from the Washington Post
I always thought that American disaster response would be better than the Sri Lankan, but it, um, isn’t. The scenes I’m reading about in New Orleans are about as hellish as I can imagine and the disaster response isn’t there. I mean, to have this scene in America – ‘New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday, as corpses lay abandoned in street medians, fights and fires broke out and storm survivors battled for seats on the buses that would carry them away from the chaos. The tired and hungry seethed, saying they had been forsaken. “We are out here like pure animals,” the Rev. Issac Clark said outside the New Orleans Convention Center, where he and other evacuees had been waiting for buses for days amid the filth and the dead. “I’m not sure I’m going to get out of here alive,” said tourist Larry Mitzel of Saskatoon, Canada. “I’m scared of riots. I’m scared of the locals. We might get caught in the crossfire.”‘ Nothing ever got this bad in post-tsunami Sri Lanka. With the bloated Department of Homeland Security it’s just unconscionable that things could get so out of hand.
One crucial difference is that the Tsunami came and left, no Sri Lankan cities were actually underwater. Second, once the levees broke New Orleans simply filled up like a bowl, whereas Sri Lankan devastation was largely 100-300m deep. Those factors made Sri Lankan recovery easier. However, Katrina should still be better managed than this. The US has the advantages of 1) being America 2) effective national transportation 3) 5 days warning. I’m not a knee-jerk Bush basher, but in this case he has simply failed, and he’s lying. Compare his quote to this map by the Corps of Engineers.
I don’t think anybody anticipated the breach of the levees. They did appreciate a serious storm but these levees got breached and as a result much of New Orleans is flooded and now we’re having to deal with it and will. — President George W. Bush (Good Morning America)
Are you fucking retarded? Every model anticipated the levees being breached by a Category 4-5 hurricane. A 5 year old could figure that out. The fact that levees exist at all shows that the Crescent City has tenuous relationship with the surrounding waters. “The Corps of Engineers, along with Louisiana State University (LSU), and the authorities in Jefferson Parish have modeled the effects and aftermath of a Category 5 strike on New Orleans. The outcome was an unprecedented disaster, with extensive loss of life and property. The key problem is an effect called “filling the bowl”, when the hurricane drives water into Lake Pontchartrain, which overwhelms weaker levees bordering Pontchartrain and canals leading to it and flows into the below-sea-level city accompanied by water overtopping the levees along the Mississippi on the south side of the city center. The tall levee walls surrounding New Orleans then prevent the water from naturally draining back out to sea. (Wikipedia)” Also, the University of New Orleans predicted the same thing after hurricane Ivan. Countless people have predicted the current disaster, as taken from this list on Wikipedia.
* The New Orleans Times-Picayune published an award-winning five-part series called Washing Away that covered various scenarios (including a Category 5 hurricane hitting the city from the south) and explored the various environmental changes that have increased the area’s vulnerability. One article in the series concluded: “Hundreds of thousands would be left homeless, and it would take months to dry out the area and begin to make it livable. But there wouldn’t be much for residents to come home to. The local economy would be in ruins.”
* The American Prospect carried “Thinking Big About Hurricanes” on May 23, 2005. That article described the likely aftermath of a major storm surge. “Soon the geographical “bowl” of the Crescent City would fill up with the waters of the lake, leaving those unable to evacuate with little option but to cluster on rooftops — terrain they would have to share with hungry rats, fire ants, nutria, snakes, and perhaps alligators. The water itself would become a festering stew of sewage, gasoline, refinery chemicals, and debris.”
* Popular Mechanics ran a story in September of 2001 called New Orleans Is Sinking discussing what might happen if a hurricane of this size landed on New Orleans.
* Scientific American published an article by Mark Fischetti in October of 2001 called Drowning New Orleans. This article begins, “A major hurricane could swamp New Orleans under 20 feet of water, killing thousands. Human activities along the Misssissippi River have dramatically increased the risk, and now only massive reengineering of southeastern Louisiana can save the city…New Orleans is a disaster waiting to happen.”
