The Disgrace of New Orleans
Watching the events unfold in New Orleans brings to me a sense of shame, and it should bring that sense shame to all Americans.
With New Orleans we have proven to ourselves and to the world that our incompetence and lack of caring for people, even our own people, is beyond the immoral, it is criminal and shameful.
In New Orleans we knew Katrina was a category 5 storm. We knew that the city’s levees were safe to only a category 3 storm.
We knew that the residents should be evacuated and when the evacuation order was given, and thousands did not leave, we knew they were in grave danger.
We should have anticipated that electricity and water and sewer would soon fail if the city flooded and that Katrina would surely flood it.
We should have known that the floods would close roads, airports, and that communications would be cut off. Surely the officials in New Orleans and Louisiana could not have depended on the use of cell phones during such a disaster as was bound to occur?
We knew how much food and water would be needed by the numbers of people left in the city, and we should have known how much we had.
We knew there would be medical emergencies and that the hospitals would need assistance.
We knew that in desperation, or even just with opportunity, there would be lawlessness.
We knew all these things ahead of time, didn’t we?
So this disaster was totally predictable.
It was more than predictable; for days before it occurred it was a certainty.
In fact I am sure everyone could and should have seen it coming. I did, from a viewpoint as far away as Hong Kong. I knew that New Orleans would be flooded and devastated at least two days before hand, and I am sure people everywhere knew this.
Yet New Orleans and Louisiana and the US officials and emergency departments seemed to be caught flat footed. Their response was shamefully and criminally slow and totally inadequate. For three or four days it seemed like our top government officials were in shock and didn’t know what to do.
George Bush stayed at his ranch for two days.
The governor of Louisiana called a press conference and cried.
This is unacceptable.
In the face of such a disaster we need decisive executives who make things happen in hours not days.
More to the point they should have mobilized all the assistance before the hurricane hit so that help would be on the way instantly. For them to say that the scope of the disaster simply overwhelmed the authorities confirms that their preparedness was inadequate, that their limited vision could not conceive of the disaster which was inevitable.
This is unacceptable.
Leadership is more than press conferences with sympathetic platitudes and disaster preparedness meetings filled with bureaucratic excuses for inaction.
Our cities and states and our nation deserve powerful, decisive leaders who take action ahead of time and who waste no time dithering, not the helpless fools we seem to have.
It’s shameful.
Fred Roswold
With New Orleans we have proven to ourselves and to the world that our incompetence and lack of caring for people, even our own people, is beyond the immoral, it is criminal and shameful.
In New Orleans we knew Katrina was a category 5 storm. We knew that the city’s levees were safe to only a category 3 storm.
We knew that the residents should be evacuated and when the evacuation order was given, and thousands did not leave, we knew they were in grave danger.
We should have anticipated that electricity and water and sewer would soon fail if the city flooded and that Katrina would surely flood it.
We should have known that the floods would close roads, airports, and that communications would be cut off. Surely the officials in New Orleans and Louisiana could not have depended on the use of cell phones during such a disaster as was bound to occur?
We knew how much food and water would be needed by the numbers of people left in the city, and we should have known how much we had.
We knew there would be medical emergencies and that the hospitals would need assistance.
We knew that in desperation, or even just with opportunity, there would be lawlessness.
We knew all these things ahead of time, didn’t we?
So this disaster was totally predictable.
It was more than predictable; for days before it occurred it was a certainty.
In fact I am sure everyone could and should have seen it coming. I did, from a viewpoint as far away as Hong Kong. I knew that New Orleans would be flooded and devastated at least two days before hand, and I am sure people everywhere knew this.
Yet New Orleans and Louisiana and the US officials and emergency departments seemed to be caught flat footed. Their response was shamefully and criminally slow and totally inadequate. For three or four days it seemed like our top government officials were in shock and didn’t know what to do.
George Bush stayed at his ranch for two days.
The governor of Louisiana called a press conference and cried.
This is unacceptable.
In the face of such a disaster we need decisive executives who make things happen in hours not days.
More to the point they should have mobilized all the assistance before the hurricane hit so that help would be on the way instantly. For them to say that the scope of the disaster simply overwhelmed the authorities confirms that their preparedness was inadequate, that their limited vision could not conceive of the disaster which was inevitable.
This is unacceptable.
Leadership is more than press conferences with sympathetic platitudes and disaster preparedness meetings filled with bureaucratic excuses for inaction.
Our cities and states and our nation deserve powerful, decisive leaders who take action ahead of time and who waste no time dithering, not the helpless fools we seem to have.
It’s shameful.
Fred Roswold
posted by wingssail at 8:51 PM
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4 Comments:
I'm completely with you on this... it's shameful, it's disgusting. The worse part is that FEMA is blocking aid shipments into New Orleans. Why on earth would they do this? To what possible purpose does this serve?!
I wouldn't expect this level incompetence of any country on this planet...
Larry,
The state asked for help on Sunday, because they realized they wouldn't have enough resources to evacuate everyone due to scale-backs in federal grant money. The fact that they didn't ask sooner still reeks of incompetence, but at least they made an effort... the feds are just moving today [friday], and it's uncoordinated and they're not even letting aid into the city.
They've locked everyone in the Convention Center and they have checkpoints stopping people from leaving the city. This is a disgrace. I have never been ashamed to be an American [ashamed of acts by my government, yes], but I am now.
If this causes local, state, and federal governments to pay more attention to poor people when a storm shows up, then good. This is our Titanic, where all the poor people drowned locked in the hull while the rich got off on lifeboats.
Ultimately, though, no one will be accountable for the dead who died after the hurricane, and that's just unacceptable.
If they need to wait for law and order, then why did it take THREE DAYS for the government to send the military in? We've spent how many billions of dollars on "homeland security", we had several days warning, and this is how we respond? Imagine if we didn't have any warning, like a large San Fransisco Earthquake, or worse, another terrorist attack.
And re: buses; all the buses available were used. They weren't enough. More were requested. More were offered from other states. But they couldn't be issued without FEMA's approval, which didn't come until Thursday.
The local and state govs screwed up, but the federal government, ultimately, bears primary responsibility. That's what it says on the DHS website anyway...
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