SORRY ABOUT THATWe are currently in what I hope will prove to be a temporary phase of sharing of the blame(s) for the various disaster(s) occurring with and from the overall Katrina flood conditions.
We find tapes coming into existence which were, a few weeks unknown. Such tapes had been “wished for” by those who hope prove themselves innocent of various charges being bandied about rather loosely. It seemed the logical way to prove that someone else was a fault. It would help set definite times when they issued warnings about the strength of the oncoming storm or that they had taken some other commendable action to help the area face an emergency of greater amplitude than had been, previously, anticipated.
Exactly where this “missing”, “delayed” or “hidden” tape came from is still unclear but it does showing plainly that FEMA Director Brown did, indeed, notify the Presidential Staff and others, concerning the excessive nature of the impending floods and the possibilities of losses far in excess of existing plans. As conditions worsened, he also asked for troops to be deployed in the areas where going to be subjected to the worst of the storm. He did mention special concern for the AstroDome structure which was below the water level expected by a good six feet or more. He expressed some doubt about the roof of the building holding fast, too. He was, it appears, making plans to use that large building as a center for incoming flood victims.
Few, in any one seems to have anticipated. The term term used"topped...if the flood waters "topped." any such barriers their problem would be multiplied many times over. No one seems to have actually made use of such terms as"broken","breeched","washed out" or "destroyed".
This phase will lead to better times,I'm sure, when people will begin to speak up honestly and with sincere desires to make better and people can move back and start to live normal lives once more. Those people who had to live through this series of events need time to re-assess what it all meant to them and to come to feel of accusations -free to gain perspective. Out of meetings now being held, new understandings will come to fashioned, with the idea of improvement in minds rather than the placing of blame.
We all have to learn,in times of special need to:"Take a little and give a lot!"
A.L.M. March 3, 2006 [c424wds]
