UPDATE 1-Obama warns Hurricane Irene flooding could worsen
WASHINGTON |
WASHINGTON Aug 28 (Reuters) - U.S. President Barack Obama on Sunday warned that flooding from Hurricane Irene could worsen as rivers flood their banks and said federal recovery efforts would last a few weeks.
"I want people to understand this is not over," Obama said in an appearance at the White House. "Response and recovery efforts will be an ongoing operation."
Irene was downgraded to a tropical storm on Sunday and was bringing heavy rains and wind to New England as it headed north. The storm forced transit closures and flight cancellations and led to widespread power outages along the East Coast.
But New York City appeared to have avoided the mass devastation that many had feared.
"One of our chief concerns before Irene made landfall is the possibility of significant flooding and widespread power outages and we've been getting reports of just that from our state and local partners," said Obama, who was flanked by Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano and Craig Fugate, head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
"Many Americans are still at serious risk of power outages and flooding, which could get worse in the coming days as rivers swell past their banks," he added.
Obama cut short his vacation in Martha's Vineyard in Massachusetts by one day to return to Washington on Friday to oversee preparations for the storm.
He led a video conference with top aides on the response on Sunday morning and the White House said another call was planned for Sunday evening. (Reporting by Caren Bohan and Lesley Wroughton; Editing by Eric Beech)
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While Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster for the Mississippi Gulf Coast, it was not a natural disaster for the city of New Orleans. The Army Corps of Engineers’ shoddy levees failed to hold up to a Category 3 storm. Most of the death and destruction in New Orleans was caused by the levee failures as well as the slow response by the Federal Government.
While we in the Superdome believed the rumors of murders and rapes, in reality these could not be verified. There was a suicide, a couple of drug overdoses and about 5 deaths of medical patients.
The Airport, Amtrak, and Greyhound shut down PRIOR to the evacuation of New Orleans. Many of us could not get out of town and ended up at the Superdome or Convention Center.
The approximate 85% of residents who did evacuate is a higher level than most evacuations of its kind in the U.S.
Those infamous flooded busses would have only evacuated about 5000 people as only half were operable and who was going to drive them as most of the locals had been forced to evacuate.
Days after Katrina, Bush said “no one could have foreseen the breach of the levees”. 6 months later a video and transcripts surfaced showing Bush being forewarned by the Head of the Nat. Hurricane Center, Gov. Blanco, “Brownie” and Nagin that this was going to be a devastating storm and quite likely the levees would be breached. Bush said “everything would be taken care of”. Thus he was caught in two lies.
Paul Harris
Author, “Diary From the Dome, Reflections on Fear and Privilege During Katrina”
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