After spending the last 48 hours reading and tabulating information about who, where, when, and what went wrong with Katrina relief, I’d like to proclaim myself an expert. That’s right. You see, these days, anyone can be an expert on anything. It doesn’t take much at all, just the cohones to come out and brag about how knowledgeable you are on any given subject.
That said, I know exactly what went wrong with relief efforts in New Orleans. And surprisingly, it had very little to do with submerged busses, broken promises, missing National Guard troops, and most especially the race, economic status, or political preferencs of the victims.
It was a disaster.
There, I’ve said it. When all is said and done. When all the fingers have pointed and tongues wagged. After the dead are buried, the hearings held, the pundits pontifiate and bloggers blog, it all boils down to this; a force of nature that no one could stop raised a mighty fist a slammed it down on a city and people that didn’t deserve it. It’s a tragedy. It’s an act of God so blame him. “Does anyone know where the love of God goes when the waves turn the minues to hours?” is a line from Gordon Lightfoot’s The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald. For both believers and non-believers alike, blaming God is not an option.
So why blame anyone?
The politics of the present demand that blame be assessed not so that things can “improve” the next time Mother Nature decides to sit on several million people and destroy lives and livelihoods but so that points can be scored for or against your foe. Like some macabre and ghoulish game of tag, the right and left in the new and old media – myself included – have been slapping each other back and forth in as unedifying a manner as can be imagined. We have not covered ourselves in glory over this tragic episode in our nation’s life. The world is watching wide eyed (and not without a little fear I’d wager) at the spectacle we’re making of ourselves. The scenes of devastation are bad enough. But the glimpse into the pit of hell given to us by the humans who turned into animals stalking their prey like the super-predators we once were has reminded us all that we are still a relatively new species, anthropologically speaking and the thin veneer of civilization we wear can be ripped to shreds by the exigencies of circumstance.
But even the descent of New Orleans into madness was not a deliberate act but rather the consequence of our choice as humans to gather ourselves into communities and, despite every natural impulse screaming at us to do otherwise, try and live together without attacking and felling every stranger that crosses our path. I know there are many who reject this Darwinian view of our species on either anthropologic or religious grounds. But when otherwise civilized human beings – people who just a short while ago you could have walked past on the streets of New Orleans and not been worried about being shot or raped – are turned into gun-toting maniacs, looting and pillaging in a frenzy of blood and lust for booty, that behavior cannot be laid at the feet of a Mayor who might have frozen up or a Governor who may be incompetent, or a FEMA director who could be clueless, or a President who perhaps doesn’t care.
The blame, dearest readers, lies in what Mother Nature did, not in what humans are capable of doing.
This is what a major disaster does. Katrina’s winds didn’t just turn once sturdy dwellings into a jumble of wood and masonry. They also blew away the rickety structures of government that modern humans have come to depend on so heavily to protect us from our own base natures. Would it have been possible to avoid this catastrophic loss of dependency?
I’m sure whatever commission or Congressional committee that investigates the response to the disaster will assign blame to someone or something. That will be the purpose of such a body. But as we’ve recently seen with the 9/11 Commission, politics will be unavoidable. Even in relatively peaceful times where comity reigns and the rush to play “gotchya” games with the nation’s disaster preparedness would be resisted with a little more vigor, the intrusion of partisanship could be minimized but never eliminated. It is the nature of democratic government. Deal with it.
What we should be worrying about is something that any sophmore in high school who has taken “Introduction to Geology” could tell you about; that the earth has seen much, much worse. Back in 1811, the biggest earthquake to ever hit the north American continent struck along the New Madrid fault causing the Mississippi River to actually change course and run backward. And, as physicist Louis Alvarez observed when looking for the meteor strike that may have wiped out the dinasours 60 million years ago, “Have you ever noticed how round the Gulf of Mexico is?”
