Weather events are often accompanied by injustice. Yesterday, J.B. wrote about the terrible Johnstown Flood. The tragedy occurred when the dam at the South Fork Hunting and Fishing Club above the industrial town of Johnstown, Pennsylvania game way after an extended period of heavy rains on May 31, 1889. A wall of water 75 feet tall rushed down the Little Conemuagh River before warnings could reach the town. South Fork was owned by prominent industrialists from Pittsburgh, including Andrew Carnegie, Henry Clay Frick and Andrew Mellon. A total of 2,200 people died in the disaster. After the tragedy, a lawsuit was filed claiming that the dam was improperly maintained. The suit was thrown out on the basis that the dam break was an act of God. The victims received no compensation.
An even greater injustice has occurred in the hurricane zone of the Gulf Coast. I am reading Douglas Brinkley’s tome about Hurricane Katrina: The Great Deluge. I am appalled at the actions of people in all levels of government. From the highest levels of the government down to cowardly New Orleans Policemen. Don’t get me wrong, there were lots of heroes at all levels also, although more at the lower levels.
The more I read, the more I develop a Hurricane Katrina Hall of Shame...from reporters who prematurely told the nation that the Big Easy had dodged a bullet...to New Orleans policemen who took their police cars or “borrowed“ new Cadillac automobiles as they fled to Houston...to the Corps of Engineers who did not properly engineer the flood walls...to the shipping industry who insisted on the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet which turned into a speedway for the thirty foot storm surge to swamp New Orleans East...to researchers who did not accurately identify and act on the myriad of threats to the flood defenses...to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, who attended Spamalot as the Big Easy drowned...o Michael Chertoff, who flew to Atlanta for a flu seminar on Tuesday after the storm...to Kathleen Blanco and President Bush, who were less than stellar in their leadership display.
But the kings of the confederacy of dunces...Michael Brown and Mayor Ray Nagin. A Wednesday email (two days after the hurricane made landfall) from one of Brown's aides told FEMA team members that the FEMA Chief was not getting enough time for dinner, since traffic in baton Rouge was horrible and the restaurants were packed. All the while, less than 500 national guardsmen were maintaining an uneasy and dangerous peace at the Superdome. Finally, Ray Nagin. It took until Saturday night for “that hurricane dude” Max Mayfield to get through to Nagin. (The Mayor spent Saturday night out eating with his family. He was conspicuously absent from the Superdome and City Hall in the days following the storm.
And the people of New Orleans just re-elected him. Go figure!
As Brinkley so aptly put it...Katrina was not a natural disaster, but rather a man made one...
An even greater injustice has occurred in the hurricane zone of the Gulf Coast. I am reading Douglas Brinkley’s tome about Hurricane Katrina: The Great Deluge. I am appalled at the actions of people in all levels of government. From the highest levels of the government down to cowardly New Orleans Policemen. Don’t get me wrong, there were lots of heroes at all levels also, although more at the lower levels.
The more I read, the more I develop a Hurricane Katrina Hall of Shame...from reporters who prematurely told the nation that the Big Easy had dodged a bullet...to New Orleans policemen who took their police cars or “borrowed“ new Cadillac automobiles as they fled to Houston...to the Corps of Engineers who did not properly engineer the flood walls...to the shipping industry who insisted on the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet which turned into a speedway for the thirty foot storm surge to swamp New Orleans East...to researchers who did not accurately identify and act on the myriad of threats to the flood defenses...to Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, who attended Spamalot as the Big Easy drowned...o Michael Chertoff, who flew to Atlanta for a flu seminar on Tuesday after the storm...to Kathleen Blanco and President Bush, who were less than stellar in their leadership display.
But the kings of the confederacy of dunces...Michael Brown and Mayor Ray Nagin. A Wednesday email (two days after the hurricane made landfall) from one of Brown's aides told FEMA team members that the FEMA Chief was not getting enough time for dinner, since traffic in baton Rouge was horrible and the restaurants were packed. All the while, less than 500 national guardsmen were maintaining an uneasy and dangerous peace at the Superdome. Finally, Ray Nagin. It took until Saturday night for “that hurricane dude” Max Mayfield to get through to Nagin. (The Mayor spent Saturday night out eating with his family. He was conspicuously absent from the Superdome and City Hall in the days following the storm.
And the people of New Orleans just re-elected him. Go figure!
As Brinkley so aptly put it...Katrina was not a natural disaster, but rather a man made one...
on June 1, 2006, 1:51 am
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