Did the White House let New Orleans drown on purpose?

Question

That's the conclusion of a scientist who was on the scene at the time as disclosed by BBC reporter Greg Palast:

Greg Palast: Hurricane George: How the White House Drowned New Orleans

[Thursday, August 23] It's been two years. And America's media is about to have another tear-gasm over New Orleans. Maybe Anderson Cooper will weep again. The big networks will float into the moldering corpse of the city and give you uplifting stories about rebuilding and hope.

Now, let's cut through the crybaby crap. Here's what happened two years ago -- and what's happening now. This is what an inside source told me. And it makes me sick:

"By midnight on Monday, the White House knew. Monday night I was at the state Emergency Operations Center and nobody was aware that the levees had breeched. Nobody."

The charge is devastating: That, on August 29, 2005, the White House withheld from the state police the information that New Orleans was about to flood.

But this was not just any source. The whistleblower is Dr. Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, the chief technician advising the state on saving lives during Katrina.

I'd come to van Heerden about another matter, but in our talks, it was clear he had something he wanted to say, and it was a big one. He charged that the White House, FEMA, and the Army Corps hid, for critical hours, their discovery that the levees surrounding New Orleans were cracking, about to burst and drown the city.

Understand that Katrina never hit New Orleans. The hurricane swung east of the city, so the state evacuation directors assumed New Orleans was now safe -- and evacuation could slow while emergency efforts moved east with the storm.

But unknown to the state, in those crucial hours on Monday, the federal government's helicopters had filmed the cracks that would become walls of death by Tuesday.

Van Heerden revealed: "FEMA knew at 11 o'clock on Monday.

http://www.buzzflash.com/articles/contributors/1258

Can people read the question before giving their ridiculous answers, please! Gee, no wonder this country is in the shape it's in.

The article addresses the evacuation orders - since the hurricane wasn't hitting NO, there was no need for them. CAN ANYONE READ??????

Van wreeden warned of it before the hurricane hit, so I doubt he's covering his butt:

http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/08/28/katrina.doomsday/index.html

Thanks for thinking about it, tho.

Since Bush knew there were no WMDs and lied about it, since he knew who outed Valerie Plame at his direction and lied about that, and since he continued after Katrina to ignore New Orleans, of course it's believable. Again, the scientist didn't know during the storm - he found out later. And he did warn of levee breaks before the storm hit.

Answer 1

If you were to assume this were true, doesn't that make this Dr. Ivor van Heerden just as responsible as anyone else. If he was the in a position to know that FEMA had this information then he should also have made sure that the information was given to other authorities. He was the "chief technician" and a "Deputy Director" not some janitor that overheard a conversation.

The truth is that a lot of people made mistakes in New Orleans then. The storm was forecast to hit the city for several days and officials and citizens alike ignored the warnings. The mayor refused to allow city vehicles to be used to evacuate people. The governor didn't make any moves to help anyone until after blame was already being cast about. Do you really believe that the President knew that New Orleans would be flooded and didn't tell anyone about it?

Answer 2

This question and it's insinuations are yet another anecdotal example of why I fear for the future of the United States. The disease if ignorance and misinformation is epidemic.

Within the confines of what FEMA was supposed to be doing by it's Federal mandate, there were mis-steps galore.

However, you CANNOT pin the initial response to the aftermath of Katrina on FEMA or the Feds at any level.

READ MY TYPING: FEMA is NOT, I repeat >NOT< a first responder agency. It was NEVER structured to be a first responder.

The State and the Local governments were RESPONSIBLE for FIRST RESPONDING to a local disaster. The record shows that the State and city government failed so badly that it was hilarious, sad, and infuriating all at the same time.

FEMA was ill equipped, by infrastructure as well as by law, to fill the enormous vacuum left by the absence of a State and Local Gov't response.

The fact that the State and the Local governmental agencies RESPONSIBLE for first responding didn't know their OWN levies had been breeched is just an example of how very spectacular their failure was at monitoring the situation.

It was REASONABLE for FEMA to have assumed that the State and Locals already knew that their own levies were failing. Do the agencies involved get high marks for the free flow of data? No! Is it all FEMA's fault - NOT ON YOUR IGNORANT LIFE.

