Proactive: Something the US is Not Good At?
Most of us are aware of the total devestation left by Hurriance Katrina, especially in New Orleans. Well, ironically, if you live there, I don't know how much media access you'd have, so maybe they don't get the birds-eye view.
Anyway. I digress. What I would like to know, however, is what is taking so long for aid to arrive? And why does President Bush feel the need to say (and I para-phrase), 'offers of help are nice, but we'll take care of this'?
I suppose what I don't understand (other than the rapes, violence, and looting - minus one million points for mob mentality) is the lack of prepardness.
The US government knew Katrina was coming. They knew it could be bad. And yes, they didn't maybe project it to be this bad - but I'm sure they had some 'worse-case' scenarios laid out.
So why wasn't anything pre-positioned? Why does it take four days to put the National Guard in place? Isn't that their duty?
Why are four hospital ships steaming out of port almost four days after the fact? Why didn't they pre-position at least one, so the response time would be less?
I just don't understand.
It seems to me in many of life's situations that we rather take a recative approach. In case it's not as bad as 'worse-case', nobody seems to want to be responsbile for calling in the cavalry - or at least having them ready.
Is the cost of prepardness not worth it?
And then there's the not asking for help bit. The Canadian Forces DART team, which could very quickly be on the ground setting up water purification systems, is currently sitting on one-hour ready to move status. One hour. They just need the word from the Fed. Why hasn't that been given?
Furthermore - why is Congress on a break now, but the Senate met at 4am to discuss if Terry Schivao should live or die? Right now, an entire city is dying.
And my last beef - why is gas so expensive in Canada? We don't get our oil from the Gulf Coast. Fucking price gouging.
President Bush - if the war in Iraq isn't enough for you to resign, then I think the handling of this natural disaster should be. I have a feeling that if a terriost attack happened in the French Quarter, the US Army would be there a whole lot quicker.
-R.
posted by Rob @ 22:16
5 comments
5 Comments:
The FEMA director just denied knowing that the Convention Center in New Orleans was cut off from food and water and was being used as a shelter. I must agree the thing that gets me is the time delay. I have been watching a lot, ok far to much coverage of the whole thing since T -1, and over and over again one thing resounds, they thought higher of their citizens. They thought that when given a mandatory evacuation notice, that all those except those who couldn't leave, would. They thought that after the emergency, people would behave rationally. Even more humerous is that 2 years ago, FEMA picked a Cat 5 hurricane hitting New Orleans as one of the greatest risks to the US, last year they ran a simulation. This year, it's like a new game. Isn't there planning and practice for situations like this? I have a personal interest in the whole thing, I spent 2 weeks in Biloxi, and granted I have not kept in touch with anyone from the group down there and only one person up here, I find myself looking at maps of their homes, and googling there names to see if they are still in the area. I know with near certainty that one house is gone and suspect that 5 of the 10 families have lost their homes. The world will sit back and watch as New Orleans rebuilds with defiance, as aid will not be requested, the big boy can take care of himself. With respect to NO, the only thing I can really think, is what about the animals at the zoo?
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Oops! I forgot to include the link so I deleted that there above comment lest I take up too much room! ;-)
Here's the link: http://www.pbs.org/now/transcript/transcript_neworleans.html (Ack. I don't know the html for neatly adding a link.)
And now for my comment!
Here's something that might be interesting to read. If you have the time. A lot of time. :-) Anyway, found it elsewhere and thought you both might be interested in it. 'Tis a program called "NOW" which aired on PBS Sept. 20, 2002.
Here's an excerpt:
WALTER MAESTRI: We've got emergency medical here, public works, resource management...
DANIEL ZWERDLING: Maestri says consider this troubling fact: more than a million people live in this area, and they're stuck in a geological trap.
WALTER MAESTRI: New Orleans is, if you think about it, it's a soup bowl. Think of a soup bowl. And the soup bowl-- the high edges of the soup bowl-- is the Mississippi River. It's amazing to say, but the highest elevation in the city of New Orleans is at the Mississippi River.
DANIEL ZWERDLING: Maestri says, imagine what happens if a hurricane like Andrew comes raging up from the Gulf:
WALTER MAESTRI: The hurricane is spinning counter-clockwise. It's been pushing in front of it water from the Gulf of Mexico for days. It's now got a wall of water in front of it some 30, 40 feet high. As it approaches the levies of the-- the-- that surround the city, it tops those levees. As the storm continues to pass over. Now Lake Ponchetrain, that water from Lake Ponchartrain is now pushed on to that - those population which has been fleeing from the western side and everybody's caught in the middle. The bowl now completely fills. And we've now got the entire community underwater some 20, 30 feet underwater. Everything is lost.
DANIEL ZWERDLING: Remember the levees which the Army built, to hold smaller floods out of the bowl? Maestri says now those levees would doom the city. Because they'd trap the water in.
WALTER MAESTRI: It's going to look like a massive shipwreck. There's going to be-- there's going to be, you know-- everything that that the water has carried in is going to be there. Alligators, moccasins, you know every kind of rodent that you could think of. All of your sewage treatment plants are under water. And of course the material is flowing free in the community. Disease becomes a distinct possibility now. The petrochemicals that are produced all up and down the Mississippi River --much of that has floated into this bowl. I mean this has become, you know, the biggest toxic waste dump in the world now. Is the city of New Orleans because of what has happened.
.......................
DANIEL ZWERDLING: Do you think that the President of the United States and Congress understand that people like you and the scientists studying this think the city of New Orleans could very possibly disappear?
WALTER MAESTRI: I think they know that, I think that they've been told that. I don't know that anybody, though, psychologically, you know has come to grips with that as-- as a-- a potential real situation. Just like none of us could possibly come to grips with the loss of the World Trade Center. And it's still hard for me to envision that it's gone. You know and it's impossible for someone like me to think that the French Quarter of New Orleans could be gone.
And now I am done.
Ugh. This whole situation just makes me sick. Hooray for the mayor of New Orleans. He has been calling foul on the prez and trying to get something done down there.
New Orleans is not an area that would typically vote for Bush. Ever wonder what response would be like of this had happened in Texas or Florida? Make me sick to think about it but I think things would have been handled very differently...
This is just all so sad. There was an article in the Herald yesterday about "The four levels of Hell" describing the situation in the superdome. Level 1 (down on the turf) is hungry families, feces, and dead elderly. Level 2 is overflowing bathrooms, halways slick with urine and feces. Level 3, the superboxes, is where the less nice people are hanging out. It's dark in the boxes and people up there will steal from elderly and families on the lower levels to ensure they get food. Level 4 (the nosebleeds) is the darkest area. This is where drug adicts are coming down and little girls are being taken to get raped. It's just too sick for words. I can not even imagine what it is like for people in there.
And just in case anyone has missed this... Here's a link to the transcript from the Mayor of NO's radio interview. He's pretty frank, and I've gotta say I really respect him for it. Regardless of what he did or didn't do leadind up to this horrible, disasterous catastrophe, I'm impressed by his candor now.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/02/nagin.transcript/index.html
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