As some of you know, I spent the weekend down in the Gulf helping victims of hurricane Katrina. The area I was in was about 45 miles inland from the coast, so I'm sure that I did not see the worst of it. But after seeing the devestation of the storm, I think I am now in a better position to comment on the grand-standing and finger-pointing of politicians and of pundits alike:
.
The biggest bullshit coming from partisans on the Left, trying to blame the federal government, and partisans on the Right, trying to blame local governments, is that the response was somehow too slow. Let me briefly explain.
Nearly a hundred miles inland I began to see downed trees. By the time we approached about the sixty mile mark from the coast (we were driving from Jackson, Mississipi, towards the coast--so, say 20 miles outside of Hattiesburg) it became worse. Much worse.
Downed trees lined the road. I presume that the majority of them were blown across the highway during the hurricane. They had been roughly cut and then dragged to the side of the road, . Hundreds of them. No, thousands of them.
Each tree had to be moved just to let traffic flow. Every. Single. One. For mile upon mile upon mile. For hundreds of miles. In every direction. This takes time.
And as lanes were cleared and highways opened, trucks and supplies had to move into the zone at the same time as hundreds of thousands of people were trying to move out.
If getting people out of the zone of destruction was a logistical nightmare, getting relief in was an equally daunting task.
Now imagine that same task, and add on severe flooding. Also, you don't know how deep the water is between point A and point B. Difficult under any circumstances, nearly impossible when such a large area was affected.
I spent most of Saturday and Sunday cutting trees off of people's roofs, sheds, and dog pens. By the time we got to their houses most of the trees had been cut out of the roads and driveways, but this took some time depending on a lot of factors.
One man had at least 20 trees (or more) in his driveway. Big trees. After several days of cutting and dragging he gave up. He finally resorted to tearing down a fence and using his neighbors side yard as a temporary driveway.
Repeat that same story, or one very much like it, a thousand times, and ten thousand times, and a hundred thousand times. Now you begin to see the task at hand. Now you begin to see the problem with blaming any single individual or any single level of government.
If you wish to live in a country that is equipped to handle a disaster of this scale, with no hitches, with no difficulties, and with no casualties, you are wishing for a state the size of which could only be rivaled by the Soviet Union. And even then, such a state would be ill prepared to handle the situation. There are simply too many variables to plan for, too many unkowns, and too many offsetting priorities.
Could some of what happened in, say, New Orleans have been averted had public transportation been provided to evacuate the poor and infirm? Absolutely.
Could the nightmare conditions that arose in the days after the hurricane and flooding have been averted? No way, no how.
To say you know what should have been done now, after the fact, is to say you know the end from the beginning. It is a lot like solving a fourth-grade maze puzzle by drawing backwards from the ending point. You may feel like you beat the puzzle, but in reality you just cheated. And in life, since time only flows in one direction, you must take on each turn without quite knowing if that particular path will get you to the end.
You do not know everything. You cannot solve every problem immediately. You are not a genius because you now know what should have done then.
Natural disasters happen. People die because other people are imperfect and incapable of handling tragedies of enormous magnitude. But all people are imperfect, and no one is up to a task of this size. Replace politicians A with politician B and they may not make the same mistakes, but they certainly will make different ones.
It's time for Republicans to stop pointng fingers at local Democrats, and it's time for Democrats to stop pointing finger at Republicans in the federal government. Just shut up. All of you.
If you must blame someone, blame it on everyone. We all share the single trait that could have averted this tragedy: omnipotence.
Now excuse me while I take the rest of the day to lick my wounds, attend to sore muscles, and enjoy what many in the disaster zone are still cut off from: air-conditioning. Sweet, blessed air-conditioning.
1
thanks for getting your hands dirty on behalf of us who are unable to go there ourselves.
Loved the article.
Posted by: Jonathan at September 19, 2005 12:15 PM (ywZa8)
Posted by: From the Swamp at September 19, 2005 12:18 PM (7evkT)
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Rusty:
Good for you! I'm helping to staff the Red Cross Information line, and will probably be moved to the Emergency Financial Assistance line today, because that's where the bottleneck seems to be. I've got stories, but I need to get to the phone lines right now. Maybe later...
