To the editor:

As President Bush tours the nation commemorating the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (Aug. 29, 2005), I think it’s important that we also take a moment to remember Sept. 2, 2005, the day the federal government finally responded to the Katrina disaster.

The nearer we get to the November elections, the more rhetoric we hear from the White House about how this administration is protecting our country against further attacks, and how the Republican Party is more suited to leading in times of crisis.

The Katrina anniversary underscores the fallacy of these claims.

The first national disaster we suffered under the Bush administration was Sept. 11, 2001. The Bush White House had four years to improve disaster preparedness before the national disaster of Katrina, and yet there was a five-day lag between landfall and governmental response. Even if one tries to argue that Katrina couldn’t have been predicted, the mantra of this administration has long been that disaster is imminent. Shouldn’t the belief that terrorists could at any moment attack America have led to a federal plan of relief that would have provided a swift and competent response to Katrina?

When there is a blizzard warning issued for our area, I prepare for that. If we then get an ice storm instead of snow, I still have the provisions I need to ride out the ice storm because I was already prepared for bad weather. We should expect at least as much foresight from our government.

Angela Richmond,

Lawrence