October 7, 2024
A Tale of Two Hurricanes and Presidents
By Brian C. Joondeph
Hurricane Katrina battered New Orleans and coastal Mississippi as a Category 3 hurricane 19 years ago. As a hurricane, a Category 3 storm is average, not the killer Category 4 or 5 storms that we less frequently see.
Most of the damage and loss of life at that time was due to New Orleans being built below sea level, with levees designed to keep seawater out. However, the levees didn’t hold due to faulty engineering, leading to massive flooding.
The damage was immense, with over 1,800 fatalities and $100 billion in property damage. There was plenty of blame to go around. The Cato Institute identified these failures – confusion, failure to learn, communication breakdown, supply failures, indecision, and fraud and abuse.
The presiding president, George W, Bush, was pilloried over his response. U.S. News & World Report called it “The undoing of George W. Bush,” claiming that he “didn’t pay attention to the biggest news story of the moment because he was on vacation and allowed himself to get isolated from the country.”
Vanity Fair described it as “The flood that sank George W. Bush.”
more
https://www.americanthinker.com/articles/2024/10/a_tale_of_two_hurricanes_and_presidents.html
