Thoughts on Katrina
Sep. 3rd, 2005 12:41 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thebratqueenJust yesterday my Older Brother asked how the French Quarter was doing.
"Actually fine," I said. "See, it's a little known fact that the Quarter is higher than many places in New Orleans, so the flood didn't damage it too badly. At this point the only things we need to worry about are human-caused damage, like looting or fire."
Dear Fate: That wasn't a suggestion!
Gah! Watch me sit here and try to catch whatever snippet of news that I can about those fires, all the while trying to protect the Quarter through the power of my own mind if it's possible. And can I just say yet again how much I hate relying on out of towners to report the news to me? No, the mall by the Superdome is not the "riverfront mall". Riverwalk is the river front mall. You'd know that since A) the name and B) the huge wet thing right outside of it. Gah. GAH!
Anyway, still playing catch up on the news so no links to report. However, I'm feeling philosophical so allow me to take a moment to indulge in the wonderings of my own mind.
You know, if you want to feel like your own version of Nero fiddling there might not be a better way to do it then to spend a night in a loge box at the USOpen, breathing the same air as Tony Bennett and Nicole Kidman (and, if my eyes are right, the guy who plays Garrity on Rescue Me, but I'm not sure).
The awkward thing with the tickets is that they weren't technically my tickets. They were a gift by way of a regift, so the only thing I can do with them is use them or give them back. Anything else and it's too likely that the person who bought them originally might find out they weren't being used by the intended recipient.
Had they been mine I would've so auctioned off those bad boys and donated the proceeds to hurricane relief. But they weren't, so I went. I tried to console myself with the reminder that post-911 it really did help to keep money floating in the economy, so there's me buying a hot dog and a souvenir T-shirt.
The games were fine enough, and they did do more than a few pitches for hurricane relief (no collecting there, as far as I could tell, but plenty of reminders to donate). And if you want even more reason to cry right now you can't be better inspired than an R&B singer with an angelic voice saluting the flag with "America, America, God shed his grace on thee." (No idea why it wasn't the Star Spangled Banner.)
Still, as you sit there in a stadium you can't help but think of the folks down in the Superdome. I mean there I was, pretty good seats, pretty good crowd, plenty of money for food and what have you, yet look at the situation: Packed, first off. Arthur Ashe wasn't filled to capacity (though it did have a record crowd for day 5, we were told) yet during the break between games you could barely move for the solid mass of humanity waiting for food, waiting for bathrooms, trying to get somewhere just as you were.
Then consider the seats, which are hardly the most comfortable in the world. My ass was numb by the end of the night and I was only there for five hours, including times to get up for food and the bathroom. Plus you have people who are always trying to take your seat. Even with tickets there's always someone in the cheap seats who tries to sneak up. Whenever I sit in the loge box sometimes half the fun is watching the game of people sneaking in and then being escorted right out again.
So you notice stuff like this and you think: man, consider the Superdome. Consider a crowd immensely bigger than this one. Consider them crammed into uncomfortable chairs for hours and days on end. Consider the lines for those bathrooms - and arena bathrooms are hardly overflowing with toilet paper and the sweet smell of chocolate chip cookies on the best of occasions.
Consider some person who has kids to watch. Or is all on their own with all of the worldly possessions they could save and having to carry those each time they stand up on the odd chance somebody will steal it.
And there they are, with their one spot in the dome that they've managed to grab for themselves, and the instant they stand they know they're going to lose that patch of earth to call their own because somebody else is going to grab it.
And then you think: add in the heat, and the fear, and the hunger, and the thirst.
Even under the best of circumstances it's not a good situation, and these people had so much worse.
Which isn't a revealation, I know, but like I said this is self-indulgent wibbling on my part as I have the luxury of an afternoon off in my air-conditioned apartment with food cooking in the oven.
One of the things I keep coming back to is the delay. Like okay, the Comfort takes five days to get anywhere, period. And given that hurricanes and boats are not mixy things I get that they can't fire up the Comfort and get her down there in advance (esp since, prior to the storm, you don't know which "there" to send it). But... why so long on the National Guard? Seriously. My memory on this might be really bad but did it take that long to get the Guard into LA during the riots? Into New York when the Towers fell? (And am I confusing the guard with the Army or Air Force here, because that's entirely possible.)
And, sure, when you've got people shooting at ambulance crews you can't send ambulances in. I'm down with that. I'm also down with how the flood doesn't exactly make it easy to march an army in on foot. But it seems to me that there is a fundamental difference between "The cavalry is ready and just can't get to you." and "The cavalry just woke up and hasn't had its morning pee yet, we'll get back to you in a week."