The list of disaster unthinkables is a long one. A volcanic island in the Canary chain could have half its surface slide into the ocean causing a mile high tsunami that would wash over the eastern seaboard of the US as far inland as the Appalachins. A mountain sized meteor could smash into the Pacific Ocean causing waves to lap at the foothills of the Rocky mountains. A super volcano could erupt in Yellowstone covering half the US with a layer of ash and blocking the sun for months. A large chunck of the Antarctic glacier could slide into the ocean and cause hemispheric catastrophe.
How about something more bizarre? How about a nearby star exploding into a spectacular supernova that would light up our night sky as bright as day…at least until the force of the explosion arrived a short time later to rip the atmosphere away from the planet anhililating all life. Or suppose our stable, reliable sun were to suddenly experience a hiccup and burp a massive solar flare toward earth that would vaporize us in about an hour and a half?
Our puny little efforts to shield ourselves from nature’s fury by “planning” for such calamaties either shows us to be drunk with hubris or insanely optimistic. Therefore, don’t the questions we will be asking our leaders in the inevitable hearings to follow strike you as just a little unrealistic? Where were the busses Mr. Mayor? What about the Guard Madam Governor? What could you have been thinking, Mr. FEMA Director? Do you feel our pain, Mr. President?
These may be good questions but they’re beside the point. At the end of the day, when all is said and done, will we really learn anything that will help us avoid a calamity like this again? Every single disaster we hear “We’ll do better next time.” And every single time that “next time” comes, we fail miserably and utterly to protect people from the catastrophe. It still takes time for rescuers to reach trapped people. They are sometimes too late to do anything. People go hungry. People are thirsty. People still lose everything.
May I suggest a new way to approach these disasters? Instead of waiting to pounce on the next President for not reacting the way that you think she or he should react, perhaps we should bend every effort toward simply acknowledging there are some things beyond our control and going from there. Sure, preposition as many supplies and equipment as you think best, for all the good it does. Even with a minor hurricane, thousands of people will still go hungry, still go thirsty, still lose their homes, and people will still die.
The politics of disaster have changed. If you on the left want to play this game, I daresay you will be as livid as we on the right are when there’s a Democratic President faced with something even half as devastating as Katrina and you find every move questioned, every scrap of food delayed a cause for screaming, and every death an occasion for crocodile tears.
They’re suffering in New Orleans. And both the leaders and the led could benefit by using a little perspective. The enemy is Mother Nature. And as everyone knows, you can’t fight Mother, you simply get out of her way.
1:08 pm
Excellent. And so was the timeline, Rick.
2:53 pm
Why is it all about New Orleans? What about the surrounding parishes? And the people still waiting in Mississippi?
3:07 pm
[[[ And as everyone knows, you can’t fight Mother, you simply get out of her way. ]]]
Hence the conclusion of the Hurricane Pam exercise and its corresponding impact upon the New Orleans emergency plan:
Evacuate.
3:26 pm
“So why blame anyone?”
Because those responsible for the disaster may not be up to rebuilding the city again: On the Levees of New Orleans.
4:22 pm
Rick,
The biggest expert complainers that would “just send in the Guard” are the same voices calling those in support of Iraq chicken-hawks. What about lack of body armor, they would just send in the police and Guard into unknown danger. How little “planning” they advocate for the risk of others.
4:41 pm
I don’t think I’d want to go in there and rescue anyone either with people shooting at me. But that’s just me.
I have a friend from Louisianna and he just went back in and he is sorrowful. He wants to leave and probably will. He made a good point when he told me how the MSM is protraying the disaster and it being like a 3rd world country. My friend says, “no, it’s not like a 3rd world country because in a 3rd world country they are nice to each other.”
7:32 pm
The nail on the head
7:52 pm
The article is good in the sense that you compel everyone to just get along. You are correct in saying that regardless of the talking heads people will still suffer and it is those people that need our help now. I disagree with the statement that God is not to blame however. As a believer, I have to assume that an all-powerful God allowed this disaster to occur and happily takes any and all blame for the results. My God was not taken by suprise by this hurricane. I have to believe that there was a higher purpose as to why this happened and I also have to believe that it may not be in His will for me to ever know what that purpose was. Once again, great post, very thought provoking.
