New Orleans: A cultural city steeped in tradition and heritage. It is home of the Mardi Gras and the center of Creole culture.
August Thirty One.
The city was gone. Battered by the eye of the storm, it was engulfed in waters surrounding it. For years, I have known how vulnerable it is - how the city of NOLA lies below sea level and that a system of levees and flood walls are the only ones protecting it from being swallowed by the waters and surges. Thanks to National Geographic and Discovery Channel, I knew that it won't stand a chance against a mighty mighty storm.
---
The Aftermath...
There was silence.
I tuned in to CNN whenever I was home, but they have probably been left in the dark too. Wikipedia tried to fill in the gaps by publishing in its main page that "Hurricane Katrina pounds NOLA at the moment."
I was trying to get images or video footage of the aftermath to no avail.
At work, our Louisiana/Mississippi texters are all gone. They seemed to have been swollen by the hurricane.
The news only trickled down a day after it has left the city in ruins.
Stories of rape, murder, inhumanity, death among the living, hell... everything. Pictures of chaos, fall of society, anarchy was splashed in every website and every pages of media I have seen.
Last night, I saw the full brunt of the storm on CNN. It seems like their international bureau has patched in their American counterpart for the world to see.
---
And you know what appalled me.
It is very obvious that their federal government has a lot of loopholes. That their government is simply stupid enough not to prepare for such pandemonium even though warnings had been raised from time to time.
The fact that people there - especially the one to blame can't accept the reality that they are vulnerable like every damn nation and every damn culture on Earth.
And the nerve of some of them proclaiming their living conditions are as the same as in a Third World Country!
Fcuk them American brats, blame their government. Most Third World Countries would have responded more efficiently and effectively to such kind of tragedy than their government have ever did.
---
If I were President Bush, instead of fiddling around during the eve of the storm, I would have organized a massive relief operations just as Katrina made landfall.
I won't let days pass before my government have responded, knowing that I have the massive resources to back me up.
And lastly, I wont let red tape, pride, and bureaucracy hamper my relief efforts for all those sick, tired and dying people trapped there.
How many countries - big and small, friend or foe had volunteered to help those people there? How many did they have ignored so far for the fear of humiliation?
American Assholes.
---
It only shows that even the most powerful falls in the face of stupidity.
In the eyes of God, everyone is equal.
And yeah, human pride, greed and irresponsibility sometimes makes matters worse.
But nevertheless, my heart is one with those grieving and in pain right now. Those who felt betrayed, abandoned, orphaned by the very same people who should have looked after their welfare.
I am sure, New Orleans would bounce back again. After all, old habits and traditions die hard. But I sincerely hope that this tragedy would be a lesson, not only for the present but also for the future. I wish, that despite the death and destruction, the loss and the pain and anarchy that for a moment, ruled a once upon a time fairytale city,
Nobody will ever forget what happened today.
--
"Volunteer physicians are pouring in to care for the sick, but red tape is keeping hundreds of others from caring for Hurricane Katrina survivors while health problems rise" - CNN
"We have tried so hard to do the right thing. It took us 30 hours to get here," he said. That government officials can't straighten out the mess and get them assigned to a relief effort now that they're just a few miles away "is just mind-boggling," he said" - CNN
"The crime of this story is, you've got millions of dollars in assets and it's not deployed," he said. We mount a better response in a Third World country." - CNN
"We're seriously considering trying to restore some order to this city since the government has totally given up (and probably couldn't do anything anyway). The police have been looting according to reports, and the honest ones are under siege at their precincts as automatic gunfire was unloaded at one near the Quarter." - Anonymous NOLAN blogger
"And later on Wednesday: "The police are looting. This has been confirmed by several independent sources. Some of the looting might be 'legitimate' in as much as that word has any meaning in this context. They have broken into ATMs and safes: confirmed. We have eyewitnesses to this. They have taken dozens of SUVs from dealerships ostensibly for official use. They have also looted gun stores and pawn shops for all the small arms, supposedly to prevent 'criminals' from doing so. But who knows their true intentions." - Anonymous NOLAN blogger
"The primary causes of the Hurricane Katrina disaster on New Orleans were the subsidence of the land of southern Louisiana, which can be attributed to the leveeing of the Mississippi River, the failure to address the environmental impact of development on the Mississippi Delta and the failure to maintain and/or upgrade the levee and flood wall system despite many studies which warned of impending disaster. [1]New Orleans, much of which sits below sea level, is surrounded by the Mississippi River to the south, Lake Pontchartrain to the north, and the Gulf of Mexico to the east. Construction of the levees between the city, the river and lake began in 1879. The earthen barriers were originally errected to prevent damage caused by seasonal flooding, and allow the city to expand beyond the natural levees on which the city was initially constructed. This interfered normal process of the river depositing sediment and building up the land of the delta marshlands during the periodic floods. Interruping this process, which had created the land of the Mississippi Delta over the course of thousands of years, caused the land to dry out. In turn, the swampy lands of the region shrank like a sponge, the land began to sink, entire barrier islands disappeared, as the land of the vast delta slowly settled into the sea.
