From August 29 through August 31, 2005, the world watched Hurricane Katrina wreak havoc and destruction on the southern United States while the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), an agency specifically created to prepare for and respond to such natural disasters, watched and waited along with the rest of the world.

Long before Hurricane Katrina formed over the Atlantic, Michael Chertoff, as secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), was in the process of removing the front-line emergency response apparatus that administers FEMA. Based largely on work done by the Heritage Foundation and the Center for Strategic Intelligence Studies (CSIS), Chertoff’s Second Stage Review, or 2SR, plan called for the removal of the DHS Directorate of Emergency Preparedness and Response at the peak of the hurricane season.

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