Katrina: Bush’s criminal negligence

Statement from the International Action Center

With every hour that passes, we see and hear new stories of the horror
and devastation in the wake of Hurricane Katrina. What makes these
images more shocking is the realization that much of the death and
destruction could have been prevented.

Almost all of the death and destruction arising from the hurricane is
the direct result of criminal neglect by the Bush Administration. This
crisis was predicted in numerous reports and news articles and little,
if anything, was done.

While natural disasters are beyond our control, the preparation for
expected and predicted disasters is something that we can control.
Natural disasters do not have to be catastrophes if plans are made in
advance to protect people and their homes, but these plans were not made.

We cannot discuss the effects of this catastrophe without noting that
those who have suffered most are people of color. Seventy percent of New
Orleans’ residents are Black, as are a major part of the population of
the surrounding area affected by the hurricane. The fact that absolutely
no preparations were made for their evacuation, that no thought was
given to meeting their basic emergency needs in the wake of the storm,
and that even now they have been abandoned and ignored by the
government, lays bare the racism at the core of U.S. society and at the
heart of the policies of George W. Bush.

The criminal negligence displayed by all levels of government preceding
and during this crisis sends a clear message that, to those in power,
the lives of poor people, especially poor Black people, are of
absolutely no concern.

President Bush has diverted funds that were needed to prepare for this
type of natural disaster to fund a war of conquest in Iraq. He did this
despite being warned of the potential for danger by FEMA (the Federal
Emergency Management Agency) as early as 2001. The Houston Chronicle
reported on Dec. 1, 2001: “New Orleans is sinking. And its main buffer
from a hurricane, the protective Mississippi River delta, is quickly
eroding away, leaving the historic city perilously close to disaster.
...So vulnerable, in fact, that earlier this year the Federal Emergency
Management Agency ranked the potential damage to New Orleans as among
the three likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country.”

The Bush Administration knew of the danger and they knew how to prepare
for it. But they chose to do little or nothing ­ they actually slashed
funding for preventative and emergency measures, leaving the people of
the region helpless to deal with the inevitable disaster. Now, with the
destruction of New Orleans and numerous surrounding communities, tens of
thousands of people are without food, water, or electricity. Thousands
of homes are destroyed and the death toll continues to climb.

This is a disaster of unprecedented proportion. It is poor and working
people, particularly people of color, who are suffering the most from
this disaster.

No preparation

It was clear from watching the disaster unfold that no real plans had
been made for evacuating the region, even though everyone, including
Federal authorities and meteorologists, knew that a hurricane of
enormous magnitude was descending on the area.

For the elderly, the handicapped, the poor, there was no provision for
evacuation or shelter. It was “everyone for themselves,” and those who
didn’t have the ability to flee or the means to finance their own
evacuation were left to perish. There were no arrangements for more than
100,000 people in New Orleans - 20 % of the population and
overwhelmingly the poorest part of the population. Those with out cars,
credit cards, and hotel reservations had few alternatives but to stay
home and face the coming deluge. The death toll continues to mount, and
it becomes more and more apparent how little the government is concerned
for human life, particularly the lives of poor and working people.

There were many obvious things that could have and should have been done
if the government were concerned about the lives of the people. Trains,
airlines, buses, and other transportation could have been put to use
evacuating people. Convention centers, hotels, and college dormitories
throughout the region could have been used for shelter. The government
uses eminent domain to take working people’s property for the benefit of
corporate developers; this would have been an excellent opportunity to
use eminent domain in a way that actually benefits people.

Because there was no plan for evacuation, more than 20,000 people were
herded into the Superdome without adequate food, shelter, water, or
medical care for days. The New York Times said, “By Wednesday, the
stench was staggering. Heaps of rotting garbage in bulging white plastic
bags baked under a blazing Louisiana sun on the main entry plaza,
choking new arrivals as they made their way into the stadium after being
plucked off rooftops and balconies. The odor billowing from toilets was
even fouler. Trash spilled across corridors and aisles, slippery with
smelly mud and scraps of food.”

Videos of the situation (see below) show just how desperate the
situation is-people are without food, water, and medicine. Bodies are
piling up on the streets. The people have been absolutely abandoned by
the government.

Only massive immediate Federal intervention can relieve the situation.
The government has access to stockpiles of food and medicines and it has
cargo planes and helicopters to deliver them. Yet the Administration has
chosen not to act while people are dying.

