Katrina Revisited

Three years ago today I was in New York City reading the front page stories in every newspaper and crying because the place my heart longs for most in the world was being sucked into the Gulf of Mexico and washed away by the Mississippi River and Lake Ponchartrain, and its people drowned like unwanted kittens or left to rot in the sun like discarded rubbish. Yes, I'm still bitter. Imagine if I actually lived there?

My ire was raised over the issue again today when I read this article from yahoo regarding the city's preparations for Gustav. It seems Ray Nagin thinks it's a good idea for persons without cars or other means to be transported to shelters in North Louisiana by bus. I suppose I don't need to remind you of these buses from three years ago.

I realize I should be happy that such preparations are now deemed a good idea, after all, it is good to learn from our mistakes, particularly when those mistakes are so monumentally stultifying. But I still stand in shocked wonder at how this idea was NOT considered important then. If I, as a mere tourist and general idiot, know that New Orleans is a largely poor city with a significant population living in government housing and without things we take for granted like so much as a Ford POS, then why didn't their mayor know this? Why didn't their governor? Did they just forget that NOLA is below sea level?

Before people jump on board and begin the W bashing, I'll do it for you. The cluster-fuck that was New Orleans after the levees failed was horrific, and I don't know that there was a way to handle the ensuing disaster more quickly than it was handled. I'm not an expert on disaster response and don't know anyone who is. But I feel confident, probably due to being a parent, that I would make a helluva preemtive striker. You picture the worst possible consequence and you take action to avoid it. When it became apparent that Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco were willing to neglect their duties to care for their citizens, call for mandatory evacuations, provide for transport out of the the path of a CATEGORY 5 HURRICANE or call for the early aid of the National Guard, I would love to know why the hell he didn't just take over? I mean, he's The Decider. He doesn't operate on the whims of opinion polls. He doesn't worry whether people like him or not. So where was the cowboy then? Why not activate the Guard without request and evacuate the city merely because New Orleans is a strategic port of signficant national security interest? How 'bout that, Decider?

Whatever. What's done is done. Let's just not do it again.