The Rambling Opinions of a New Orleans Evacuee
by Owen Courrèges · 09/08/2005 12:10 amWhat follows are briefs on various Katrina-related topics that have been swirling in my head for the past week. Hopefully all of you will be able to make more sense of all of it than I have:
THE HOLDOUTS
Pundits and newsmen have consistently been making excuses for those who stayed in New Orleans despite the urging of city officials to evacuate. The typical line is this: "People in New Orleans are the working poor — many didn’t have cars and couldn’t afford to leave." First of all, even the "working poor" knew that they were in a hurricane-prone city, and should have made plans for this contingency, particularly after the hurricane’s path was known. Secondly, most of those who remained in New Orleans could have left, but didn’t. Keep in mind that, in the US, two-thirds to three-fourths of the "poor" own cars. Estimates indicated that 50,000 to 100,000 New Orleans households were without cars. Estimates also indicate that rougly 300,000 New Orleanians failed to evacuate. Clearly an inability of many residents to evacuate was not the reason why so many stayed behind.
What’s the reason then? Roughly two-thirds of those who stayed made a bad descision and decided to chance it with a Category 5 hurricane. Let’s not pretend that they had no other choice than to make this foolish decision (keep in mind — 10,000 residents still stubbornly refuse to leave). Many of the problems resulted from people having too much courage and too little common sense. Those who remained, as much as they have gone through, are largely the victims of their own errors. They knew by Saturday that it was time to get the heck out of Dodge, but instead holed themselves up and prayed for the best. It was a gamble that didn’t pay off.
MAYOR RAY NAGIN
Many people are jumping on Mayor Nagin right now for his conduct in failing to order a mandatory evacuation sooner, and not making it easier for residents without cars to evacuate (as in utilizing those buses now infamously enshrined in photos, flooded in the school bus yards). This, I think, is an easy criticism to make in hindsight. New Orleans faces numerous hurricane scares annually, and Nagin had already taken flak for being hasty with Hurricane Ivan. He was wary of going overboard too quickly, and quite obviously choked. For that he deserves criticism, but not the degree of censure he has received.
Moreover, it should be noted that New Orleans municipal government doesn’t exactly bring out the best leaders. If Nagin weren’t mayor, it would have been Marc Morial, the most corrupt, sleazy, race-baiting politician ever to walk the earth. By comparison, Nagin is quite level-headed and conservative. We should keep in mind that whatever Nagin’s foibles, the alternatives are universally worse. Sinking him will only mean worse times for New Orleans. You can count on that.
PRESIDENT BUSH
Criticism of Bush infuriates me the most. After 9/11, some cranks came out of the woodwork, noting that Bush had rejected earlier proposals for a Department of Homeland Security to deal with terrorism, and instead placing the responsibility in the newly-created Office of National Preparedness under FEMA. After the twin towers fell, Bush recognized this criticism and shifted the counter-terrorism focus away from FEMA and finally accepted the suggested department-level office of Homeland Security. It was the only politically-viable option at the time — his failure to create a separate department to deal with terrorism was already being criticized (as in the Washington Post) and enhancing FEMA’s role was seen as a meek, pathetic compromise. So he went with what America wanted — a focus on terrorism rather than mere emergency relief. After all, could we really entrust counter-terrorism to FEMA?
The consequence was that the focus went away from FEMA and towards the Department of Homeland Security, which was targeted towards terrorism specifically. Thus when Hurricane Katrina hit — a massive, unexpectedly severe storm — FEMA wasn’t running on all eight cylinders. As a result, Bush has been criticized for being too obsessed with terrorism, thereby shifting the focus away from FEMA, the very agency he wanted to enhance from the outset. He’s damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t. Thankfully, the most recent Gallup poll shows that most Americans aren’t buying the anti-Bush rhetoric.
REBUILDING NEW ORLEANS
There have been many voices, including that of House Speaker Dennis Hastert, saying that New Orleans isn’t worth rebuilding, that the region is too disaster-prone to be worth the usual investment in disaster relief from the federal government. That’s balderdash. It is true that New Orleans is mostly below sea level and kept above water by levies. However, only three truly major storms have hit New Orleans in the past 60 years — the ‘47 hurricane, Hurricane Betsy in ‘65, and Hurricane Katrina in ‘05. That’s not a track record which shows an extreme predisposition to catastrophy. Southern California and Florida are far, far more expensive in terms of disaster relief (probably even on a per-capita basis). New Orleans simply isn’t the albatross around America’s neck that some people want to portray it as.
