Perusing other boards that I frequent, I came across these posts which I found remarkable for some painful memories and for astute observations by people involved in the aftermath. The discussion surrounded the supposition that everybody has, a year later, moved on and nothing has changed since the hurricane hit.
"The anniversary is more difficult than I expected. There are things that have been buried deep, not to be thought of or remembered. The anniversary, with all the media coverage, is forcing those deep buried images and feelings back to the surface.
An ordinary lawyer, put into an extraordinary situation, inside the Emergency Operations Center. For a couple of months, it was the center of the universe, I'll never be able to fully describe it. I promise you, as God as my witness, we did everything we could. Of course we made mistakes, at the local, state, and federal levels. And of course local, state, and federal governmental agencies were not fully prepared for a disaster of this size.
But there were many of us who gave it everything we had, and can honestly say that we did the best we could under those circumstances.
The experience has forever changed us, just as combat in war does to those who survive it. Last night, I was going to watch one of the Katrina shows on tv, but had to change the channel moments after the start, I just couldn't watch it. Even typing this has been difficult and heart wrenching, because it is making me think about some things that I now try to keep deeply suppressed.
So to the critics and commentators, we understand that in hindsight our mistakes and shortcomings may now be seen, but please understand that we gave it our all. We pushed ourselves harder than any of us thought possible, and then we pushed some more. There was absolutely nothing done for racial or other discriminatory reasons, it was simply people trying to help people, literally a matter of life and death. Now people talk about those events, and usually there is an agenda involved, someone trying to make some political or sociological point. But at the time, the only agendas we had were trying to save lives and limit further damage. Under exceptional circumstances, we did the best we could."
And...
"I have never been down Nawlins way. But I have spoke with several that have. Everyone can not say enough about the enormity of the damage and scrath their heads that the media and governments have seemed to just move on.
However, a different angle as to why that may be.
My nephew, a junior at a local college, at his own expense joined over a hundred of his classmates to spend their spring break on a mission work in the gulf area.
One of the hardest obstacles they had to overcome was the fact that they came into area that where filled with garbage and clutter... and while these volunteers were working their asses off, people all around were just sitting around watching them. It filled them with mixed emotions... they were glad to help, and felt good about it, but watching those not help themselves became very frustrating. It seems that each night they assembled the volunteer group for "talking circle" and this issue became very difficult for many.
Looking at the pictures a year later, many of the damaged areas havent even been revisited, or there are people living in houses and they havent even cleared up the yard. One person interviewed complained, that even though he did not have any flood insurance, the government ONLY GAVE him $5000 for rent.
Chip, I recall how you gave it your all. But there will never be enough to give the large number of people to make them satisfied, especially when they seem unwilling to do the very basics for themselves.
And this seems to summarize that event: A catastrophic storm happened and the result was both the most noble and ugliest aspects of human nature were seen in all its glory. And here we are, one year later, and fingerpointing is still going on. So I ask you, is this what we have become or is this what we always have been, but were just a natural disaster away from? Is it the fact that so many people who were affected are poor or black that this continues to fester or is this simply governmental sluggishness and incomptetance?
I've lived down there in locations ranging from Pensacola to Port O'Conner. In truth, I am disappointed that Ernesto did not become Katrina II and finish the job #1 didn't get done, but I suppose all that did the first time around was spread the problem to other cities across the US.
Your thoughts?
Totem
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Lets get one fact straight right now. There is a difference between the refugee's and the survivors of Katrina. Survivors are back there now working together to rebuild their homes. Refugee's are moaning and ******** that their govt checks are about to stop and arent doint anything to further themselves. Houston's crime rate (remember Houston, TX took in the most Katrina survivors/refugees) has doubled in the past year. Many of these violators are Katrina refugee's. From talking to family and friends who are natives of that area, people are getting fed up with the influx of these low lives. We are all about helping them out, but only if they want to help themselves too. This ideal that they some how deserve a free ride for the rest of their lives is BS.
