Hurricane Katrina Part II - Who's To Blame

It's pathetic, but everyone who said now is not the time to play the blame game is doing just that. As predictable as our society can be, the blame game goes very much along political lines without both sides really listening to the complaints of the others.

Actually, there is a lot of blame going around. Some of it is right on target while other blame is misplaced or put upon certain groups too harshly. Just where does this blame belong?

The Federal Level

When private charitable and business organizations can give humanitarian aid better than our own federal government, one must start to really question why are we paying taxing? Sure the Bush Administration is all about the tax cuts to the wealthy Americans without thinking about the real life consequences on what it does to the 95% who are not among the wealthy class. A small percentage of the non-wealthy class is getting by comfortably while everyone else is barely getting by or not at all, yet this Administration argues all these tax cuts were designed to benefit all Americans. How?

The National Debt has grown immensely during the Bush years in part of 9/11 and in part of his inept manner of handling the economy. In theory, the tax cuts were designed to get the wealthy business people to create more jobs to make sure the poor would have the work so he could further make cuts to welfare and benefits for the poor. How did it work in reality, as opposed to on paper because people do not live on paper?

The well paying jobs have been exported overseas due to government encouragements and kick-backs to take these jobs out of our country and into places where they can get away with paying a sub-standard wage. Big corporations have indeed created lots of new jobs within the United States because of the tax breaks...McDonald's, Wal-Mart, K-Mart, and other service industries have created many job opportunities within their companies. Unfortunately, most of these are part time, without benefits, and very close to minimum wage. With the welfare to work programs, this means the poor people now have the option to work for barely minimum wage for a little bit of government assistance while spending more money than they have on daycare for children and other expenses related to working a job while benefits of health care, housing, and food are cut drastically.

What does this have to do with their fault of the hurricane? It is to show their lack of compassion and humanity to the lower classes of people. It has been a repeated pattern within this Administration. They do not concern themselves with things not in their own agenda's best interests. Unless it affects them directly, they do not care.

The state of Louisiana knew they were in trouble. They had a large amount of poor people who could not pay out the kinds of taxes needed to keep up with something that seemed insignificant to the Federal Government - repair of the aging dikes, levees, and pumps. It has been known for quite some time that a sustained category 3 hurricane or even a brief 4 or 5 hurricane would completely overwhelm the system causing a calamity. They asked for help, but instead of raising needed funds from the Federal level, the Feds cut funds.

This is what created the most dangerous part of the disaster. The hurricane was massively bad on its own, but neglect of the systems designed to control the flow of the water is what killed a lot more people who were stuck there. Had the government took more control over what was actually happening on our homeland instead of destroying the infrastructures of another country, perhaps they would have been able to oversee such details before it was too late. Fixing the problem would have been less expensive than trying to repair a whole city.

The Federal level blame game goes as far as blaming the poor people who chose to stay during the storm for putting themselves in harm's way. It is a Federal level problem why there are so many poor people. Without enough money pumped into the educational systems, or jobs, or housing, you get a poor class without the resources needed to dig themselves out of the hole they are in. It becomes a vicious cycle that lasts many generations. After awhile, people lose hope that things will ever get better and believe they live in a country that does not represent them nor care about their needs.

The hurricane proved their fears. When they were crying out for help, the Federal government dragged their feet. When journalists, private charity groups, and brave individual people like Sean Penn could roll up their sleeves and lend a hand on a drop of a dime, why could our own government not do the same?

And why should the Federal government insist on forcing people out of their homes which went relatively undamaged to become a burden on the system and displace others who truly are in need? There are self-sufficient people in parts of New Orleans who have a lot to lose if they leave. They are not in any immediate danger and are willing to get by with limited power, phone service and to boil their water. Why should they be displaced into shelters and become a burden to the already overcrowded system against their will?

The State/City government Level

Louisiana is known for its corrupt government. Everyone knows that New Orleans during Mardi Gras can be a very dangerous place to walk alone on the streets. There have been reports of kickbacks and bribery and nepotism among the state and local governments as well as mishandling of the budget and an ineffective police force.

Why should anyone raise an eyebrow when people want to point the fingers at them? After all, when they saw they were in serious danger, they did cry for help from the Federal government only to be ignored. The fault with them is what happened BEFORE the hurricane.

True, there was not enough money to be generated from the income of the citizens to fix the levee and pumps. They knew before the storm a hurricane of that size would virtually destroy the city. They had a few days notice that this brewing category 3 was turning into a vicious 5 while waiting out in the gulf. They had a few days to enact a plan of evacuation, but the problem is they did not have a very good plan of evacuation.

The roads were so crowded with people trying to leave that many gave up trying to leave and chose a shelter instead. Gas stations closed up early because they ran out of gas from the people trying to leave and those with no gas had no other choice but to stay. Some of the citizens were lucky to get through the mess of leaving while many others could not even think about embarking on such a journey in the first place. Why? Again, because they were poor and many lacked the means to access transportation out of the city.