11:29 pm
Exactly. It was a disaster. Disaster causes chaos. Chaos disrupts order. Order takes time to restore.
I keep thinking that there is a remarkable relief effort being made in the whole region and the standard to compare to is not writing on paper but the reality of Monday morning.
1:30 am
Quotha
After spending the last 48 hours reading and tabulating information about who, where, when, and what went wrong with Katrina…
6:01 am
Breakfast: 9/7/2005
Try one of these specials with your breakfast: Beth Beulah Mae hosts Bonfire of the Vanities. Uh, White Trash Wednesdays. Uh, both. Right Hand of God offers the usual explanation. Right Wing Nut House knows what went wrong. Public Eye
10:20 am
[...] cs of Disasters (or “Mother Nature Is An Independent, Fiercely So”) Right Wing Nut House » I KNOW WHAT WENT WRONG: Politics served up with a sm [...]
1:20 pm
1000 year perfect storm
The folks that surmise that New Orleans got a break, and were spared the worst, are wrong as I see it. They say the storm weakened, but of course it did as it came over land. New Orleans is well inland. This was the 4th lowest recorded pressure in history as it approached, and it was huge and fairly slow moving. Forecaters I read were surprised how well it was holding together as it came in. This powerful a storm occurs once in maybe 20 years. (of the other 3 low pressures, one was 1935)
They say the storm veered away at the last moment, but I think this is like a top hitting a wall. As the storm came across land, the north part got some traction on the land. And actually, the winds weren’t the devastating part, it was the surge of course. The nightmare scenario as I understand, had the track go a little east of New Orleans, where the strong winds from the left side of the storm would be from the north, pushing water out of Lake Pontchartrain, over the levees, and into the city.
So if I say this hit within 10 miles of the “perfect nightmare scenario” spot, then divide all the landfall coastline into 10 mile “target zones”, we can figure the odds of it hitting this one. Andrew hit the west side of Florida. Gilbert hit the Yucatan, Camille hit MS … just call it 100 zones for simplicity. So the odds of a storm this strong hitting just to the east of New Orleans are 20 times 100 equals one in 2000. The city has been there since early 1700 with no record of such a storm, so actual history shows one in 300 years if that is correct.
That is little comfort to those that lost homes or loved ones, but it does change the perspective, and maybe puts pretty high up in the incredible natural disaster category. All life saving projects are based on a cost/benefit analysis … protecting from a once in a thousand year event like this is seldom practical. Even at that, if this one (recently upgraded) levee hadn’t failed, things may have been much better, though I think New Orleans east may have filled anyway. Early shots from there showed water pouring out of New Orleans East, over the levee.
Bill
4:07 pm
[...] cs of Disasters (or “Mother Nature Is An Independent, Fiercely So”) Right Wing Nut House » I KNOW WHAT WENT WRONG: Politics served up with a sm [...]
4:27 pm
Wow! It’s amazing to me that you can deny ALL the facts. I am impressed by your plea for us to all get along, but, if someone lets my family perish while on vacation, I’m gonna be real pissed off! Not at Mother Nature mind you, but at the morons who let it happen.
5:01 pm
Katrina
A couple of well written entries on Katrina I thought I’d pass along:
Katrina Response Timeline
and more to the point, I Know What Went Wrong.
...
5:04 pm
Umm, no. Clearly the events were of natural origen. Thank heavens we humans rarely do such damage. But the response to it was completely human, and in the case of Bush’s people completely inadequate. He looked and acted like an idiot. His people were incompetent. And they made it all worse by acting insensitive and above it all. You seem to have missed the perspective of the people on the ground in New Orleans and Mississippi. To them the response was a disaster, a man-made disaster.
5:14 pm
True it was a disaster, but those of us with a brain saw it coming, knew to get out of the way. It is not like a tsunami where you have an hour to prepare, we had 3 days. I know we got run over by Katrina.
With hurricanes, preparing and executing your plan is everything. Playing the odds is a losing proposition. Local governments provide the plan, shelters and the transportation for the indigent.