I think the ones who went back and are rebuilding are incredibly brave and incredibly ******* stupid for rebuilding right back in the same area's that flooded. If you cant see over the levee's, maybe you should rethink building in that location. It's been proven that the levee's are losing about a foot a year. It's only a matter of time (very short time I think) before all of that area is flooded again. I realize these places were homes, but even rats know when to get off a sinking ship.
I think the ones who went back and are rebuilding are incredibly brave and incredibly ******* stupid for rebuilding right back in the same area's that flooded. If you cant see over the levee's, maybe you should rethink building in that location. It's been proven that the levee's are losing about a foot a year. It's only a matter of time (very short time I think) before all of that area is flooded again. I realize these places were homes, but even rats know when to get off a sinking ship.
"A muck of poverty
I am proud of my long-adopted city and the mayor's heroic measures in rising to accommodate the flood of Katrina refugees last fall.
I have wondered if another U.S. metropolis could or would ever step up the way Houston did for its neighbors in need.
But the time for our guests to recover and return home has long passed.
Indeed, most of the fine people from that region have either returned to resume life in the parishes or are successfully integrated into society here or elsewhere. What remains is a nightmare.
People familiar with New Orleans' history and demographics have long known of the problem now facing Houston. It's the thick layer of generations-old sludge at the bottom of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society barrel.
Institutionalized welfare generations coddled in government housing projects spawn multitudes of fatherless and uneducated drug dealers, rapists, murderers and various miscreants. In breadth and depth, it is an unparalleled criminal element that was dumped last fall into Houston's lap like a warm, foul-smelling bowl of rotten gumbo.
The group was characterized in a recent Zagby poll, which told us how pathetic the problem was, but not what to do about it.
Now, that information would have been worth some money.
An article in the Los Angeles Times said this criminal influx has managed to raise the Houston murder rate an astonishing 18 percent.
A culturally lax justice system in the Big Easy has emboldened and hardened their criminal behavior.
The bottom line is that now is the time for Houston's Police Chief Harold Hurtt to take the gloves off.
Hurtt plans to hire 400 police officers to deal with the crime surge. I pray he stays focused on that, and bolsters the police presence in areas where these low-lifes remain. Let's build them a new prison if they must stay.
HARPER JONES, Houston
And...
Aug. 25, 2006, 1:00AM
KATRINA'S STUDENTS FALL BEHIND
Evacuees in area schools being held back at high rates
By JENNIFER RADCLIFFE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
One in four Houston Independent School District students displaced by Hurricane Katrina failed to make enough academic progress to be promoted to the next grade this school year — a far higher rate than their classmates and an indicator of the massive challenges still facing area schools.
About 700 of the 2,900 Katrina students returning to HISD this year were held back, including 41 percent of high school sophomores and 52 percent of juniors. That 24 percent retention rate was among the highest in the area, according to retention rates released by some local school systems.
And...
Aug. 28, 2006, 8:35AM
Slain Katrina evacuee was a murder suspect
25-year-old man shot at southwest apartments was wanted by Louisiana police
By MIKE GLENN
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
A Katrina evacuee who was wanted in Louisiana on a murder charge in Houma was fatally shot Saturday night at a southwest Houston apartment complex, police said.
Cory Chevell Stovall, 25, is thought to be the 59th person who fled from Hurricane Katrina to be involved in a homicide in Houston this year, either as a victim or suspect.
Totem
I am proud of my long-adopted city and the mayor's heroic measures in rising to accommodate the flood of Katrina refugees last fall.
I have wondered if another U.S. metropolis could or would ever step up the way Houston did for its neighbors in need.
But the time for our guests to recover and return home has long passed.
Indeed, most of the fine people from that region have either returned to resume life in the parishes or are successfully integrated into society here or elsewhere. What remains is a nightmare.