ANNE RICE
In a recent op-ed which ran in the New York Times, goth author Anne Rice wrote about how the nation had "failed" New Orleans. She wrote about how Mayor Nagin and Governor Blanco begged for assistance, but recieved little. She angrily observed that the country enjoyed Mardi Gras and Jazz Fest, but when the chips were down, the US as a whole left New Orleans out to dry. What a sob story. First of all, New Orleans is not a charity. If New Orleans found Mardi Gras, Jazz Fest, and tourism generally to be non-profitable for individuals and the city as a whole, they wouldn’t have any part of it. The truth is that New Orleans used to be a major industrial base, but they frittered that away with corruption and bureaucracy. The city is has become notoriously unfriendly to business, and as a result it only has two assets remaining — the port and tourism. Consequently, the city was poor and ill-equipped to deal with a major disaster.
This is not to say that I’m completely down on New Orleans. It’s still a valuable city. But for Anne Rice to come out with such sanctimonious drivel, behaving as if New Orleans and the State of Louisiana are blameless for the problems following the hurricane, and arguing that the entire nation somehow owes New Orleans for holding a giant, drunken party ever year, is so outrageous that it merits sterm condemnation. It is especially hurtful to Houston, which has offered so much in this time of need, in spite of the historical failure of New Orleans to pursue a path which both preserves the past and guarantees a future.
Well, comments are open. Are my impressions valid, naive, or just downright insensitive?
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Listening to Edd this AM talking about the empty cruise ships chartered by FEMA. The real reason none of the evacuees will not board the ships is that the voodoo mamas have told them that they will be shipped back to Africa if they board the ships. Check it out.
I’d have to say your impressions are neither naive nor insensitive. The only angle I can see that you really didn’t address is the lack of faith in government that occurs after yet another major fumble like this one. We elect government officials again and again with the expectation that they will solve our problems (on all levels - city, state, and federal). Private initiative is nearly always better at the job. This is not to say that all elected officials are bad people, they simply get bogged down in the inefficiencies of modern politics. I’ve noticed this in big companies vs. smaller companies as well. It takes much longer to get something done at a large company than a small one. This is not an earth-shattering concept, granted, but one that gets easily overlooked in the wake of disasters (either natural or man-made).
All the politics and divisiveness don’t seem nearly as present among the real people affected by events as the media would have us believe. Last night, my family attended a birthday party for a young girl displaced by the hurricane, and interestingly, no mention of blame, or even anything remotely political among the folks from LA who were staying here. I believe it simply is not the fabric that most people are made of to politicize things like this.
I was the number 3 man at the DA’a office in the early 90’s when level expansion was shelved by state and federal government as impractical (The size of the levies would triple knocking down large sections of the city) - but Owen is more right than he realizes except on the hurricane part - New Orleans has actually been hit several times and wide spread flooding has ocurred. Now it can with stand a hit by a three plus storm or a light four but it cannot stand a hit from neglect a levy almost broke at Lake Ponchatrain in the early 90’s, a hit by a errant ship almost destroyed the aquarium and breeched the Mississippi - cracked the level system for blocks - There are significant threats to the lower level neighborhoods of New Orleans. I love the city, got two college degrees there, met my wife, had children, and have extensive family there - but its 20 to 25 feet under water - thats extreme worldwide. San Francisco and Los Angeles are in earthquake areas and that is a concern as well but it has no bearing on whether the government should continue something that is wrong -rebuilding below sea level in swamps. When San Fran is flattened the debate should also be whether to rebuild as well.
Owen I think you nailed down some pretty good thoughts. Is your place ok or do you know? Growing up there, I agree with corruption of politics.
I do think the confusion and apparently fighting over turf seems to be a problem still. Mayor says this, Gov. says that, it is maddening.
Definitely complacency is a big issue and I agree the idea that too many are getting a pass.
When you see the city as more of a whole and not just the shots from the bridge, it would appear that majority of the city faired rather well. The main sites like St Charles and French Quarter also seemed to fair well.
So I don’t think after people get the whole picture they will object to ‘opening New Orleans’ again. I do think however, it appears the lower end, 9th ward/ projects area are not worth rebuilding at this point, that is if we have to knock it down. Depending upon the damage as it gets investigated, I don’t think putting Federal (taxpayer) money into that is feasible if the flooding is inevitable. But we will have to see.
