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08/29/2005 Entry: "bush admin to Louisana: fuck you"

"Worse, since FEMA was subsumed by the supremely pointless Department of Homeland Security, there has been a shift in its priorities. The White House doubled FEMA's budget to $6.6 billion in 2002, but of that sum, $3.5 billion was earmarked for equipment and training to help states and localities respond to terrorist attacks, so in effect, FEMA's budget was cut by $2 million. It has followed the same pattern since - increasing 'terror' funding and decreasing diaster funding. The GAO has suggested that, due to the merger, FEMA is 'less effective in performing its current mission in case of natural disasters as time, effort and attention are inevitably diverted to other tasks within the larger organization.'

"Worse again, due to 'budgetary constraints,' FEMA rejected a request by Louisana for a mere $8.8 million in flood mitigation funds last summer. And, worst of all, key federal disaster mitigation programs, developed over many years, have been slashed and tossed aside. Mitigation, in this context, essentially means "preventative measure - like, in the case of New Orleans, shoring up the levees and improving drainage. FEMA's Project Impact, a model mitigation program created by the Clinton administration, has been canceled outright. Federal funding of post-disaster mitigation efforts designed to protect people and property from the next disaster has been cut in half."
Pray for New Orleans, Wertz LJ, August 28, 2005 (via Sisyphus Shrugged, who has more)

Christ. God help you, New Orleans, your federal government can't be bothered.

Replies: 2 comments

Do you have a reference for the GAO quote on FEMA? I would like to send this to my brother.

Thanks.

Posted by Bruce @ 09/02/2005 01:53 AM PST

Try this one

"In Louisiana, requests for flood mitigation funds were rejected by FEMA this summer. (See sidebar.*) In North Carolina, a state also regularly threatened by hurricanes and floods, FEMA recently refused the state's request to buy backup generators for emergency support facilities. And the budget cuts have halved the funding for a mitigation program that saved an estimated $8.8 million in recovery costs in three eastern North Carolina communities alone after 1999's Hurricane Floyd"
A Disaster Waiting to Happen. As FEMA weathers Bush administration policy changes, some insiders fear that concerns over terrorism are trumping protection from hurricanes and other natural hazards.

It was in the original LJ post.

*There is no sidebar, dammit.

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