"What the caterpillar calls the end of life, wise men call a butterfly."

CHRONOLOGY.... Here's a timeline that outlines the fate of both FEMA and

 flood control projects in New Orleans under the Bush administration:
 

 January 2001: Bush appoints Joe Allbaugh, a crony from Texas, as head of

 FEMA. Allbaugh has no previous experience in disaster management.
 

 April 2001: Budget Director Mitch Daniels announces the Bush administration's

  goal of privatizing much of FEMA's work. In May, Allbaugh confirms that FEMA

  will be downsized: "Many are concerned that federal disaster assistance may

  have evolved into both an oversized entitlement program...." he said. "Expectations

  of when the federal government should be involved and the degree of involvement

  may have ballooned beyond what is an appropriate level."
 

 2001: FEMA designates a major hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the

 three "likeliest, most catastrophic disasters facing this country."
 

 December 2002: After less than two years at FEMA, Allbaugh announces he is

 leaving to start up a consulting firm that advises companies seeking to do

 business in Iraq. He is succeeded by his deputy, Michael Brown, who, like

 Allbaugh, has no previous experience in disaster management.
 

 March 2003: FEMA is downgraded from a cabinet level position and folded into

 the Department of Homeland Security. Its mission is refocused on fighting acts of

  terrorism.
 

 2003: Under its new organization chart within DHS, FEMA's preparation and

 planning functions are reassigned to a new Office of Preparedness and Response.

  FEMA will henceforth focus only on response and recovery.
 

 Summer 2004: FEMA denies Louisiana's pre-disaster mitigation funding requests.

  Says Jefferson Parish flood zone manager Tom Rodrigue: "You would think we

  would get maximum consideration....This is what the grant program called for. We

  were more than qualified for it."
 

 June 2004: The Army Corps of Engineers budget for levee construction in New

 Orleans is slashed. Jefferson Parish emergency management chiefs Walter

 Maestri comments: "It appears that the money has been moved in the president's

 budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the

  price we pay."
 

 June 2005: Funding for the New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of

 Engineers is cut by a record $71.2 million. One of the hardest-hit areas is

 the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project, which was created after

 the May 1995 flood to improve drainage in Jefferson, Orleans and St. Tammany

 parishes.
 

 August 2005: While New Orleans is undergoing a slow motion catastrophe, Bush

 mugs for the cameras, cuts a cake for John McCain, plays the guitar for Mark

 Wills, delivers an address about V-J day, and continues with his vacation.

 When he finally gets around to acknowledging the scope of the unfolding disaster,

  he delivers only a photo op on Air Force One and a flat, defensive, laundry list

  speech in the Rose Garden.
 

 A crony with no relevant experience was installed as head of FEMA.  Mitigation

  budgets for New Orleans were slashed even though it was known to be one of the

  top three risks in the country. FEMA was deliberately downsized as part of the Bush

  administration's conservative agenda to reduce the role of government. After DHS

  was created, FEMA's preparation and planning functions were taken away.
 

 Actions have consequences. No one could predict that a hurricane the size of Katrina

 would hit this year, but the slow federal response when it did happen was no accident.

  It was the result of four years of deliberate Republican policy and budget choices that

 favor ideology and partisan loyalty at the expense of operational competence. It's the

  Bush administration in a nutshell.

 -- 

 Henry Breitrose

 Professor of Communication

 Department of Communication

 Stanford University

 Stanford, California USA 94305-2050

 650-723-4700