Since blame for the failure of NO residence is being spread all over, let’s look at a universal law. The law of even dispersal; when the poop hits the fan everyone gets hit.
There have been so many accusations of who is to blame, we’ve lost track of the actual root problem.
Perhaps there is no one person to shoulder all the guilt. I do know one thing, the Mayor and Governor are going to go down as primary mutual contributors.
A caller to Edd Hendee’s show this morning made an interesting observation. That Mayor Nagin should be charged with mass murder on the grounds of blatant indifference to the poor black people of NO.
I’ll guarantee that if the Mayor of NO had been white there would be an outcry for his head on a platter.
I have a seen that keeps replaying in my head; that of a news clip poor black women in NO screaming into the camera saying “when are they going to come down here and feed us?” and another saying “when are they going to come down here and help us?” and the mayor saying on national TV “George Bush and the Governor need to get off their ass’s and come down here and bring help.”
The people that stayed in NO made a bad decision. The local government should have not let such a crucial decision to be played out. They should have forced an evacuation to higher ground anywhere, in the school bused and other vehicles before they flooded. How many municipal vehicles does a city like NO have available?
rj
I hate being a buzzkill. Ya know what I fear? With all this blame game going on what is going to happen when the terrorist strike again? What are these people learning from this disaster? These guys (terrorist) don’t give a 48 hour notice. They are patient, they watch and learn and they ARE going to strike again. Look at what they are learning from the events in New Orleans. Setting aside the wonderful job New York City accomplished during 911.
1. The major cities in the United States are not prepared for a mass evacuation.
2. When the incident occurs there is major confusion and indecision amongst those “in command” closest to the event.
3. They know now that there is no contigency for housing the displaced people.
4. They know how quickly anarchy sets into cities were the elected leaders are paralized and the law enforcement arm is rendered impotent.
5. They know that the attack does not have to be very large to bring the economy of the United States to its knees. Look at the gas price spike because refineries were shut down.
6. With all the bickering and finger pointing they know this country is a house divided. We know that old saw that a house divided cannot stand.
7. The terrorist now know that local command and control can easily be defeated by destroying communications, cell phones, internet etc.
8. Individually the American people are not prepared for a “no warning” major disaster should it happen in their own backyard.
9. The American people are complacent in their perceived safety.
We have been fortunate that we have not been struck again since 911. I attribute this to good intelligence, “police work,” luck and the fact that the terrorist are patient and have not chose to strike again. Bin Laden proved that he is willing to plan and work years before a major strike.
I am not suggesting that there should not be political discourse and discussion about the events surrounding the disaster on the Gulf Coast. What I am suggesting is that all these hormonal/testosterone filled politicians shut up, put away their little egos and FIX THE PROBLEMS remebering there are those that would do us great harm and they are watching and learning everyday.
I can understand the arguments on both sides of mandatory evacuation at this time. However, since there seems no way to get people to evacuate from that filth they should be required to be quaranteened when they do come out. And they will come out - when the water goes down and/or their houses are bulldozed. I know there will be a big noise if any of these people are detained - they will claim that their rights are being violated because they are black/poor/other. However, they do not have the right to infect me and mine with the diseases they bring out of there with them. Haveing the right to do something does not make it the right thing to do.
squawkbox,
I wish there had been more buzzkills before 9/11. Your point is well taken.
…too many false & misleading statements have been made regarding how Galveston was re-built after the 1900 storm. Fact is, Galveston was never the same and Houston grew into the population/employment center it is today. In 1900, Galveston was the “jewel of the south.” Grand port and trade center it was. Anyone who was ’somebody’ wanted to live in Galveston and the island was loaded with moneyed businessmen. Now tourism augments what little mercantile activity remains in Galveston. In 25 years, compare New Orleans to its days before Katrina…I predict it’ll never be the same…and that’s a loss for us all.
Owen,
Your piece was as well balanced as I have read these last few days. I never thought I would say that to you.
