It's been widely understood that FEMA and state officials dramatically underestimated the situation brewing in New Orleans in the hours after the hurricane hit. However, I also remember waking up early that morning to watch CNN, to see how things had fared through the night, and I distinctly recall them saying that New Orleans had been spared, that the city missed the direct hit. They showed other Gulf towns that had been rampaged by the winds and water, but maintained that New Orleans was OK. What resources FEMA had in the region were diverted to Gulfport, Biloxi, and other points off I-10, away from New Orleans. Once the levees broke...wow. We know what happened then.
As much as I support a public option for health care, and many of the stimulus initiatives, I can understand why some folks are wary of Government-run programs. The entire Katrina/New Orleans debacle shows what happens when Government fails at every single level - the Federal response was minuscule, late and poorly managed initially. The LA State and NO City Governments were shocked SHOCKED that a city that basically rests below sea level would ever need proper evacuation procedures, methods and information processes to get the poor, elderly and ill out of their homes, hospitals and centers. The levee management boards were often corrupt, inept, and didn't coordinate with each other to maintain consistent building protocols and standards throughout the town. The US Army Corps of Engineers had failed to mandate proper levee designs and building specs, and had numerous issues with local citizens for years about the levees. Combine all that with a stunned mass media that was confused as to handle the story - more concerned about getting footage of high winds and roofs being blown off hotels than reporting about boring old leaking levees for seven hours...yeah, who's gonna care about that boring stuff when we can put Jim Cantore in another windstorm?
It was a horrible situation at every level, and I hope that classes geared toward educating a new generation of civil servants and politicians show these failures and how to prevent them in future disasters. It is a damned shame that this country is better prepared to offer disaster relief to a 3rd World country on a distant continent across the seas than to a place right off the Interstate.
@telecomic the thoughtful red panda: It wasn't gouverned, that was the entire issue!
Nepotistic appointees woefully unqualified to fill out the job they weren't doing anyway doesn't equal the way things will be when a competent gouvernment is in charge of these issues.
Look at the Netherlands: we've been keeping up dykes and levees with more than fingers for the past 70 years. Our OMG SOCIALIST! government is keeping 75% of our landmass that is under sea level dry.
@telecomic the thoughtful red panda: government failure under bush wasn't a bug, it was a feature. failure is what they do, intentionally and purposefully
I didn't realize it was the anniversary of Katrina until I saw a link to this article. I hadn't read it before, and after seeing it, I was horrifed all over again: [www.thenation.com]
@hussein persepolis hussein: New Orleans is still a great place to visit. The Marigny, French Quarter and Uptown are in great shape. The city needs vistors.
I went to the memorial this afternoon. Despite the anger and sadness, it is actually a proud day here today. My university organized a day of service, and tonight we are celebrating the culture that survives. There is still so much to be done. Despite the progress, you can't walk more than a few blocks in most neighborhoods without seeing some of the destruction that remains, and often it feels like both New Orleans and areas like Gulfport in Mississippi have been forgotten. I just moved here a few weeks ago after a 7 year absence, and it is an emotional rollercoaster to say the least.
I know I am going to get hell for this.. but.. I lived in New Orleans, my (rental) home flooded to the roof. I stayed in the town I evacuated to (I was able to afford evacuation by not paying the bills I had due in favor of saving my life). In November 2005 I had a new job and apartment, the outpouring of generosity was huge and I had several job offers. The amount of aid that has been given to people in New Orleans is greater than any other natural disaster, and it was not the only natural disaster to affect poor people. My question is.. if these people have been getting FREE housing for nearly 4 years, why haven't they saved enough money to at least secure a rental until the "road home" money comes in?
@challygirl: Are you white and did you live in the Ninth Ward? Did you lose everything you had and not have insurance to cover the loss? Were you on public assistance?
If there is a list of anything in the U.States, Louisiana is usually at the bottom (if the bottom means we're the worst). It has been this way for decades (a tradition), and frankly, I don't know if it can really get better, because people down here have never seen better....It's been said for more than one generation that Louisiana educates kids for other states. Why? It's pretty much understood that even if you go to college here, you have to leave the state to find employment. Also, the biggest employer here is state government. Big businesses, by and large, will not come here (politics and such).
@oh.geez.: I'm from Mississippi, and I now live in Atlanta for exactly this reason. There just aren't employment opportunities there for people who really want to move up in the world. Well, that and by Mississippi standards I was considered a crazy feminist hippy liberal.
@oh.geez.: We Kentucky folks often joke that Louisiana and Mississippi are our saving graces, occasionally keeping us from being #50 out of 50. I say that not to mock, but to empathize with the plight of another state with poverty, education and health issues. Brain drain is a big problem here. I'm a little odd in that I got educated, lived in two other states, but came back to start my adult worklife here.
