http://www.circavie.com/timelines/44b4fa73-fe9a-587f-b4ff-5551f01fef9d 2007-08-29T15:11:38Z http://www.circavie.com/ http://www.circavie.com/file/americanprogress/photos/b35fe349-6415-5fa5-8b7a-b6d3163df77e_t http://www.circavie.com/timelines/44b4fa73-fe9a-587f-b4ff-5551f01fef9d http://www.circavie.com/timelines/44b4fa73-fe9a-587f-b4ff-5551f01fef9d/7150 "FEMA has broken its promise to reopen four multimillion-dollar no-bid contracts for Hurricane Katrina work, including three that federal auditors say wasted significant amounts of money. Officials said they awarded the four contracts last October to speed recovery efforts that might have been slowed by competitive bidding. Some critics, however, suggested they were rewards for politically connected firms." --"FEMA Breaks Promise On Katrina Contracts," Associated Press 4b780c49-c08b-5c81-b851-c7fce10be514 2007-09-13T21:43:34Z http://www.circavie.com/timelines/44b4fa73-fe9a-587f-b4ff-5551f01fef9d/7109 "The Army Corps of Engineers seems likely to fulfill a promise by President Bush to rebuild New Orleans's toppled flood walls to their original, pre-Katrina height by June 1, but two teams of independent experts monitoring the $1.6 billion reconstruction project say large sections of the rebuilt levee system will be substantially weaker than before the hurricane hit. These experts say the Corps, racing to rebuild 169 miles of levees destroyed or damaged by Katrina, is taking shortcuts to compress what is usually a years-long construction process into a few weeks. They say that weak, substandard materials are being used in some levee walls, citing lab tests as evidence. And they say the Corps is deferring repairs to flood walls that survived Katrina but suffered structural damage that could cause them to topple in a future storm." --"Levee Fixes Falling Short, Experts Warn," The Washington Post 178e9085-811d-5ab0-adb1-fbc4d148c11f 2007-09-13T18:54:13Z http://www.circavie.com/timelines/44b4fa73-fe9a-587f-b4ff-5551f01fef9d/7068 "Nearly eight months after Hurricane Katrina triggered the nation's largest housing crisis since the Second World War, a hastily improvised $10 billion effort by the federal government has produced vast sums of waste and misspent funds, an array of government audits and outside analysts have concluded. As the Federal Emergency Management Agency wraps up the initial phase of its temporary housing program -- ending reliance on cruise ships and hotels for people sent fleeing by the Aug. 29 storm -- the toll of false starts and missed opportunities appears likely to top $1 billion and perhaps much more, according to a series of after-action studies and Department of Homeland Security reports, including one due for release today." --"Waste in Katrina Response Cited," The Washington Post, April 14, 2006 ddae96bb-c241-5f0f-b39d-db9bbfbf6049 2007-09-13T14:46:55Z http://www.circavie.com/timelines/44b4fa73-fe9a-587f-b4ff-5551f01fef9d/6955 "The Federal Emergency Management Agency gave a holiday reprieve to about 150,000 evacuees of hurricanes Katrina and Rita yesterday, saying the vast majority will not lose government subsidies for the hotel rooms where they have been living until Jan 7. A week ago, FEMA warned hurricane victims living in every state except Louisiana and Mississippi that it would stop paying for their hotel rooms by Dec. 1, which it said was an attempt to encourage them to find permanent housing. But the announcement sparked widespread protests from state and local officials and housing advocates, who said the huge number of evacuees in hotels could not find permanent housing in 15 days." --"FEMA Extends Housing Deadline," The Washington Post 5ff69efd-0224-51ea-ad52-ae9f8bcf5c1b 2007-09-12T14:29:29Z http://www.circavie.com/timelines/44b4fa73-fe9a-587f-b4ff-5551f01fef9d/6954 "Two months after President Bush promised to confront Gulf Coast poverty with ''bold action," the US government is moving on a far more narrow track to aid the hurricane-devastated region, focusing on pouring concrete rather than confronting the underlying race and poverty issues through Bush's ambitious proposals. After passing $70 billion in aid to the Gulf Coast in the emotion-pitched weeks after Hurricane Katrina struck, Congress closed for Thanksgiving vacation with little appetite to spend more." --"Katrina Aid Falls Short of Promises," The Boston Globe, Nov. 27, 2005 fd9298fb-a0c6-5452-9964-c7d6f53a276a 2007-09-12T14:25:42Z http://www.circavie.com/timelines/44b4fa73-fe9a-587f-b4ff-5551f01fef9d/6953 "t would be unprecedented and indefensible for the federal government to leave an American city to fend for itself in recovery. But when we talk of the federal government's role in rebuild- ing New Orleans, it's important to understand its direct culpability in the destruction. At the site of the worst urban disaster in American history, we are a city obsessed. Rebuilding New Orleans is our breakfast-table conversation, our lunchtime chatter, our pillow talk. But while we talk, we also wait. For a settlement on our homeowner insurance policy, for our children's schools to reopen, for a sign that our neighbors will come back. Above all we are waiting for Congress and the federal government to decide that New Orleans deserves strong levees -- stronger than the sorry system, designed and built by the Army Corps of Engineers, that collapsed, wrecking our neighborhoods. We want word from Washington that a great American city will not be left to die." --"Do Not Forsake Us," an op-ed by Jim Amoss, editor of the New Orleans Times Picayune, published in The Washington Post, Nov. 27, 2005 898eb279-fc51-5829-ae05-76257a41c12e 2007-09-12T14:23:37Z http://www.circavie.com/timelines/44b4fa73-fe9a-587f-b4ff-5551f01fef9d/6952 " A pair of environmental groups charged federal and state officials Wednesday with ignoring dangerously high levels of airborne benzene, a toxin unleashed by a massive oil spill in St. Bernard Parish and region-wide waivers of emissions rules to help restart petrochemical plants following Hurricane Katrina. State and federal officials dispute the claim, saying the Louisiana Bucket Brigade and St. Bernard Citizens for Environmental Quality are distorting air quality readings that showed high — but not dangerous — benzene levels across the region in September and October. A component of petroleum, benzene is a known carcinogen." --"Environmental Groups: Government Ignored Toxin," The Times Picayune, Nov. 30, 2005 06d6d814-716e-5082-9ef5-376ad339ddbf 2007-09-12T14:15:29Z http://www.circavie.com/timelines/44b4fa73-fe9a-587f-b4ff-5551f01fef9d/6950 "Nearly three months after Hurricane Katrina forced tens of thousands from their homes, bureaucracy is creating a new tide of trouble for victims of the storm. "We feel like we are citizens of the United States who are nearly forgotten," said Democratic Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco. "It is a very frustrating thing. People are weary. They want to move on ... It's going to take us a while. And we still need help from Washington."" --"Governor: Katrina Victims 'Nearly Forgotten,'" CNN, Nov. 17, 2005 9cacebb9-ef18-523a-afef-ace86ec185d9 2007-09-12T14:00:08Z http://www.circavie.com/timelines/44b4fa73-fe9a-587f-b4ff-5551f01fef9d/6949 "When Hurricane Katrina struck, AshBritt Inc. was well-positioned to take advantage of the torrent of government dollars that followed. The Pompano Beach, Fla., firm had spent years cultivating its relationship with the federal government, contributing tens of thousands of dollars to the Republican Party (search) and, more recently, hiring a powerful firm to lobby the Army Corps of Engineers on "disaster mitigation." After Katrina hit, AshBritt (search) was given the largest award to date — a deal worth up to $1.1 billion from the Corps for debris removal. It is a story of government ties that is repeated time and again for the winners of the 10 largest Katrina contracts, according to an Associated Press review. At least four of those contracts are now being reviewed for possible waste and abuse." --"Katrina's Big Contracts Go to Companies in Political Loop," The Associated Press 0e481c9f-3a95-5580-b76e-fde7f663025a 2007-09-12T13:46:17Z http://www.circavie.com/timelines/44b4fa73-fe9a-587f-b4ff-5551f01fef9d/6948 Excerpt of statement of Sen. Tom Carper (D-DE) on the Senate floor, Oct. 19, 2005: "Hurricane Katrina was truly an unprecedented event. It was in all likelihood the worst natural disaster I have witnessed in my lifetime. I can understand then that there might be some mistakes made, that there might not be easy solutions to some of the problems faced by millions of Americans directly affected by this storm. But I believe there are too many key areas where we have experienced clear failures that just cannot be shrugged off. We have all heard about the slow initial response to the storm. We have also heard about the no-bid contracts that probably weren't necessary. .." b2d42e0f-e1f9-5c3c-a52a-cf3618af5635 2007-09-12T13:43:55Z