People familiar with New Orleans' history and demographics have long known of the problem now facing Houston. It's the thick layer of generations-old sludge at the bottom of Lyndon Johnson's Great Society barrel.
Institutionalized welfare generations coddled in government housing projects spawn multitudes of fatherless and uneducated drug dealers, rapists, murderers and various miscreants. In breadth and depth, it is an unparalleled criminal element that was dumped last fall into Houston's lap like a warm, foul-smelling bowl of rotten gumbo.
The group was characterized in a recent Zagby poll, which told us how pathetic the problem was, but not what to do about it.
Now, that information would have been worth some money.
An article in the Los Angeles Times said this criminal influx has managed to raise the Houston murder rate an astonishing 18 percent.
A culturally lax justice system in the Big Easy has emboldened and hardened their criminal behavior.
The bottom line is that now is the time for Houston's Police Chief Harold Hurtt to take the gloves off.
Hurtt plans to hire 400 police officers to deal with the crime surge. I pray he stays focused on that, and bolsters the police presence in areas where these low-lifes remain. Let's build them a new prison if they must stay.
HARPER JONES, Houston
And...
Aug. 25, 2006, 1:00AM
KATRINA'S STUDENTS FALL BEHIND
Evacuees in area schools being held back at high rates
By JENNIFER RADCLIFFE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
One in four Houston Independent School District students displaced by Hurricane Katrina failed to make enough academic progress to be promoted to the next grade this school year — a far higher rate than their classmates and an indicator of the massive challenges still facing area schools.
About 700 of the 2,900 Katrina students returning to HISD this year were held back, including 41 percent of high school sophomores and 52 percent of juniors. That 24 percent retention rate was among the highest in the area, according to retention rates released by some local school systems.
And...
Aug. 28, 2006, 8:35AM
Slain Katrina evacuee was a murder suspect
25-year-old man shot at southwest apartments was wanted by Louisiana police
By MIKE GLENN
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
A Katrina evacuee who was wanted in Louisiana on a murder charge in Houma was fatally shot Saturday night at a southwest Houston apartment complex, police said.
Cory Chevell Stovall, 25, is thought to be the 59th person who fled from Hurricane Katrina to be involved in a homicide in Houston this year, either as a victim or suspect.
Totem
Is this really a city we want to rebuild? Why is it that no one is making the public statement that New Orleans is a city better off either being razed to the ground or made as a interment camp for the poor and criminal?
Totem
Totem
What, no amusing tidbits about black snakes and Escalades and ebon brethren?
Huh.
Huh.
Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
Interesting for me because i recently saw documentry's on both Katrina and the Tsumani in Asia.
What struck me most was the differences in approach of the survivors. In America it was constant complaints and whining about what other people hadn't done for them, the Asian approach was much more self help and pride that while aid had provided the means it was the people themselve who had turned generocity into real results.
Of course this could be down to both the more rural nature of the area effected and the agenda of the film makers so i didn't really put toomuch emphasis on it at the time.
Having been on a couple of disaster relief missions a few years back (1998 in Nevis and later in Guatamala and the Bay islands after Hurricane Mitch) I was overwhelmed with how much people where pleased that we could help them to help themselves, it wasn't as though we where doing it for them as we where doing it with them.
Its a consequence of the social system that makes people look solely to govenment to solve thier problems and shoulder burdens that could be solved by the people themselves should they be willing to work for it.
But thats the problem really isn't it, work is a consept that some people cannot understand, be it for a wage or to rebuild thier lives.
Nice post Tot3m, most interesting one this week i think.
What struck me most was the differences in approach of the survivors. In America it was constant complaints and whining about what other people hadn't done for them, the Asian approach was much more self help and pride that while aid had provided the means it was the people themselve who had turned generocity into real results.
Of course this could be down to both the more rural nature of the area effected and the agenda of the film makers so i didn't really put toomuch emphasis on it at the time.
