Journal bechthros's Journal: Katrina observations 1
9/5/05
I've been very reluctant to write this kind of thing down. I believe strongly that NOBODY - no matter where they might be on the political spectrum - should be trying to politicize this disaster. It's simply a humanitarian crisis of proportions seen in the US only about once or twice per century. However, I've been noticing so many things (thanks in large part to my friends on Slashdot and elsewhere) about this disaster that don't sit right with me (besides, obviously, the thousands of dead and thousands of traumatized), I've decided I'm going to start making note of them and compiling them.
I'd really like to be clear about one thing: I'm not pointing fingers. I'm not accusing anybody of anything. I'm not trying to place blame - honestly, I think the blame speaks for itself. All I'm doing is pointing out simple observations. I believe one of the best ways we can empower ourselves as citizens is to be aware of what's going on around us, and that begins with observing.
If anyone has direct observations which are in contradiction to mine, please make them known here.
Here goes:
- Thousands of people died in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama, yet, as far as I can tell, not a single flag was lowered to half staff until Chief Justice Rehnquist died. (pointed out by Ceejayoz) CNN was saying today that, starting tomorrow, flags will be lowered for both Rehnquist AND the hurricane victims - many of whom have been dead for a week.
- Apparently, there was a lot of equipment any many workers moved into the flooded parts of New Orleans right before a Presidential press conference, most of which was removed afterwards. This was reported by a US Sentaor, German news agency ARD, and Dutch news agency ZDF. (pointed out by js7a)
- Halliburton has been hired to perform some storm cleanup in Mississippi.
- Evacuation of refugees from the New Orleans Superdome was halted so that the 700 people in the Regency Hotel, who were clean, dry, and fed, could be boarded onto busses ahead of those in the Superdome, who'd been wallowing in their own filth for days. (pointed out by CyranoVR)
- Refugees in the Superdome were locked in by authorities, and those who walked out of the stricken area on foot were forced to turn mack at a military checkpoint. (pointed out by CyranoVR)
- President Bush, FEMA Director Michael Brown, and Homeland Security Secretary Chertoff have all made statements to the effect that help was never asked for, or wasn't asked for appropriately. In fact, Louisiana Governor Kathleen Blanco made this request a day before the storm made landfall. (pointed out by CyranoVR and gmhowell)
- While disaster and tragedy unfolded on the Gulf Coast, President Bush apparently hung out with country singers, strummed guitars, went to birthday parties, and gave speeches about Medicare and the war in Iraq. The author of Hughes for America makes no bones about his political leanings, but all the photos and all the captions are from AP and Reuters, whom I consider to be credible sources. (pointed out by CyranoVR)
- FEMA has apparently retroactively changed its website to say that the date that Hurrican Katrina was first "declared" (whatever that means, it was a hurricane a long time before it hit the gulf) was August 29. Their page previously stated that it was declared August 27, as shown in this cache. (pointed out by Phillip K. Dickhead)
- Citizens of New Orleans were, at one point, chanting "where's George Bush?" The BBC was the only TV network to show it. (pointed out by Siva Vaidhyanathan on Altercation)
- FEMA Director Michael Brown, by his own admission, was completely uninformed of the horrific conditions in the Superdome and the convention center until he heard it on news reports. He also states that he was not aware that both buildings were to be used as "staging areas" until this same news report. It had been reported at least 24 hours in advance of Katrina making landfall that this was exactly what was planned. In fact, he seems to be completely uninformed about many aspects of this disaster.
- According to Republicans, the President's plan for dealing with any political fallout from this catastrophe will be to blame state and local officials.
Again, this is just what I see going on around me. It certainly isn't what I want to see. My thoughts and prayers go out to those poor, poor people. Words can't describe how much they didn't deserve this. Hopefully those still alive have seen the worst of it already.
Minor correction (Score:2)
Cheers,
Ethelred