Nagin suggests "laxative" approach to disaster preparation [View All]

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin says municipal officials should to speak up and fight what he calls "constipation" in Washington, something he says is getting in the way of preparing for the next Hurricane Katrina.

Nagin says local officials need to be the "Ex-Lax" that draws attention to the lack of an effective national response plan to disasters on the magnitude of the August 29th storm that devastated his city.

The mayor spoke this morning at a meeting of the National League of Cities in Charlotte. Some three-thousand local officials are attending.

FEMA Deputy Response Director Michael Lowder defended the agency's storm preparations at the meeting, but agreed Congress needs to change the law that governs the agency to help it cope with future disasters.


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