The Katrina Disaster: Two Years Later--and Counting

A Congressional investigation has found that, even though FEMA officials received numerous warnings about dangerous levels of formaldehyde fumes in the trailers provided to Katrina evacuees, they refused to allow testing of the trailers because they would no longer be able to claim that they didn’t know there was a problem. This cannot be excused as incompetence or an honest mistake. It is what Rep. Henry Waxman (D-CA) described as “premeditated ignorance”. Waxman said:

· “[S]enior officials in Washington didn’t want to know what they already knew, because they didn’t want the legal and moral responsibility to do what they knew had to be done.”--The Washington Post, 7/20/07

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In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, 145 countries and twelve international organizations offered money, materials and help. The Bush Administration managed to squander most of the help and all of the good will.

· “Countries were trying to donate desperately needed goods and services, but as a result of bureaucratic bungling and indifference, those most in need of these generous offers and of aid never received it.”--Melanie Sloan, Executive Director of Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, 7/27/07

An offer from Greece to provide two cruise ships to house displaced residents was refused. The Bush Administration preferred to spend millions to lease ships from Carnival Cruise Lines.

Meals Ready to Eat from Britain were not distributed because of a ban on British Beef (due to fear of Mad Cow Disease) Instead, the uneaten meals were put in storage at a cost of $16,000 a month.

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Despite a Bush Administration pledge to increase the number of Katrina-related contracts awarded to small business, their percentage has actually fallen--from 12% to 7%. In fact, $95 million in contracts the Bush Administration claimed were awarded to small businesses were actually awarded to large companies like Halliburton and Bectel. (USA TODAY, 8/2/07)

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Hurricane Katrina exposed something that Americans don’t want to think about or talk about--poverty in America. This is the “other America” of John Edwards’ “two Americas”. These are fellow Americans who struggle every day just to get by, even in the best of times. When Katrina flooded them out of their homes, they were left with nothing--no home, no job; and the Bush Administration has left them with no hope.

In 1977, former Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey said:

· “The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.”

If that is true, the Bush Administration and its accomplices in Congress have failed in every respect.

It is time for a change in Washington, DC. It is time for America to elect a government that takes care of its own people, instead of spreading death and destruction around the world.

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