Why You Treat Me Like a Dog?: Some Thoughts About New Orleans

Saturday, September 03, 2005

Some Thoughts About New Orleans

On a personal level, among the things that scare me the most about what happened in New Orleans is the realization that we cannot count on the federal government to effectively and expeditiously bail us out in the event of a national disaster. Whether it is because of Bush's usual inability to lead until he is thrust into that role simply by virtue of the Office or because the National Guard is spread too thin to respond to what it was created to respond to, the fact remains that our elected government failed us.

There is simply no excuse for FEMA not being prepared to respond to a Category 5 hurricane (or 8.0 magnitude earthquake, or ruptured dam, or major fire, etc.) in a major metropolitan area in the United States. They blew it. For the director of FEMA to be unaware that there were nearly 25,000 hungry, thirsty, sick and increasingly desperate people at the New Orleans Convention Center is inconceivable and inexcusable. What the hell does he think his job is? He should be fired, or at least resign. Unfortunately the folding of FEMA into the Department of Homeland Security is at least partially to blame. While dealing with the threat of terrorism on the home front is certainly important, the same approaches cannot be extrapolated from dealing with a terrorist attack even on a complex as large as the World Trade Center compared with a natural disaster affecting a wide swath of the American heartland. I'm afraid that FEMA's mission has become diluted by the Bush Administration's now pathologic obsession with the "war on terror."

Imagine the Federal response if Kennebunkport was hit by a major disaster! Or even Houston! The hierarchy of race and class in this country again rears its ugly head. It is now becoming clear that emergency planners were well aware of the deficiencies of the levees surrounding New Orleans. These were known to be built to withstand only a Category 3 hurricane, and yet each year Corps of Engineers funds earmarked to upgrade the levees have been diverted to more pressing, "homeland security" issues and the "war on terror." Perhaps this is excusable in the aftermath of 9-11, especially if there is no immmediately impending Category 4 or 5 hurricane on your doorstep. But if it is two, three days before Hurricane Katrina is on your doorstep, for heaven's sake, build up a supply depot in Baton Rouge, have a tent camp ready to rise, send the Navy and the hospital ship Comfort steaming towards the Gulf Coast, mobilize the National Guard. Oh wait -- they're all in Iraq -- they can't come, they're too busy building the world's next great democracy, protecting "homeland security."

To quote Maureen O'Dowd of the New York Times, paraphrasing Don McLean:

W. drove his budget-cutting Chevy to the levee, and it wasn't dry. Bye, bye, American lives. "I don't think anyone anticipated the breach of the levees," he told Diane Sawyer.

I am reminded of a story about the elder George Bush. While he was President he was visiting a grocer's convention and saw a standard check-out counter with the usual barcode scanner. The former President was so impressed with this "new technology" and asked if it would soon be available in stores...

The Katrina fiasco again illustrates how out of touch the Republican Leadership is and has been with day to day American life. Bush was too busy on vacation to actually think about preparing for the disaster. Once the disaster happened, he was too out of touch to recognize that the levees failing was both anticipated and expected for years. His Homeland Security Department "didn't know" there were starving, thirsty and sick thousands stranded in New Orleans.

Their attention will soon turn away from New Orleans in any case. Now that Chief Justice Rehnquist has died, they will need to find a new judge to fill the seat. Gotta prepare for the next Presidential election...

Those of us who live in disaster prone areas of this country should check their emergency preparedness kits this Labor Day Weekend. Check that you have enough fresh water, canned goods, and medicine to get you through at least 5 days following a major event. Katrina has taught us that we cannot count on anyone but ourselves to survive such events. Perhaps this is what went through the minds of many of the looters in New Orleans. I'm not sure we can blame them for it.

- posted by wanderer @ 10:07 PM

Comments:

I agree with you. We should not rely on the federal government to bail us out of anything. Since we know our needs better than anyone in Washington D.C., it makes sense that we should rely on ourselves first and the federal government as a last resort.

I think that the city of New Orleans, the state of Louisiana, and FEMA should have been more prepared. I think the people of New Orleans should have evacuated as they were instructed. If they could not or would not leave, they should have prepared for a catastrophe by stockpiling emergency goods. No one needed to loot. Only criminals and losers who refused to prepare for a predictable calamity took the opportunity to loot.

# posted by

Oven : 9/04/2005 9:47 PM

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