* The National Geographic Magazine published a feature in its October 2004 issue titled Gone With the Water. The article’s primary focus is on the destuction of the Mississippi delta’s wetlands and the effects that this has on the region’s ability to withstand a hurricane (in addition to ecological and social impacts). The article begins with a haunting hypothetical worst-case scenario.
* The PBS science show Nova aired an episode on the hurricane threat to New Orleans in January 2005, including interviews with New Orleans officials and scientists involved in the LSU study. The episode is avaliable for online viewing here.
* The June 2005 FX docudrama Oil Storm depicted a category 4 hurricane hitting New Orleans that forced residents to evacuate and hide out in the Superdome. It went on to speculate about a national economic meltdown caused by the decreased oil supply.
By the time there’s a docudrama I think you’ve had adequate warning. For the love of God, there’s a Led Zepplin song about the Levee breaking. Furthermore, after 9/11 American Homeland Security should’ve some attention to long-identified threats like New Orleans sinking, San Francisco, etc. They did the contrary, however, according to Sidney Blumenthal on BBC’s “The World” 2005/09/01. “He claimed that the Bush Administration had specifically diverted tens of millions of US$ in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from water and storm protection efforts to be used instead by the Corps in Iraq. ” In addition to the Engineers, the 1/3 of the Louisiana National Guard is in Iraq, along with a sizable amount of their equipment. Plus plus, FEMA has been cannibalized and rendered ineffective. Bush has wilfully made America weaker at home and the New Orleans mayor is reduced to sending out an SOS on CNN.
Terry Ebbert, head of New Orleans’s emergency operations, said the response from the Federal Emergency Management Agency was inadequate and that Louisiana officials have been overwhelmed.
“This is a national disgrace. FEMA has been here three days, yet there is no command and control,” Ebbert told the Associated Press as he watched refugees evacuate the Superdome yesterday. “We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can’t bail out the city of New Orleans. We have got a mayor who has been pushing and asking, but we’re not getting supplies.”
It’s just embarassing because there was never this level of sheer anarchy after the Tsunami. In Sri Lanka the government is dysfunctional to start with, but the refugee situation never degenerated to this level. There was definitely a lack of preparedness and warning, but people got the food and water they needed. However, in the United States people are still stranded, hungry, thirsty, and dying. Like, wtf is this letter?
my dad is stranded with about 400 other people at Methodist Hospital in New Orleans East. The company that runs the hospital has been trying to get supplies in, but FEMA has apparently turned them away, taken the supplies to be used elsewhere. The evacuation is running slowly and it is taking days to get all 700 people out of the hospital. The situation is very dangerous because of the alligators and snakes in the water and the lack of supplies and the sheer chaos that has taken over the city.
You have a hospital surrounded by alligators and the wholesale breakdown of law and order? In America? Since when is American disaster relief worse than the Third World? But there’s plenty of debate online (via Slate). I guess the important point is that my prayers are with all the people left hot, homeless and suffering – just as their prayers were with us. It’s just that all the governments involved can eat it – especially the American, which should know better.
You’re right, I can’t believe the New Orleans area has been reduced to this. This is something you might expect in a third world country but not here in America. I’m also praying for the victims of Katrina. —– Baby Z
Hi Indi:
I stumbled on your blog a couple of months ago and have been enjoying this window on SL life from Chicago. Although I was born in SL, I basically grew up in New York City. I don’t visit SL very often and do not pretend to understand all the contradictions of SL life and culture.
But I would like to comment on some contradictions of American culture.
What’s happening on the US Gulf coast is totally unforgivable. It just goes to show that SL does not have a monopoly on incompetent governance. Many recent American policy decisions have been made on the basis of wishful thinking: peaceful transition to democracy in Iraq, unending supplies of foreign oil, no consequences to climate change and environmental degradation. It’s completely out of touch with reality. Some of the biggest political debates are whether evolution should be taught in schools. Is it surprising that basic engineering and scientific warnings go ignored?