Simple is as Simple does
Owen,
While I agree with most of your post, I have to disagree to some degree when it comes to rebuilding New Orleans. When Houston flooded during Allison, many areas deemed to be subject to repeat flood events were not allowed to rebuild without modifying their property to either lift the structure or the entire property out of the flood plain. I think for the people who were insured, they should be paid according to the policy terms. For the people who were uninsured, FEMA should not give them money to go back in and rebuild something that they were not willing to insure in the first place. The fact about hurricanes is that with everything we know, we still can’t predict where and how often they will strike. Look at Florida last year…they hadn’t been hit by anything significant since Andrew in 1992, yet they got 4 majors in one year. We don’t have any way to be sure that NO won’t get hit again next year or even later this month. Why should we spend $50 billion dollars to rebuild it all without modifying things so that the same thing won’t happen again? Things like tearing down the levees and re-routing the river around the city so that it will once again replenish the barrier islands that protect new orleans….things like rebuilding major structures with generators above ground instead of in the basement….things like not locating major residential areas in the areas most likely to flood. I know this would require things like planned development and building restrictions, but it is the only way I can see to rebuild New Orleans so that we can be sure we won’t go through all of this again next year or the year after that.
New Orleans has been different from places like California in that they haven’t learned from the study of the risks they faced. It has been known for at least a decade that NO could flood like this, yet even the simple things like protecting generators at hospitals weren’t done, much less discouraging further development in flood prone areas. In Cali, earthquake resistant construction and quake insurance have been mandatory for many years. They have plans and money set aside to deal with all of the hazards they know they will face. I don’t often defend the logic and reasoning of Californians, but I sincerely doubt that when the “big one” hits there, we will see people there screaming to the cameras asking why isn’t the government helping them. You may see it in some areas where government handout programs have created a population dependent on it for every basic need, but the vast majority of the people there know they live in an earthquake prone area, and they know the big one is coming. When it hits, many will die or be injured, and it will be a major calamity for the nation and our economy. But I guarantee the response will be better managed, because they have been planning and taking steps for decades to make sure that they are as ready as they can be.
On the issue of blame, I think we should just drop the issue entirely. The only thing that will happen is a big blue ribbon government panel will meet, spend millions of dollars allowing its members to grandstand for the cameras, and then produce a report that will be immediately attacked by both sides because it blames some of their friends. Then we will all go back to our lives and our leaders will ignore the report and make the same mistakes again next time a disaster happens because that is what politicians do. We should instead take the millions that would be allocated for the investigation and put it into an engineering study on how to restore the Mississippi River so that it isn’t carried by levees 20 feet above the city and how to restore the natural barriers that used to protect the city.
Bill F -
Your quote:
“On the issue of blame, I think we should just drop the issue entirely. The only thing that will happen is a big blue ribbon government panel will meet, spend millions of dollars allowing its members to grandstand for the cameras, and then produce a report that will be immediately attacked by both sides because it blames some of their friends. Then we will all go back to our lives and our leaders will ignore the report and make the same mistakes again next time a disaster happens because that is what politicians do.”
Is, unfortunately, dead on. That’s where the government really fails us.
swuakbox:
I concur, I think the proclaiming all the disaster is a set up ready made for terrorist to feel confident to act. I think that could be part of the reason Bush stepped in and said we will have an investigation, trying to squelch the rhetoric.
Everytime things like Gitmo or whatever comes up instead of dealing with the problem, the screaming about it is so shrill it says come on over. Look at those refineries that aren’t protected, look at the nuclear plants look at the trains!
It’s like thanks for pointing that out, and than make sure they know the security isn’t good!
what idiots.
RJ, I was the one who made the comment on Edd Hendee’s show you allude to, and you mis-quoted me. I never made the statement that the indifference was only towards blacks. I made the statement that Nagin and Blanco both are guilty of mass murder by depraved indifference. I never said they only murdered black people, or even did so preferentially. There are plenty of white people that are floating face down in NOLA right now too. They are just as dead. Bill F is right. As much as it grieves me to think these sacks of human excrement will get off basically scott free, I know deep down that is how it will play out. As Owen said, Nagin might be better than the alternatives that were available at the time, but that is more a statement of how bad politics as usual in Louisianna, and New orleans in particular, is instead of a recommendation. The survivors deserve something much better and I hope this will change the way politics as usual in LA happens in the future.
reply to no. 14,
My appology for mis-quoting your conversation with Edd. I agree with your idea of Nagin and Blanco being guilty of mass murder and yes, you are right about whites and blacks who are dead as a result of Nagin, Blanco and the LA Senator’s abject incompentence.
There will be some really interesting revelations about the failures in LA & NO since Katrina.
rj