Dane Krupa – 9/18/05

This page was last updated on September 19, 2005.

Pleas on levees ignored; Dane Krupa; Beaver County Times; September 18, 2005.

Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.

“U.S. Senator Rick Santorum has come up with another brilliant idea. He has proposed fining people who ignore evacuation orders when severe weather is approaching their area.

“Many of the survivors of Hurricane Katrina lost everything, including loved ones. Now, Santorum wants to fine them, too.

“Earlier this year, New Orleans city officials asked the federal government for a $110 million grant to update their levee system. Their argument was that some of their levees might fail during a major storm, causing severe flooding.

“President Bush, Santorum, and many other conservatives in Congress responded to their request by reducing the grant to $40 million, which wasn't enough money to hardly do anything with the levees in New Orleans. And some levees did fail, just like the city officials had feared.”

[RWC] I’m not sure President Bush, Sen. Santorum, and most Republicans in Congress qualify as true “conservatives.” They are conservative relative to full-blown liberals/progressives/socialists, but I view them as barely to the right of JFK-era Democrats.

While the specified request cut may be accurate (I don’t know.), Mr. Krupa ignores the following. During President Bush’s five years, the Corps of Engineers spent more in Louisiana than during the last five years of the Clinton administration. Further, the Corps of Engineers spent more on Louisiana than any other state.

“Hey, Santorum, maybe you can start fining the families of the people that died. You can use their money to pay for your kids private schooling this year.”

[RWC] I didn’t hear about any proposed fines, but I did hear about taking some action against people who have the ability to evacuate but choose to ignore mandatory evacuation notices. Here’s the reason. People who ignore evacuation notices put the lives of a lot of rescuers at risk. Remember the pictures of rescuers dangling from helicopters as they rescued the stranded? Further, rescue efforts cost taxpayers a ton of tax dollars. When you have the ability to evacuate, you have a responsibility to do so.