A little background is in order
I've lived in Travis County, Texas for 22 years, but I'm a native New Orleanian, grew up there, and moved here from there in my twenties. My sister and her 10 year old evacuated and are staying with us here on the hill. Her husband is a NOPD sergeant. Their station in N.O. East was an early flooder and they moved to the sixth floor of a hospital out there. He contacted my sister yesterday and is ok, but is with a group of police fending for themselves, disconnected from any command. He made it to the West Bank and from there could make a call. He's hanging in there, not coming here.
This scenario has been on the radar of planners for decades. When I was a kid, we stayed during Hurricane Betsy ("only" cat 3) and I well remember Mayor Schiro on our B&W TV drawing evac routes out of town. Just last year, during the Hurricane Ivan scare, I watched a WGNO (NO TV station) production on the web describing both luridly and rationally all the possiblities we are seeing unfolding. This scenario is very well studied.
A certain very large percentage of people, presented with arguments like that, still are going to make the bet that since it hasn't happened before, it won't happen next time, and until Monday they were batting 1000. My mother, who lives in Florida now, spoke with two of our family friends before Katrina struck, now in their late 70s and quite sane, who did not leave. I am very concerned for them.
The authorities fully knew this scenario. The authorities in New Orleans are, frankly, incompetent. The authorities at the state level too, are incompetent. Lousiana is not Texas. When they prepared the Astrodome for evacuees, they laid cots out neatly on the floor of the stadium. Did you see the interior shots of the Superdome? They put everybody in the uncomfortable, upright stadium seats. The flat field, where you could lie down and get rest, was clear. When the power (air conditioning) goes off you get a lot of uncomfortable, pissed off people. This is a failure of planning. So much else reflects the failure of planning.
I'm not talking about engineering. The engineering sucked as a consequence of funding shortages. I'm only talking about disaster planning. The disaster planning failed, right? That's inarguable.
As a last resort, the incompetent states like Louisiana rely on the federal government. Same as we rely on the federal govt. when our state administrators don't see, say, voting rights, as a fundamental right. The feds are the ones who can manage a disaster of this magnitude. But they are absent. Clearly there is nobody on the ground from outside the state except CNN reporters.
This scenario has been on the radar of planners for decades. When I was a kid, we stayed during Hurricane Betsy ("only" cat 3) and I well remember Mayor Schiro on our B&W TV drawing evac routes out of town. Just last year, during the Hurricane Ivan scare, I watched a WGNO (NO TV station) production on the web describing both luridly and rationally all the possiblities we are seeing unfolding. This scenario is very well studied.
A certain very large percentage of people, presented with arguments like that, still are going to make the bet that since it hasn't happened before, it won't happen next time, and until Monday they were batting 1000. My mother, who lives in Florida now, spoke with two of our family friends before Katrina struck, now in their late 70s and quite sane, who did not leave. I am very concerned for them.
The authorities fully knew this scenario. The authorities in New Orleans are, frankly, incompetent. The authorities at the state level too, are incompetent. Lousiana is not Texas. When they prepared the Astrodome for evacuees, they laid cots out neatly on the floor of the stadium. Did you see the interior shots of the Superdome? They put everybody in the uncomfortable, upright stadium seats. The flat field, where you could lie down and get rest, was clear. When the power (air conditioning) goes off you get a lot of uncomfortable, pissed off people. This is a failure of planning. So much else reflects the failure of planning.
I'm not talking about engineering. The engineering sucked as a consequence of funding shortages. I'm only talking about disaster planning. The disaster planning failed, right? That's inarguable.
As a last resort, the incompetent states like Louisiana rely on the federal government. Same as we rely on the federal govt. when our state administrators don't see, say, voting rights, as a fundamental right. The feds are the ones who can manage a disaster of this magnitude. But they are absent. Clearly there is nobody on the ground from outside the state except CNN reporters.
posted by hughw at 7:42 PM
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