Hurricane Katrina; Is the U.S. responding fast enough?

[ledhed]

This fella has an interesting view of things. And its on topic ..

September 07, 2005, 8:26 a.m.
We Failed You? Try Again.
Anne Rice blames America, not local officials.
"To my country I want to say this: During this crisis you failed us. You looked down on us; you dismissed our victims; you dismissed us. You want our Jazz Fest, you want our Mardi Gras, you want our cooking and our music.
Then when you saw us in real trouble, when you saw a tiny minority preying on the weak among us, you called us "Sin City," and turned your backs." ? novelist and New Orleans resident Anne Rice



Let me get this straight.

Ms. Rice, you live in (what was) a very attractive city which lies below sea level. On one side you have a giant lake; on the other side you have the Gulf of Mexico. Running through the middle is the Mississippi River. All of which are above you.

Preventing those giant bodies of water from flooding and drowning you are levees. These levees are described as "century-old." People have been warning about the devastating effects of a direct hit from a hurricane for decades.

I've heard a great deal of complaint in recent days that the federal government may not have allocated enough money to speed up the upgrades to those levees. This does, however, raise the question of why city and state residents were waiting around for the federal government to send enough money to upgrade this, instead of paying for it themselves. I mean, it was only your homes, businesses, and lives at stake. Perhaps these upgrades would have been expensive. If only this city had some sort of events to attract tourists, from which to collect taxes.

Anyway, your state and local officials decided to spend your tax dollars on something else that they (and presumably you) found more important, and then they waited for the rest of the country to pay for these life-preserving necessities.

Your beloved city and region has a colorful political history, in which there is, oh, a wee bit of corruption. I'm from New Jersey, so I can't throw stones at that glass house. But you guys have managed to pick leaders who give you the worst of both worlds ? they're scandal ridden and incompetent in a crisis. Look, Rudy Giuliani might have run around with Judith Nathan before his divorce, but he was a hell of a leader in our darkest hours. You know the National Review crowd isn't a fan of Pataki, but the man was a rock after 9/11 compared to Governor Weepy I'll-Evacuate-Eventually and Mayor It's-Everybody's-Fault-Except-Mine. Nobody's throwing around the adjective "Churchillian" about any of your officials these days. We didn't pick your local officials; you guys did.

Rice asks, "how many times did Gov. Kathleen Blanco have to say that the situation was desperate? How many times did Mayor Ray Nagin have to call for aid?"

Ahem. What about those buses left unused, less than a mile from the Superdome? JunkYardBlog notes that it's written in the Southeast Louisiana Evacuation Plan that buses are supposed to be used for evacuation of those who don't have personal vehicles. As JYB observes, "there is something very peculiar about a city and a state that have a plan on the books for years that outlines what to do when a hurricane is about to strike, yet when a hurricane comes roaring in, the responsible officials just chuck the plan and try winging it. Delaying and then winging it in the face of a monstrous Cat 4/5 hurricane is never, ever a good idea, especially for New Orleans." Ironically, Nagin told CNN, "I need buses, man," when he had plenty sitting around unused before the storm hit. Now they're flooded and useless.

But it's not like state and local officials could have seen this coming. They have never had a hurricane bearing down on them before and? oh, wait, there was Hurricane Ivan just last year. And after that dodged bullet, Blanco and Nagin both acknowledged they needed a better evacuation plan.

I would note that we've seen some pretty intense disasters in other parts of the country, like planes crashing into skyscrapers and subsequently collapsing, earthquakes, tornadoes, blizzards, and yet somehow, none of these disasters had the total breakdown of law and order, civil society, etc. Jonah Goldberg's early joke about a Mad-Max style post-apocalyptic tribal anarchy may have been in poor taste, but it has turned out to be nightmarishly prescient.

We failed you? No, oh brilliant creator of Exit to Eden, you failed. You might not think of it this way, but: Your leaders failed to upgrade the levees. You elected a bunch of weepers and blame-shifters who lost their head in a crisis.

Over the past decades, your elected officials have let a criminal element incubate and grow until they ruled the streets, instead of the forces of law and order. In pop culture, a New Orleans thief is always a charming rogue with a devilish smile. In reality, they're a bunch of thugs.

If the number of residents who are looting thugs were such a "tiny minority," we wouldn't have seen this widespread, relentless anarchy. Madam, a noticeable number of your neighbors saw this disaster as an opportunity to smash a window and run away with a television, an act that reveals much about the inadequacies of the local school system, since that thief won't be enjoying that television with any electricity anytime soon.

I would also note that this is one hell of a police force your local officials hired and that you and your neighbors tolerated. 50 percent turned in their badges during the crisis and quit. Your police superintendent is conceding that some cops were looting. Just want to refresh your memory ? four years ago, New York and Washington, planes
falling out of the sky, thousands dead, no idea what the hell is coming next? and the cops, among others, showed up to work.