The disparity of America is on display for the world to see. The wealthy and middle class were able to evacuate New Orleans when warned. The poor, the elderly, and the sick were completely ignored. For a country skeptical about Darwin, there is a whole lot of social Darwinism going on.
The best quote that I heard is from the FEMA director of Baton Rouge, Louisiana: “We’re dealing with people we did not know were thereâ€.
As Leon Wynter responded, these are people that aren’t even acknowledged to exist.
If 9-11 made the US wake up (briefly) to the implications of its foreign policies, Katrina has made the US wake up (probably also briefly) to the implications of very deep social and class divisions in this country.
A really good conversation on race and Katrina was on the radio today: http://wnyc.org/shows/bl/episodes/09022005
And to add to the irony, the AP reports that Sri Lanka is now offering aid to the US: http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/national/AP-Katrina-World-Offers.html
Would there have been a quicker response to this tragedy is there were lesser African Americans in the city? Well i think so. Also looking back at the challenges we were faced with after the Tsunami the greatest factor was that the entire country stopped in its tracks and took charge to help the victims of it. It also helps when the president of the country doesn’t spend 3/4 of his time at his holiday ranch, there is speculation that the only reason he bothered com’n out was coz he needed to stretch his legs..
Innocent kids and adults are killed everyday by American forces each day in Iraq, tactical misshaps mainly. No one gives a shit. Does this aloofness by the government apply to the “less white” cities in America too?
I wrote a bit about this at my blog, and promptly (though perhaps not causally) got called a white supremacist. Not sure why, but I completely agree–
The issue seems more to be about class than race per se, because New Orleans has a large Black middle and upper-class population who mostly were able to evacuate. Americans are (as far as I hear from stateside friends) trying to stop in their tracks but seriously the geographical limitations are much worse there. People in New York can’t really drive to Louisiana with supplies like Kandyans to Batticaloa. On the other hand I’ve read accounts of how Wal-Mart and several private charities were able to tractor-trailer in supplies while the Bush folks were wringing their hands about ‘city is inaccessible.’ It’s in fact highly accessible if they could get together and get some (more) helicopters and boats in from Florida and Texas.
As for Bush and his little vacation, his reason for not meeting Cindy Sheehan was that he needed to ‘stay on track with [his] work’ and not let the pesky needs of consituents shape his, er, vision and policy. The man is an incompetent asshole and I am embarrassed to be American.
Thanks Indi for covering the crisis.
It’s been a very exhausting week for all of us here at KatrinaHelp (www.katrinahelp.info), the first 6 days were probably the worst! 8 of us form the SEAEAT team, founded and formed KatrinaHelp just hours after the hurricane hit News Orleans. Within 12 hours, we had about 60 people from around the world (mainly seaeat folks & ground zero) helping out… We set up information coordination for missing persons, help needed, offered, etc. The wiki was up…
24 hours into the disaster, we got more help from peter griffin, dina mehta and the other folks from mumbai to get the blog running which thanks to them has developed nicely! Within 30 hours, we had about 200 contributors, and due to the load from yahoo our servers in Amstrerdam went down. So it was an up down scenario every hour or so, all thru this we’ll still be getting sos calls, tourists stranded on rooftops, etc. By then the Superdome wasn’t even connected to the outside world. 48 hours into the crisis, it was still bad, where was the US coastguard? ER? Search & Rescue? Where???? It was just us, a couple of volunteer networks and ham radio operators that were maintaining that coordination of info flow.
90 hours into the disaster, Dina and Phil of Skype journal got a line going for us, which meant real time information flows from the ground to the rest of the world, we had a 2 hubs, one in Australia, another in New Zealand, we got a communications network going. It was easy to ferry messages and take/make calls directly into New Orleans via points in LSU and Tulane. By Friday night 2 more communication hubs joined the KatrinaHelp wiki network from Canada and Peurto Rico! We got our phone line going wireless -on skype 24 hours/day with shifts – teams in India, USA, Bahrain & Amsterdam managing it. We got into affected areas where resecue services couldn’t get into via text messaging.
