FEMA FUNDS TO STUDY NOLA EVACUATION DIVERTED

Down the rabbit hole went half a million dollars that Congress ordered FEMA to use to come up with an evacuation plan for New Orleans eight years ago. The AP story devotes quite a bit of time to suggesting we blame the federal side of FEMA, but buried deep down is the nugget that should be the lead:

FEMA typically contracts its studies to private or government entities. Kinerney, the agency spokesman, said it appeared the money went through the Louisiana government. State emergency and transportation officials said they did not recall it.

The money went to the state, and the state obviously didn't use it for its intended purpose. In fact, it seems to have gone for a study of some sort:

The $500,000 that Congress appropriated for the evacuation plan went to a commission that studied future options for the 24-mile bridge over Lake Ponchartrain, FEMA spokesman Butch Kinerney said.

The hefty report produced by the Greater New Orleans Expressway Commission "primarily was not about evacuation," said Robert Lambert, the general manager for the bridge expressway. "In general it was an overview of all the things we need to do" for the causeway through 2016.

Lambert said he could not trace how or if FEMA money came to the commission. Nor could Shelby LaSalle, a causeway consulting engineer who worked on the plan.

It seems quite a bit of money that the feds sent to the Bayou State got sunk in places it was never intended for. Money for the levees went to fountains and Mardi Gras. This bucket of money was for evacuation plans but got diverted at the state level. That's a story, but don't expect the MSM to do much with it. Such a story will point, as it should, at the corrupt political machine that has run Louisiana practically since Reconstruction, and which deserves the lion's share of the blame for the Katrina disaster. But the MSM doesn't want to go there. "Democrats lied, people died" stings a bit.

Now that we're set to start a second reconstruction, it would be wise to cut that currupt Louisiana political machine, made up entirely of Democrats, out of the picture. But don't expect that to happen either.

By the way, this story is about evacuation plans. What photo would be more relevant to such a story than the famous AP photo of those flooded buses, a photo that shows how badly the evacuation plan went awry when disaster struck? That's not the photo that accompanies the story, though. AP chose to run some shot of levees being repaired.

Hm.

(thanks to Chris and Peg)