To save you guys now, I ? and a lot of other Americans ? will pitch in. We are witnessing the biggest mobilization of civilian and military rescue and relief crews in history. But I have a sneaking suspicion you're going to want the rest of us to pay for the rebuilding of your city. (In the near future, we're going to have to have a little chat about the wisdom of building below sea level, directly next to large bodies of water.) And if you're going to come to the rest of us hat in hand, demanding the rest of us clean up after your poor judgment, I'd appreciate a little less "you failed us" and a little more "we've learned our lesson."

? Jim Geraghty is reporting from Ankara, Turkey, where the locals keep asking him how something like this could happen in America.

Hmmm interesting . I'd say a few decent points were made . But I do not care for the way he did it . But thats just me .

 

[Swift]

This fella has an interesting view of things. Andits on topic ..





Hmmm interesting . I'd say a few decent points were made . But I do not care for the way he did it . But thats just me .

Yeah, I liked that.

I mean, sure it was up to America to help with things like blood donations and quick relief efforts like that. Because that is our country. But at the same time, how could it possibly be our job to protect and rebuild cities that are intentially built below sea level next to massive bodies of water?

I seriously doubt that Ms Rice sent any money in to rebuild the Trade Centers. Though she may have sent some in to the victims. There's a major diffence there.

 

[Zardoz]

This fella has an interesting view of things. Andits on topic ..

Hmmm interesting . I'd say a few decent points were made . But I do not care for the way he did it . But thats just me .

I think his tone is justified.

One thing in defense of the NOPD: Over 80% of the officers lost their homes in the flooding. Cops are only human, and you have to expect that to take its toll on morale.

 

[Swift]

I think his tone is justified.

One thing in defense of the NOPD: Over 80% of the officers lost their homes in the flooding. Cops are only human, and you have to expect that to take its toll on morale.

Yeah, but dang. Couldn't they at least wait till after the situation was contained? Just up and running is really weak. I'm not judging them. But that's when the city needed police the MOST and they split. Simply not cool.

 

[Giancarlo]

It's not like it's so easy to get help to every single person, it takes time. People need to realize that.

Also, the entire city of New Orleans isn't flooded like the news makes you believe. It's a number of areas, but not the whole thing.

 

[Zardoz]

...the entire city of New Orleans isn't flooded like the news makes you believe. It's a number of areas, but not the whole thing.

80% is flooded. This is not a "liberal media" myth. Have you seen the photos? Have you seen the satellite pics? It's hard to find an area that is not flooded.

 

[Young_Warrior]

Aha!!!!!!!!! I have remeber another point that some men made about the new orleans situation.

Bush said that he would personnally head the investigation as in to what went wrong in the new orleans relief even though this same investigation is what would be critiscing him. Only clever people would have clocked on to what he has done here not has he only gotten rid of possible negative PR hes managed to turn it into the positive with dumb people thinking that he really cares.

 

[Duke]

You know what? When you get to voting age, and you actually live here, then we'll consider caring what you think about our political system.

 

[PS]

I wonder what kind of effect this is going to have on the insurance companies? Anyone in the online-trading-sim competition thing better start selling their StateFarm stock now. I think that all the homes are going to have to be completely taken down and reconstructed, there would be serious damage to the foundations and. . .pretty much everything. In an event like this, would the government take part in the rebuild?

 

[smellysocks12]

Most people there aren't insured.

 

[Young_Warrior]

You know what? When you get to voting age, and you actually live here, then we'll consider caring what you think about our political system.

Good answer.

 

[ledhed]

Most people there aren't insured.

And you know this how ? Or are you guessing .

 

[smellysocks12]

It was said on CNN, I know, not the most reliable source, but the best one I have. It's believable, since the majority of people there (and definitely the ones who didn't leave) are poor.

 

[ledhed]

If they owned a house and were paying a mortgage they had insurance of some type .
Believe it or not poor people in the US do own homes ! Those that had apartments or lived in public housing ...I doubt if they had any insurance ..even home owners I doubt if they could even GET flood insurance ..not in New Orleans ..insurance companys are not crazy .
CNN was most likely talking about flood insurance though.

 

[FoolKiller]

Bush said that he would personnally head the investigation as in to what went wrong in the new orleans relief even though this same investigation is what would be critiscing him. Only clever people would have clocked on to what he has done here not has he only gotten rid of possible negative PR hes managed to turn it into the positive with dumb people thinking that he really cares.

Do you have your foil hat on yet? He might be trying to read your mind too.

The investigation is going to be a joint Congress investigation and some members are even pushing for an independent investigation. Bush cannot lead an investigation into anything. The most he can do is tell the Justice Department to do it and appoint the lead investigator. Bush just said that he would get to the bottom of it.