Thanks to Taran, Sanjay Senanayke and Rohit Gupta from the days of the tsunami we got a mock up of their ARC (Alert Retrieval Cache) system going with Mahangu (lastnode) giving us tips on sms reporting from the ground. Soon we had built a network of informational coordination, a complete communications network, including damage reports and teamed up with CivicSpace Labs and other grass roots organizations in providing immediate relief for the vicitims and those displaced. Despite all this, there are still horrible things happening each hour…. the stuff we get over our lines and on email is shatterng just like this letter we received from a lady in San Antonio (http://katrinahelp.blogspot.com/2005/09/update-from-san-antonio-pathetic.html) who stated that when residents were opening their homes to evacuees coming in from the superdome , officials in the city were putting them up at hangars, unused shopping malls and motels turned overnight into shelters…. which weren’t fake claims after we started monitoring a San Antonio Evacuee Ops Scanner stream made possible thanks to Ham operators from around Louisiana.
Today morning, we get reports of cops in New orleans having committed suicide (there are otehr disturbing stories as well with respect to residents in affected areas and kids), other individuals in the forces turning their badges in and red tape and beauraucracy defending the slow response to get aid to where it is most needed because the ‘never expected this crisis of such a magnitude!’
This is all just 3 minutes of the horror and misery thats still going on. Is there any one out there? What you see in the media is the same thing we saw in Sri Lanka, Thailand, Indonesia, etc. The same claims that aid is going through…. (when its going thru only after 5 days of hell and at a very trickly pace), everything is the same when you compare this crisis to that of the tsunami, the only small difference is the size factor – everything else is the same! And the people who suffer in the end are the victims, displaced and volunteer networks…..
If you or anyone needs latest damage info, wants to offer help, needs help , wants to get in touch with loved ones in affected areas (we can call international, don’t worry), report missing persons, need to get to college but you’re adisplaced student, need to alert the world/media to a pressing/disturbing katrina issue may it be lack of aid or red tape barring relief operations in your area – we will broadcast to radio/TV stations, etc. please contact uson the following number:
+15042081564
That number is local if you’re calling from
It is operated just like the rest of the Katrinahelp Wiki Network 24hrs/day & we do have international speakers.
If you need us to call you back, either leave us a voice mail message (sometimes our lines are busy) with your details or give us a missed call and we’ll call you back. The KatrinaHelp team is operating on 3 continents and we’re in this for the long run!
Thanks,
Angelo Embuldeniya.
(The KatrinaHelp Team)
http://www.katrinahelp.info
http://192.122.183.218
Call the Red Cross.
Do NOT simply “show up” & figure this is the kinda help they need or want. The Red Cross will tell you what you need to know.
PS: If you DO decide to “show up”, be sure to provide your own…
water
food
living quarters
clothing
transportation
fuel
For at least 2 – 3 weeks. Something tells me you didn’t live in South Florida during Andrew. Or, if you did, you were either too young for anything to sink in or you didn’t pay attention.
They’d probably like to have a few chainsaws & generators, too.
Repeat: Call the Red Cross.
New Orleans …. is the new Africa.
FEMA is an emergency response team and it is not tasked with emergency preparedness or planning (getting people help afterwards). Being prepared to handle disasters and planning for disasters are the city’s responsibility and making sure the city’s levees and pumps were maintained is the City’s responsibility. PLAIN AND SIMPLE!!!!!! Lets not forget that the locality in which any person resides in receives federal tax monies to make sure their emergency systems and management is up to standards. New Orleans obviously had no adequate planning for disasters not did they make sure their equipment and facilities were operational. I was in THailand when the tsunami’s hit and people there did not act like they did in NEw orleans. When help arrived in THailand, people werent shooting at them and they did say “well its about time”. THat is the problem with some Americans………..always looking for a hand out and someone else to blame and so ungrateful. I am so sick of the Jacksons, Sharptons, and Clintons trying to promote their political agendas by making this a race issue. NOW IS NOT THE TIME. They need to go and bitch somewhere else, besides they are so far removed from “the real world” they are out of touch. Why dont they open their homes to some of these people? What makes this tragedy different from the tsunami’s is that the Mayor of New Orleans should have ordered an evacuation becasue he knew a category 5 hurricane was comming, but he sat on his rump and did nothing.
