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Monday, 5 September 2005 -- I had been following the progress of Hurricane Katrina since before it first made landfall in Florida, then moved out into the Gulf of Mexico, gathering strength and speed. I have spent dozens of hours online, listening to the radio and, in my brief visits to West Trenton, watching two versions of CNN News and their live broadcasts of video and commentary. I somehow get really involved in observing Nature at its worst, which only reinforces my idea that man will never conquer natural forces, no matter how hard he tries --
add to that the nature of man himself, which in times of tragedy oft times reverts back to a primitive state of dog eat dog, which is far inferior to being simply a positive survival mechanism. It can be savage, ruthless, without regard for man nor beast. Why is it that some become savages, while others immediately begin to size up the situation and figure out a way to help themselves and others, in a communal sort of way, according to their possibilities?
Let me start by adding a few pics I nabbed from various sources -- some of their links, as well as others, will also be found below -- I have not used the names of anyone who sent me emails with information about the storm, its effects, or their personal opinions about what transpired and why --
This is a kewl aerial view of New Orleans and vicinity from the BBC web site -- the city is sort of bowl shaped, much of which is below sea level. Note that the difference between the level of Lake Pontchartrain is some 3 metres (= about 10 feet) lower than that of the Mississippi River, surrounding the city on the opposite side. They built levees to hold back the water from both sources -- they are effective under normal circumstances.
Here is a time line for the progress of Katrina -- 23 August - The U.S. National Hurricane Center (NHC) issues a statement saying that Tropical Depression Twelve had formed over the southeastern Bahamas.
The southern tip of Florida was first hit on Thursday, 25 August -- they have a storm drainage system in Duck Key, but as a photo taken by the husband of a friend near there clearly exhibits, the well planned drainage area did not quite keep the water out --
The hurricane then moved over the Gulf of Mexico, where the warm waters caused it to strengthen and form a major category 5 hurricane, at which time an order to evacuate the low lying areas was given, as usually happens -- on Friday, 26 August, a friend in Baton Rouge, Louisiana emailed me to say -- Well we are watching the weather with bated breath. Whereas it was thought to be headed to the Florida Panhandle now we are about to kick into gear for a hit in the the Louisiana area. Luck could still on our side. Only time will tell. -- Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco declares a state of emergency for the state of Louisiana
27 August -- New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin calls for a voluntary evacuation of the city.
on Sunday, 28 August, the coastal casinos were ordered to be evacuated and closed -- mandatory evacuation is ordered for New Orleans City by Mayor Nagin -- President Bush declares a state of emergency in Alabama and Mississippi , and a major disaster in Florida under the authority of the Stafford Act.
in the early morning of Monday, 29 August Katrina made landfall in Louisiana with initial winds of some 200 mi/hr and storm surges of 20-25 feet, grazing the city of New Orleans to the east, as I recall -- President Bush declares a major disaster for Louisiana , Mississippi , and Alabama under the authority of the Stafford Act
it caused extensive flooding and property loss in several coastal and inland cities along the Gulf coast, including Metairie and Gulfport in Louisiana, and Biloxi, Mississippi, resort and gaming areas with several floating casinos which provided jobs for some 14,000 workers -- they were mostly destroyed or severely damaged -- in the next shot, Katrina has moved inland, losing some of its force --
On Tuesday, 30 August it moved further northward, and you can see the vast extent of its effects -- before the end of the day it has plowed its path of destruction through Louisiana, Alabama and Mississippi, continuing yet farther to the north east -- here in Trenton we were supposed to get severe thunderstorms several days later, but all that arrived were a couple cloudy days and some weak showers which did nothing more than wet the soil in my patio --
it was also on 30 August that the levee/s holding back Lake Pontchartrain from the city of New Orleans broke in several places, causing flooding in the lower lying areas of the city -- here are before and after satellite photos of the affected area showing the extent of the flooding -- at this point some 80% of the 500.000 residents had evacuated --
on Wednesday, 31 August, my friend in Baton Rouge emailed me again -- Made it through the worst. Have a generator for some electricity. May be a couple of more days before I have electricity. Compared to New Orleans we did OK. This little lady touched a lot of my family. Daughter in Natchez and the one in Alabama both were affected as well as the two here. The shop has electricity so spending a lot of time there. -- Governor Kathleen Blanco of Louisiana orders that all of New Orleans, including the Superdome, be evacuated
