The Patriot Post® · Hurricane Obama Blows Into New Orleans on Katrina Anniversary

Ten years ago, on Aug. 29, 2005, Hurricane Katrina barreled into the Louisiana coast with 145mph winds. Its 27-foot swells surged against the levee protecting New Orleans, crushing concrete and leaving government on all levels unprepared to handle the devastation. This week, Barack Obama will visit the city to remember the decade-old disaster that left 1,800 people dead. Everyone agrees that everything from the outdated levee to flooded school buses to the slow FEMA response was a stark demonstration of government incompetence. It just shows individual preparedness is key. Reuters reports that Obama will tell an audience in New Orleans, “What started out as a natural disaster became a manmade one, a failure of government to look out for its own citizens. But what that storm revealed was another tragedy, one that had been brewing for decades. New Orleans had long been plagued by structural inequality that left too many people, especially poor people of color, without good jobs or affordable health care or decent housing.” Who wants to bet that Obama will skim over the failure of Democrat leadership in the offices of the governor and mayor of New Orleans leading up to the disaster? Instead, he’ll do what he’s always done: Blame George W. Bush — at least by implication, since Bush will also attend. We’re also expecting him to throw in a warning about climate change for good measure. But today a new New Orleans stands on the receded floodwaters. As The Wall Street Journal notes, it was built on education reform, and a mayor and governor that tout fiscal conservatism and business growth.