It is hard to believe that the scenes of chaos, crime, and devastation emerging from what was once New Orleans are originating in the United States. How can something like this happen in America?
However, there are far more important questions to ask. For decades, indeed, for centuries, the authorities have known that, eventually, the Big Hurricane was going to hit New Orleans, just as the authorities in Los Angeles and San Francisco know that, eventually, the Big Earthquake is going to hit their cities, and the authorities of Washington and New York city know that, eventually, the Big Terrorist Attack is going to hit their cities. Everytime a hurricane enters the Gulf of Mexico, there is talk of what might happen if New Orleans is hit, or sideswiped. What happens if the storm-surge flows over the dikes and levees? What happens if one or more of the levees should rupture? Every single time there is a hurricane in the Gulf, these questions are discussed in the media.
It was known when Katrina hit Miami as a Category One hurricane that it was going into the Gulf. This was a week before it hit New Orleans, Gulfport, Biloxi, and Mobile. It was known the Tuesday before it hit that New Orleans would be, at the very least, on the western side of the storm. It was suspected Wednesday and Thursday that New Orleans would receive a direct hit. It was understood Saturday night that IT WAS GOING TO HAPPEN.
Were there no contingency plans in place for this kind of disaster? Did the authorities know that a mandatory evacuation would not result in the entire city leaving? Was there no thought to the hundred thousand or so people who were simple too poor, too infirm, to leave? Was there no consideration given to the possibility that the levees might actually break?
When it became certain late last week that New Orleans WOULD suffer some kind of hit, why wasn’t the National Guard mobilized BEFORE the storm hit? Why wasn’t the Army mobilized to bring trucks, buses, supplies, food, and medicine in anticipation of the human misery that THEY KNEW was about to occur?
To this day, why hasn’t the Federal Government comandeered every Greyhound bus it can find and move these people out of the city? Why aren’t there fifty thousand troops patrolling the streets of New Orleans? Why is this happening in the greatest nation on earth?
Perhaps, the planning for this was left to those in the Pentagon who planned for Iraq AFTER the “end of major combat operations.”
It is telling that the Swiss newspaper Le Temps reports that funds had been appropriated to strengthen the levees around New Orleans, but the funds were deverted to help fund Bush’s War on Iraq. Why?
More questions:
Why is the primary port for oil tankers bringing petroleum into the United States located in the most hurricane prone port in America?
Why are refineries located in the most hurricane prone part of the country? Why is the unrefined petroleum not sent to more reliable areas of the nation?
And, finally…
If this is what we can expect after a hurricane hits New Orleans, what will happen when Al-Quaeda releases Ebola in Washington or explodes a dirty bomb in the port of Long Beach or sabotages a chemical plant outside Philadelphia or a nuclear plant in Illinois?
I certainly feel confident. I’m sure glad that the President decided to cut short his vacation two days AFTER the devastation.
Welcome to America in the Twenty-first Century.
