Katrina

[woodface]

I'm trying to wrap my mind around what is going on in the US right now and I just can't. I'm flabbergasted at how one of the richest countries with some of the best equipment out there can be struggling like this. It's like watching a Third World country, only, this isn't the Third World. And this whole thing wasn't unexpected either. How come, when they knew this was coming since Friday, that there still is no help in certain places and that it seems like this whole thing fell out of nowhere on their head?

I am willing to understand that organising help on this scale is difficult, but for crying out loud, this is unbelievable. They had ample warning and it's been days and some people still haven't seen a rescue worker. It's not like the entire US was flattened in the hurricane, other parts of the country are working just fine so where is the hold up? The tsunami which was completely unexpected was handled with a lot more competence than this.

Also, while I understand the looting happening, I find it hard to understand how people can deteririote into anarchy so fast. I'm sure some of it is just the news being sensational, but still... if you wanted any more proof that allowing any idiot to have a gun is bad, this is it.

Comments

[lyssie.livejournal.com]

Because America IS a third world country pretending to be a first world one, thanks to our fucker of a president.

[woodface]

Yah.

[tallisen.livejournal.com]

Here here. Who wants to move to Canada? *huffs* I hate feeling so crappy about what's going on in our country.

[erica-w.livejournal.com]

Dubya certainly has made things worse, but it's not like the country was sittin' real pretty when he took over.

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

The short answer: There are limits on how much money can do and how quickly.

The long answer: The primary reason for being caught flat-footed is that the people making the decisions -- rightly or wrongly (and it's looking like wrongly, based on the government report from 2001 that hypothesized just such an event) didn't expect the extent of the flooding. So they were expecting to send relief workers and supplies in by the usual means, not to still have large areas of the city still unreachable without helicopters or boats (both of which have limited passenger capacity).

The drainage system in New Orleans is designed to withstand a Category 3 hurricane, and until Monday, it appeared to have withstood a Category 4. They weren't expecting the storm surge to raise the level of Lake Pontchartrain as high as it got, which is what caused the levees to break. Once the lake level went back to normal, the Army Corp of Engineers were actually waiting to try to fill the breaches until some of the extremely high water levels in the city flowed back through the gaps into the lake.

The people on the ground (of whom there are not enough, IMNSHO, but more on that in a moment) are hampered primarily by lack of communication. It's not just that there's no power and no regular phone service, and that the cell towers are down. They're having trouble in some areas getting through with satellite phones, and the NOLA police ran out of batteries for their radios before the end of Tuesday. The Guard officers in charge are literally using runners as if it were 150 years ago.

All that said... As of yesterday and today, those explanations are no longer sufficient. They are not sufficient for Them What's In Charge to claim to be completely unaware that there were SEVERAL THOUSAND PEOPLE in the convention center -- eight blocks from the Superdome -- with absolutely no resources. Especially when several of those people insist that "someone" from the National Guard came by and told them to stay put and buses would be sent. Yesterday afternoon the Secretary of Homeland Security insisted on the radio that he had "no report" of this crowd of people, and had the gall to tell the commentator that what he was hearing first-hand from his reporter on the scene was rumor. By evening, the head of FEMA was saying on the TV news that supplies had been continuously going in to the Superdome, and that they would continue to be trucked in massive quantities to the Superdome "and the convention center," thus neatly implying-without-saying that the convention center had been taken care of all along just like the Superdome, when in fact it hadn't.

What is most frustrating is the repeated insistence that they have resources at the designated staging/distribution points, which is perfectly reasonable IF YOUR SOLDIERS AREN'T TELLING PEOPLE TO STAY PUT IN PLACES THAT AREN'T THOSE POINTS.

I'm really not sure what I think at this point. I think somebody's dropping the ball, but I'm not 100% what all the balls being dropped are, or by whom. There's a huge amount of confusing information right now.

One thing I do know, which even most Americans don't, is that New Orleans has been living on borrowed time for a lot of years now. Not only because it's below sea level (and sinking a little lower every year), but because of the filling in and development of the marshland around it. The marshes used to act like a sponge, giving excess water a place to go. As the city has become more dependent on the canals and the pumping system directing all the water into Lake Pontchartrain, the marshland has been disappearing. This has been recognized for years, but it was recognized too late. So all the focus has been on keeping the drainage/pumping system going as securely as possible, but it's never been realistic to think that it was going to last forever.

That doesn't make it any less of a tragedy, and it sure as heck doesn't excuse failing to do everything humanly possible to help the people affected. :-/

[gilkurtis.livejournal.com]

Thank you, seriously. That was very informative and I'm actually starting to understand the situation. All I here about is the looting and death--sensational news, instead of actual education/information. So again, thanks.


And um, could you maybe go talk to Bush?

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

You're very welcome. I've been paying closer attention to the coverage than is probably strictly healthy, just because it happens to have hit a city near and dear to my heart. (Even though I've spent a grand total of two weeks of my life there.) Also because I'm a mite obsessive about trying to understand as much as possible about something.

(For yet another perspective, check out the link in my post yesterday with the subject line "The view from abroad".)

And um, could you maybe go talk to Bush?

Probably not without doing something I'd regret. Well, for the split-second it took the Secret Service to take me out, anyway. :-/

[woodface]

Yups, this is informative.

I keep wondering about the communications, though. If there is so much media coverage, couldn't they ask for help from them? They clearly seem to have ways of communicating. It probably won't solve everything but er... it could be helpful? *has no clue*

I do know that in the meantime Belgium has its rescue workers alert and ready to leave for the US. We're just waiting for a green light from the US before we can leave.

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

I keep wondering about the communications, though. If there is so much media coverage, couldn't they ask for help from them?

There's less problem with communication in and out of the area (i.e. how we get news coverage, and how the journalists communicate with home base) than with communicating point to point within it (i.e., each police district making its own decisions because they aren't able to coordinate with anyone else).

I think I've heard a couple stories indicating that the journalists are helping to relay information, but it still makes things slower. It has to help at least somewhat, tho.

[woodface]

Ah yeah, that makes sense. *sighs*

[wiliqueen.livejournal.com]

I do know that in the meantime Belgium has its rescue workers alert and ready to leave for the US. We're just waiting for a green light from the US before we can leave.

*sigh* And if what the mayor said is right, they're waiting for a green light from the governor. Which I can't imagine she hasn't given, if she does in fact have to. So I'm very confused about what the heck is going on there.

[woodface]

Yeah me too.

[lisayaeger.livejournal.com]

if you wanted any more proof that allowing any idiot to have a gun is bad, this is it.

It's also proof that having an idiot as a president is bad, too.

[woodface]

I was kinda hoping that was clear already, but I guess now it's indisputable.

[livilla.livejournal.com]

I know exactly what you mean. It's so hard to believe just looking at it on the news and have it followed by the latest indiscretion of some local football player, or whatever.

It's unbelievable.

[woodface]

*nods in agreement*

[livilla.livejournal.com]

*sighs*