there are many factors we need, as citizens, to keep abreast of. One of these is the no bid contracts going out to such major corporations as Halliburton and Bechtel, who have past histories of doing harm when the reconstruction budget is wide open to them. On that issue see No Bid Contracts in the Reconstruction of New Orleans.(Backup to a NY Times article: In Storm's Ruins, a Rush to Rebuild and Reopen for Business.) Our tax dollars are paying for that open purse, or, more accurately, we are borrowing against our future tax dollars for that open purse, as we have done for the war in Iraq. We have borrowed huge amounts from China. What's wrong with this picture???Another major factor is precisely what happened to federal, state, and local communications. For that I'm going to turn to a NY Times article from Sunday, September 11, 2500: Breakdowns Marked Path From Hurricane to Anarchy By Eric Liptn, Christopher Drew, Scott Shane and David Rohde, New York Times, p. 1A. Backup with jeanne-added highlights.
Mayor C. Ray Nagin and Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco discussed floodwater with National Guard generals on Aug. 30.Maureen Dowd's conclusion in the most e-mailed article, Neigh to Cronies, from Saturday, September 10, 2005, New York Times, at p. A 27, was:
"FEMA was a disaster waiting to happen, the minute a disaster struck. As The Washington Post reported Friday, five of the eight top FEMA officials were simply Bush loyalists and political operatives who "came to their posts with virtually no experience in handling disasters.""While many see the hideous rescue failures as disaster apartheid, Barbara Bush and other Republicans have tried to look on the bright side for the victims. The Wall Street Journal reported that Representative Richard Baker of Baton Rouge was overheard telling lobbyists: "We finally cleaned up public housing in New Orleans. We couldn't do it, but God did."
"Even those who believe in intelligent design must surely agree that Brownie and Representative Baker weren't part of it."
This speaks directly to those who are wondering just how much of this confusion was "accidental," and how much was the welcoming of anarchy to allow control and containment of reconstruction. God rarely singles a specific economic group out for removal and retribution; this sounds a lot more human to me. jeanne
There is an excellent set of maps and interactive explanations of the entire Katrina incident at Day by Day to which you can link in the left-hand frame. I would like you to focus particularly on the oil industry report, found by linking on the right-most tab at the top of the screen. That screen addresses the tremendous effect this disaster is having on what was already an intolerable energy crisis. Please visit the new York Times Site. You'll have to register, but it's free, and worth it.
