Katrina

For close to two weeks now most of us down here in Texas have been obsessively watching the news. Morning, noon and night, switching between MSNBC and FOX (sometimes), and admittedly, once in a while tuning into CNN. I don't think that I even have to explain to anyone why. Hurricane Katrina's wrath will no doubt be counted as one of most horrible natural disasters that North America has seen. Though in watching all these days, to the point where I finally have forced myself to turn the television off, what came to mind was whether it was Katrina to blame for all the tragedy or the reaction of the government in stepping in and saving lives.

The day before the storm we were all pretty nervous. Let's face it we are only about a three or four hour drive from New Orleans, and only about an half an hour drive from the Gulf. Hurricane evacuations have happened here in the past, the highway underpasses have flood gauges and people here talk about as though it is a fairly standard procedure. But when New Orleans woke up on that Sunday morning and was told to evacuate because Katrina had shifted towards them instead of the path towards Florida it was a shock and some of us here thought that if it had shifted towards New Orleans then it was entirely possible for it to shift and move towards us too. Normally people probably wouldn't have been so panicked, but a category five storm is pretty fierce. Going to bed on that Sunday night we had been watching the evacuation, had even encountered it ourselves because we only live about forty minutes from the Louisiana border so the traffic on our part of the I-10 was jammed, and were in a way bracing for the worst. But since the weather reports for our region had not changed our fear and concern shifted not for ourselves, but for Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. It was a very eerie thing to watch a city like New Orleans evacuate. What was scarier was the people who weren't.

The devastating predictions of what would inevitably happen if and when Katrina hit New Orleans were even more disturbing. Listening to reporter after reporter explain the grim reality that the levees would not hold, that this very historic city was in fact, ten or twelve feet below sea level. Should these levees break what could be expected was basically a bowl effect, a bowl of toxic soup.

So with these predictions, with all the evacuation, with the advanced knowledge of the potential situation everyone buckled down and waited for the storm which was in fact ravaging and fierce. Unlike the Tsunami that hit Asia people here saw their disaster coming, what they didn't see, what none of saw or expected was the silence after the storm. Silence in the form of inaction, inaction from the very people who should have been ready to step in immediately after the storm, the government.

The results were horrific. I have spent hours in front of the television with tears in my eyes asking how it is possible that no one seemed to be coming to the rescue of these thousands and thousands of people who were dehydrated, starving, without power and now living in that bowl of 'toxic' soup that had been predicted. And let me tell you something, when it floods, the toilets don't flush. I know this from personal experience because the day of my wedding rehearsal we had a flash flood, the rain came down hard and too fast for water to drain and suddenly looking out my front door it made it seem as though we had lake front property and somebody learnt the hard way that the toilet will not flush when the water has nowhere to go. And aside from the flooding and the destruction which were horrible enough scenes to see I kept wondering how close to ten thousand people inside the Super Dome were surviving?

Last week was a breaking point for a lot of people. Even the reporters were showing their frustration not only in the images that they showed and the interviews that they did but also in their own tone and criticism. How can we let such tragedy continue day after day? Why does this footage so much remind us all of a third world country? How is such a thing possible in such a wealthy country so rich in resources and where so much warning had been given?

All of this will no doubt be a dark shadow that will linger over the current administration. Suddenly we find ourselves with people in need and a strong need for the country's military to come to the aid of its own people and where are they? In Iraq. Far from home. And what is worse, the military that is in fact here at home was not called in to help until five days after the tragedy.

Disgraceful. Disgraceful is a word that we have heard a lot in the last week. I couldn't agree more. Heartbreaking is another word that comes to mind. The countless stories that are told daily of the tragedy, of stranded pregnant women, seniors, children. Of the rape, the violence, the sickness, the death. And then you hear a comment from Dennis Hastert questioning whether we should rebuild New Orleans. (Though now he claims that he was merely asking us to stop and think about 'how' to rebuild the city).

So it has been a disgraceful and heartbreaking two weeks. And yet, there are those people who selflessly helped without waiting for the government. And here in Texas, Houston, San Antonio, Dallas and even our own Beaumont and Vidor have been taking people in since the very beginning. Texas schools are now enrolling children from Louisiana in their classrooms. Some will no doubt stay in Texas for a long time because honestly it is hard to tell when it will be safe for anyone to go home, or what used to be home.

My mother-in-law has been sending me a plethora of articles via email to read on the topic. She believes that because New Orleans has such a large poverty rate it is one of the reasons that action was not taken as quickly. Many share this opinion, and add to the fact that the population is predominantly black and a whole new picture is painted. One that just adds to the shame and disgrace that this situation already presents.

There are a lot of good people out there helping, no one should forget that. But what is frustrating is that while average citizens were extending their help the leaders in this country seemed to be sitting on the sidelines as though they were incapable of doing anything. I think that this has shaken a lot of people's faith in their leaders. And for now people are worried about saving lives but I have no doubt that it will not be long before people start demanding some answers as to why the arrival of help and government leadership took so long.

I am adding some links here to articles that I have read in the last week that I think have some very important points to make. I hope that if you can you will take some time to read at least a few of these. If I could recommend any in particular it would be the Chris Floyd article and the Anne Rice, these two are especially powerful. And of course, Michael Moore's letter to President Bush is also well worth reading!

The Perfect Storm -- Chris Floyd -- 1 Sept. 05

Do You Know What It Means to Lose New Orleans? -- Anne Rice -- 4 Sept. 05

Vacation is Over ... An Open Letter From Michael Moore to George W. Bush -- 2 Sept. 05

No One Can Say They Didn't See It Coming -- Sidney Blumenthal -- 1 Sept. 05

Drowning New Orleans -- Mark Fischetti -- October 2001 -- Scientific America

Katrina: Shock & Awe -- Paul Caruso -- 1 Sept. 05