Katrina: A vengeful lady!
New Orleans, Louisiana has had an easy-going, party reputation because of its annual Mardi Gras excesses--the "Big E" people called it. But things are not so "easy" at the moment. As I write this, the city of some 1,500,000 apparently is in a state of leaderless chaos. The levees holding back the surrounding Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River were breached in several places by the monster hurricane; water is slowly flooding the historic city that sits in a geographic "bowl" below sea level. The giant Corps of Engineer pumps intended to remove water from the "bowl" reportedly are flooded and inoperable. There is no electricity or telecommunications capability in the city. Gasoline is scarce. Most highways have been blocked or damaged by the flood waters. The city is a prisoner of itself.
Some 30,000 to 40,000 people who couldn't leave the city before the storm hit on Monday morning took shelter in the massive sports "Superdome"--which now, according to the city's mayor and state governor, can't sustain this number of people, so they must be moved out-- soon. Other thousands who scrambled out of their area flooded, destroyed homes--many had to chop holes in their roofs from their attics--are being brought to or are walking to portions of the federal Interstate 10 highway that are still above the water. But they wait, dazed and confused, without food, shelter, water, or a way out of the city. Trapped like wharf rats by the rising water.
Federal, state, and local authorities seem to be frozen! Evidently, emergency planners had not envisioned or prepared for the scope of such a wide disaster. So they're flailing about, looking for leaders. They're asking: Where to locate the thousands of displaced? Should we commandeer holiday cruise ships that ply the Gulf between Florida and the Caribbean? Erect huge tent cities like those used for refugees in foreign disasters? Where to locate them? How to transport them? How to feed them? And who would coordinate the logistics--FEMA, Army Corps of Engineers, National Guard? Should Washington federalize resources? Various Washington functionaries issued televised statements this morning, with the apparent intent of assuring citizens that their government is trying to organize federal and state relief and police efforts. Their dispassionate voices didn't inspire confidence, since it was evident that these officials were trying desperately to keep their powder dry.
Meanwhile, looting is taking place unhindered, according to news reports; despite the mayor of New Orleans trying to put a positive spin on this ("people are hungry"), the pictures of laughing black people running away from stores with flat-panel TVs and other "necessities" belies such a claim. It's a terrible public confession of the dark side of our culture. Mississippi's state governor Haley Barber issued a tough statement yesterday: "Looting absolutely will not be tolerated under any circumstances."
The question that needs examination now is: If we aren't able to respond with precision and speed to a predictable event--such as Katrina-- after all the planning and money spent on Homeland Defense since 9/11/01, what would our response be, were Osama bin Laden's cockroaches to unleash an unpredictable bio- or nuclear-weapon attack on an American metro area?
Will the United Nations react? It will be interesting to see whether and how the rest of the world responds to the largest recorded natural disaster in history, in light of how America (both as individuals and institutions) responded to last December's tsunami disaster along the South Asia coastal plains on the Indian Ocean. Will the U.N. will rush to the cameras to solicit aid for U.S. disaster victims, criticizing countries too slow in responding? Funny--so far, the U.N. has been silent.
We who were unaffected weep for the victims. The best individuals can do to help immediately is to send the Red Cross cash donations. The website is: www.redcross.org
Here is a heartfelt plea for help I received by e-mail from a Texas man:
I am begging you and everyone. . . Please, Please, Please. . . Contact the Red Cross or another reputable organizations to help those in need on the Gulf Coast. Many people need each and every one of us to provide assistance. We here in Texas are under no illusion that those coming to our community are not likely to return to the Big Easy. We understand that the city is probably all but lost to anything other than industry and tourism. I am working here locally to raise funds--food and water mostly--to send to Louisiana. I am doing this through a local church. I urge each and every one of you to open up your hearts and your pocket books. We need money down here and we need help. Please give to a charity assisting the poor souls affected by Katrina. We can not rely on our government. We must do this ourselves.
Questions to ponder: (1) Since New Orleans has been long known to be particularly vulnerable to what finally happened, and in light of a series done in 2002 by a local paper, the New Orleans Times-Picayune, that forecasted exactly Monday's scenario (not the date), and even recommended specific preparedness measures, why didn't the governor or mayor "take a second look" at the problem? (2) Why, at minimum, didn't they pre-position MRE's, water, and tents to be erected in case of a disaster--as they regularly do in Florida? (3) And particularly since Homeland Defense was created almost four years ago, what kind of emergency planning for New Orleans, as well as other U.S. cities, has been taking place for all the money we've been funneling into this new bureaucracy? I now fear the answer to question #3 is "apparently none."
Hopefully, American leadership at all levels will recover and respond quickly and responsibly to the people who have been needlessly suffering--suffering for which the governor and mayor are specifically and partially responsible. Perhaps they should call in Rudy Giuliani to advise?
No comments:
Post a Comment