Katrina: A How NOT TO Essay

This is a book that begs to be written, and surely it will be. Probably dozens of them; I only wish I had the expertise, the know how and the connections to do it, because I am really upset at what has taken place in the aftermath of Katrina; or rather I'm upset at what HASN"T taken place.
Blame; There is plenty of that to go around, on ALL levels, from human nature to your president Bush. Now everyone knows I hate the Bush men , but try as I might I cant blame him for the man made disaster that followed Katrina, until I've finished blaming many others.
Lets begin with the past. Past governments and activities that aided in Katrinas destruction.
LEVEES:
Levees that kept back the overflow waters of the Mississippi river in normal times is also to blame for the same reasons. I understand before those levees were built, the Miss. used to overflow tons of silt which helped to at least preserve the barrier islands. Damming of the Miss. over the years has resulted in reducing the amount of silt being dumped into the barrier islands by more than half. This has directly help the erosion of these island s which would normally act as a "buffer" to storms, helping to diminish their power. So again man trying to "harness" and control mother nature has resulted in devastation and complete and utter failure!. Just when will we learn?
HUMAN NATURE
. By that I mean that the average person when told to evacuate, probably didn't believe it necessary, but did it anyway. The extreme in that group did stay behind. I would have. I am extremist in that situation; I know that I will never win the lottery because of the odds, and likewise I feel the odds of me being swept away and killed during a hurricane, although less than winning lotto are still astronomical. Am I being stupid, or naive? Probably both, but stay I would have. Now, not all stayed because they didn't believe the hype of "the sky is falling" that was being bandied about. No, many stayed because they had little or no choice: they didn't have the "means" to get out.
INCOMPETENCE AT ALL LEVELS
This is where the "blame" starts with government. You are the local government;. you order a mandatory evacuation of your "constituents". Don't you realize that many of your citizens have NO way of getting pout of town without your help? Did YOU order buses into the area to aid in the evacuation? Did you order ALL your emergency personnel into the area to facilitate the evacuation? You did arrange for the stadium to take refugees, but did you also arrange for hotels in safe area to accept those in need? Or did they only accept those who could pay? Did you make arrangements or at least try, with other cities and states to prepare to accept people? I mean there are approximately 500,000 people now (Sept 5th) displaced from New Orleans. People are blaming racism on the failure in N.O. but I blame economics. Yes I think Economics is the new racism in this country.
When did you call for Federal assistance? Before or after you did your job. Your emergency personnel should have been ordered to "loot" stores themselves, and distribute it to those in need. That would have helped prevent the "thuggery" that followed. Odd how in a time of crisis its called "price gouging" and other times its called good old fashioned Capitalism. Did you have a "police presence" in the shelters? When did you call for the National Guard? Speaking of the National Guard, THIS is what they are for. Had they not been in a foreign country they could have more easily and quickly and in larger numbers been deployed here: and NOT as a military force per se, but as a humanitarian effort to help, serve and protect our own here in America. This is just an ever so brief touch on what should have and could have been done at the state and local level. How much did they do? Time will tell, when all the facts come out. In the meantime thousands are dead, hundreds of thousands homeless, countless ill from the ordeal, and just so they get a small mention probably tens of thousand of animals dead.
Then there's the Feds, those infamous finger pointing, I'm better than thou, secretive Federal government agencies. What did they do? What did Bush do? The most "vacationed" president in recent memory, was again (still?) on vacation before, during and after Katrina came to town. Bush came back to the white house 2 days AFTER Katrina struck. What this indicates to me is not so much HIS incompetence, (I already knew that), but rather the incompetence of his hand selected people. The complete inability of anyone in his administration to act on anything without the kings approval. Well if this is actually true, then he should have come back from his month long vacation the day OF Katrina NOT 2 days AFTER the fact. But again before I can blame him personally I must first find fault with everyone else under him.
History Lesson
There is a precedence to this latest tragedy. Back in 1927 there was an equally disastrous flood in New Orleans. But THEY at least had a plan; sure did. They rounded up the local black people at gunpoint and forced them to worked sandbagging the levees and cleaning up,not allowing them to leave. Perhaps it is that America without this option just really doesn't know what to do. Take our military for example. If it wasn't for the poor of our country we would have no volunteer military to send to foreign lands to die so the more affluent of America can continue to wallow in their excesses. Sure there will always be the "gung ho kill em all" types and the " my country right or wrong" types, but not enough to protect our greed. Uniquely it was also this 1927 flood that shifted black folk away from their alliance with the Republican party and onto their current affinity for the Democratic party.

Surely I did not do justice to the scope of inadequacy of response in New Orleans, nor can I. For as I've said before I have not the ability, knowledge or network needed for such an endeavor. All I do have is anger: anger at what happened in Rome while Nero fiddled.



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