Project Katrina

You got to be joking. First you were late in responding to the “Federal Flooding” of New Orleans. You spent millions to deliver ice that never arrived. You kept hundreds of relief works in hotels in Atlanta while you briefed them on god knows what.

You let contractors sell you tarps for thousands of dollars each and generally wasted millions, and millions because of lack of oversight. And you gave freaking residents trailers contaimed with formaldehyde. Oh and you held fake press conferences in an attempt to bolster what little creditability you had left (that would be none actually).

And with all of that you are now asking for immunity from lawsuits related to the formaldehyde trailers, even though internal EPA documents show you were telling residents there were no problems while you were sending emails telling employees not to enter them cause they were toxic.

The Federal Emergency Management Agency is requesting immunity from lawsuits filed on behalf of Gulf Coast hurricane victims who claim they were exposed to dangerous fumes while living in government-issued trailers.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Kurt Engelhardt is scheduled to hear FEMA’s bid to be dismissed from a series of consolidated cases filed against the federal government and the companies that supplied FEMA with tens of thousands of trailers after Katrina and then Rita in 2005.

Lawyers for Gulf Coast storm victims accuse FEMA of negligence for sheltering them in trailers with elevated levels of formaldehyde, a preservative used in construction materials that can induce breathing problems and is believed to cause cancer.

In court papers, FEMA’s lawyers told the judge the agency is entitled to immunity from such claims challenging its response to disasters such as Katrina.

National Public Radio (NPR) has an interview with House Majority Whip James Clyburn of South Carolina and Congressman Charlie Melancon of Louisiana who are part of a Democratic congressional delegation touring the Gulf Coast. You can listen to it here.