Having been on a couple of disaster relief missions a few years back (1998 in Nevis and later in Guatamala and the Bay islands after Hurricane Mitch) I was overwhelmed with how much people where pleased that we could help them to help themselves, it wasn't as though we where doing it for them as we where doing it with them.
Its a consequence of the social system that makes people look solely to govenment to solve thier problems and shoulder burdens that could be solved by the people themselves should they be willing to work for it.
But thats the problem really isn't it, work is a consept that some people cannot understand, be it for a wage or to rebuild thier lives.
Nice post Tot3m, most interesting one this week i think.
Well, it's easier to rebuild those thatch tiki huts when you don't have to deal with building codes.
Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
Quote:
Well, it's easier to rebuild those thatch tiki huts when you don't have to deal with building codes.
* Edit: Because even simple spelling > me
Edited, Aug 29th 2006 at 5:27pm EDT by tarv
Nope. But then again, if you were taking me seriously, I'm not too worried at having my 'ignorance' brought to light 
Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
Totem wrote:
Is this really a city we want to rebuild? Why is it that no one is making the public statement that New Orleans is a city better off either being razed to the ground or made as a interment camp for the poor and criminal?
Totem
Totem
It's far better to keep all the rats on one ship than let them scurry off onto everyone else's.
So rebuild it, bring the people back, then firebomb the whole state. Terists ya know.
Quote:
or made as a interment camp for the poor and criminal?
isn't that pretty much waht any inner city locale is?
The city is a reflection of the folks that lived there. Maybe there are a few good apples, but not enough to salvage all that was lost. I say give people a deadline to move back home and take care of their business, and then start razing homes to the ground and cleaning up.
Tarv, your post points out exactly the difference between the two disasters-- both were monumental, both were devastating to their respective communities, but the one with the least resources at hand has done the most, while the other in our own backyard has gone nowhere and continues to languish in handwringing and inaction.
Thanks-- you summed up what I what trying to write.
Totem
Thanks-- you summed up what I what trying to write.
Totem
I say just break all the dams and levees and wash the whole mess into the Gulf, then start over. On solid, high ground this time, preferably.
publiusvarus wrote:
we all know liberals are well adjusted american citizens who only want what's best for society. While conservatives are evil money grubbing scum who only want to sh*t on the little man and rob the world of its resources.
NO and LA were too quick to rely on the federal government.
Getting federal relief for a state is a process regardless of what the relief is for. Hell, anything involving the federal government is a process, nor is it a quick one. Municipal governments have access to things like hospitals, ambulances, police, fire, and so on; while State governments have nice things like the NG and state militias to aid in such endeavors. Both of these were looked over, sure NO was hit hard, but it still had *some* infrastructure what went largely unused until the federal government stepped in.
It is ridiculous to believe the federal government should immediately step into every little disaster that happens in the US. Granted Katrina was all but a "little" disaster, what I am saying is the federal government did its job as far as the process due to a natural disaster. It is all stream-lined and systematic.
For example, the last big earthquake in San Fransisco. That quake did lots of damage, destroyed a lot of city infrastructure but immediately the municipal and state governments did their job first, THEN did the process of getting federal aid. Therein lies the fundamental flaw in the Katrina disaster.
Lastly, if you live in a hole next to the ocean, don't be surprised if the ocean decides to own you one day.
Well, that's my view on it anyway.
Getting federal relief for a state is a process regardless of what the relief is for. Hell, anything involving the federal government is a process, nor is it a quick one. Municipal governments have access to things like hospitals, ambulances, police, fire, and so on; while State governments have nice things like the NG and state militias to aid in such endeavors. Both of these were looked over, sure NO was hit hard, but it still had *some* infrastructure what went largely unused until the federal government stepped in.
It is ridiculous to believe the federal government should immediately step into every little disaster that happens in the US. Granted Katrina was all but a "little" disaster, what I am saying is the federal government did its job as far as the process due to a natural disaster. It is all stream-lined and systematic.
