MAPPING THE KATRINA FEMA RESPONSE IN LOUISIANA

But hey, if it was a kind of spatial dyslexia when Bush said north, that should have been caught...

I suppose I have to go look there - I tend to avoid the thread.

ossobuco wrote:

I suppose I have to go look there - I tend to avoid the thread.

I do too Osso but curiosity got the best of me this morning. I wondered just how anyone could continue to defend this bunch of loonies and foxfyre is still hanging on. You gotta admire his/her tenacity if nothing else.

I don't think anyone here REALLY believes Bush sat down at his kitchen table in Crawford and wrote that declaration. Right?

So, whoever did write it for the president to sign got it wrong, either at someones direction or out of stupidity. Either way there's no acceptable excuse.

As for the presidents responsibility as well as everyone else signing any document:

A) First rule is to know what you are signing is accurate

B) Second rule is to know what you are signing is accurate.

The logical question then becomes "Did he know?"[/[/b]quote]

moot point since bush will do what's in the interest of him and his circle, no matter what he knows.

[...]
New research by the U.S. Geological Survey, however, indicates that New Orleans is sinking faster than many realize and could be under water within 50 years. The city is facing a series of issues--disappearing wetlands that protect from hurricanes, levees that are too low to hold back flood waters, rising water tables, to name a few--that if not addressed soon could have New Orleans suffering the same fate as Atlantis.

Dramatic, yes. But not unlikely, according to Shea Penland, geologist and professor at the University of New Orleans. "When we get the big hurricane and there are 10,000 people dead, the city government's been relocated to the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain, refugee camps have been set up and there $10 billion plus in losses, what then?" he asks.

Penland has been studying hurricanes and the Louisiana coastline for decades, and he sees disaster coming. "Along the south shore of Lake Ponchartrain, there was a restaurant built in 1859 and some 200 homes that were built on pilings out on the lake around the 1930s. They had all been through the hurricane of 1948, Betsy in 1965, Camille in 1969. Hurricane Georges destroyed every one of them. Georges had a particular track that had the wind blowing directly across the longest distance that build the biggest waves."

And it is a hurricane on a particular track with a particular force that could submerge New Orleans. According to data supplied by Risk Management Solutions, a leading catastrophe modeling firm in Menlo Park, Calif., hurricanes of Category 4 or stronger make landfall within 100 miles of New Orleans about once every 35 years. There have been four storms of Category 4 strength or greater since 1899. Hurricane Camille made landfall as a Category 5 hurricane and was one of only two Category 5 hurricanes to hit the U.S. in the last century. Hurricane Betsy, a Category 4 hurricane, struck about 80 miles to the west of New Orleans, subjecting the populated areas to the stronger winds and surge on the right side of the storm path.
[...]

Gov't Split on Care for Katrina Victims

Wednesday September 28, 2005 9:46 PM



By KEVIN FREKING

Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON (AP) - The White House is fighting a congressional effort that would give low-income hurricane victims the same access to health care under Medicaid that survivors of the Sept. 11 attacks received.

Gulf Coast governors pressed for action Wednesday amid reports that hundreds of poor people in Louisiana had been denied Medicaid benefits.

``We've got people who have needs today,'' said Gov. Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana.

Blanco and Govs. Haley Barbour of Mississippi and Bob Riley of Alabama endorsed extending Medicaid coverage to Katrina victims who otherwise would not be eligible to participate in the program. The cost of the legislation, which includes other measures, is estimated at $9 billion.

The White House says the legislation is unnecessary because the government has created a temporary fund that is available when health care providers treat uninsured storm victims.

``We feel like this is a very good approach to meet their needs immediately,'' Health and Human Services Department spokeswoman Christina Pearson.

Sens. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, and Max Baucus, D-Mont., the bill's sponsors, questioned whether the fund would have enough money to compensate providers and whether the administration has the legal authority to set up such a fund.

``Could you please explain to us why the Katrina evacuees do not deserve the same assistance provided the people of New York,'' the senators wrote HHS Secretary Mike Leavitt.

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration approved a waiver program for New York that extended Medicaid coverage to people not normally eligible for Medicaid.

Leavitt wrote Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist on Tuesday to say that his department is ``providing relief quickly, rather than waiting to implement an unprecedented new federal program as envisioned'' by the Grassley-Baucus bill.

Grassley, chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, said four or five senators were blocking action on the bill. He also made it clear that the White House needs to work with him if it expects his committee later this year trim the size of the Medicaid program by $10 billion over five years.

``People at the White House need to know that the chances of our getting a (budget cut) bill moving out of my committee are very difficult if we don't get this behind us,'' Grassley said.

Sen. Blanche Lincoln, D-Ark., said the administration's proposal would result in states such as hers sending a bill to Louisiana and Mississippi for the cost of providing Medicaid services to residents forced to evacuate.

She said the Senate has become paralyzed by ``the web of red tape that this administration is spinning over our ability to provide the basic needs of health care to people who have been devastated.''

Medicaid workers in Louisiana reported that several hundred people have been rejected for benefits under the health insurance program for the poor, even though the hurricane has left them destitute.

Pearson said the department was working out an agreement with the state, similar to those reached with Texas, Alabama, Mississippi and Florida.

Medicaid provides health care coverage for low-income people, primarily children, their parents, pregnant women, the disabled and the poor in need of long-term care. Thousands upon thousands of adults in Gulf Coast state do not fall into those categories.

How to help them is at the heart of the disagreement between senators and the administration. But other differences exists, too. For example, the Senate bill provides a relief fund so those with private insurance can pay the premiums needed to maintain the policy.

In a statement, the National Governors Association has praised the Grassley and Baucus bill. ``You have been willing to work with us in making sure that the needs of our most vulnerable citizens are addressed,'' they said.

Sen. Trent Lott, R-Miss., said he wanted to expand Medicaid only to those people who were affected by the hurricane. He also wanted the help to be temporary. He said Congress would act ``with the help of the administration or without them.''

``I want action now. Our people are hurting. They need help. We're asking you for it, but to do it in a responsible way,'' Lott said.

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Associated Press writers David Pace and Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.