BP Oil spill may have been magnified by lessons not learned from Katrina - The BP Oil Spill effects were increased because lessons that should have been learned from Katrina 5 years earlier were not.
NEW
ORLEANS, La.--Environmental destruction that had led to greater impact on the
Gulf Coast five years ago during Hurricane Katrina has also led to significant
problems with the BP oil spill, according to a university professor and author.
Dr. Walter
Brasch, an award-winning journalist who had covered the Katrina crisis, notes
that extensive oil drilling in the Gulf Coast had reduced or destroyed the
natural barrier islands. Barrier islands often serve as a protection of coastal
areas against hurricanes.
Had there
not been that destruction, says Brasch, the effects of Katrina would have been
significantly less. Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf Coast, Aug. 30. Had the
Bush-Cheney Administration properly funded the Corps of Engineers to improve
security of the levees, and had not authorized and encouraged oil companies to
drill in the wetlands, says Brasch, a Category 3 hurricane would not have had
the impact of a Category 5 hurricane. Numerous other problems that allowed
significant destruction included political decisions that:
●
substantially reduced federal funding for natural disaster protection;
●
downgraded the efficiency and response of both the Federal; Emergency
Management Agency (FEMA) and the Environmental Protection Agency;
● allowed a
willful neglect of certain populations; and ● permitted massive government
corruption.
Government
"learned a lot from Katrina," says Brasch, "but obviously not
enough." Almost five years later, with fewer barriers, oil washed onto the
shore when BP's Deep Water Horizon exploded, killing 11 workers. The barrier
islands would have mitigated some of the destruction of the spill, says Brasch,
"but even with reduced damage because of the barrier islands, the five
million gallons that spilled into the ocean would still have had the disastrous
effect of destroying sea life, the fishing and shrimping industries, and
tourism."
'Unacceptable': The Federal Response to
Hurricane Katrina, published three months after the first disaster, was the
first major book to analyze the causes and effects of the hurricane. The
prestigious
Midwest Book Review
called
'Unacceptable' "an
informative and critical analysis [that] should be given high praise for its
candor," and gave it a "very strong recommendation." BookArts
called it "A valuable historical document that belongs in every
library."
'Unacceptable'
is available at amazon.com, bn.com, and other website stores.
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