Wednesday, September 07, 2005
New Orleans
For the past week or so, most of the country’s attention has been focused on the Big Easy, and it’s become horribly obvious that the whole situation has been an enormous cock-up on the part of the government and the emergency planners and the Army Corps of Engineers. No one can prevent a hurricane, but the catastrophe that took place in New Orleans wasn’t caused by a hurricane. It was caused by poor planning and governmental apathy, and the result makes us look pretty damn bad.
If you wanted, you could ask, “Why the hell did it take a whole week to evacuate 100,000 people from the city?” but a better question is “Why were those 100,000 people still there in the first place?” New Orleans used to be home to 484,674 people. That means 384,674 people had already been evacuated before the flooding started. Why were the other 100,000 left behind? I’ll tell you why. Because they were poor black people and no one cared what happened to them. The emergency planners had decided ahead of time that they would be left behind to fend for themselves. That must sure make us look good to the rest of the world.
OK, so the emergency planners in New Orleans were obviously a bunch of racist bastards, but once the flooding started why wasn’t our beloved government lining up every bus they could lay hands on to evacuate the survivors as soon as possible? Why did the government basically sit on its fat ass while its own citizens were huddling in their own filth for days with no food or water? Sure, we can keep our soldiers amply stocked on the other side of the world, but not the people in our own fucking country. It’s not like it would have been hard to get buses and supply trucks into the city— after all, the reporters weren’t having any trouble getting in. But just like the emergency planners, no one in the government seemed to care a whole lot what happened to 100,000 poor blacks.
Another question: why was New Orleans flooded at all? Here’s why: the geniuses at the Army Corps of Engineers did a cost-benefit analysis and concluded that levees built to withstand a Category 3 storm would be the best idea. Category 4 storms like Katrina are certainly far from unheard-of in the Gulf, but the Army Corps of Engineers decided that it was in the city’s best interest to protect it only from Category 3 storms. Good job guys.
And, of course, the original fault lies with the French. It sure was a good idea to build a city mostly surrounded by water and below sea level in a hurricane-prone region. Any city that has to depend on the Army Corps of Engineers for its well-being is definitely in the wrong place. It’s true that the French Quarter isn’t flooded, but it was still the French who decided to build a city there.
The blame lies with all of them: the planners, the government, the engineers, the French. What a bunch of losers. I hope my life never depends on any of them.
If you wanted, you could ask, “Why the hell did it take a whole week to evacuate 100,000 people from the city?” but a better question is “Why were those 100,000 people still there in the first place?” New Orleans used to be home to 484,674 people. That means 384,674 people had already been evacuated before the flooding started. Why were the other 100,000 left behind? I’ll tell you why. Because they were poor black people and no one cared what happened to them. The emergency planners had decided ahead of time that they would be left behind to fend for themselves. That must sure make us look good to the rest of the world.
OK, so the emergency planners in New Orleans were obviously a bunch of racist bastards, but once the flooding started why wasn’t our beloved government lining up every bus they could lay hands on to evacuate the survivors as soon as possible? Why did the government basically sit on its fat ass while its own citizens were huddling in their own filth for days with no food or water? Sure, we can keep our soldiers amply stocked on the other side of the world, but not the people in our own fucking country. It’s not like it would have been hard to get buses and supply trucks into the city— after all, the reporters weren’t having any trouble getting in. But just like the emergency planners, no one in the government seemed to care a whole lot what happened to 100,000 poor blacks.
Another question: why was New Orleans flooded at all? Here’s why: the geniuses at the Army Corps of Engineers did a cost-benefit analysis and concluded that levees built to withstand a Category 3 storm would be the best idea. Category 4 storms like Katrina are certainly far from unheard-of in the Gulf, but the Army Corps of Engineers decided that it was in the city’s best interest to protect it only from Category 3 storms. Good job guys.
And, of course, the original fault lies with the French. It sure was a good idea to build a city mostly surrounded by water and below sea level in a hurricane-prone region. Any city that has to depend on the Army Corps of Engineers for its well-being is definitely in the wrong place. It’s true that the French Quarter isn’t flooded, but it was still the French who decided to build a city there.
The blame lies with all of them: the planners, the government, the engineers, the French. What a bunch of losers. I hope my life never depends on any of them.
# posted by Ben @ 3:20 PM 
