This is a record number of deaths from ANY hurricane to strike the USA. Ever. In recorded history. Realize as time has gone by over decades of USA history, the population of nearly every region of the nation has grown. With that comes responsibility to protect the people that settle their lives in these areas. Births out number deaths in any state of the USA.
This is pure negligence of government and gross misconduct by Bush's Homeland Security. There just isn't anyone else to blame. When Homeland Security was created by Georgie himself, it took overwhelming power away from nearly every other agency of the government filing it under one massive agency 'designed' to protect the American people. It's time to dismantle an agency that has become a place to house cronies that pick and choose priorities and distributions of monies reflecting those priorities.
Katrina Death Toll Inches to 1,420 (click here)
Update: The unofficial Katrina death toll has risen to 4,098 as of March 13, 2007. See my March 30, 2007 post, Katrina Death Toll Passes 4,000, for details. A list of 1,195 people who were killed in Hurricane Katrina is available on this website here.The hard to find Russian neo-Nazi beheading video taking the net by storm is on this blog here. Updated August 15, 2007:The death toll from Hurricane Katrina increased again on January 27 when officials found the body of a woman east of New Orleans in hard-hit St. Bernard Parish, bringing the Louisiana total to 1,104, an increase of three bodies over the previous total three days prior.This according to a very unfortunately worded CNN headline, "Another Body Swells Katrina Death Toll". Note that since the body has been there for five months, a verb other than "swells" would have been more appropriate. In an 18-day period prior to January 27, authorities have counted 28 new deaths from Katrina, or about 1-2 new deaths per day. Four months after the storm, that is pretty amazing....
There was no way, Michael Brown was qualified to save the lives of people. With every storm occurring to Florida during Bush's presidency, he personally went to Florida to promote FEMA's ability to serve Americans. He fully knew the extent a storm could kill and cause damage to American lives, yet, when there was a Category Five storm bearing down on the Gulf States he completely ignored the possiblity of deaths and devastation because it served his political purposes. He immediately blamed the Democratic leadership in Lousiana and New Orleans when it was a national responsibility to empower agencies to declare emergencies through his new CABINET level agency, Homeland Security.
As the link to this entry provides, the deaths and hardship caused by Katrina is disproportionately assigned to minorities little able to secure their safety without direct federal government intervention. That was known by emergency drills run prior to the arrival of Katrina of authorites all the way to the federal government. All necessary provisions should have been in place long before Katrina stuck since there was never a concern for the levees (click here) or the wetlands (click here) until after the tragedy occurred.