By this time, the world news was riveted on what was occurring in Louisiana, concentrating mainly on New Orleans -- many of the stories were almost word for word, no matter which country they appeared in -- certain aspects of the aftermath seemed to catch on in most of them -- things like who was to blame for the extremely late official rescue and aid efforts, Bush was still vacationing, Condy Rice was taking in some theatre and buying very expensive shoes in New York, an obsession with the looting and violence, adding a racial twist where possible -- they all harped about the terrible conditions at the Superdome, but rarely mentioned those several thousand people being housed under the same conditions at the Convention Center, closer to the River -- why were hundreds of school busses just sitting in a flooded parking lot instead of having been programmed to evacuate the inhabitants who were ordered to leave several days before --
it seemed to be a period of partisan bickering, finger pointing, complaining, second guessing -- and probably mainly, just trying to get a scoop in the media, masquerading as absolute fact, probably setting up photos to make them more enticing and heart breaking (it would not be the first time, nor the last) -- the following photo appeared on the Welcome Page of America Online --
a beautiful gray haired black woman with a nice clean American flag draped around her head, supposedly after four days of abject misery, no toilets, food, water or anything else (as usual, the headline had a totally negative connotation, which is what sells newspapers and other media, I guess) -- on an AOL Apple Computer message board there were many posts about the hurricane, most pointing fingers in one direction or another -- I also posted about the subject in a thread someone titled Racism, class & Katrina -- in one case I remarked that the above pic seemed awfully propagandistic and slantedly bias to me somehow -- was the woman given a new flag as a prop just for the photo? Did the photographer ask her to frown slightly? Did he at least give her something to eat and drink, or just rush off in another direction for more theoretically eye-catching quasi-newsworthy photographs? Did he leave her the nice, spanking clean flag to shield her from the Sun, or take it with him for his next photo op? Was I being excessively hypothetical and confrontational? Is every photograph that we find in the media just as it spontaneously happened, with no touching up, rearranging or staging?
A couple peeps on the list seemed to think I was heartless, have no compassion for the downtrodden, was blatantly racist, ad infinitum -- within a couple hours, several dozen posts were deleted most probably because someone/s notified AOL that they found them obnoxious, partisan lies, degrading and racist! So much for what I call democrazy and free speech in what is supposed to be the model for the rest of the world.
In this case, on 31 August, a poster answered one of my comments slightly differently when I mentioned the looting and the police just watching or walking by -- Sonny, do you expect reason to prevail? The cops, National Guard or whatever who dispatch such scum probably will be put on trial for murder, facing 25 to Life in the slammer. So, what does a good law enforcement guy or gal do in such a circumstance? Looks the other way; that's what. I wish it were so: that the peeps who play the robbery game would lose, but many of them do not. Unfortunately, that's also life. It shows you just how fragile civilization really is. Political Correctness is the bane of rationality. Anyway, excellent post.
A couple posts had to do with potentially rebuilding New Orleans in much the same way it was before the hurricane -- would it be beneficial in the long term, without taking into consideration other significant factors? Dated Friday, 2 September -- Since year one, the upper Mississippi and Ohio rivers have been dropping silt at the mouth of the river, in effect, creating a dam. Over the years the city has not sunk to any extent. Dikes and levees have been built to force the river high enough to flow over the silt dam gradually building in the delta. For many years the river has been trying to bypass New Orleans north of the city by cutting a new pass West, that would bypass and dry up New Orleans as an ocean port. Economic pressures have supported the construction of channels forcing the river to continue past New Orleans and have, in effect, been raising the level of the river much higher than its original level. Considering the costs of rebuilding the city, starting with less than scratch, is now the time to let the city die as a sea port and let the river go west? The city could still exist on a smaller scale as an entertainment center and technical and industrial base with brand new ultra modern port/barge facilities at a new facility further west? --
to which this reply appeared -- It could be argued that the new facility would take all other economic activity with it. Certainly it will take all that is associated with the port, but a new, modern facility could greatly lower the costs of shipping through New Orleans West (NOW) having the effect of increasing shipping activity and spawning greater economic activity that would spill over to the old New Orleans (ONO).