Posted by: Demosophist at September 19, 2005 12:27 PM (g6GlX)
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Thanks for going down there and thank for offering some perspective.
Posted by: ShrinkWrapped at September 19, 2005 01:12 PM (SahF3)
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Way to put your back into it Rusty. A buddy sent me this a while back.
Comment hat tip: Pam
Posted by: Howie at September 19, 2005 01:23 PM (D3+20)
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Rusty, I'll second that emotion on the air conditioning. As someone who grew up in the South prior to A/C, I can attest to the misery that life in the South was before we had it.
A Sunday morning sitting through preaching with a shirt and tie on in the middle of July watching the gyrations of a red wasp and wondering whose hair it would end up in was about the only thing that got my mind off the heat and humidity.
Oh, Rusty, welcome back, and thanks for everything you did for the people on the Gulf Coast. We need more people like you.
Posted by: jesusland joe at September 19, 2005 01:23 PM (rUyw4)
7
Yeah I' so far inland but when the storm came through it was still a tropical storm. Really out of the ordinary. Two trees down and over the road on the way to work. One just North of Etown ILL and one at Dixon Springs. If the rain and wind can take down trees 8 to 10 hrs drive inland i can only imagine.
Posted by: Howie at September 19, 2005 01:29 PM (D3+20)
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Thanks all. I may be headed down there again next weekend, depending on a few things.
Posted by: Rusty at September 19, 2005 01:32 PM (JQjhA)
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There were trees down and major power outages as far north as Nashville, Tennessee. Schools turned out due to flooding.
Posted by: Razorgirl at September 19, 2005 02:19 PM (H+tJ8)
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I have to agree with the Dr.'s assessment of the response. It was a huge disaster and getting that much man power and equipment into a devastated area takes time.
Cutting funding for the levies, though, seems penny wise, but pound foolish. That $71.2 million the Army Corps of Engineers wanted is cheap compared to what it will cost to rebuild.
Posted by: John Gillnitz at September 19, 2005 03:25 PM (eHLUP)
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Thanks for the perspective, Rusty. And thank you for putting up.
Posted by: Brian B at September 19, 2005 04:22 PM (CouWh)
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Sorry, Chicken Hawk.
The U.S. government is far bigger right now than the Soviet's ever were. Nice apology for bush boy though.
bok bok, coward.
Posted by: Lars Gruber at September 19, 2005 05:06 PM (NXi5I)
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There's always one in the crowd, isn't there?
Posted by: Oyster at September 19, 2005 05:15 PM (YudAC)
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As for your conservative t-shirt ad, how about a more appropriate slogan that reads, "I Love My Fake Boobs!"
Posted by: Lars Gruber at September 19, 2005 05:24 PM (NXi5I)
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Give it up. Though there's plenty of blame to go around, you must finally accept the fact that the Feds weren't there when they should have been.
Your argument that our government is too small doesn't fly. Obviously we have more resources than Russia.Donald Rumsfeld claimed that we had plenty of National Guard. If we had competent leadership, they would have responded sooner, no excuses, no rationalizations.
Posted by: Jim Hudson at September 19, 2005 05:31 PM (AlMv0)
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Where do these leftard morons come from? They appear, crap their moronic drivel all over the place, then leave. Back to Kos, maybe? That's the only place I can think of that carries such a heavily negative average IQ as to produce such bastard offsprings of stupidity and arrogance.
Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at September 19, 2005 05:51 PM (0yYS2)
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Rusty, you are right, I have been unfortunate enough to be in the wrong place at the wrong time 6 times in my life, and weathered hurricanes here in NC and in Fl when I was a kid. The root mass from a big live oak can be 15 feet tall. Trees like that need D9's to push around, and take forever to chop into manageable chunks otherwise. And that's just one tree..then imagine, everyfuckingwhere you go. That was Hugo. Floyd was flood city, dead hogs all over.