A sufficient evacuation plan should have taken the poor into account as well as all other citizens. An emergency plan should have been rehearsed, or at least published and be made well known way before a disaster took place. People could have gotten out of the city faster if there were less people crowding the highways in individual cars and the city could manage buses to carry a lot more people out at a time with less space occupying the highway. There should have been many access points to catch a bus out of town to go to specific shelters in a safe zone which would have kept more families together. The hospitals should have been a high priority to evacuate first followed by nursing homes. And for the places within the city destined to be the last resort shelter should have been stocked for food, water and medical supplies as well as a team of law enforcement and medical workers to help with the crowd.

If the state/local government were really on the ball, they could have done a lot to prevent a bad situation leading to such a tragic circumstance. It was a lack of emergency planning that made a bad situation worse.

The People Themselves

Outsiders do not understand something about people who live on the East Coast and Gulf, they deal with the threat of hurricanes all the time. They are bombarded with so many scare news stories that when the news cried "wolf" one time too many and some blew off the warning to leave.

When people are accustomed to waiting out a storm and become immune to constant reports of danger, is it surprising they discounted warnings to leave the area, especially when the roads were too crowded to move anywhere and gas stations were closing up when running out of gas?

Of course, not everyone was even in a position to leave. Some had to make use of the local emergency shelter. Most tried to make the best out of a bad situation, but there was a criminal element among them that took advantage of the situation by raping and robbing people. When no help was coming fast enough, even the good people went into a panic mode instead of keeping calm. Thus the people engaged in looting what they could to survive while others just pillaged the town because they were angry for being forgotten.

Global Warming

There have been scientists stating the category 5 hurricane is a direct result of global warming. Had it not been for this condition in our atmosphere, the hurricane would have been a lot milder in nature. As the hurricane spawns and gathers its force from warm water, global warming has created a pool of very warm waters which are creating more and more hurricanes and a lot more powerful ones than in the past.

Many take global warming as a proven scientific fact not to be questioned. Others discount it as fluff science. Still, there is a point in between the two grounds. While the overall effects of global warming is more sensationalism than proven, there is cause for concern over what is being done to our environment.

Some will blame the government for global warming. It allows big corporations to get away with polluting in order to create more profits. They do very little with any form of initiative to create alternative energy sources. It relies too much on fossil fuels and coal without considering solar, wind or water power.

The government is not alone in this blame. It is the responsibility of everyone to conserve where they can. Why drive around in big SUVs or even worse, the Hummer? It pollutes the air and depends on too much fossil fuel. As a people, we do not make good use of the resources we have and waste it without a thought. Why not turn of the lights or televisions or other electric appliances that are not in use? Recycling now is too expensive because there is no key model on how to run a program efficiently. Other countries do it successfully, but in the United States it creates a monetary loss situation to handle the program.

While we, the people, have to own up to some of the problems with the global warming situation, our government should take the lead in doing something about it. We need to act now because when the atmosphere becomes so toxic, it will be too late to do anything about it when it is killing us all.

UCPFUL Ministries

The Failure Of The US Government

Before you get all up in arms without reading this, let me tell you upfront that this is not about Left vs Right or Democrat vs Republican. This is about the general failure overall that needs to be corrected now.

The United States has become a country divided far too long. Turning people against each other over issues that really don't matter while clouding over things that are really important has led to the mess we have now.

It is great the people can reach out to others in time of emergencies. US citizens are reknown for this. We will go to great lengths to help others in need. The problem is where was the government when all this was happening? People, the average citizen, can only do and give so much.

Forget about what side you were on over the war in Iraq for the moment. Consider this -- the National Guard has a duty to serve the country where the need is greatest. They were never meant to do the heavy duty fighting in lands overseas, but to defend our actual shorelines. If trouble were to happen on US soil, they were the ones to fight those battles. Instead, they were far away from home. They were dying off by sensless attacks. And with them went a lot of the helicopters and emergency vehicles which could have been used in this recent emergency. This tragedy has exposed a dangerous loophole in US security.

What if another 911 happened at the time of Katrina? I am thankful it didn't happen, but I cannot rest too comfortably in the fact that our government's emergency response, FEMA, could barely cope with the hurricane and our National Guard has mostly been overseas. A terrorist could have easily taken advantage of that bad situation and made things much worse because we had no way of coping with anything more. We can barely handle it now. If we are attacked any time soon, how would we cope?

What is disturbing is reports of how average citizen volunteers were turned away from going to New Orleans to help in the rescue efforts. How trucks of water from Wal-Mart were also turned away. How ships carrying extra disel feul were turned away. How a group of college students had to fake media credentials to get into the area to save people and drove into town. All this because FEMA would not let anyone without a press pass into the area. How is it the media could come and go, but the buses were not allowed in to take people out quicker?

