Posted on 09/17/2005 2:14:23 PM PDT by Mike Darancette
As far back as eight years ago, Congress ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to develop a plan for evacuating New Orleans during a massive hurricane, but the money instead went to studying the causeway bridge that spans the city's Lake Pontchartrain, officials say.
The outcome provides one more example of the government's failure to prepare for a massive but foreseeable catastrophe, said the lawmaker who helped secure the money for FEMA to develop the evacuation plan.
"They never used it for the intended purpose," said former Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La. "The whole intent was to give them resources so they could plan an evacuation of New Orleans that anticipated that a very large number of people would never leave."
In Hurricane Katrina's aftermath, attention has focused on the inability of local and federal officials to evacuate or prepare for the large number of poor people, many of them minorities, who had no access to transportation and remained behind.
That possibility was one of the concerns that led Congress in 1997 to set aside $500,000 for FEMA to create "a comprehensive analysis and plan of all evacuation alternatives for the New Orleans metropolitan area."
Frustrated two years later that nothing materialized, Congress strengthened its directive. This time it ordered "an evacuation plan for a Category 3 or greater storm, a levee break, flood or other natural disaster for the New Orleans area."
The $500,000 that Congress appropriated for the evacuation plan went to a commission that studied future options for the 24-mile bridge over Lake Pontchartrain, FEMA spokesman Butch Kinerney said.
The hefty report produced by the Greater New Orleans Expressway Commission "primarily was not about evacuation," said Robert Lambert, the general manager for the bridge expressway. "In general it was an overview of all the things we need to do" for the causeway through 2016.
Lambert said he could not trace how or if FEMA money came to the commission. Nor could Shelby LaSalle, a causeway consulting engineer who worked on the plan.
LaSalle said it would be "ludicrous" to consider his report an evacuation plan, although it had a transportation evacuation section, dated Dec. 19, 1997. That part was tacked on mainly to promote the causeway for future designation as an official evacuation route, LaSalle said.
"We didn't do anything for FEMA," he added.
Asked why the congressional mandate was never fulfilled, Barry Scanlon, senior vice president in the consulting firm of former FEMA Director James Lee Witt, said he believes the agency did what it needed when it gave the money to the state.
"FEMA received an earmark which it processed through to the state as instructed by Congress," Scanlon said. Witt is now a private consultant to Gov. Kathleen Blanco, D-La., on the Katrina aftermath.
Tauzin said he, too, could never find out where the money went. "They gave it to the causeway commission? That's wacky," he said.
At the time eight years ago, the Louisiana delegation had plenty of political muscle to get the money. Then-Rep. Bob Livingston, R-La., was chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, which controls the government's purse strings.
Livingston, now a lobbyist, said he could not explain what happened either, although he knew of other predictive hurricane studies over the years.
"Do I wish the study had been made? Sure, but now that's by the boards. We're doing the best we can right now to repair and rebuild," he said.
FEMA typically contracts its studies to private or government entities. Kinerney, the agency spokesman, said it appeared the money went through the Louisiana government. State emergency and transportation officials said they did not recall it.
After nothing came of its first directive, FEMA addressed the need for an evacuation plan "off and on" over the years, Kinerney said. Last year, the agency undertook the massive "Hurricane Pam" project that was supposed to create a comprehensive emergency plan for New Orleans.
That work was unfinished when Katrina struck, though its first phase involved an elaborate hurricane simulation that was eerily predictive of Katrina's disaster.
Asked about any earlier FEMA-funded plan, Mark Smith, spokesman for the state Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness, said, "To the best of our knowledge we can find no information on this."
Congress' 1999 language directed that FEMA consult with that state agency as well as the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development.
FEMA's parent agency, the Homeland Security Department, did provide $75,000 to print 1 million evacuation maps that were distributed this year for the state's updated transportation evacuation blueprint, state transportation spokesman Mark Lambert said.
That plan used phased evacuation orders and reverse-flow traffic patterns to avoid the highway snarls New Orleans saw during Hurricane Ivan in 2004.
But that plan was designed for traffic management, not to provide transportation or contingencies for the infirm, elderly and poor who could not get out on their own, officials said.
Hmmm...how'd that causeway make out in the storm anyway?
Bump for later read.
Follow the money. Follow it to fancy cars and big cigars. Where does all that money go? A little for this, a little for that, and a little for grease.
"Asked why the congressional mandate was never fulfilled, Barry Scanlon, senior vice president in the consulting firm of former FEMA Director James Lee Witt, said he believes the agency did what it needed when it gave the money to the state."
YOU WERE SAYING, SEN. CLINTON???
Ole Hellary was out screaming how her and her monica loverboy's FEMA was better.......
WELL...THE FACTS SHOW DIFFERENT.
PAGING THE COMMIE B-TCH IN A PANTS SUIT.....
Come on Hellary.....talk some more....
This bureaucratic, clintonesque statement is infuriating not only because of it's CYA transparency, but even more because, as an explanation for the disposition of $500,000 of MY money, it is insulting. IMO we have three serious dangers in this country .... fundamentalist Islamic terrorism, left-wing socialist Democrats, and the inertia of bloated, entrenched bureaucracy. Islamic terrorism and socialism are proven historical failures ... they will be defeated. But the danger of bureaucracy is more formidable because it is comprised of our aunts, uncles, parents, sons and daughters. Rather than oppose them we are more likely to celebrate their good fortune in attaining the prestige, compensation, benefits, and job security inherent in a position working for the government. This article is but a minuscule slice of the ineptitude of the bureaucracy which has resulted in nearly eight TRILLION dollars of national debt and unsustainable commitments which will swell this burden on our children to FIFTEEN TRILLION in ten years. This, to add perspective, is about $200,000 for each family of four. I admire George Bush, believe he is a corageous and honorable man, and voted for him twice. But rather than scale back the nanny state he has EXPANDED it. The bureaucracy, folks, if not reigned in NOW, will bury us.
Long article in today's Los Angeles Times on this...you can access it at Lucianne's site without registering...
The corruption in LA politics is significant.
I think it was largely cosmetic damage. But the traffic cam page for the causeway is funny: http://www.thecauseway.com/traffic_cam/camera.html
"Due to Hurricane Katrina this picture is not being updated. We can't see to find our camera."
Someone other than Bush is going to get nailed with this one.
I can't wait for the hearings.....
As one crook to another...
And the MSM reacion is after a collective yawn. This happened on Clinton's watch and his Dewitt FEMA, old news, nothing here, can't we all just get back to bashing Bush?
And that jerk Reid wants to investigate the role the President's vacation played.
Ping
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