But, the media has put to much blame on Bush. There needs to be some fingerpointing at local and state governments in La. They have a history of being corrupt and inept, and this hurricane exposed that in a big way.
And I don't give a goddamn if anyone thinks I am racist: New Orleans looked like fucking Port au Prince, after one day. With fucking black po-lice pushing a fucking shopping cart through Wal-mart, "finding" shoes and electronics with the rest of the lucky "finders". Those were not poor starving people looting the WalMart for big screen TV's, it was the cream of Jesse's and Kanye's crop, it be they muthafuckin right to be takin that muthafuckin shit! The hurricane painted the po' downtrodden african americans as a group of people with zero morals and negative accountability.
And then we still have half a nation of ass-fucks like some of the above commenters who can't seem to pull their heads out for a fresh breath and see the light.
Posted by: Mr. K at September 19, 2005 06:30 PM (AoovO)
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We got a Salon.com mention today for this post. That always brings the trolls out. Not that I'm complaining, but you'd think they'd have a better arguement than 'chickenhawk' and 'you're stupid'.
Posted by: Rusty Shackleford at September 19, 2005 08:06 PM (JQjhA)
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Dear Sir,
Back in 1962, I was just a kid during the Columbus Day Storm.
The damage estimates for the storm were conservatively given at 280 million (1.8 billion in today's dollars).
In 1948 the City of Vanport was destroyed. Vanport was the second largest city in Oregon. It was destroyed by a flood. And in the aftermath, claims of racism were prevelant. Oregon was a state where a large membership in the KKK had been established. If you look up the Vanport Flood you'll find more than enough evidence of that fact.
I guess that what I'm trying to say is that a lot of what you're hearing is being fed by the 24-hour news cycle. That's not bad.
But we in Oregon are subjected to winds of 70-100 miles an hour each and every year. You'll never hear it, because we don't have much of a population out here. We've had our share of disaster, but we keep going. We build well and shoulder the cost of our decisions.
When winds carry into my favorite vacation place, St. Maarten, they rebuild. When winds come to my home, we rebuild. We pay for it. You choose where you live. We don't have killer snakes or bugs. We don't have tornadoes. But we do have a responsibility. To take care of ourselves. I guess you don't have to be responsible for your choices if you live in Louisians.
Posted by: OregonGuy at September 19, 2005 10:51 PM (m2tsf)
20
Well rusty, when the posts themselves don't raise above the level of rush after a binge week a little chicken hawk is to be expected. BTW, notice any interesting poll numbers lately?
Hmmmmm????
Posted by: God at September 19, 2005 11:31 PM (SSKLv)
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I'm sure it's tough. That's not the point.
For only one example - how is any of this a reason why Brown only found out about the deteriorating Superdome sitch, on the 3rd day of it's reporting on cable news? Why weren't supplies airlifted in, and people airlifted out, in a specific plan laid out ahead of time, with resources already heading in one hour after the storm had abated?
The fact remains that US Fed responded to the Indonesian tsunami quicker. The US Fed and FEMA both responded to the 2004 Florida hurricane season quicker. So we know they can do better. In New Orleans, they did not.
Nagin, Blanco, Bush and Brown all made mistakes. Nagin is accountable to New Orleans voters, Blanco is accountable to Lousiana voters.
Bush is accountable to all US voters.
Now if Bush had spent the whole 5 days, 2 before the hurricane struck and 3 after, on the phone ordering Blanco to get it together; AND sent in the available hospital ship and other military that were awaiting orders, AND put through the paperwork that would have put New Mexico's Nat'l Guard on the ground maintaining order, etc. etc. - and Blanco had resisted them, while Bush was doing EVERYTHING HE COULD, then you might be able to say he is not responsible.
But Bush thought it was more important to fly out to California for photo ops, eat birthday cake with John McCain, and party on his playtime ranch, than DO HIS JOB and straighten out the sitch on the ground.
If you conservatives and Republicans really believe in accountability, you will find this unacceptable.
Posted by: jim at September 20, 2005 03:03 AM (8II09)
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You are right, Jim. The President of the United States should tell every mayor and governor in the United States exactly how they should wipe their ass, and the federal government should send a highly paid counselor to hold their hand when they do it.
