Katrina, the perfect storm.
This is how I understand the situation today.
It's not just that the city of New Orleans is probably a city that never should have been in the first place. New Orleans is stuck between a rock and a hard place, but in this case both the hard surfaces are levees against a lake and the mighty Mississippi. The French and, later, the Americans have been fighting regular river flooding since the city was founded. New Orleans is below sea level, a basin-shaped piece of land between two bodies of water poised to fill it in with water.
It's not just that the wetlands, which protect Louisiana against hurricanes, have been receding at an alarming rate for years now. Hurricanes tend to lose a lot of their ferocity once they hit land, and the wetlands help ensure that the full brunt of the storm doesn't reach Louisiana's largest city. But the wetlands are increasingly disappearing, and with them disappears New Orleans' protection.
It's not just that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been gutted since 9/11 to provide resources to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). FEMA doesn't have the funding, personal, or authority to be able to handle a disaster of this magnitude. The disaster itself provides challenges for FEMA, and that is not helped by what seems to be a turf war with DHS over who's really in charge.
It's not just that we've called upon National Guard troops to make our occupation of Iraq feasible. In Mississippi, I think the numbers I heard were 1300 Guardsmen in Iraq, with 800 left in the state to be called up. This is not just a Mississippi problem, indeed, the shortage of National Guard is apparent everywhere, and the governor of Louisiana will be extremely lucky to get the 40,000 troops she asked the president for days ago. There just aren't enough left in the United States. (I'm rather curious as to why the regular Army troops in Louisiana weren't sent to New Orleans. Aren't they just as good as the National Guard? Isn't the situation desperate enough?)
It's not just that the city of New Orleans, the state of Louisiana, and the DHS seemed totally unprepared for this situation. Even I've heard about New Orleans' possible demise for years. The people in charge of the Office of Emergency Preparedness (Louisiana's domain) should have had plans for what to do if a Category 5 hurricane hit, plans for a Category 4, plans for flooding, plans for evacuating the poor before a storm (a third of New Orleans lives in poverty). Everything I have seen on the city, state, and federal level has been a reaction to events, rather than carrying out plans smoothly in accordance with disaster procedures. I watch the news and wonder if they had any plans. Any plans at all.
It's not just that the levees were underfunded by the president and Congress. Money to help the Army Corps of Engineers maintain the levees was cut out of federal budgets in order to fund the war in Iraq. Whether or not that money would have helped the situation now is debatable, but the few millions the Corps asked for was not given to them. The country is spending billions overseas, terrorism is the main threat to the U.S.; whatever the reasoning, the money needed for the levees wasn't there. And, remember, the levees were only built to withstand a Category 3 hurricane. Katrina, when it hit, was a Category 4.
It's not just that a third of the population of New Orleans is poor. Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29--two days before payday for most people. And even if they had had money, Greyhound had closed their bus station on the 27th. Amtrak is always the last priority on the rails, so taking a train is not a speedy way to get anywhere. Reports of price gouging for gasoline and hotels abound. How were the poor residents of New Orleans supposed to get out and find shelter?
It's not just that the response to this has been slow. At first, it appeared that Katrina had spared New Orleans. She weakened and turned in a more northeastern direction upon hitting land. Then two levees broke in New Orleans, and we started getting pictures of the destruction to Mississippi's Gulf Coast. It's gotten worse since then. Thousands of people trapped in their homes, on their roofs, surrounded by fetid water. Thousands trapped in the Superdome, by a nearby convention center, on highways, trying to escape the flooding. No food, no water, no sanitary toilets. Hundreds of patients, nurses, doctors, trapped in seven hospitals without food and electricity. Doctors having to give each other IVs in order to ensure they can continue to treat their patients. People dying everywhere, and no one is currently able to do anything about it because they're desperately trying to keep the living alive. A huge triage facility set up in Louie Armstrong International Airport, where medical staff treat only those who have the correctly colored stickers, hoping to fly those who need more than basic medical care out. People rescued off their roofs to be placed on a highway with nothing around but more refugees. It's a nightmare. The response has been a nightmare.
It's not just that the situation on the ground has fucked up those trying to help just as much as the slow response itself. In most of New Orleans, there is no electricity. Generators at hospitals have failed. There is no running water. There are no landlines, cell phone towers, or other reliable forms of communication on the ground. The mayor has relocated to a Navy ship to coordinate things. The boats are in danger of being torn apart by anything under the flood waters. The helicopters trying to evacuate a hospital yesterday were fired upon by a maniac with an automatic weapon. There are conflicting reports of how effectively the police are handling the looting. The governor took the police off of search and rescue in order to address looting, which still makes me boggle. The National Guard is apparently more worried about angry refugees in and around the Superdome than getting water and food to them.
It's all of these points. Everything. Environmental, socioeconomic, bureaucratic, resource availability. The devastation of the storm was able to wreck. Everything. Every single thing coming together to produce total devastation.
To the best of my knowledge, that's what's going on in Louisiana. The aftermath of Katrina is just a big, huge, fucking mess.