Slashing emergency preparations to fund war and tax cuts for the wealthy

Knowing that a hurricane of this strength was eventually inevitable, the
Bush Administration slashed the budget of the U.S. Army Corps of
Engineers in the area by $71.2 million. This cut eliminated hurricane
and flood protection projects as well as a study to determine ways to
protect the region from a Category 5 hurricane. This cut was part of the
Bush policy of slashing essential programs to pay for a tax cut for the
wealthy and for the occupation of Iraq.

Comparing the cuts of more than $71 million for flood protection to the
$1.7 billion taken from the people of Louisiana for the war in Iraq
yields one more example of how the Bush policy of endless war endangers
the population here.

The Aug. 30 Editor and Publisher revealed that $250 million in crucial
projects planned by the Army Corps of Engineers in the delta for shoring
up levees and building pumping stations could not be carried out. “The
Corps never tried to hide the fact that the spending pressures of the
war in Iraq, as well as homeland security-coming at the same time as
federal tax cuts-was the reason for the strain.

“The 2004 hurricane season was the worst in decades. In spite of that,
the federal government came back this spring with the steepest reduction
in hurricane and flood-control funding for New Orleans in history.”

Emergency Specialists and Equipment sent to Iraq

The National Guard, who would normally be deployed to aid in evacuation
and disaster relief, is unable to respond adequately because 40% of the
Mississippi National Guard 35% of the Louisiana National Guard is in
Iraq. So is much of their equipment, including dozens of high water
vehicles, humvees, refuelers and generators that are essential to
dealing with this type of emergency.

According to the Washington Post, "With thousands of their
citizen-soldiers away fighting in Iraq, states hit hard by Hurricane
Katrina scrambled to muster forces for rescue and security missions
yesterday — calling up Army bands and water-purification teams, among
other units, and requesting help from distant states and the active-duty
military."

Many of the members of the National Guard are also emergency medical
technicians and firefighters. They should be at home helping their
neighbors recover from this disaster, not in Iraq maintaining an illegal
occupation.

Contempt for Environment exacerbates disaster

The flooding is exacerbated by the elimination of wetlands, which
provide a natural buffer. The Bush Administration has removed Federal
protection from as much as 20 million acres of wetlands.

The Bush Administration has demonstrated utter disregard for human life
and contempt for international law by refusing to abide by the 1997
Kyoto accord, a treaty signed by the United States and 54 other nations.
The agreement is designed to limit emissions that cause global warming.

Sir David King, the British Government’s chief scientific adviser, says
that global warming may be responsible for the devastation reaped by
Hurricane Katrina. "The increased intensity of hurricanes is associated
with global warming. We have known since 1987 the intensity of
hurricanes is related to surface sea temperature and we know that, over
the last 15 to 20 years, surface sea temperatures in these regions have
increased by half a degree centigrade. So it is easy to conclude that
the increased intensity of hurricanes is associated with global warming."

Loss of life is avoidable ­ Cuba a U.N. model

The massive loss of life in Louisiana and Mississippi was avoidable, if
those making decisions were interested in funding emergency measures
rather than spending money on war and occupation. Cuba lies directly in
the path of many hurricanes, and yet the loss of life is usually
minimal, because the government has systems in place to aid orderly
evacuations, provide emergency shelter, and look after the elderly, the
handicapped, and the poor.

In 2001, when Hurricane Michelle, a level-4 storm, hit with sustained
125-mile-per-hour winds and widespread floods, more than 700,000 people
were evacuated. Only five Cubans lost their lives in the storm.

In September 2004, Cuba endured Ivan, the fifth-largest hurricane ever
to hit the Caribbean, with sustained winds of 124 miles per hour. Cuba
evacuated almost 2 million people—more than 15 percent of the total
population. One hundred thousand people were evacuated within the first
three hours. An incredible 78 percent of those evacuated were welcomed
into other people’s homes. Children at boarding schools were moved.
Animals and birds were moved. No one was killed. The UN declared this to
be a model of disaster preparation.

Cuba, a country blockaded and isolated by the U.S. for 45 years has been
able to evacuate millions of people in an orderly fashion without loss
of life. Natural disasters do not have to be catastrophes.