There is a definitely a local and state responsibility, but the Levees are built and maintained by the Army Corps of Engineers. Hence pretty clearly Federal.
The federal problem is that FEMA and the Levees directly were underfunded and ignored, despite it being the #1 or 2 most likely disaster. Added to the problem is that the Director Brown’s primary qualification was being Bush’s Campaign Managers college roommate. His last job was with some Arabian Horse Foundation and he’s neither qualified nor competent. FEMA has direct responsibility for the Levees, and they and the Federal Government are at fault there.
The other responsibility of the Federal Government is to step in with the National Guard when state law-and-order gets out of control. They were used in the South during school desegregation and more sadly in Kent State against Vietnam protestors. Flood specific, they step in all the time. I remember some Mississippi floods when I was a kid and seeing National Guard sandbagging on TV. A quick Google shows that they helped out during floods in Texas, Utah, etc. The fact that the promised 40,000 National Guardsmen hadn’t arrived 5 days after New Orleans flooded was criminally negligent.
One more thing the Federal Government does is step in if City and State resources completely buckle – as they did here. If law-and-order breaks down – riots for example – the Federal Govt steps in. If a city disappears underwater, the Federal Government shouldn’t be lagging behind the media. They should be right there keeping the country together. They messed up. Bush’s main problem is that he only took action when there was an obvious political cost, not when the country needed leadership.
Wow!
This is simply amazing.(The type of people who leave comments in indi’s blog )
First of all please check this timeline with backed up FACTS.It will show who sat on their butt and who worked.
Second ,Don’t think that the whole world was not watching when this unfolded.Nobody gives a shit about Blanco or Nagin.For outside world buck starts and stops at dubya.He only came to DC on wednesday.Hurricane warning started on Friday,hit on Sunday and the leevees brike on monday.There was ample warnings about leevee breaking .Although our president was in UK when the tsunami struck she hopped on the first flight home.(She doesn’t have any airforce ones !have to travel commecial airlines I guess)
You say “NOW IS NOT THE TIME.” when the fuck are you going to look into problems of the federal government failure ?January 21st. 2009?
About shooting and looting , you have the biggest army in the world ,send them in.And keep the guns away from “dangerous” masses .
Apart from all the politics,racial issues or whatever you think that happened,do you think it is acceptable for a federal governent not to even air drop food and water to the thousnads who were trapped in new orleans?
For your reading pleasure here is news about looting from america’s finest news source the onion
White Foragers Report Threat Of Black Looters
NEW ORLEANS—Throughout the Gulf Coast, Caucasian suburbanites attempting to gather food and drink in the shattered wreckage of shopping districts have reported seeing AfricanÂAmericans “looting snacks and beer from damaged businesses.” “I was in the abandoned Wal-Mart gathering an air mattress so I could float out the potato chips, beef jerky, and Budweiser I’d managed to find,” said white survivor Lars Wrightson, who had carefully selected foodstuffs whose salt and alcohol content provide protection against contamination. “Then I look up, and I see a whole family of [African-Americans] going straight for the booze. Hell, you could see they had already looted a fortune in diapers.” Radio stations still in operation are advising store owners and white people in the affected areas to locate firearms in sporting-goods stores in order to protect themselves against marauding blacks looting gun shops.
“THat is the problem with some Americans………..always looking for a hand out and someone else to blame and so ungrateful. ”
yep .Why the hell these people didn’t get out?Why are they looking for somebody else to blame.ungrateful bastards! (Link – Stern.de)
One more link.
From Joe Scarborough.Former congressman.Host of Scarborough Country.republican and conservative.