I feel like I'm in Philadelphia. I want someone to explain this to me like I'm a four year old. How is it that when the Towers were hit there were cops and firefighters all over that shit, but when New Orleans went down there was apparently a single guy with one hand on a squirt gun and the other firmly planting his thumb up his ass? How is it that we apparently so lack for a military here at home that they are actually shipping troops back from Iraq to lend a hand?
I don't like Bush. I've made no secret of that. But the situation as I'm seeing it is so completely and utterly off the wall that I'm convinced I must have the wrong of it. There must be some bizzaro world where a week-long delay in helping our own people is part and parcel of a rock-solid national foundation.
I mean it's not like I ever bought Bush's "The entire world is safer now that we've attacked Iraq!" 'cause, let's face it, not even Iraq is safer and that's where we aimed the pointy end of the weapons. But never in my life did I think we were this catagorically unsafe. I mean are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Our own National Guard and army can't be mobilized and organized enough to take down random groups of our own people who, at best, might have some weapons experience from gang activity and/or drug running? And yet this is the crackerjack Homeland Security that's going to protect us from terrorists? The terrorists must be laughing their asses off right now! Oh yeah, we've stopped the deadly plague of nail clippers on airplanes, but apparently neglected the part where all that was needed to destroy us was, literally, a wet paper bag!
I'm trying to be fair. I am. I keep telling people not to write New Orleans off because Katrina was a worst case scenario and no city is prepared or able to handle a worst case scenario. However, it seems to me that it's one thing to be aware that a c5 could happen and decide, based on statistics, only to fortify up to a c3/low c4. Yet another to give the impression that you had no idea at all that sometimes wet stuff falls from the sky. New Orleans had the former, the Guard, Army, FEMA, Homeland Security, et al. are doing the other.
Again I keep going back to the Towers. That definitely a worst case scenario. I don't think you can get much worse than that without actual nukes being involved. And yet - boom! Cops there, firefighters there, help pouring in from around the country and being organized and triaged and you name it. I'm not saying it was a well-oiled machine, but there was a process. Need presented, instantaneous multiple solutions for how to fill that need.
And that was without the benefit of planning!
So yeah, color me confused. And if anybody's got answers, I am all ears. It's not snark, I am honestly bewildered.
"Actually fine," I said. "See, it's a little known fact that the Quarter is higher than many places in New Orleans, so the flood didn't damage it too badly. At this point the only things we need to worry about are human-caused damage, like looting or fire."
Dear Fate: That wasn't a suggestion!
Gah! Watch me sit here and try to catch whatever snippet of news that I can about those fires, all the while trying to protect the Quarter through the power of my own mind if it's possible. And can I just say yet again how much I hate relying on out of towners to report the news to me? No, the mall by the Superdome is not the "riverfront mall". Riverwalk is the river front mall. You'd know that since A) the name and B) the huge wet thing right outside of it. Gah. GAH!
Anyway, still playing catch up on the news so no links to report. However, I'm feeling philosophical so allow me to take a moment to indulge in the wonderings of my own mind.
You know, if you want to feel like your own version of Nero fiddling there might not be a better way to do it then to spend a night in a loge box at the USOpen, breathing the same air as Tony Bennett and Nicole Kidman (and, if my eyes are right, the guy who plays Garrity on Rescue Me, but I'm not sure).
The awkward thing with the tickets is that they weren't technically my tickets. They were a gift by way of a regift, so the only thing I can do with them is use them or give them back. Anything else and it's too likely that the person who bought them originally might find out they weren't being used by the intended recipient.
Had they been mine I would've so auctioned off those bad boys and donated the proceeds to hurricane relief. But they weren't, so I went. I tried to console myself with the reminder that post-911 it really did help to keep money floating in the economy, so there's me buying a hot dog and a souvenir T-shirt.
The games were fine enough, and they did do more than a few pitches for hurricane relief (no collecting there, as far as I could tell, but plenty of reminders to donate). And if you want even more reason to cry right now you can't be better inspired than an R&B singer with an angelic voice saluting the flag with "America, America, God shed his grace on thee." (No idea why it wasn't the Star Spangled Banner.)
Still, as you sit there in a stadium you can't help but think of the folks down in the Superdome. I mean there I was, pretty good seats, pretty good crowd, plenty of money for food and what have you, yet look at the situation: Packed, first off. Arthur Ashe wasn't filled to capacity (though it did have a record crowd for day 5, we were told) yet during the break between games you could barely move for the solid mass of humanity waiting for food, waiting for bathrooms, trying to get somewhere just as you were.