Many institutional problems with FEMA were revealed in the days and weeks after Katrina - not the least of which was that the new gigantic bureaucracy The Dept of Homeland Security, which swallowed FEMA as well as a host of other agencies, was a gigantic largely inept bureaucracy. The blame for that lies with first Congress for laying that turd, and then Michael Chertoff and his Sr managers for relegating FEMA to the backwater of the Directorate.

Pathetic all around.

Answer 3

Katrina hit NO on a Sat. night. The next morning I awoke to turn on the news(Have an interest in NO having once lived there) The news reporter claimed at 8:00am that NO had dodged a bullet that the hurricane had come and gone, and for the most part left NO in tact. About 2 hours latter the 17th st levy broke and because NO in mostly below sea level(French Qt and some of the garden dist, and upper merterie excluded) the city filled with water like a bathroom sink. While possible I find it unlikely that the WH was unaware that the levees broke some 32 hours after it happened. Having been back to NO this spring, I can tell you that the parts of the city that used to work are working again and the parts of NO that did not work before will of course never work. There are still whole areas that have abandoned houses, but of course since no one is moving back to those homes they are logically abandoned

Answer 4

Yes, but he didn't finish the job. Since no city should be built below sea level Bush was trying to save the people of New Orleans from future disasters by flooding them out with a silly little local hurricane in hopes they will stay away and not be there when global warming makes the ocean rise and wipe the place out. Funny how you say global warming will make sea levels rise yet you still want people to stay below current sea levels. Think about it...

Answer 5

No and your spending too much time on the negative. Try thinking about how the Federal Government did help. Give praise for all that was done. You know your thinking that our White House should just snap their fingers and presto!! Everything takes time. They did all they could as quickly as they could. That is the major problem with other countries and many people. They figure America is like a magic wand. They can do all things by the wand. Well our Country can do only so much with so little time. Your a true example of bite the hand that helps.

Answer 6

The White house did not let NO down. The Mayor of NO and the Governor let them down. This is really a dead horse now. The unused school buses, lack of evacuation planning even though they they are below sea level was down right criminal.

They were told years ago the dyke's and levy system was not going to protect them. They did nothing.

The Federal government should not be counted on to bail out incompetent politicians.

Answer 7

"The whistleblower is Dr. Ivor van Heerden, deputy director of the Louisiana State University Hurricane Center, the chief technician advising the state on saving lives during Katrina."

Sounds like Dr. Heerden is covering his own tail, considering he was the "chief technician ADVISING THE STATE..."

Again...the Fed couldn't send ANY help until they were asked to help....that's the state's fault.

Answer 8

This is ridiculous! New Orleans has been on lists of cities that were ripe for disaster for years. The City has been sinking into the gulf and needed pumps running 24-7 to stay dry.
The City Government and Louisiana state government should have been in charge of the storm preparation and reaction.
It is just very popular to blame The President for everything that goes wrong any where.
People need to stop relying on the government to save and protect them, and use common sense. Personal responsibility!
If your town is below sea level expect water!

Answer 9

Seriously let it go!!

How is it that New Orleans didn't know but me {who is} 1,674.78 miles away knew the levees where going to break!! hmmmmmm....it was all over the news!! But yet the white house is at fault.

People where told to get the heck outta there and offered boats and busses and whatever but chose to "ride it out" and then cried and moaned when disaster hit...a predicted disaster. I do feel sorry for the people that they didn't get to in time.

But I don't feel sorry for the people that my husband talked to (national guard who went to help with clean up) who said yeah they knew it would devestate and could have killed them but they didn't want to leave their house b/.c of emotional reasons or just b/c they wanted to see what a hurricane was like. Or the many many people that sat on their butts and didn't help anyone b/c they didn't have to lets let the gov't do that!! But they blamed the gov't for a disaster that could not have been stopped.

Or better yet lets rebuild New Orleans...because a city below sea level worked the first time, right!

Answer 10

Yes, you are correct. It wasn't Nagin who let all those buses sit empty and flooded. It was Bush. Right after he fired up his weather machine. Blanco didn't refuse the Guard, either. And God knows that not a single soul in NO should have taken responsibility for themselves and their neighbors and left. I mean, sheesh! So it's a city built below sea-level in the path of a major hurricane - why bother trying to evacuate? Oh, and Bush also forced Nagin to hole up in that hotel.

And the BBC even admits they are horribly liberal biased...but whatever makes you happy.

Does being a leftist mean you never take any responsibility for anything?