@leesie: No one, ever, has disappointed me so much as he. I loved him so much during the storm, when he was bitching at Bush and (allegedly) got in his face on Air Force 1 so aggressively that he was held off by the Secret Service. And then...nothing. Just crap like this. Ugh.
On the way from New Orleans to Hattiesburg, there is a field full of FEMA trailers. Literally, thousands. They are just sitting there, rows upon rows upon rows of them, up and along the hills. It is a strange, sad, surreal sight. I don't know what they're doing there, or why. And I also do not understand why these people are being forced out of them. Maybe my tinfoil hat is on a little too tight, but I suspect it has something to do with the long term risks o being housed in a formaldehyde saturated box. And the probable resulting lawsuits.
So the question is, what can we do to help? Does anyone know any resources? I'm tired of this impotent rage, y'all.
POINT SULPHUR?! i can't even comment on the actual picture because i can't get past the name of the town. it sounds like it would most definitely be the worst-smelling place to live in the world!
@Vivien Smith-Smythe-Smith: Ahahaha I have! The fact that the town is really beautiful kind of helps, though. One of my happiest days was horseback riding through these huge hills around there.
@wry_bred: Ha, Rotorua, or Pt. Sulphur? I'm grew up in Taupo, and even regular trips to Rotorua for soccer tournaments, school trips, and what not did nothing to acclimatise me to that stench!
@Vivien Smith-Smythe-Smith: I'm pretty sure it was Rotorua... we spent two days and went to the sulphur springs and all that. Then we stayed on farms (this was during a college study abroad btw) in I think... Te Kuiti? Which was GORGEOUSSSSSS. I am jealous of your country's scenic-ness.
@FarleyDrexel is crossing the Rubicon: I'm giving a shout-out to all the ladies that make and donate quilts for children in crisis. My son was given a quilt when he had surgery, and the amount of love and detail that a total stranger poured into her craft made me cry.
08/30/09
As much as I support a public option for health care, and many of the stimulus initiatives, I can understand why some folks are wary of Government-run programs. The entire Katrina/New Orleans debacle shows what happens when Government fails at every single level - the Federal response was minuscule, late and poorly managed initially. The LA State and NO City Governments were shocked SHOCKED that a city that basically rests below sea level would ever need proper evacuation procedures, methods and information processes to get the poor, elderly and ill out of their homes, hospitals and centers. The levee management boards were often corrupt, inept, and didn't coordinate with each other to maintain consistent building protocols and standards throughout the town. The US Army Corps of Engineers had failed to mandate proper levee designs and building specs, and had numerous issues with local citizens for years about the levees. Combine all that with a stunned mass media that was confused as to handle the story - more concerned about getting footage of high winds and roofs being blown off hotels than reporting about boring old leaking levees for seven hours...yeah, who's gonna care about that boring stuff when we can put Jim Cantore in another windstorm?
It was a horrible situation at every level, and I hope that classes geared toward educating a new generation of civil servants and politicians show these failures and how to prevent them in future disasters. It is a damned shame that this country is better prepared to offer disaster relief to a 3rd World country on a distant continent across the seas than to a place right off the Interstate.
08/30/09
Nepotistic appointees woefully unqualified to fill out the job they weren't doing anyway doesn't equal the way things will be when a competent gouvernment is in charge of these issues.
Look at the Netherlands: we've been keeping up dykes and levees with more than fingers for the past 70 years. Our OMG SOCIALIST! government is keeping 75% of our landmass that is under sea level dry.
08/30/09
08/30/09
08/29/09
08/29/09
08/30/09
08/30/09
08/30/09
08/29/09
08/29/09
05/14/09
I lived in New Orleans, my (rental) home flooded to the roof. I stayed in the town I evacuated to (I was able to afford evacuation by not paying the bills I had due in favor of saving my life). In November 2005 I had a new job and apartment, the outpouring of generosity was huge and I had several job offers. The amount of aid that has been given to people in New Orleans is greater than any other natural disaster, and it was not the only natural disaster to affect poor people. My question is.. if these people have been getting FREE housing for nearly 4 years, why haven't they saved enough money to at least secure a rental until the "road home" money comes in?
05/14/09
05/14/09
Wouldn't it be an idea to rehouse them first and bring the Program to a natural end instead of just stopping it?
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05/12/09
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So the question is, what can we do to help? Does anyone know any resources? I'm tired of this impotent rage, y'all.
05/12/09
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05/12/09
"For comfort and piece from Rumpled Quilts Kin
Traverse City, MI"
05/12/09
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