Then consider the seats, which are hardly the most comfortable in the world. My ass was numb by the end of the night and I was only there for five hours, including times to get up for food and the bathroom. Plus you have people who are always trying to take your seat. Even with tickets there's always someone in the cheap seats who tries to sneak up. Whenever I sit in the loge box sometimes half the fun is watching the game of people sneaking in and then being escorted right out again.
So you notice stuff like this and you think: man, consider the Superdome. Consider a crowd immensely bigger than this one. Consider them crammed into uncomfortable chairs for hours and days on end. Consider the lines for those bathrooms - and arena bathrooms are hardly overflowing with toilet paper and the sweet smell of chocolate chip cookies on the best of occasions.
Consider some person who has kids to watch. Or is all on their own with all of the worldly possessions they could save and having to carry those each time they stand up on the odd chance somebody will steal it.
And there they are, with their one spot in the dome that they've managed to grab for themselves, and the instant they stand they know they're going to lose that patch of earth to call their own because somebody else is going to grab it.
And then you think: add in the heat, and the fear, and the hunger, and the thirst.
Even under the best of circumstances it's not a good situation, and these people had so much worse.
Which isn't a revealation, I know, but like I said this is self-indulgent wibbling on my part as I have the luxury of an afternoon off in my air-conditioned apartment with food cooking in the oven.
One of the things I keep coming back to is the delay. Like okay, the Comfort takes five days to get anywhere, period. And given that hurricanes and boats are not mixy things I get that they can't fire up the Comfort and get her down there in advance (esp since, prior to the storm, you don't know which "there" to send it). But... why so long on the National Guard? Seriously. My memory on this might be really bad but did it take that long to get the Guard into LA during the riots? Into New York when the Towers fell? (And am I confusing the guard with the Army or Air Force here, because that's entirely possible.)
And, sure, when you've got people shooting at ambulance crews you can't send ambulances in. I'm down with that. I'm also down with how the flood doesn't exactly make it easy to march an army in on foot. But it seems to me that there is a fundamental difference between "The cavalry is ready and just can't get to you." and "The cavalry just woke up and hasn't had its morning pee yet, we'll get back to you in a week."
I feel like I'm in Philadelphia. I want someone to explain this to me like I'm a four year old. How is it that when the Towers were hit there were cops and firefighters all over that shit, but when New Orleans went down there was apparently a single guy with one hand on a squirt gun and the other firmly planting his thumb up his ass? How is it that we apparently so lack for a military here at home that they are actually shipping troops back from Iraq to lend a hand?
I don't like Bush. I've made no secret of that. But the situation as I'm seeing it is so completely and utterly off the wall that I'm convinced I must have the wrong of it. There must be some bizzaro world where a week-long delay in helping our own people is part and parcel of a rock-solid national foundation.
I mean it's not like I ever bought Bush's "The entire world is safer now that we've attacked Iraq!" 'cause, let's face it, not even Iraq is safer and that's where we aimed the pointy end of the weapons. But never in my life did I think we were this catagorically unsafe. I mean are you kidding me? Are you kidding me? Our own National Guard and army can't be mobilized and organized enough to take down random groups of our own people who, at best, might have some weapons experience from gang activity and/or drug running? And yet this is the crackerjack Homeland Security that's going to protect us from terrorists? The terrorists must be laughing their asses off right now! Oh yeah, we've stopped the deadly plague of nail clippers on airplanes, but apparently neglected the part where all that was needed to destroy us was, literally, a wet paper bag!
I'm trying to be fair. I am. I keep telling people not to write New Orleans off because Katrina was a worst case scenario and no city is prepared or able to handle a worst case scenario. However, it seems to me that it's one thing to be aware that a c5 could happen and decide, based on statistics, only to fortify up to a c3/low c4. Yet another to give the impression that you had no idea at all that sometimes wet stuff falls from the sky. New Orleans had the former, the Guard, Army, FEMA, Homeland Security, et al. are doing the other.
Again I keep going back to the Towers. That definitely a worst case scenario. I don't think you can get much worse than that without actual nukes being involved. And yet - boom! Cops there, firefighters there, help pouring in from around the country and being organized and triaged and you name it. I'm not saying it was a well-oiled machine, but there was a process. Need presented, instantaneous multiple solutions for how to fill that need.
And that was without the benefit of planning!
So yeah, color me confused. And if anybody's got answers, I am all ears. It's not snark, I am honestly bewildered.
