Apocalypse Strikes City Of New Orleans

Hurricane Katrina washed the Gulf Coast early in the week. It was the worst hurricane in history because it rendered New Orleans nonexistent, as the nation has come to know it.

President Gorge W. Bush made no tangible move for days.

Not on Monday, Aug. 29, 2005.

Not on Tuesday, Aug. 30.

Not on Wednesday, Aug. 31

Perhaps a trickle on Thursday, Sept. 1

Help appeared in its first true format on Friday, Sept. 2, 2005.

As everyone who has watched or read any news reports knows, this is not an exaggeration; help simply did not start arriving until the end of the week. That was incredibly late; unthinkably late; unforgivably late. Hundreds died in the storm.

Thousands died in the aftermath.

And it was both the lack of preparedness and of response in the aftermath where President George W. Bush fumbled. Nothing could prevent Katrina. She was mammoth, churning the whole Gulf of Mexico, battering New Orleans, in Louisiana; Biloxi, Mississippi; Mobile, Alabama; Pensacola, Florida, and all the towns in between and around them. All were grossly damaged by the 140-miles-an-hour winds, torrential rains,

For all, rebuilding is the next task. All need aid and will need it for years to come.

New Orleans is a special case, however. In the best of times it is under the water level of the surrounding lakes and the ocean itself. Without working levees, New Orleans would drown. It is below the level of the Gulf of Mexico, the Mississippi and Lake Pontchartrain. And as was feared, the levees broke during Katrina.

That sent Lake Pontchartrain’s waters rushing into the heart of the city. Those who are seen on television getting rescued are essentially being pulled out of Lake Pontchartrain. New Orleans is unlike any other city in America or the world.

It is a big, sprawling American city with some of the world’s most magical music happening every night within its borders. But not now.

Fishing is also a vast industry, now crippled by the storm.

The Port of New Orleans is key to the Gulf of Mexico. Produce of every kind from the endless fields of the lush American middle pass through here, bobbing up and down the Mississippi and through New Orleans. Port facilities in the area are huge. It is like having the Nile flowing through Egypt, as far as importance goes.

Rivaling the port facilities are, of course, the refineries. About one fourth of American oil refineries are in the Gulf of Mexico. Just how bad the refineries are damaged no one seems to know at the moment. But we are already being told to expect price increases even before any shortages are felt; that is, gasoline that was purchased and delivered to outlets around the nation has somehow magically become more expensive immediately, even though it is the same gas that was delivered before the hurricane.

Oil refineries, fishing facilities, harbor assets all will be quantified, re-engineered, funded and re-built as quickly as is possible, it seems reasonable to assume. But New Orleans has massive problems remaining.

Why did it take four days to get any visible aid to the city?

Why were the levees built to withstand a level 3 hurricane when everyone knew that a category 4 or 5 hurricane could overwhelm them? Why were the surrounding wetlands allowed to deteriorate and therefore hold back far less than the traditional amounts of surge?

Why were New Orleans residents told to evacuate the city when the government must have known there were at least 50,000 people in the city with no means to do so? Why were no buses were provided? There are dozens more questions on the local side that might all have explanations.

But there can be no hiding from the fact that local, state and national officials were aware New Orleans was going to be in the midst of a disaster. Things stopped working the way they should. Everything was chaotic in the Gulf Coast area prior to the storm making landfall, and this should have made it the national administration’s job to jump in and lend a hand – immediately.

At first, there were some words from Bush.

Then there were a few more words.

But nothing seemed to change; there was no federal presence in the Gulf Coast at all. Why didn’t anything happen? Everyone seemed to be waiting for an executive decision, including Mr. Bush. He made some Medicare speeches throughout the country after the storm struck. That took him a couple of days and interrupted his vacation a bit.

Hurricane Katrina must haven’t seemed that crucial, this storm in the South, since it didn’t deflect him from trying to sell his view of Medicare to senior citizens. But then he made the bold move – he cut his vacation by two days in order to go back to the White House, ordering the pilot of Air Force One to fly over the devastation so he could see it.

Such sacrifice.

But this meant little to the people of New Orleans because they were living in a septic pool and their cries and pleas weren’t being heard by Mr. Bush and his administration even though they were being aired on the news shows and written about in newspapers. The people in New Orleans were living in a world without light, without food, without water, without clean clothes, without medicine, without televisions. They knew nothing of Bush’s sacrifice in forfeiting those last two vacation days.

But some people did act fast. There were newspeople on the scene during the storm and after it. And they couldn’t figure out how they could rush right into the city and start reporting the horrors while the U.S. Army, Navy, the National Guard, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), and the various private agencies could not.

Reporters marveled at this throughout Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Finally some troops and food and water were delivered.

Wonderful.

But how many people died waiting? How many people didn’t get medicine in time? How many starved? How many have contracted new diseases as a result of the contaminated water? How many were killed, raped, and robbed during these four days?

Many, many of the people of New Orleans who were left in the middle of the city were black. In the city itself, 70 percent of the population is black. Obviously, that means most of the victims are black people. Nearly all the people holding their babies, hanging out upper floor windows, shouting for rescue or waving for help, were black people.

Now many black people are wondering whether they were simply being ignored.

These questions will take more than a quick dismissive answer, or a shoulder shrug, from the president. Was there – at any time and at any level – discrimination being practiced? For example, were whites treated one way and blacks in another when they went to a ruined store and took something needed for survival?

Didn’t newscasters say the white people were getting food for their families, while blacks were called looters?

Sure there was looting that had nothing to do with survival. But it didn’t matter.

What mattered was helping the foodless people find food.

Who cares if a man of any color steals a television in this sort of situation.

Yet television viewers across the nation watched a uniformed police officer point a shotgun at a looter and scream that he must drop the item. That officer needed one thing more than anything else – leadership.

There was none for him, so cops ended up in their police stations fending off potshots from the brigands with guns.

No leadership for police.

No leadership for anybody, even though the mayor of New Orleans bravely stayed in the city and struggled to provide some sense of order. But he needed help, massive federal help, and repeatedly said so and pleaded for that help.

There was none available Monday, none Tuesday, none Wednesday, none Thursday, until some arrived finally on Friday at the Superdome.

The Superdome. What a pit it had become. It was the place everyone was sent from the floating city. It was filthy, rank with the smell of urine, feces, and death.

Then on Friday, marching in and taking over was Lieutenant General Steven Blum, commander of the National Guard nationwide. "We are coming to save Louisiana’s citizens," he declared. Finally, someone had done what needed to be done four days ago – took charge with resources to back up the authority. To him and his troops and all the other people who helped with money, time and prayers the people of Louisiana have a right to be grateful.

New Orleans cannot, however, be just the Big Easy again.

Its mayor, Ray Nagin, bellowed for help and got words instead of any action. Nobody dared act.

That is criminal.

If ever there were a situation that needed federal investigation it is this one. Bush blew this one, big time. Lots of others did, too. But when it come right down to it, hundreds or more died because George Bush failed to give the orders that would have mobilized federal forces.

That is the one thing a president must do – move quickly, lead the way. Instead, Pres. Bush offered no leadership. None at all.