Friday, September 02, 2005
More excuses from government
Not content with blaming the ones who got behind in New Orleans for their misfortune, there are some elements within the U.S. government who insist they had no forewarning that a hurricane like Katrina could be so devastating. What a load of horse manure!! What is it with governments (be it in India or the U.S.) lying through their teeth to save their arses?
As it turns out, sometime in early 2001, FEMA had assessed the three most catastrophic disasters that the U.S. could possibly face. They were -- a terrorist attack on New York, a category 3-5 hurricane in New Orleans and an earthquake in San Francisco. So, that's two out of three in the 4 years since the report was written. What's more, several reputable newsmagazines and newspapers had outlined exactly what the nightmare situation would look like. This is from a Scientific American issue from October, 2001.
This is from a Houston Chronicle article published in December, 2001.
This second report is almost eerie in its clairvoyance. More importantly, it robs the government of their excuse that they did not expect it to be this bad. No, this was no Tsunami that crept in from nowhere or a sudden terrorist strike. This was a hurricane that had been tracked since August 25th. The preparation for the aftermath was so godawful, it would put just about every third world country to shame. There are no excuses, and I certainly wish the powers-that-be would stop making them or making things look rosier than they are. As Anderson Cooper put it yesterday, it's tough to listen to bullshit when there are bodies lying on the street being eaten by rats. In one of the major cities of the richest, most powerful country in the world!
PS: Mark Fischetti, the author of the Scientific American report wrote an op-ed in the NYT today titled, They Saw it Coming.
UPDATE: Here is yet another prescient article, this one from the National Geographic, published a year or so ago.
So, yeah, never mind the excuses the various branches of government are proferring. This stuff was foreseen by everyone who had studied it, and yes, the government was completely unprepared. How and why remains to be seen.
As it turns out, sometime in early 2001, FEMA had assessed the three most catastrophic disasters that the U.S. could possibly face. They were -- a terrorist attack on New York, a category 3-5 hurricane in New Orleans and an earthquake in San Francisco. So, that's two out of three in the 4 years since the report was written. What's more, several reputable newsmagazines and newspapers had outlined exactly what the nightmare situation would look like. This is from a Scientific American issue from October, 2001.
If a big, slow-moving hurricane crossed the Gulf of Mexico on the right track, it would drive a sea surge that would drown New Orleans under 20 feet of water. "As the water recedes," says Walter Maestri, a local emergency management director, "we expect to find a lot of dead bodies."
New Orleans is a disaster waiting to happen. The city lies below sea level, in a bowl bordered by levees that fend off Lake Pontchartrain to the north and the Mississippi River to the south and west. And because of a damning confluence of factors, the city is sinking further, putting it at increasing flood risk after even minor storms. The low-lying Mississippi Delta, which buffers the city from the gulf, is also rapidly disappearing. A year from now another 25 to 30 square miles of delta marsh--an area the size of Manhattan--will have vanished. An acre disappears every 24 minutes. Each loss gives a storm surge a clearer path to wash over the delta and pour into the bowl, trapping one million people inside and another million in surrounding communities. Extensive evacuation would be impossible because the surging water would cut off the few escape routes.
This is from a Houston Chronicle article published in December, 2001.
In the face of an approaching storm, scientists say, the city's less-than-adequate evacuation routes would strand 250,000 people or more, and probably kill one of 10 left behind as the city drowned under 20 feet of water. Thousands of refugees could land in Houston.
This second report is almost eerie in its clairvoyance. More importantly, it robs the government of their excuse that they did not expect it to be this bad. No, this was no Tsunami that crept in from nowhere or a sudden terrorist strike. This was a hurricane that had been tracked since August 25th. The preparation for the aftermath was so godawful, it would put just about every third world country to shame. There are no excuses, and I certainly wish the powers-that-be would stop making them or making things look rosier than they are. As Anderson Cooper put it yesterday, it's tough to listen to bullshit when there are bodies lying on the street being eaten by rats. In one of the major cities of the richest, most powerful country in the world!
PS: Mark Fischetti, the author of the Scientific American report wrote an op-ed in the NYT today titled, They Saw it Coming.
UPDATE: Here is yet another prescient article, this one from the National Geographic, published a year or so ago.
The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in.
Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment.
So, yeah, never mind the excuses the various branches of government are proferring. This stuff was foreseen by everyone who had studied it, and yes, the government was completely unprepared. How and why remains to be seen.