Your lack of understanding of American government is why Duke gave you the comment he did.

OK, I'll go back to LaLa Land now.

 

[Zardoz]

First axe-blow to Brown's neck:

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/9266986/

They'll finish the decapitation later...

*WHACK!*

*Thud!*

*roll, roll, roll...*

 

[ledhed]

Yay the friggin moron finally got the job right .

 

[Zardoz]

We'll see more of these analysis stories:

http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/09/13/katrina.response/

The plans were there, but when push came to shove, the officials seemed "paralyzed", as this story puts it.

Some outrageous stuff in there...

 

[ledhed]

"Katrina exposed serious problems in our response capability at all levels of government and to the extent the federal government didn't fully do its job right, I take responsibility," Bush said during a news conference.

I'd like to hear the same thing from the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana . The first step in improving and learning from your mistakes is to admit that they were made .

 

[FoolKiller]

I'd like to hear the same thing from the Mayor of New Orleans and the Governor of Louisiana . The first step in improving and learning from your mistakes is to admit that they were made .

Well, I think the mayor is too busy moving to Dallas and the governor is trying to find the biggest rock to hide under while letting Bush take the blame.

 

[Swift]

Well, I think the mayor is too busy moving to Dallas and the governor is trying to find the biggest rock to hide under while letting Bush take the blame.

And that is what really burns me up. It's really not Bush's fault. MAYBE after the hurricane hit. But until the Governer called a state of emergency, he can't do a thing. So where was the govenor? Probably in Baltimore by now...

 

[Burnout]

And that is what really burns me up. It's really not Bush's fault. MAYBE after the hurricane hit. But until the Governer called a state of emergency, he can't do a thing. So where was the govenor? Probably in Baltimore by now...

This is true.

The Governer and Mayor really dropped the ball on this one. Had they started doing somethign earlier, ie., moving people in those hundreds of buses they had laying around, maybe we wouldn'tbe quite where we are.

 

[Danoff]

It occurred to me that the two pictures shown here are quite a bit different. It looks like the black person has a trashbag full of stuff - which we don't know the contents of, and a pack of pepsi . Whereas the white people have what looks like they have orange juice and backpacks. There can't be all that much stuff in the backpacks.

We also don't know much about the context of these pictures. Perhaps the reporters were watching these people prior to taking the pictures and saw that one was a looter and the other was just getting the necessities.

It is probably racism, but that doesn't seem certain.

 

[FoolKiller]

It occurred to me that the two pictures shown here are quite a bit different. It looks like the black person has a trashbag full of stuff - which we don't know the contents of, and a pack of pepsi . Whereas the white people have what looks like they have orange juice and backpacks. There can't be all that much stuff in the backpacks.

We also don't know much about the context of these pictures. Perhaps the reporters were watching these people prior to taking the pictures and saw that one was a looter and the other was just getting the necessities.

It is probably racism, but that doesn't seem certain.

I posted it in the racism thread that got shut down before and I will requote myself here.

Comparing two news stories from seperate news agencies is also bad, mmmkay? The pictures and stories in questions are from different news agencies. The one with the black woman carrying Diet Pepsi under her arm and a bag full of who knows what with a caption of people looting was from the Associated Press, The picture of the white man and what appears to be a white woman (but might be black) and has the caption about people finding food is from Agence France-Press. It isn't even agencies from the same friggin' country people! Now if you can find me two AP stories where one has a black person "looting" and the other has a white person "finding" food and both pictures show the people in question with nothing but food then I will listen. But for now it appears that one agency (or just editor/writer) prefers the term looting and another prefers the term finding. This could be a country difference because the French don't like the word looting or it doesn't translate back well. I don't know, but either way the comparison is severly flawed and anyone trying to make it is ignorant of the facts or they are trying to stir up trouble. End of story.

Do I need to send everyone copies of statistical analysis textbooks?

While Danoff, I believe, is being sarcastic this example that keeps going around means jack.

 

[Danoff]

While Danoff, I believe, is being sarcastic this example that keeps going around means jack.

No sarcasm in my post, though I didn't delve into the story as much as you did. I missed that post of yours, but I think you're right on target.

 

[FoolKiller]

No sarcasm in my post, though I didn't delve into the story as much as you did. I missed that post of yours, but I think you're right on target.

I tend to zone in on these things because I studied communications in college and work for a media research company. I'm not sure who first put this out but they either didn't notice the difference or hoped others didn't because the AP and AFP logos look close.

Whatever the case is that started this the creator got the desired result when Kanye West started talking about it when he was supposed to be raising money for the victims.

 

[Swift]

That's a really ludicrous comparison. Did they follow the guy from the store that he looted and the other people from there house?