Oil profiteering

Beyond the horrific loss of life and homes in the region, working people
everywhere will suffer as the pay more than $3.00 per gallon for gas, as
oil companies rake in record profits. In some places, gas has reached as
much as $5.00 per gallon.

Releasing oil from the Strategic Oil Reserves could easily offset the
loss of oil refineries in the region. Nearly 700 million barrels of oil
are stored in underground salt caverns along the Texas and Louisiana
Gulf Coast. This reserve was established to cushion oil markets during
energy disruptions or other emergencies, and sitting on the oil rather
than releasing it only keeps the price of gas high and ensures greater
profits for the oil companies.

While George W. Bush and his friends at the Big Oil companies are
growing rich from escalating oil prices, while working people, who are
already suffering from the economic policies of the Bush Administration,
have to spend more of their shrinking paychecks to pay for gas to get to
work and school.

Venezuela offers to help while Washington refuses to act

President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela has demonstrated more concern for
working and poor people in the U.S. than George Bush has. Chavez has
announced that Venezuela will be offering poor people discounted gas
through its Citgo chain.

He has also offered to send more than $1 million in oil, food, and and
equipment to the region. In addition, the Venezuelan government is
offering two mobile hospital units, each capable of assisting 150
people, 120 specialists in rescue operations, 10 water purifying plants,
18 electricity generators of 850 KW each, 20 tons of bottled water, and
50 tons of canned food.

A senior U.S. State Department official said he was not aware of the
Venezuelan offer, and then dismissed it as "counterproductive."

The real looting: Bush Administration steals from working people to fund
war and corporate greed

Rather than focusing on criminal neglect by the Federal and State
governments, the corporate media is reporting that the real danger is
looting. In an attempt to shift blame from the policies of the Bush
Administration, the news networks are demonizing the victims. In a
blatant appeal to racism, those being portrayed as “looters” on the news
are without exception black males.

Tens of thousands of poor people have been stranded by a policy of
neglect. Many are without food, fresh water, baby formula, and medicine,
and the government has refused to provide even basic relief.

The real looters are not the hungry people taking what they need from an
abandoned corporate superstore. The real crime is that they were left in
this situation by a government that puts war and corporate profits ahead
of human needs.

The Bush regime has looted billions of dollars of the people’s money,
slashing programs that provide basic necessities and robbing from
agencies that are tasked with preparing for natural disasters in order
to fund a war of conquest against the people of Iraq. There are
dangerous looters, but they are Bush, Cheney, and Rumsfeld, not the poor
people of New Orleans trying to feed their families. It is clear that
the Bush Administration is increasingly putting the entire population of
the country in growing danger by relentlessly slashing every social
program, infrastructure maintenance program, and environmental
protection program.

Money for Human Needs not War!

It is the Bush Administration, and the Big Corporations it serves, who
are directly responsible for the disaster, and they, not the working
people of the region, should be responsible for rebuilding and providing
relief.

In a speech on Wednesday, President Bush said, “our hearts and prayers
are with our fellow citizens along the Gulf Coast who have suffered so
much from Hurricane Katrina.” But the people of the region need food,
clothing, shelter, and jobs, not hearts and prayers.

He grinned as he said, “Recovery will take years,” but offered no plan
to assist in that rebuilding. The people of the area need, and are
entitled to, more than empty rhetoric and vacant smiles. The crisis
demands a massive national mobilization to meet emergency needs and
facilitate rebuilding efforts. The disaster is beyond the scope of local
authorities or private charities to handle; the Federal government must
devote its ample resources, which are now being used to wage war, to
provide immediate and long-term relief.

We call on the Bush Administration to:

* Stop funding war and occupation. Use the money instead to fund
emergency relief and rebuilding.

* Erase the debts incurred by working people who had to pay for gas and
emergency shelter because of the government’s refusal to plan for
evacuation.

* Provide emergency unemployment relief to the tens of thousands who
have lost their jobs because of the devastation.

* Immediately exercise eminent domain to use all available space to
provide emergency and long-term shelter to those left homeless.

* Provide a massive jobs program at union wages for rebuilding. Millions
of unemployed workers could be hired to help construct housing, schools,
and other public facilities.

* Food, water, clothing, medical supplies, and other necessities should
be immediately commandeered for the emergency from agribusiness,
supermarket chains, and pharmaceutical companies. Government food
storage supplies in warehouses throughout the country should be made
available immediately.