While the people have been great in dealing with the situation as best they can, the government has not. Before another crisis develops, I hope they can get their act together. There will be more hurricanes and other natural disasters that will reek havoc on the land. If we cannot get past this one, how will we deal with the next one? And of course, what if there is a security breech during this time?

It is time to put partisan issues aside and work to fix the broken system.

Church of UCPFUL

A Farewell To Gilligan

Among the big news of Hurricane Katrina and a typhoon that hit Japan, one of the stories that got buried was the passing on of an Americana icon - Bob Denver.

He was better known as Gilligan from the 1960s television show Gilligan's Island where he played the sweet, lovebale, dim-witted first mate to the Skipper while stranded with 5 other passengers on a deserted island somewhere in the Pacific.

He also played a bit part on The Andy Griffith Show and recurring character Maynard G. Krebs on Dobie Gillis. He was seen a few times on The Love Boat, Love American Style and Fantasy Island. However, most of his television appearances were cameos of him playing himself.

In August of 1998, Denver pleaded no contest to misdemeanor charges of possessing marijuana and was sentenced to six months' unsupervised probation. He was, otherwise, a model citizen.

Bob Denver had surgery earlier this year on his heart. He never really recovered.

May he rest in peace.

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The Hurricane

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, have we learned any lessons?

I watched a report on the BBC news with a professor clucking his tongue and wagging his finger at Americans during this time of tragedy. He said all these poor people who were starving and in need of food, water and medical attention were more concerned about looting goods such as television sets in an atmosphere where they cannot use it nor carry it to safety. He said this is typical of American self-centeredness and we have our priorites screwed up and should worry about our own "third world" country in the South before we try to interfere with other countries.

While part of me is inclined to agree with part of his statement, I could not help but feel outrage at such a blanket condemnation of the whole society. Did he just not see what I saw? I saw churches, businesses, and individuals reach out to help those they could. People who have opened their homes up to total strangers. People lined up to donate food, money and blood.

Did he just not have a clue about how big the United States is and to reach these people at the beginning was impossible? Sure, the government could have acted a bit faster, but the neighboring states did what they could when handling the incoming refugees as well as dealing with the damage has done to its own states. It wasn't just New Orleans that was hit. The devastation was the size of the United Kingdom. The ones who were not submerged underwater could leave the area and get help. Unfortunately, there were many who did not walk away from it.

To say that Americans are all self-centered is unfair. Americans will line up and rally around people in need at a drop of the hat. They wouldn't be interfering in other parts of the world if they did not think in the beginning they were doing it to help others. The government may have hidden agendas when entering into others affairs, but the people supporting the cause are doing it for a purely humanitarian reason. The typical American is not profitting from this interference, but often are the ones laying their lives on the line and many times for no good reason, even if they were duped into it.

There was a criminal element among the suffering trapped in New Orleans. In any big city there will be a criminal element. In this particular situation, they were trapped for days without food or water. Of course those trapped in a criminal mindset were going to take advantage of the situation. This is not just a condemnation of the US, but it could happen anywhere in the world when people are desperate, think they are going to die and cut off from all forms of communication.

Yes, parts of the South are like a third world country now that it has been levelled by the storm. To compare it in normal operation to a third world country is also unfair to those who actually live in a third world country. In the United States a safety net for the poor and disadvantaged. It may not be much of one, but it is there. A third world country does not have it at all.

What we should learn from this event is no one is more powerful than the forces of nature. If something happens to these storm chasers, don't make them into heroes. This is just stupid.

Every city, especially the bigger ones, need to have and rehearse disaster plans before such incidents occur. Many could not leave New Orleans because the traffic was so backed up that no one could move. A better evacuation plan would have save a lot more lives.

Why rebuild a city that is that far below sea level? This is throwing money down the drain. The insured homes will mostly get very little money back because most policies do not cover flood and some do not cover hurricanes. Any future insurance policy will either be so expensive or non-existent. With people setting fires to their homes, fires will probably also be excluded under certain circumstances. A hurricane or a flood will happen again in this region. Due to lack of funds in the national budget, money was already cut which made the system of pumps in New Orleans ineffective to handle the overflow of water. 80% of the city is underwater now. Anything in those areas are completely ruined. With only 20% still standing and in utter chaos, one has to ask, why rebuild there?

As for the rest of the victims in the path of the storm, they will again face hurricane forces as long as they live along the coasts. They knew that when they moved there and built their homes. There is nothing to be done to stop the hurricanes from coming, but they are doing all they can to plan better evacuation techniques and setting up shelters to house people in need.

Americans, as a whole, are a good lot. We have our elements that are downright awful and some evil, but don't blanket over everyone as being the same.

The Preciousness Of A Fleeting Existence