I think the cost of rebuilding New Orleans, as it is today, could prove far to expensive, when compared to the cost of building a planned city and port to the west.
Even if New Orleans were rebuilt where it stands, what would its future ability to withstand Katrinas be? I doubt it would be any better than it proved to be this time around. Repeating the same activity and hoping for a different result is kinda stupid.
In the early morning hours of 2 September it finally dawned on me that the hosting servers for dozens of my web sites were located in New Orleans! I do not check on my web sites every day, or even every week, for that matter -- I selected three at random, and what I found was the same message on all of them -- the service was disrupted by the aftermath of the hurricane, they were working on the problem and would have it resolved as soon as possible. Did it bother me? NOT IN THE LEAST -- it was to be expected, sort of, although if they were really smart they would have had backup servers located in other parts of the country which would have kicked in immediately with no outage. What I did find on their web site was a blog of the director of the company, loaded with photographs and a very interesting blog -- you will find the link below, under DirectNic.
When the first refugees began arriving at the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, they showed a photo of 2,000 cots set up, all occupied by someone on the main floor -- the story was that they expected to house 23-25,000 there for several weeks -- I looked at the already crowded photo and wondered if they were going to hang a few thousand cots from the roof to make room for sooooo many people. This more recent photo is when about 13,000 were there -- now they say they have other places to house them.
On Canal Street, in the heart of the French Quarter, famous for its Carnivals, the water is still standing in some streets, as the cleanup efforts are under way --
Some hearty souls did NOT evacuate, but also did not constantly complain about a foreseen natural disaster -- what they did was group together in what the reporter colorfully calls Tribes, helping each other out in different ways, sharing responsibilities, caring for others -- why were they seemingly the exception?
Then there was our fearless leader -- they say he was oblivious to everything that was happening until several days had passed -- after a lackluster TV news briefing, which I happened to see live while in West Trenton and wondered why it ended so quickly, he did get out to several devastated towns and cities, some black, but certain media segments somehow only showed him in nice and tidy white areas -- would one call that an openly partisan bias selecting the news that it shoves down the sheepy gullets?
On Saturday, 3 September, my friend in Baton Rouge sent me another update -- Sonny: Still without lights but things are looking up as utility trucks are now in our neighborhood. Maybe by tonight. Still have generator running at night but the gas is getting scarce as we have such an influx of people here putting a drain on it. My son and grandson managed to fill a 25 gallon drum to carry me through the week-end if necessary. All children are well, but daughter in Mississippi is also still without lights but has a generator. As for the shop all is well but I am keeping the door locked with a please knock sign. The media is keeping a low profile on the situation but daughter with the sheriff department says it is to keep down panic, but it is a time to watch your front and back. My neighbor 5 houses from me had his generator stolen in broad daylight between 2-5pm. Now keep mine locked up when not in use but they are still stealing them even when running. It will be some time before all this levels off but this too shall pass. And last but not least is the fact that the media is trying to refer to the aftermath as a racial issue. There I have vented and now back to reality. Will write again about Monday or sooner if I get power. Again thank you and all for your concern.
I have read and seen so much since this all started -- members of the Louisiana police force handed in their badges rather than have to shoot looters -- the spokesperson for the Louisiana Police committed suicide because, it was said, one of the prisoners released due to the flooding raped his wife and assaulted / tortured his children -- looting of guns and other weapons at WalMart and other places, which some other sources denied -- why did that large high class department store and several others burn down -- the five or six people shot at some bridge were actually from the Army Corps of Engineers on their way to survey the levee situation, shot by some gun happy National Guard troops -- the police also looted things or simply requisitioned cars, gasoline, private property and whatever they wanted to -- muggings, rapes and killings inside the Superdome (that is logical considering the conditions there, but it could have been prevented) -- mayors and governors ranting, raving and crying about who is to blame for the absolute lack of any form of organized coordination -- FEMA prevented some rescue and relief efforts -- unnecessary administrative paperwork and lack of communication among agencies which slowed down the efforts -- over a year ago a study was made which pointed out that the levees would probably not hold up if hit by a category 5 hurricane -- there were cases of cannibalism in the wake of the hurricane -- the lack of military and National Guard personnel to protect and save the inhabitants was due to their being stationed in the Middle East -- why go on, the list is interminable, it was a field day for the media, and what they spewed out was not what one might call unbiased nor accurate reporting by any stretch of the wildest imagination --
On Monday, 5 September, my friend in Baton Rouge sent me another update --
Well
I do not know where to start except that our prayers for me must
have been answered. Life here will not be the same for some time.