For example, the last big earthquake in San Fransisco. That quake did lots of damage, destroyed a lot of city infrastructure but immediately the municipal and state governments did their job first, THEN did the process of getting federal aid. Therein lies the fundamental flaw in the Katrina disaster.
Lastly, if you live in a hole next to the ocean, don't be surprised if the ocean decides to own you one day.
Well, that's my view on it anyway.
All I had to do was open up my first year sociology textbook and flip over to the 'sick role' and this whole thread was already covered. How quaint.
Bode - 100 Holy Paladin - Lightbringer
Totem wrote:
Tarv, your post points out exactly the difference between the two disasters-- both were monumental, both were devastating to their respective communities, but the one with the least resources at hand has done the most, while the other in our own backyard has gone nowhere and continues to languish in handwringing and inaction.
Actually, there's another layer to the difference between the two disasters. The tsunami was a bonified *huge* natural disaster, killing tens of thousands in a very short time. Katrina, by huricane standards wasn't that horrible. It didn't even hit NO directly (NO got about a cat 3 hit).
The disaster in NO was the lack of preparation and lack of effective reaction. It was essentially a man made disaster. Much stronger hurricanes have hit other towns in the gulf region and up the Eastern coastline. The problem in this case wasn't the hurricane, but the location itself. NO was the disaster, not Katrina.
The lack of recovery is just the disaster continuing to play itself out. There's no high winds. No swelling waters. And yet, for some unfathomable reason, the people living there still can't be bothered to pick up the trash in front of their homes? You're kidding me...
King Nobby wrote:
More words please
Quote:
NO was the disaster
yeah, Why rebuild a 300 year old american city?
Hell, why rebuild the world trade center? Or san fran? or any place that gets hit by a disaster, natural or otherwise.
If it's stupid for people to live in new orleans and the gulf coast, why is it not just as stupid for people to live along a fault line?
Why are we wasting money to put out all these forest fires out west? Shouldn't those governments have been prepared for that?
/sigh.
Hell, why rebuild the world trade center? Or san fran? or any place that gets hit by a disaster, natural or otherwise.
If it's stupid for people to live in new orleans and the gulf coast, why is it not just as stupid for people to live along a fault line?
Why are we wasting money to put out all these forest fires out west? Shouldn't those governments have been prepared for that?
/sigh.
Abadd wrote:
If it's stupid for people to live in new orleans and the gulf coast, why is it not just as stupid for people to live along a fault line?
Unfortunately, it's also a major port and shipping hub which isn't so easy to relocate. But I don't see the city regaining its former size and I'm certainly not convinced that it should.
Belkira wrote:
Wow. Regular ol' Joph fan club in here.
You sir, are an idiot. NO is behind some very rickity ***** which cannot hold back the flood waters no matter how many times you rebuild them. The water level is rising about a foot a year (need to find the article) around those levees. Another hurricane could cause even more death and destruction. Letting those people rebuild there is the equivalent to letting people have assisted suicides.
The One and Only Katie wrote:
Letting those people rebuild there is the equivalent to letting people have assisted suicides.
Quote:
Hell, why rebuild the world trade center?
As for NO - I've said all along, restore the wetlands in the flats. They're a natural wind-and-water break. Stop trying to defeat nature and work with it. If we learn nothing else from this, we should learn that much.
As for the displaced people, my opinion is that we should stop worrying about enticing people to move back there. Those who are committed to staying will stay and rebuild. Shops and restaurants will open when the population grows large enough to support them. The city will come back, but it will not be the same - and looking at the crime stats for the last 25 years or so, that's not necessarily a bad thing.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
people rebuilt San Fransisco, St. Louis, Naples.. **** most of Holland is already underwater.
can't stop it
can't stop it
Kelvyquayo wrote:
people rebuilt San Fransisco, St. Louis, Naples.. sh*t most of Holland is already underwater.
can't stop it
can't stop it
Was St. Louis even a city before the New Madrid quake hit?
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act.
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