Anyone with a television and a modest knowledge of Louisiana topography could see in the hours after Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans that something bad was happening.

Three centuries of languor, corruption and bon ton roullez caught up with New Orleans in the wake of the hurricane as social order slipped, levees failed and a culture of expecting others to act played out.

Into the fray stepped the most unprepared, ill-led, bureaucratic disaster of a federal agency ever to disgrace a tax dollar. Led by a man with a fake resume but lifted to the civil service heights by a nodding acquaintance with the president, the Federal Emergency Management Agency failed in every regard.

Fault for the disaster fell upon the weather, Louisiana and New Orleans. Fault for the disastrous response fell squarely on the feds and by extension the president who hired a buffoon to lead an important government agency.

Proving that his management style is somewhere between bad and nonexistent, President Bush flew into the mess and, with characteristic frat-boy charm, threw his arm around the man most responsible for FEMA’s failure, looked into the camera and proclaimed “You are doing a hell of a job, Brownie.”

0
0
0
0
0

(0 Ratings)