I anticipate knowledgeable, if furious, responses from the great round-up of guests on NBC’s MTP with Tim Russert today. I note Tim hasn’t signed on any FEMA apologists:
Update [2005-9-11 15:30:8 by susanhu]: Here’s the full transcript of this morning’s MTP. Have at it!
RAY NAGIN
Mayor of New Orleans
JOHN M. BARRY
Author, “Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America”
DR. IVOR VAN HEERDEN
Director, Center for the Study of Public Health Impacts of Hurricanes
Deputy Director, L.S.U. Hurricane Center
Susan’s Note: I woke up at 3am PT — it was the damn pinched nerve in my knee — and Van Heerden was interviewed on MSNBC. He is one pissed-off scientist who knows his shit. He spoke at the only two simulation seminars held by FEMA last year on hurricanes. Hundreds of other preparedness FEMA seminars last year all focused exclusively on terrorist attacks.
Even for the two seminars on hurricanes, MSNBC said on air, the focus became on how a terrorist attack would affect government response during a hurricane.
He recalled that, as he spoke during the one of two FEMA hurricane simlulations last year, Van Heerden could hear members of the Army Corps of Engineers snickering in the audience.
By the way, that intensive simulation last year — dubbed “Hurricane Pam” — correctly predicted the major events that did occur during/after Katrina.
Are you still snickering at Dr. van Heerden, you know-it-alls in the Corps of Engineers?
SEN. ARLEN SPECTER (R – PA)
Chairman, Judiciary Committee
TOPICS:
Hurricane Katrina: The Recovery Continues. We will get an update on the very latest developments in an exclusive interview with the Mayor of New Orleans, Ray Nagin.
What will the lessons of Katrina mean for future disaster planning and evacuations and has poverty reemerged as a critical issue in American politics? We’ll explore the many facets of this disaster with part-time New Orleans resident John M. Barry, author of “Rising Tide: The Great Mississippi Flood of 1927 and How It Changed America;” and the man who repeatedly warned officials at all levels of government about the catastrophic effects of a major hurricane hitting New Orleans, Dr. Ivor van Heerden, Director of the Center for the Study of Public Health Impacts of Hurricanes and the Deputy Director of L.S.U.’s Hurricane Center. (Emphases mine.)
Then, we turn to the future of the Supreme Court. In an exclusive interview, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), will preview the Supreme Court chief justice confirmation hearings of Judge John Roberts that he will call to order on Monday morning.