It's not just that the city of New Orleans is probably a city that never should have been in the first place. New Orleans is stuck between a rock and a hard place, but in this case both the hard surfaces are levees against a lake and the mighty Mississippi. The French and, later, the Americans have been fighting regular river flooding since the city was founded. New Orleans is below sea level, a basin-shaped piece of land between two bodies of water poised to fill it in with water.
It's not just that the wetlands, which protect Louisiana against hurricanes, have been receding at an alarming rate for years now. Hurricanes tend to lose a lot of their ferocity once they hit land, and the wetlands help ensure that the full brunt of the storm doesn't reach Louisiana's largest city. But the wetlands are increasingly disappearing, and with them disappears New Orleans' protection.
It's not just that the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been gutted since 9/11 to provide resources to the Department of Homeland Security (DHS). FEMA doesn't have the funding, personal, or authority to be able to handle a disaster of this magnitude. The disaster itself provides challenges for FEMA, and that is not helped by what seems to be a turf war with DHS over who's really in charge.
It's not just that we've called upon National Guard troops to make our occupation of Iraq feasible. In Mississippi, I think the numbers I heard were 1300 Guardsmen in Iraq, with 800 left in the state to be called up. This is not just a Mississippi problem, indeed, the shortage of National Guard is apparent everywhere, and the governor of Louisiana will be extremely lucky to get the 40,000 troops she asked the president for days ago. There just aren't enough left in the United States. (I'm rather curious as to why the regular Army troops in Louisiana weren't sent to New Orleans. Aren't they just as good as the National Guard? Isn't the situation desperate enough?)
It's not just that the city of New Orleans, the state of Louisiana, and the DHS seemed totally unprepared for this situation. Even I've heard about New Orleans' possible demise for years. The people in charge of the Office of Emergency Preparedness (Louisiana's domain) should have had plans for what to do if a Category 5 hurricane hit, plans for a Category 4, plans for flooding, plans for evacuating the poor before a storm (a third of New Orleans lives in poverty). Everything I have seen on the city, state, and federal level has been a reaction to events, rather than carrying out plans smoothly in accordance with disaster procedures. I watch the news and wonder if they had any plans. Any plans at all.
It's not just that the levees were underfunded by the president and Congress. Money to help the Army Corps of Engineers maintain the levees was cut out of federal budgets in order to fund the war in Iraq. Whether or not that money would have helped the situation now is debatable, but the few millions the Corps asked for was not given to them. The country is spending billions overseas, terrorism is the main threat to the U.S.; whatever the reasoning, the money needed for the levees wasn't there. And, remember, the levees were only built to withstand a Category 3 hurricane. Katrina, when it hit, was a Category 4.
It's not just that a third of the population of New Orleans is poor. Hurricane Katrina hit on August 29--two days before payday for most people. And even if they had had money, Greyhound had closed their bus station on the 27th. Amtrak is always the last priority on the rails, so taking a train is not a speedy way to get anywhere. Reports of price gouging for gasoline and hotels abound. How were the poor residents of New Orleans supposed to get out and find shelter?
It's not just that the response to this has been slow. At first, it appeared that Katrina had spared New Orleans. She weakened and turned in a more northeastern direction upon hitting land. Then two levees broke in New Orleans, and we started getting pictures of the destruction to Mississippi's Gulf Coast. It's gotten worse since then. Thousands of people trapped in their homes, on their roofs, surrounded by fetid water. Thousands trapped in the Superdome, by a nearby convention center, on highways, trying to escape the flooding. No food, no water, no sanitary toilets. Hundreds of patients, nurses, doctors, trapped in seven hospitals without food and electricity. Doctors having to give each other IVs in order to ensure they can continue to treat their patients. People dying everywhere, and no one is currently able to do anything about it because they're desperately trying to keep the living alive. A huge triage facility set up in Louie Armstrong International Airport, where medical staff treat only those who have the correctly colored stickers, hoping to fly those who need more than basic medical care out. People rescued off their roofs to be placed on a highway with nothing around but more refugees. It's a nightmare. The response has been a nightmare.
It's not just that the situation on the ground has fucked up those trying to help just as much as the slow response itself. In most of New Orleans, there is no electricity. Generators at hospitals have failed. There is no running water. There are no landlines, cell phone towers, or other reliable forms of communication on the ground. The mayor has relocated to a Navy ship to coordinate things. The boats are in danger of being torn apart by anything under the flood waters. The helicopters trying to evacuate a hospital yesterday were fired upon by a maniac with an automatic weapon. There are conflicting reports of how effectively the police are handling the looting. The governor took the police off of search and rescue in order to address looting, which still makes me boggle. The National Guard is apparently more worried about angry refugees in and around the Superdome than getting water and food to them.
It's all of these points. Everything. Environmental, socioeconomic, bureaucratic, resource availability. The devastation of the storm was able to wreck. Everything. Every single thing coming together to produce total devastation.
To the best of my knowledge, that's what's going on in Louisiana. The aftermath of Katrina is just a big, huge, fucking mess.