Thoughts On The Tragedy of Hurricane Katrina
We've all heard it said that hindsight is 20-20. There was some 20-20 foresight in the last century regarding potential catastrophe in the New Orleans area, but it appears to have been ignored.
Building a city below sea level right next to the sea may not have been wise.
Unless you live in Orting, Washington, the evacuation plan your city has is inadequate. New Orleans is (was) not that big, and yet could not evacuate even with several days notice. Orting has experienced a growth spurt; even their well and often rehearsed plan to escape a lahar off of Mt. Rainier may no longer work.
Building retaining walls to withstand a category 3 storm in an area perfectly capable of taking a direct hit from a category 5 storm may have been penny-wise and pound-foolish.
Serious thought needs to be given to just how much should be re-built where it was and how much should be re-located.
Do you have a disaster preparedness kit at home? Stocked with water, tp, medication, first aid kit, blankets if you live where it gets cold, flashlights, battery-operated radio and batteries, personal hygiene items, granola bars or whatever won't spoil and does not need to be cooked, change of clothes, etc.? H-m-m-m-m-m-m????? Those people along the gulf coast probably never thought they would need one, either.
Concentrating necessities such as oil refining in a small area may be convenient but also makes it all to easy to wipe out the whole thing at once. Maybe it should be spread out where it isn't such a concentrated target. (Same thing can be said for rebuilding what came down on 9-11, but that's another topic.)
Many Christian charities and churches have been helping the displaced and the stranded since the day after the storm. You will not see their work reported in the "main-stream" secular media, but the number of people helped is great and will continue to rise.
This level of natural disaster occurs around the world every year several times in multiple places. We don't get the full story here, but nevertheless we do not ever read of the victims behaving as badly as the people in New Orleans. Even the people in Mississippi, who got hit as bad or worse, are appalled by what they have seen and heard about the people in New Orleans. There is no justification for the way some of those people have behaved.
Building a city below sea level right next to the sea may not have been wise.
Unless you live in Orting, Washington, the evacuation plan your city has is inadequate. New Orleans is (was) not that big, and yet could not evacuate even with several days notice. Orting has experienced a growth spurt; even their well and often rehearsed plan to escape a lahar off of Mt. Rainier may no longer work.
Building retaining walls to withstand a category 3 storm in an area perfectly capable of taking a direct hit from a category 5 storm may have been penny-wise and pound-foolish.
Serious thought needs to be given to just how much should be re-built where it was and how much should be re-located.
Do you have a disaster preparedness kit at home? Stocked with water, tp, medication, first aid kit, blankets if you live where it gets cold, flashlights, battery-operated radio and batteries, personal hygiene items, granola bars or whatever won't spoil and does not need to be cooked, change of clothes, etc.? H-m-m-m-m-m-m????? Those people along the gulf coast probably never thought they would need one, either.
Concentrating necessities such as oil refining in a small area may be convenient but also makes it all to easy to wipe out the whole thing at once. Maybe it should be spread out where it isn't such a concentrated target. (Same thing can be said for rebuilding what came down on 9-11, but that's another topic.)
Many Christian charities and churches have been helping the displaced and the stranded since the day after the storm. You will not see their work reported in the "main-stream" secular media, but the number of people helped is great and will continue to rise.
This level of natural disaster occurs around the world every year several times in multiple places. We don't get the full story here, but nevertheless we do not ever read of the victims behaving as badly as the people in New Orleans. Even the people in Mississippi, who got hit as bad or worse, are appalled by what they have seen and heard about the people in New Orleans. There is no justification for the way some of those people have behaved.
posted by Sandi @ 6:54 AM
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