I
faired pretty good. Was without lights for five days but did have
a generator for necessities such as freezer window a/c and of
course TV.
Had electricity at the shop so some help, but the lord givith
and the lord taketh. Got light Saturday at eleven a.m. but a/c
at shop went down
at noon but I'm not complaining. Our city has almost doubled in
size, resturants are running out of food and grocieries are on
a daily basis.
Gas at times is hard to find what with the influx of people and
cars. May be this way for some time. I do wish that news media
would stop
trying to make this a racial issue but they will learn that was
not the problem. White or black the situation would have been
the same. Nobody's
fault that 70 per cent of the City is black. Well now that I have
vented I guess I will go back to hiding in the back
ground. And Sonny thank you for keeping in touch through the shop.
One more thing that almost seems funny but they will decide tomorrow
if the LSU vs Arizona will be played here this Saturday. So just
to let all of you know life will go on. Your friend in over crowded
Baton Rouge
L i n k s
on some of these links you will find many others with photos and video coverage
** LINKS open in new browser window for convenience
*** Scientific American 2001 -- Drowning New Orleans
** National Geographic, October 2004 -- Gone With the Water
the Creole cultural traditions -- Gumbo and Zydeco
timeline of hurricane Katria -- Timeline / BBC
the story in the local newspaper about flooding and other effects in Duck Key, Florida -- Duck Key
* WAFB, Baton Rouge -- Channel 9
* stories appearing in a New Orleans newspaper -- Picayune News
* hundreds of photographs and a blog related to events in New Orleans -- DirectNic
high tech flood control -- Examples
interview with New Orleans Mayor Negin [MP3] -- Channel 9
* Story by two California Paramedics attending an EMS conference in New Orleans -- Journal
* 197 photos, 5 Days With Katrina -- Alvaro's Album
a story about the above mentioned school buses and much commentary, seemingly very biased -- School Buses
a helpful web site slightly diverted because the lady who owns it is named Katrina, as is her web site -- Katrina
the blog of a BBC reporter in the stricken neighborhoods of New Orleans -- Richard Allen Greene
BBC readers responses to the hurricane and its aftermath -- Has enough been done?
how some coped and helped others after deciding not to evacuate -- The Tribes
assessing Katrina's long term impact -- Recession?
predictions of such an event -- It could happen
* Hurricane Camille, August 1969 -- Any Similarities?
Solar activity appears to be linked to our weather patterns -- Solar Flare Prediction
| Solar X-rays: Geomagnetic Field: |
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Landrieu Blasts Bush on Katrina Response -- a Democrat, naturally
Daley 'shocked' as feds reject aid -- More Democrats
Katrina: Why did help take so long to arrive? - From South Africa
Katrina response prompts questions of race in U.S -- Reuters
British Aid sent -- Food Kits with Stove
inside the emergency ration packs -- A stove comes as standard issue
Katrina will hit eurozone finances hard -- Anatole Kaletsky
Britons describe Superdome horror -- Very Dangerous
The importance of the Gulf area -- Geopolitical Prize
* AOL Blog Feed : Stories, photos, journals, blogs -- Should they rebuild?