Indeed, the land of New Orleans and the surrounding communities was not below sea level when the communities were originally built. Only after the area was “modernized” (with the current levee system erected in the 1940s and 1950s, and the shipping canal flood walls completed in the mid 1960s) did the area begin to sink precipitiously." - Wikipedia.org
"FEMA director Michael D. Brown said that he had only officially learned about the Convention Center situation, thousands of people without food or water for 3-4 days, on Friday, September 2, 2005. He said trucks were on the way and should be there "soon". The media had reported the situation days before but without a request for assistance from the Governor federal officials were powerless to act under the Posse Comitatus Act." - Wikipedia.org
"Dear Mr. President:
We heard you loud and clear Friday when you visited our devastated city and the Gulf Coast and said, "What is not working, we're going to make it right."
Please forgive us if we wait to see proof of your promise before believing you. But we have good reason for our skepticism.
Bienville built New Orleans where he built it for one main reason: It's accessible. The city between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain was easy to reach in 1718.
How much easier it is to access in 2005 now that there are interstates and bridges, airports and helipads, cruise ships, barges, buses and diesel-powered trucks.
Despite the city's multiple points of entry, our nation's bureaucrats spent days after last week's hurricane wringing their hands, lamenting the fact that they could neither rescue the city's stranded victims nor bring them food, water and medical supplies.
Meanwhile there were journalists, including some who work for The Times-Picayune, going in and out of the city via the Crescent City Connection. On Thursday morning, that crew saw a caravan of 13 Wal-Mart tractor trailers headed into town to bring food, water and supplies to a dying city.
Television reporters were doing live reports from downtown New Orleans streets. Harry Connick Jr. brought in some aid Thursday, and his efforts were the focus of a "Today" show story Friday morning.
Yet, the people trained to protect our nation, the people whose job it is to quickly bring in aid were absent. Those who should have been deploying troops were singing a sad song about how our city was impossible to reach.
We're angry, Mr. President, and we'll be angry long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the government's shame.
Mayor Ray Nagin did the right thing Sunday when he allowed those with no other alternative to seek shelter from the storm inside the Louisiana Superdome. We still don't know what the death toll is, but one thing is certain: Had the Superdome not been opened, the city's death toll would have been higher. The toll may even have been exponentially higher.
It was clear to us by late morning Monday that many people inside the Superdome would not be returning home. It should have been clear to our government, Mr. President. So why weren't they evacuated out of the city immediately? We learned seven years ago, when Hurricane Georges threatened, that the Dome isn't suitable as a long-term shelter. So what did state and national officials think would happen to tens of thousands of people trapped inside with no air conditioning, overflowing toilets and dwindling amounts of food, water and other essentials?
State Rep. Karen Carter was right Friday when she said the city didn't have but two urgent needs: "Buses! And gas!" Every official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency should be fired, Director Michael Brown especially.
In a nationally televised interview Thursday night, he said his agency hadn't known until that day that thousands of storm victims were stranded at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center. He gave another nationally televised interview the next morning and said, "We've provided food to the people at the Convention Center so that they've gotten at least one, if not two meals, every single day."
Lies don't get more bald-faced than that, Mr. President.
Yet, when you met with Mr. Brown Friday morning, you told him, "You're doing a heck of a job."
That's unbelievable.
There were thousands of people at the Convention Center because the riverfront is high ground. The fact that so many people had reached there on foot is proof that rescue vehicles could have gotten there, too.
We, who are from New Orleans, are no less American than those who live on the Great Plains or along the Atlantic Seaboard. We're no less important than those from the Pacific Northwest or Appalachia. Our people deserved to be rescued.
No expense should have been spared. No excuses should have been voiced. Especially not one as preposterous as the claim that New Orleans couldn't be reached.
Mr. President, we sincerely hope you fulfill your promise to make our beloved communities work right once again.
When you do, we will be the first to applaud." - Times-Picayune Open Letter Editorial, CNN