And after all, should we expect a governor and a mayor elected by the caliber of fine folks we saw looting and shooting, and generally complicating the "sitch" on the ground to be capable of making even one correct, timely decision all by themselves? Of course not; they be needin good ole Massa Bush to be comin an' bailin' they ass out the shit.
Posted by: Mr. K at September 20, 2005 06:07 AM (cFl5Z)
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Meanwhile, Bush's wildman government is going to burn hundreds of tons of British food aid instead of giving it to the hungry!
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/tm_objectid=16147117&method=full&siteid=94762&headline=exclusive--58--up-in-flames-name_page.html
BUSH FIRE???!!!
Posted by: Downing Street Memo at September 20, 2005 06:30 AM (VhNDM)
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And all the Bushi-Likudniks must be mad because Samfester is going to destroy ISRAELI pear juice, too.
"There will be a cloud of smoke above Little Rock soon - of burned food, of anger and of shame that the world's richest nation couldn't organise a piss up in a brewery and lets Americans starve while they arrogantly observe petty regulations.
Everyone is revolted by the chaotic shambles the US is making of this crisis. Guys from Unicef are walking around spitting blood.
This is utter madness. People have worked their socks off to get food into the region."
Two slaps in the face to Israel and the UK - straight from Bush's blackjack.
Posted by: Downing Street Memo at September 20, 2005 06:59 AM (VhNDM)
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Jim's post is a perfect example of how liberals expect, no, they demand, ever bigger and more intrusive nanny-state government, kinda like Communist countries have, which are so well run and benefit the people so much with their free education, free health care, and free firing squads. Liberals are incapable of looking after themselves, and refuse to take responsibility for their own actions, yet they want to do the thinking for all of us.
Posted by: Improbulus Maximus at September 20, 2005 02:44 PM (0yYS2)
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Rusty,
As a Bush-hating moderate, I applaud your post, especially how you end it. Ultimately, I have my suspicions about how things could have been done better by many levels of government; not just in the immediate aftermath, but for several years preceding Katrina. But even so, it's a little early to come to any firm conclusions. The fact is, the facts aren't all in. It's going to take a long time to sort through all the information and decide who was responsible and to what degree.
Nevertheless, there are some really ignorant posts here on both sides of the fence. Of course, the interloping Salon-led liberals, tossing off a few disparaging remarks without engaging in any kind of conversation, they are just pathetic. But also, I see plenty of conservative stupidity here.
My favorite is Mr K's rants against black people. How much looting actually occurred in New Orleans, and how much usually occurs in the aftermath of a disaster like this? Like most everyone else, he's content to draw broad sweeping conclusions from a a few scant televised images. Some people really trust their media, I guess. He's willing to say:
"The hurricane painted the po' downtrodden african americans as a group of people with zero morals and negative accountability."
What, all of them? What percentage actually engaged in looting? Ever think that maybe the media's take on the looting was influenced by the racial angle? No? Well, if I'm wrong, show me some numbers. What, you don't have any? I guess that makes it easier to talk out of your ass. I'm glad to know that the internet has such bold rebels against the evil PC empire that they are courageously willing to speak their minds, DAMN THE SENSITIVE LIBERALS, because you're just that kind of freedom fighter. Allow me to stand in awe.
To the far more reasonable OregonGuy, I can only say it's a lot easier to rebuild a country town than an entire city. If you REALLY want them to rebuild it themselves, I hope you're willing to wait a while for them to bring the ports and refineries online, while our gas prices continue to hover at the $3 mark. The point is, things are just different when you're talking about a major urban center; it has national importance. You're talking about hundreds of thousands of displaced people bereft of jobs, homes and infrastructure. It's just not in the same category. To be fair, I wonder whether Oregon contributes its fair share to federal taxes. From what I know, most rural states are beneficiaries of federal tax revenues in so-called blue states. I don't know specifically about Oregon, but I wouldn't be surprised if us New Yorkers are losing money to you. Of course, this doesn't bother me much because we're all Americans, and we're in this together.
