WASHINGTON, September 10, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – A day before the fourth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, American experts said diverting resources to Iraq and the so-called war on terror has left the southern United States less prepared to deal with disasters.

"The most recent effects of these diversions of funding have been seen in the unfolding tragedy of Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans and the surrounding area," Erica Frank from Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta told Agence France-Presse (AFP).

He maintained that the thousands of the National Guard currently deployed in Iraq would have been on hand to help prevent the disaster, rescue those trapped, contain the human losses and help survivors.

"Had there been more bodies on the ground, there would have been fewer deaths," she said.

In June 2004, southern Louisiana's emergency management chief Walter Maestri told the local Time Picayune newspaper that federal funds appeared to have been diverted instead of paying to repair the state's dikes, designed to protect the low-lying region from flooding.

"It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay."

Katrina has sent a devastating wall of water into the Mississippi and 80% of the city of New Orleans, Louisiana, is submerged by waters as deep as 6m (20ft).

Although the final death toll has yet to emerge, the disaster has already displaced more than one million people, and requires the largest relief effort in American history.

Public health officials have also expressed concerns particularly over financing for programs designed to counter a bioterrorist attack, which they said were disproportionate and diverted funds from more important research programs.

"Massive campaigns focusing on 'bioterrorism preparedness' have had adverse health consequences," said Hillel Cohen from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York City.

The campaigns, he said, "have resulted in the diversion of essential public health personnel, facilities, and other resources, from urgent, real public health needs.

"Bioterrorism preparedness programs have been a disaster for public health," he added.

The cost of vaccinating against smallpox, which has been eradicated from the US since the 1970s, and programs to counter an anthrax or botulism attack has been estimated by the Centers for Disease Control as costing some six billion dollars over the next six years.

Meanwhile, a document issued by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) last year and made public by Democratic lawmakers Friday predicted that a possible hurricane between category three and five on the Saffir-Simspon scale would hit the southern state of Louisiana.

Such a hurricane, it said, would create "a catastrophe with which the state would not be able to cope without massive help from neighboring states and the federal government."

The newly revealed document even anticipated that one million evacuees, and up to 350,000 homeless would be the result of such a hurricane.

It warned that it would take weeks to drain the water out of New Orleans because "inundated pumping stations and damaged pump motors would be inoperable."

The document added that "standing water and diseases could threaten public health," and that there "would be severe economic repercussions for the state and region."

The newly revealed document refutes claims by top US officials that nobody had anticipated the outcome of a powerful hurricane hitting Louisiana.

The federal response to Katrina, the first major disaster to hit the United States since the 9/11 attacks, has been roundly criticized as being too little too late.

Bush ultimately had to sacrifice Brown to appease the public opinion.

In a related development, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) Director Michael Brown became the first political casualty of Katrina after he was deposed from his post Friday, September 9.

Apparently bowing to mounting pressure from the media and Democratic lawmakers, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Brown was summoned to Washington and replaced by Vice Admiral Thad Allen from the US Coast Guard.

According to AFP, Brown had resisted calls to resign over the sluggish federal response to the disaster.

To add to the Bush administration embarrassment, media reports said Friday Brown's White House resume seemed to have been fabricated and that he lacked the necessary expertise for dealing with disaster operations.

Time magazine said that Brown, Bush appointee, lacked emergency relief experience before he joined the agency.

The Washington Post went even further, saying that five of eight top FEMA officials -- all are Bush's partisans—practically have no experience in handling disasters.

President George W. Bush, who is facing outspoken criticism over his perceived lack of leadership, had notably stood up for Brown in the immediate aftermath of the hurricane.