I was just watching the Spanish channel where they’re down in Key West. The news girl was standing right by the crashing waves, the camera panned over to some asshole standing there, the guy turns around and moons it! Hahaha!!!! Damn Cubans will do anything to get on TV!
Ah, luxurious Brickell, so much for all that “luxury”. The area is flooded like a fucking island. I laugh at the idiot who brags about living in Brickell and having a fancy luxurious condo. Drown motherfuckers.
Bush is to be blamed for the huge disaster in New Orleans. Money was poured into his phoney anti-terror war while budget for social welfare has been reduced….some writers are also contrasting the commendable response of the Cuban national government and communities in handling the disaster
Now that hurricane Wilma is ghost and life is startin to get back to normal I’m bout to get into some shit I’ve seen outchea in the Miami area:
(1) Stop Bitching about the Power and stop bothering the contractors about when they will have your power back on. They dont know you and dont give a fuck.
(2) Generater 101 – It’s better to leave your generater outside where it might get stolen than takin it inside and havin your family get jacked. This ain’t rocket science!
(3) Stop fighting at the gas stations PUTOS! And to those ill fuckers who try to cut in on the side…THE LINE’S THERE FOR A REASON CHUMP!
(4) No more 24/7 News Coverage-Updateathon, I am so sick of that shit. Who’s watching that shit anyways? I dont know anyone that ever learned anything from Tony Regreto, Jookie Nespral, Kristy Cougar, Dwight Fort Lauderdale. Don’t these ppl got shutters to take down? Wouldn’t it be nice if they came correct and HELPED the ppl in this difficult time and show us their “Hard days work” on the evening News? Is anyone running the stations over there?
(5) This hurricane had been tracked for almost 2 weeks, why are ppl bitching about the distribution centers? YOU are NOT entitled to nathan, you gotta lock it down yourselves. This ain’t New Orleans. Shut the fuck up already! I can dig if we’re bummy and livin in the PJs w/out cheese and old ppl but not phat pocket Guidos ballin in a Honda talkin bout the wait or my Homies in their Impalas, tellin you how it is. At least the Benzi -box works and you could pawn the 22’s and get mad cash.
(6) Treat a busted traffic light as a four way stop. Stay off the motherfuckin roads and go read the DMV manuals. Why do these buckshots keep speedin thru an intersection even when everyone else around is stoppin, has stopped or is slowing down?
(7) curfews are for your safety! Leavin home to check on your dawgs on the end of the block since the prepaid celly aint workin don’t count. Also, going to Farm Store for a cold one is not a good reason to be out of your pad. Have fun in jail, Oh and don’t forget the soap, suckas!!
(8) To the ppl stealin gas out of ppl’s cars, I got somethin for you. Oh how can I forget the ones stealing generators, Carbon Monoxide not withstanding. Stand over the workin generater and breathe in slowly and deeply.
If you’ve ever done this or know anyone who has, then you/they are truly an Asswipe.
BTW there’s a gas station in the Everglades that’s Open! It’s Called Python Gas And Venom, no lines they’re always waitin. GO THERE!
when you mean some americans…who are you talking about?… if you are talking about the residents of new orleans, then you are way out of bounds.
when you loose your fucking house in one day like i did, then you can fucking talk… the only ungrateful bastard around here is you!
poor people didn’t get out because of poverty, no assests, no resources and the federal government’s inability to come in to provide relief, shelter and placement. families are separated, and we did not know where we were going when the federal gov’t did come.
to answer your question why didn’t we get out, well that goes back to my earlier answer…victim of circumstances. get a clue! look at the geographic landscape of new orleans, look at the levee breaks and then draw your conclusion…
look at both sides of the story before you draw your own conclusions…
from the look of what you have stated, i see we are dealing a person who knows no better, not socially conscious of any thing and probably a white young adult who is babied by his parents!
Dude,
I’m with you on this .Why are you replying to my post?Please check the whole thread.
The above comment was supposed to be sarcastic .I was quoting “Vickie” and pointing out why people didn’t leave.Check the link.