* Doctor in Mississippi tells Chaney at photo op to go f*c* himself -- Unhappy in Gulfport
The good doctor also videotaped the encounter and listed it on eBay the same evening it happened (he must have been a Boy Scout, always ready?) -- I read the item description and knew that it would not last long before the pit bulls at eButt deleted it, so I took a SCREEN SHOT -- it was pulled for a fuzzy open-to-interpretation technicality, as always happens (hey, I know about this stuff, I have listed stuff there for over 8 years already and have personally experienced and seen things that would fill another special report!), and he relisted it again according to their specified guidelines -- it was pulled the second time also -- eBay allowed virgins on toast , spirits in a jar, fakes of all kinds, but not something that actually happened and was documented?. Not surprisingly, the Cheney photo op encounter also appeared on several news channels (I saw it live, quite by accident, and a few minutes later an already sanitized version!), and instead of wasting bandwidth on the copy I saved on my eMac from a web site, here is an external LINK [MOV file] to the same thing, if for nothing else other than the entertainment it provides from an unsympathetic source! Hey, it must have been funny because even Cheney joked about it on camera! Isn't he past retirement age already? I doubt that he would be missed by too many people. There would still be a couple puppet masters to pull the strings of always good intentioned, lovable and well meaning Dubya.
Louisiana Improperly Spent Relief Funds in the Past -- Audit Info
Now What? -- The Aftermath
They Said It ! -- Stupid Katrina Quotes
Will They Blame the Whitehouse? -- a View from Ireland
A Reader Discussion -- Controlling Hurricanes?
EU faces Katrina economic effect -- Turkish Weekly
My Questions and Ponderings
1. the levees have been in need of repair and upgrading for many years -- why was funding significantly cut for this purpose?
2. there was advance warning that Katrina was approaching -- what emergency preparations were made by local, state and / or federal bureaucrats? Why were the chains of command so disorganized and ineffective for several days?
3. could those hundreds of school buses have been driven to higher ground and used for immediate evacuations when it was ordered? Hurricane warning were posted.
4. if they rebuild the heavily damaged parts of New Orleans as well as other destroyed low lying areas in other states and another category 5 hurricane comes along, the same or worse destruction will occur -- how cost effective is that, without also upgrading the barrier levees?
5. what would have happened if the Mississippi River levee were breached instead of the lower lying Lake Pontchartrain levee? Are there contingency plans for this worst case scenario?
6. eventually all those folks who have been transferred to other localities or states will need something more permanent -- where will they want to or be forced to go?
7. FEMA apparently will rent several cruise ships for some weeks to house some of the refugees -- aren't the owners of the company altruistic enough to donate the vessels, crew and accommodations, thus receiving a sizable tax writeoff -- why did it take so long to get the ships, which will apparently not be ready until late in the week of 5 September?
8. is it so difficult for neighbors to visit others who may need some help in evacuating? When they knew they were leaving home probably for an extended period, it didn't occur to them to take necessary medications and other items with them, and then complain that the government is not giving it to them? Can't they think clearly, is/was their education deficient, and why?
9. some say that looting is OK if it is for survival -- what does stealing beer, liquor, TV sets and other appliances, hunting knives, large suitcases on wheels, guns, ammunition, other people's cars and generators have to do with the personal basic need for food and survival? Aren't there laws against that sort of thing? Why weren't they enforced before things became the lawless wild west?
9. from where are the vast sums of monies going to appear to pay for all of this? They will run the banknote printing presses overtime for months at a time? Isn't the dollar in enough trouble as it is? How will this affect the world economy?
10. exactly why did many off-shore oil wells and area refineries close down? A few may have been in the path of the hurricane, but certainly not all of them -- aren't they built to withstand such possible natural disasters? Why not? How long will the price of gasoline / petrol continue to rise, as it has risen over the last few weeks?
11. Am I politically biased, heartless, uncaring and racist? Perhaps I am simply a realist, unfettered by those buzz-word stereotypes which many use to label those who do not think exactly as the accusers say they do -- do they, really, in their hearts and deeds act as they publicly profess to and constantly preach? Or have they convinced themselves that they are superior and thus able to make such arbitrary value judgments?
12. Is our revered, somewhat duly elected, flag waving, constantly bringing up 9-11, and God blessing fearless leader really a closet racist? Did he publicly intervene in this crisis only to try to save his political neck? Is he allowing his big spending generous donors in the oil business a free hand at price gouging and inflated corporate profits? Is he really as uninformed, just plain clueless and moronic as many say he is? Was he born with that smirk on his face? Would those in command, of the opposing political party, have done any better in this crisis? Did they?
I'll stop here at a list of 12, just so I don't get into that unlucky 13, although I could probably fill up another page of questions and ponderings.
God Bless !
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