Thursday, September 01, 2005
A Little Physics Problem
Why is it taking so long for help to get to New Orleans? I understand why the water is still there. I understand the bowl-effect and all that. But, good grief. It's water, not plutonium.
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7 comments:
I heard Antoine (Fats) Domino is missing. Stayed at his house with his wife and daughter to ride out the storm. House is still there, no Fats, no wife, no daughter. Back in the day when I was in music radio I worked with Fats on several shows and He is the only person I know that lives in New Orleans. C'mon Fats, where ever you are let us know. I only hope that in the worst case, he was maybe blown down the road some - maybe rode a wave on some floating debris and at this hour is Walking to New Orleans and not, in My Blue Heaven.
LG - I heard about him being missing today. Thanks for the comment. I hope he's okay, too.
Fats Domino has been rescued, but no news on his wife. http://www.cnn.com/2005/SHOWBIZ/Music/09/01/katrina.fats.domino/index.html#ISTWABH
From what I've seen there are three major contributors to the bogging down of aid in the disaster area (if you don't mind the opinion of a former Emergency Response Worker)....
1) The magnitude of the disaster clearly went beyond the scope of the Emergency Management protocols.
2) Although there seems to be pretty decent protocols for sheltering victims (judging by how quickly the Superdome and a few other spots were designated)... Little attention seemed to be given to the evacuation of people without cars...
3) I don't think anyone in the State, Parish or City Emergency Management offices planned on what to do if people started shooting Rescue workers.
Just my take, time will tell.
And to make matters worse, the mayor of NOLA apparently has zero leadership skills - why not address crowds with a bullhorn? "..be calm, help is on the way, be patient" etc... Why not show his face to the masses and try to do something to keep a lid on the situation? Not just blaming the mayor (I think of Guliani in NYC after 9-11) but where are the other elected officals? Blanco, Breaux, Landrieu? All I've seen is Congressman Jindal whose own home was destroyed... The mayor has failed the city and if they ever have another election in that town he needs to take a hike. Just one mans opinion. LG
You know, I came to the conclusion last night after watching two hours of hurricane news, that this whole deal is almost like your gardern variety natural disaster movie. The dead are everywhere, people are walking zombies, and among them heroes are trying to survive. Up until this week, I thought all those movies were over the top. Now I see that even they never scratched the surface.
I also noted, that some of those who were so quick to ignore the mandatory evacuation are so quick to blame the govenment for not helping them quick enough. I've volunteered during other disasters and if I lived closer, I would have tried to help there too. But instead, my family is being represented by my brother who is down there now looking for survivors on the Mississippi coast somewhere.
Wontar - Thanks for some good news.
Parated - I agree with all of your points, especially #3.
LG - My big question is why, even before the levees burst, help wasn't sent in the form of security when the most dangerous area of the city was completely under water.
Ed - We've been talking about the disaster movie thing. It is unbelievable that this can really happen and here it is right up the highway from me and I can't do anything except send money and prayers.
I blame the government, too, for the lack of foresight regarding security issues in one of the most dangerous cities in the country. I love New Orleans, but it is horribly crime ridden.
Thank you and your brother for helping out in these situations. I want to go to New Orleans as soon as I can to do something to help (other than the eating and drinking and spending things I mentioned earlier).
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