In 2004, Mr. Bill — the unforgettable clay figure of Saturday Night Live fame — was tapped, by America’s Wetland to raise awareness of the loss of Louisiana’s swamps and marshlands.
Must-see video: Mr. Bill in “Hurricane Sluggo,” “Save New Orleans,” “Mr. Bill Does the Weather,” and a 45-minute video, “New Orleans: The Natural History.” Crooks & Liars has a write-up on the 2004 ad, noting that Mr. Bill knew, unlike Mr. Bush, that the levees could be breached.
From WWLTV blog:
12:16 P.M. – (AP): State officials said Friday they have spotted a huge oil spill near two storage tanks at the town of Venice, on the Mississippi River downstream from New Orleans.
A flyover by the Department of Environmental Quality revealed what was described as a major oil spill.
“Two tanks with the capacity of holding 2 million barrels appear to be leaking,” the statement said.
No further details were given.
Here is Bush’s exact quote. I admit that I have misquoted him, apologies Mr. “President.” <guffaw>
I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach in the levees. George W. Bush, September 1, 2005
Those words will live in infamy.
What agencies, with what capabilities, in what strength, and what supplies are either onsite or staging in the Gulf? What private companies are linking with those agencies? No idea, eh?
Here’s a couple:
Where do I find, see, hear, or read that?
Or that something as simple as hand-crank radios and individual water purifiers are being shipped/dropped in? The radios use no batteries and are ubiquitous. Purifying water can be done with f*cking bleach and a bucket. Not fast, but who cares if you’re dehydrating?
But none of that information will be on the nightly news.
Hat tip to Atrios for the quote from the WH website.
Better make sure you clearly understand the difference between “breached” and “overtopped.”
I am swamped trying to fix the site slowness … please TELL ME what to use and i’ll fix it.
Well, the levees were designed to withstand a category three hurricane without failure. And they were designed to withstand a category five hurricane without failure, but they weren’t high enough to prevent water from going over the top in that case.
So the worst case planning was for a category five hurricane with water going over the top of the INTACT levees. It was not forseen that the levees would actually fail by breaking or “breaching.”
So, Bush is correctly stating that it was not expected that the levees would breach. The flooding is a lot worse than was planned for even in the “worst case” scenarios.