Calamity of priorities

[regnet]

Fortunately I only have 15 mins LJ time a day (which I kinda used up downloading LS2)... and I have to let the full brunt of my thoughts simmer a bit.

Days after Hurricane Katrina made landfall east of New Orleans, thousands are still stranded in the city. Disaster relief is never easy. It's unpredictable, you can't save everyone and some

Comments

[regnet]

Bush has just acknowledged the relief effort was too little too late now. Hopefully with some presidential focus things will sharpen up. You would think that he would have learnt something Bush Senior's mishandling of the 1992 Florida floods.

It's still not too late to do something about the city. The city has irrevocably changed and lives will need to be rebuilt. They will need a lot of help.

I really pray the FEMA folks will get together to ensure they've plugged disaster relief gaps in all the plans everywhere (including Californian blueprints, since we're a disaster waiting to happen too).

[theladymoon]

Is there any chance that more money will be given? Or is this all just a hope that the next disaster will have a better relief plan?

[regnet]

Fortunately, it's just the first tranche for relief and rescue.

And it's enough to last just a few weeks. The FEMA funds, among other uses, will finance food and emergency shelter, medical care, debris removal, generators and cash payments to hurricane victims.

We're not talking about rebuilding the city or anything more long term at the moment. That will probably require a lot more direct funding or tax relief.

What's fundamentally an issue is that FEMA doesn't have quite that much to work with to start off... in a normal year, it has a budget of $2.5 billion and that's supposed to cover everything. (In one year, Bush even tried to reduce it to $1.8 billion.) And if it's going to take 4 days for congress to approve emergency budgets, we could really be in trouble.

I do hope tax dollars go there. But the paranoid me is definitely spending the weekend ensuring that we are prepared... that my earthquake kit is up-to-date, have pictures of our home for claims and that our documents are secure.

[theladymoon]

I see.
For all it takes I live in an earthquake zone myself so I perfectly understand your paranoia. In Athens it's not as bad maybe, but I've lived through 2 major earthquakes in 1981 and 1999, surviving the first one from pure luck (I was 5 and due to a slight fever was sleeping with my mum that night, which was a blessing because we found the tv crashed on my bed after the earthquake) and having to eventually move house after the sencond because the building was rendered unsafe.

[sunflower1343]

Bush always said the $10 billion was only for the first twenty days, and that much more money would be coming. We'll be paying for this for years to come

[theladymoon]

Hmm, yes I understand.
I know it was a bit like that when we had the heavy snows in Athens last year and whole areas were just inaccessible. Not to mention the long lines of cars that had been stuck in the snow for 2 days and hardly anything could be done to help the people inside. The thing is you can't expect to have the right machinery/equipment for clearing out metres of snow in a city that hardly ever sees it.
The point is we always tend to blame governments for everything, whether it is or isn't in their hand to do anything about it, whether they are morons or efficient. I have a lot to say against our government in Greece - they are serious contestants for the top place as the stupidest group of people on earth - and I have an equal lot against the Bush administration.
But in this case we can't ignore what you are saying. We can only do our best to help as much and as efficiently as possible.

[regnet]

Thanks - that's a helpful perspective. And we certainly appreciate the efforts folks like your cousin are making with getting the supply chain and logistics in place

[sunflower1343]

Yeah, they definitely needed a Rudy Giuliani or someone else with true leadership qualities in there immediately. Someone with coordination skills. My aunt said Betty was crying Wednesday night because she just couldn't get good information anywhere and those people were dying. But from the news today it looks like someone is taking control. I hope so.

If I were you'd I'd start writing letters to the editor and making a fuss, because unless governments are pushed into it, they won't do it. Write your congressmen and city hall, and demand that they have action plans, because we can't afford this again, not in terms of money but in terms of human lives.