I suppose it is appropriate to weigh in on the New Orleans tragedy. It is now my turn. I have been tossing around many thoughts in my head since it happened, and to be honest, nothing much makes any more sense as removed as today is. While Jeff sees use in playing the "blame game," I feel that it is premature to do so, for the simple reason that we don't have the full information. I think that what Jeff means is that it is useful to pinpoint the fissures in the levee (metaphorically speaking... too soon?) in the attempt to end the problems sooner than in some delayed after-action analysis, and that I think is a good thing, but I call that something different than the blame game. I think real blame and consequences must be assigned to those at fault, and it seems to me, from inasmuch as has been made public and has found its way to me, that all levels of government deserve condemnation. But this kind of analysis can best be done in a couple months when the immediate chaos is calmed. I think Congress is already planning hearings, so it won't be long before the whole blame process begins anyway.
The effect of Hurricane Katrina, I think, is unforgivable. I mean that decades of government stupidity allowed New Orleans to find itself in the form it drowned in. The hurricane came and went with damage, sure, but the levee break was the day after the storm and due to man-made factors. It is not simply a matter of funding allocation, because the Chief of the Army Corps of Engineers said that the levee(s) that broke had already been upgraded according to the plans that were being funded by the Feds. The problem is that they were only ever built for a Level 3. What sense does that make? If we're going to spend the billions of dollars it costs over ten years then lets actually spend our money wisely.
I do not understand why the mayor of New Orleans didn't bus the poor and infirm out of the city before the storm hit. Obviously the bulk of the damage was from the flood, which was not foreseen as tied to Katrina, not explicitly anyway, but always hypothetically. There was time and opportunity to save the people that died. Sure, there would always be people who refuse to leave, like there are now, but there would have been so many less people caught below sea level when the wall of water came. It's so easy to say this in hindsight, I know, but the lack of planning at the local level is truly astounding. I agree that the lack of planning at the state and federal levels was astounding as well, but ultimately the mayor is responsible for his city, as her first "responder."
The human stories that emerged from this disaster, much like those from four years ago, are really remarkable. Like 6-year old Deamonte Love leading five little children like ducklings away from hell. How do you remain a child after that? I hope someone provides him a college scholarship or something. I hope Extreme Home Makeover gives the Love family a castle, or an island.
The sight of a submerged American city was disturbing. For selfish reasons I was upset because I'll now never see The Big Easy. Even if it is rebuilt, the original is really gone forever. But it seems that on a long-enough timeline, each great city in our country will be felled by something or someone. On the train during that first week, I kept thinking what would cause Chicago's destruction. Fire did it once, but nowadays fire is really a second-class disaster. Mother Nature got wiser with age. Besides we have a whole lake to drop on a fire. Whatever it is, I hope I'm not caught downtown when it happens. I imagine having to walk the nineteen miles to my parents' suburban refuge among the masses heading west, in the dark, with faces covered in Apocalyptic dirt and fear the only emotion visible. I wonder what my iPod evacuation playlist would include. What are some good "War of the Worlds" tunes that can soundtrack my escape to salvation? Flippant, maybe, but it's a hard question to answer.
I expect the full 9/11-style government investigations and some bold government restructuring that is destined to make us safer... at least until it is tested in a real-life event. As I've said before, I would welcome a full "national audit" of our checkbook. I don't think President Bush follows the financial tenets of his ideology. Just look at the national debt. I expect much less than what I just suggested, but I expect some hard questions to be asked, and I foolishly expect something resembling answers.
