[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 110 (Wednesday, September 7, 2005)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1780]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




   EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS ACT TO MEET IMMEDIATE NEEDS 
        ARISING FROM THE CONSEQUENCES OF HURRICANE KATRINA, 2005

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                               speech of

                           HON. JIM McDERMOTT

                             of washington

                    in the house of representatives

                       Friday, September 2, 2005

  Mr. McDERMOTT. Mr. Speaker, last Monday, August 29th, Hurricane 
Katrina hit Louisiana and Mississippi as a Category 4 storm, with winds 
of over 140 miles per hour. We all know the aftermath of that terrible 
storm: thousands dead, more than a million refugees, billions of 
dollars in damage, and a major American city rendered uninhabitable. 
The greatest tragedy of all is that, for the most part, this could have 
been avoided.
  The President told us that he didn't ``think anyone anticipated the 
breach of the levees,'' a misinformed statement at best. New Orleans is 
the only major American city below sea level, and the Federal 
Government was well aware of the flooding threat to the city in the 
event of a hurricane. Just last July, the Federal Emergency Management 
Agency (FEMA) conducted a five-day hurricane exercise simulating the 
effects that a powerful storm would have on New Orleans. During the 
apocalyptic simulation, 120 mile per hour wind gusts and 20 inches of 
rain combined to top the levees, forcing the evacuation of more than 
one million residents.
  Yet despite the lessons learned from that exercise the Bush 
administration stunningly neglected to heed the threat.
  The President slashed funding for the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood 
Control Project (SELA), the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' project to 
control flooding in the New Orleans area, to $10.4 million, one-sixth 
of what local officials had said they needed. Funding for Army Corps 
projects have been cut across the board for the last few years by this 
administration and this Congress, whose reckless tax-cutting, combined 
with funding cuts and National Guard deployments to Iraq, have sharply 
increased vulnerability to natural disaster in this country. It is 
worth noting that more than 7,000 soldiers from the Louisiana and 
Mississippi National Guard are stationed in Iraq, including more than 
3,000 from the 256th Brigade Combat Team based in New Orleans.
  Even as the hurricane was hitting land as a Category 4 storm, the 
administration failed to mobilize help. Dr. Max Mayfield, Director of 
the National Hurricane Center, said that both Homeland Security 
Secretary Michael Chertoff and FEMA Director Mike Brown were made aware 
of the storm's potential in the days leading up to its landfall, yet it 
took until Friday, September 2nd, four days after the storm hit, for 
any meaningful National Guard presence to arrive to relieve the burden 
on local Guard units, bring about law and order, and ease suffering. 
The first 72 hours after a disaster are the most important in terms of 
saving lives, and this administration completely failed in that regard.
  Sadly, the 200,000 or so people who did not evacuate the city in time 
were overwhelmingly those who were too poor, old, or sick to leave. It 
is they who have suffered the most from the gross Federal Government 
incompetence before, during, and after the storm.

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