[KevO]

Now I know the hurricane wasn't made by the Bush admin.
It was real.
But after watching a Live BBC Special on Katrina yesterday, I am wondering if Katrina gave the US gov a real observation test and training drill similar to the deliberate release of foot and mouth in the UK a few years ago to test people's obediance, movements and infection spread etc.

The Beeb interviewed the top NG guy and asked him why it took so long to get to the disaster area seeing as they had so much warning.
He was as baffled as the media were, saying that 'yes they knew what was coming, they were fully prepared and ready to go but couldn't move without the order from above, which was three days in coming'

and that is what I think was deliberate
and it's logical if you think about it.

Do nothing for a few days and watch.

The US gov now know the likely outcome to a city when it's faced with no food, water or energy. They obviously would have learned a helluva lot, some expected, other things not, such as the 200 New Orleans police officers that have quit their jobs
nytimes

and now they know what to do with an energy breakdown and they know that come that day, the whole of America will fall the way of New Orleans and so and if I'm right, expect much stricter gun controls introduced within a short space of time plus many other restrictions on freedoms so that control can be kept when PO HTF.
or bird flu or whatever

[Sencha]

I can completely believe that Bush deliberately waited. The idea that the hurricane was produced by H.A.A.R.P., seems a little farfetched even for me. (Which is saying alot). But, I pretty much have to think Bush used Katrina as a preview of things to come post peak.

I really fear what the future holds if the aftermath of Katrina is any indication of what major cities will be like after a crash. I'll say this, nobody is going to die of old age, that's for sure. Its going to play out like an afternoon of Grand Theft Auto, only instead of one character going around murdering, stealing, recklessly driving, etc, it'll be thousands and it will be for real.

Furthermore, if the delayed response wasn't deliberate, and the government just genuinely couldn't respond with haste, that could be even worse.

[Doly]

The Bush admin deliberately waited and let their public image go down the drain?

I just can't believe it.

[Petro]

Conjecture Warning:

Perhaps the warplanners wanted/needed some actual, dynamic, data; in real-time. Additionally, like 911, when things get out of hand, and people start panicing, they typically start screaming for help at all costs and consequences. The people begged for the military to come in, Posse Comitatuss is suspended...muahaha...I'll bet Rummy and Lizardman Cheney are gloating like pigs at a slop trough.

No one caused this disaster, HAARP, notwithstanding; it sure is an attractive (to those that study such dynamics), opportunity to gather data, for future modeling. It does seem ironic; FEMA Planned for the three top threats; N.O. catastrophic flooding; NYC terror threat, and lastly, California earthquake. Hrmm, two down-one to go.

[falser]

I can believe it. When the floods came, the government did one thing, they started a stopwatch. Day 1 everyone is still in shock. Day 2 chaos & looting begins. Day 3 the sick & elderly start dying. Day 4 people start killing eachother. So you have to get support to the area by Day 5 at the very latest to have much hope of saving most of the people (if they intend to).

The government employs think tanks to figure out what would happen in situations exactly like this. Obviously they had a scenario written out for a New Orleans flood, they just never get to test their scenarios for real. Concrete numbers would be awfully valuable in estimating loss of life in a nation-wide energy emergency, and this was a golden opportunity to do just that. They're not interested in the numbers of people killed by the flood, but rather the rate at which people were dying thereafter because you can extrapolate total loss of life over a longer period.

[gego]

What you witnessed is what people who deal with the government see everyday; incompetence. Beauraucrats doing what beauraucrats do best, i.e., have meetings, have press confrences, fail to make decisions or take action, and then deny responsibility.

Half of the mess was from Katrina and the rest is government in action, or should I say inaction.

[MD]

I find it interesting that the same people who love to point out government incompetence are the same people that suddenly see great conspiracy as the root cause of obvious incompetence.

My vote is for sheer incompetence. All the planners are bureaucrats with not a clue how to act when a real crisis emerges. They are bound by their own inertia, unable to react proactively to rapidly changing conditions.

sheer incompetence, no conspiracy.

[eastbay]

My vote is for sheer incompetence. All the planners are bureaucrats with not a clue how to act when a real crisis emerges. They are bound by their own inertia, unable to react proactively to rapidly changing conditions

No kidding. I agree there. In the US government, the truly incompetent seem to rise to the top of all of the various bureaucracies. It isn't like that everywhere.

For comparison, I was in the USSR in April of '86 and remember clearly as the events unfolded. The Soviets were accused of reacting slowly to that disaster, but when compared to the US reaction to Katrina the Soviets reacted very fast and efficiently, which I always believed they did anyhow. Here we are 8 days later and are just now regaining control of the (submerged) streets. That's pathetic.

[o2ny]

Yeah really- there's no 'peak-oil test scenario' conspiracy going on here, it was simply incompetence and apathy. We'd be lucky if peak oil is even on the adminstration's radar screen. The top people were mostly on vacation and they were caught snoozing. Mike Brown, Bush's hand-picked director of FEMA's last job was the head of the Internationl Arabian Horse foundation or something inane like that. He had no experience dealing with anything like Katrina.

Conspiracy? You're giving these people waaaay too much credit.