I doubt those that don’t live in hurricane country know what is really required and how the citizens and government should react. For those that don’t ask yourself when the earthquake strikes CA, as it did in 1989, who you gonna call—911 or FEMA.
But you are right, hurricanes cause disasters. Those of us living in Florida are thankful Jeb Bush is governor and not some stooge from LA.
Here you go, look it up on Sen Landrieu’s own website.
Blaming Bush is so lame.
8:40 pm
This was an incredibly written piece and I truly enjoyed the amazing Katrina Timeline. However, I have just one small problem. You state the following:
“...But when otherwise civilized human beings – people who just a short while ago you could have walked past on the streets of New Orleans and not been worried about being shot or raped – are turned into gun-toting maniacs, looting and pillaging in a frenzy of blood and lust for booty…”
This storm did not turn people into rapists, murderers, and gun-toting maniacs. People chose to be those things before a hurricane named Katrina came along. A five year old girl’s body was found, her tiny throat slit, in the convention center in New Orleans. Why?
This storm and the ensuing criminal chaos wasn’t created by the failure of politicians to provide food and water. Those people CHOSE to do bad things because they have hate in their hearts. The vast majority of the citizens of New Orleans who were trapped in the city killed and raped no one. There is no excuse for that type of behavior and no amount of desparation that justifies it.
10:54 pm
Wholeheartedly agree with you. There is chaos after a disaster. People are going to drop balls. Terrible tradegies are going to occur. It’s the nature of major disasters. Left and right mudslinging is really not going to solve anything. Plans and structures must be modified to ensure better performance in the future. It’s almost as if American people expect everyone to be perfect and everything to work perfectly. Well, they aren’t and they don’t.
12:59 am
Here Here ! As you say no one caused Katrina. It was a “natural disaster†with only God to blame if anyone. I have my doubts though that an all merciful God would inflict this on any of his creations.
All governments, businesses, humans in general will make mistakes. Every time a mistake is made, the real metal of any organization or individual is how they respond and make things right. The restoration of the current disaster by all accounts is going well. The days to come will decide what America is made of. I for one think in the coming months, America will again show the rest of the world why we are the leaders of the free world and why we should continue to be the leaders of the free world.
11:54 am
Katrina was a natural disaster. The levees were a man-made disaster. The Superdome and Convention Center debacles were man-made disasters.
You may be comfortable with America being so weak we cannot evacuate or drop water to dying people in a major American city.
Maybe it’s o.k. with you because most of the people were black.
But most of us know we can do better. Hopefully before your home town has a disaster.
12:00 pm
You, sir, are a dunce.
“Drop water” where? At the Superdome? And have 25,000 people rush out to get it and have thousands killed in the melee?
I guess that means you want to kill all those “black people” because the death toll that would result from implementing your crackpot idea would kill more people than the hurricane ever did.
And you’re right…I’m a effing racist. Kill all the black people! Kill all the black people!
To quote that great liberal philosopher Bugs Bunny: “What a maroon!”
7:51 pm
Rick you are always brilliant, and now you are not only a brilliant blogger, but an expert as well. Cheers Amigo, you done good.
3:50 am
I’m assuming you’ve never done rescue and recovery.
When you are faced with a situation of people rushing, you “overdrop” meaning you drop somewhat far away and you drop more than they need.
Every single incident analysis has shown that in the first few drops there will be rushing, hording and chaos. Then when the crowd gets the idea that more is coming, they will distribute. The strong bring extra supplies back to the weak who were unable to compete in the inital struggle.
The idea that you don’t drop water to dying people because it might cause a stampede is simplistic, and juvenille and it shows you don’t know what hell you are talking about.
3:58 am
1. The people were not dying. Distressed? Yes. Angry? Yes. Dying? No.
2.Perhaps you could explain why Oxfam and other aid groups like USAID only make air drops of food where there is local control by troops?
So much for “simplistic and juvenile”...unless you’re talking about yourself.
12:48 pm
Friday Gatling Blog
Lock, load, ready to go!