As the horse continues to be beaten on the subject of Hurricane Katrina, NewsBusters summarizes the latest round-up from Popular Mechanics magazine - Debunking Katrina Myths. Very interesting wrap up on seven topics:

  1. MYTH: “The aftermath of Katrina will go down as one of the worst abandonments of Americans on American soil ever in U.S. history.”–Aaron Broussard, president, Jefferson Parish, La., Meet the Press, NBC, Sept. 4, 2005 FACT: The government responded rapidly. “One of the biggest reminders from Katrina is that FEMA is not a first responder.”
  2. MYTH: “This is a once-in-a-lifetime event.”–New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin, press conference, Aug. 28, 2005. FACT: Katrina wasn’t a superstorm.
  3. MYTH: “Perhaps not just human error was involved [in floodwall failures]. There may have been some malfeasance.”–Raymond Seed, civil engineering professor, UC, Berkeley, testifying before a Senate committee, Nov. 2, 2005 FACT: Flood walls were built properly
  4. MYTH: “They have people … been in that frickin’ Superdome for five days watching dead bodies, watching hooligans killing people, raping people.”–New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Sept. 6, 2005 FACT: Anarchy didn’t take over.
  5. MYTH: “The failure to evacuate was the tipping point for all the other things that … went wrong.”–Michael Brown, former FEMA director, Sept. 27, 2005 FACT: Evac plans worked. “Later investigations indicated that many who stayed did so by choice. “Most people had transportation,” says Col. Joe Spraggins, director of emergency management in Harrison County, Ala. “Many didn’t want to leave.” Tragic exceptions: hospital patients and nursing home residents.
  6. MYTH: “We will rebuild [the Gulf Coast] bigger and better than ever.” –Haley Barbour, Miss. Gov., The Associated press, Sept. 3, 2005 FACT: Government subsidies encourage bad planning.
  7. MYTH: “You have a major energy network that is down … We could run out of gasoline or diesel or jet fuel in the next two weeks here.”–Roger Diwan, managing director, Oil Markets Group, PFC Energy, Business Week, Sept. 1, 2005 FACT: The energy infrastructure survived.

You can read the entire PM piece at their website. They also have a surprisingly good collection of Hurricane Katrina resources.

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