Spooky Bad Luck or Horrible Leadership?

While there's nothing anybody could have done to stop Katrina smashing into the Gulf Coast this week. But things could have been done to lessen the impact. For instance, in fiscal year 2006, the Army Corps of Engineers - the smart guys and gals responsible for keeping New Orleans dry - saw their budget cut a record $71.2 billion dollars by Dubya. Among the casualties were a study of how to protect the city from a Category 5 hurricane and:

the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created after the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany parishes. SELA's budget is being drained from $36.5 million awarded in 2005 to $10.4 million.

Any of those place names ring a bell? You might be willing to simply chuck that up to bad luck, but consider this 2001 Houston Chronicle article about a FEMA report from earlier that year:

earlier this year the Federal Emergency Management Agency ranked the potential damage to New Orleans as among the three likeliest, most castastrophic disasters facing this country.

The other two? A massive earthquake in San Francisco, and, almost prophetically, a terrorist attack on New York City.

The New Orleans hurricane scenario may be the deadliest of all.

Hmm. Two down, one to go. If I were Dubya, I'd boost the payments for quake prevention/mitigation in Frisco right the hell now.

Hat tip to TalkLeft and Daily Kos for bringing these things to light.