It's been a year since dawn approached on August 29, 2005, and a nation watching New Orleans from afar breathed a well-deserved sigh of relief because the city had dodged the bullet once again as Hurricane Katrina steered east at the last minute, avoiding the much feared projected direct hit. Coastal Mississippi suffered the full wrath of Katrina. New Orleans' system of federally designed and constructed levees should have been adequate protection from an indirect hit by a Category 3 or 4 storm, like Katrina. But the levees weren't what the Army claimed they were, and they failed catastrophically. It was a separate man-made disaster.
It's natural to want to focus blame, and there's plenty enough to spread around. I even take the unpopular position of laying some on the National Hurricane Center. New Orleans didn't get much time to evacuate. Katrina came up out of nowhere and moved unusually quickly, making a surprising change of direction as she passed over the southern tip of Florida. There were 36 hours between the time the NHC pointed the cone at Louisiana and the time the streets were no longer passable, and it started on a Saturday morning. In that tiny weekend window, they managed to evacuate 90% of the city. Katrina did not do this to New Orleans.
There is no such thing as a place on this Earth that is immune to disaster, and New Orleans doesn't have a monopoly on "when, not if" scenarios. Manhattan, Tampa, Memphis, San Franscico, all share that distinction. Forest fires devour communities and tornadoes obliterate them. We don't just walk away when that happens, do we? Are we doing that now simply because this time the scope is too enormous to grasp? If it's impossible to envision a clear path to recovery, is it just easier to blame the victims and tell ourselves it's their fault for living there and it would never happen to us? That sounds like losing one's soul to me.
The whole country, all the rest of us, the ones who are not living there, are part of the cause of the loss of the wetlands that should have protected New Orleans from storm surge. The Mississippi River has been appropriated for shipping, not just petroleum but goods into and out of the heartland, so the folks who live deep in the country can drive SUVs and buy and sell stuff. The nation has benefited greatly from Louisiana's loss.
Earthquakes, tornadoes, volcanic eruptions, wild fires, tsunamis, floods, blizzards, catastrophic heat, landslides, avalanches and hurricanes are the nature of the planet. We are a nation. It's our duty to face those catastrophies and any accompanying aftermath together, with and for each other. It's our obligation, our national responsibility, and it's immoral to refuse. We're Americans. It's what we do. If we don't, we are not ok.
Wednesday, December 28, 2011
New Orleanians 8/29/06
In the wee hours of Tuesday morning: I am just home in Atlanta after a longer than usual drive from New Orleans. I guess I dawdled, enjoying the quiet time alone. It was a wonderful busy weekend. Friday evening and all of Saturday were reserved for the Rising Tide Conference, which was a huge success, but those details will have to follow later. Adrastos and Maitri have excellent descriptions of the events with pictures or links to pictures and Dangerblond has a detail of some of the most exciting conference action. It's very late. I thank the conference organizers so much for making it happen. I most particulaly thank Dangerblond for her warm hospitality and fine company. I had a great time. After Rising Tide ended, I spent most of Sunday and Monday working with Middle Son on an article for his brother's magazine (see "Shameless Promotion" in the gutter), profiling the lives and business of New Orleans' only surf shop owners, since the Flood. It's long, but I'm happy with the article, and I'll have more about that later, but right now there are more important things.
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