Katrina and history


How will government reaction to Hurricane Katrina be remembered? With a lot of luck, just as it happened.
If the United States ever goes "libertarian" in the same sense that it turns "right" or "left," I hope hurricane Katrina is remembered as total government failure.

Federal, state, and local authorities failed to provide adequate flood control despite decades of time and billions of dollars.

Federal, state, and local authorities failed to evacuate the city of New Orleans in the days before the hurricane hit.

Federal, state, and local authorities mishandled the emergency response after the hurricane, even to the extent of turning away private sector help and letting brand new trailers sit unoccupied, rotting.

And yes, it's still the fraud that keeps on giving.

More than 18 months after Hurricane Katrina decimated the Gulf Coast, authorities are chipping away at a mountain of fraud cases that, by some estimates, involve thousands of people who bilked the federal government and charities out of hundreds of millions of dollars intended to aid storm victims.

The full scope of Katrina fraud may never be known, but this much is clear: It stretches far beyond the Gulf Coast, like the hurricane evacuees themselves. So far, more than 600 people have been charged in federal cases in 22 states - from Florida to Oregon - and the District of Columbia.

The frauds range in value from a few thousand dollars to more than $700,000. Complaints are still pouring in and several thousand possible cases are in the pipeline - enough work to keep authorities busy for five to eight years, maybe more.

This is just the deliberate fraud that has been uncovered. There are stories told that just like in the wake of 9-11, the Feds have been randomly handing out cash to those who had nothing to do with the hurricane and weren't even in the same state.

Witness then the total failure of a paternalistic state.

— NeoWayland

Posted: Mon - April 2, 2007 at 05:09 AM  Tag


 ◊  ◊   ◊  ◊ 

Random selections from NeoWayland's library


Pagan Vigil "Because LIBERTY demands more than just black or white"
© 2005 - 2009 All Rights Reserved