Speaking of which, thanks Rusty, for your help with those unfortunates on the gulf coast.
Posted by: Some Fella at September 20, 2005 03:18 PM (k9rhx)
27
I read somewhere that we were able to airlift supplies into Indonesia 2 days after the tsunami hit. Why did it take state and federal agencies 5 days in our own country?
Or have I been misinformed about the response to the tsunami?
Posted by: brainypirate at September 20, 2005 05:05 PM (mJxjw)
28
Rusty, that totally rocks that you did that. I ditto the thanks from those of us who can't get there.
Posted by: Maureen at September 20, 2005 07:41 PM (ny5O/)
29
Rusty,
There were many avoidable aspects of the Katrina tragedy. It was reported on CNN today that FEMA physically denied doctors access to dehydrated patients who later died. That is prima facie criminal negligence.
White House Spokesman Scott McClellan clearly stated just last week that responsibility for FEMA's bungled and criminaly negligent response led directly to "The President".
What we have witnessed was raw government failure - a cruel rupture of the social contract people and the state are bound by.
As many people have died from FEMA's criminal negligence and FEMA responsibility leads to President Bush, it is hig time that the people initiate long overdue articles of impeachment.
Posted by: Collin Baber at September 20, 2005 10:50 PM (cfr2H)
30
Rusty,
There were many avoidable aspects of the Katrina tragedy. It was reported on CNN today that FEMA physically denied doctors access to dehydrated patients who later died. That is prima facie criminal negligence.
White House Spokesman Scott McClellan clearly stated just last week that responsibility for FEMA's bungled and criminaly negligent response led directly to "The President".
What we have witnessed was raw government failure - a cruel rupture of the social contract people and the state are bound by.
As many people have died from FEMA's criminal negligence and FEMA responsibility leads to President Bush, it is high time that the people initiate long overdue articles of impeachment.
Posted by: Collin Baber at September 20, 2005 10:50 PM (cfr2H)
31
The single biggest thing I'm seeing that is pissing me off is that people are blaming other people for an act of nature.
Yes, the Federal response was slow-Bush unquestionably shoved a know-nothing into the job of FEMA head thinking it didn't matter (Clinton had a guy who was experienced in local and state disaster relief).
Yes, the local/state governments had little or no plan-it is typical of Southern politics, same as the last 140 years.
But, and this is important so pay attention, MOST OF WHAT HAPPENED WOULD HAVE HAPPENED NO MATTER WHAT. An enormous hurricane hit the country after years without a really bad one. Things, NATURAL THINGS, went very badly for us.
You can only logically blame Bush or the local/state governments to the extent that they are responsible-the margins between what happened and what might have. And, frankly, those are mighty slim.
Just as humans did centuries ago, we blame people for disasters. Burn witches for a bad crop, burn politicos for a hurricane.
How far we've come.
Posted by: Jon at September 21, 2005 05:09 AM (xzXuK)
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Johnny,
Politico pricks who blocked the poor and the black from getting help are going to pay the political price for it. Evil Bush and his horse-ass minions are to blame 100% for all the levee funding robbery, the delay in aid and more.
Just like my old challenge to the Klanroosters: Show me one picture of a bloated white body in New Orleans, just one, Johnny!
America is the laughing stock of the whole world, as even Commie Cuba couldn't have screwed up so criminally bad. BUSH couldn't organize a drunkfest in a goddamn brewery. He is a fraud, a chump, a chimp and a loser of America's lives. What an indefensible scumbag punk!
Posted by: Downing Street Memo at September 21, 2005 06:49 AM (VhNDM)
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Some Fella:
If so many can infer that the response was slow because the people in the videos are black, it is equally fair to label an entire population based on the behavior seen in the same set of images.
Thank you for enjoying the writing that came out of my ass, as you note with the expected condescension of the prig that you are.
Yes, my posts are sarcastic as hell, because the bullshit is a lot deeper than the flood.
Posted by: Mr. K at September 21, 2005 08:44 PM (m1lCm)
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