If you have the stomach for it, Disaster in the Making, printed in Independent Weekly in September 2004, is worth reading . It details the way FEMA has been systematically gutted.

[t]he White House has pushed for privatization of essential government services, including disaster management, and merged FEMA into the Department of Homeland Security, where natural disaster programs are often sidelined by counter-terrorism programs. Along the way, morale at FEMA has plummeted, and many of the agency’s most experienced personnel have left for work in other government agencies or private corporations.

It’s difficult to imagine a more short-sighted policy, and I hold George W. Bush and the Republican leadership in Congress personally responsible for the unnecessary deaths that are taking place in the Gulf Coast right now. Join me, won’t you?