This past week has been unbelievable.  Watching the destruction and complete devastation caused by Katrina is so heartbreaking.  It's hard to believe that something of this maginitude has actually occurred in the United States. 

In 1997 a tornado hit less than a mile from my house.  A whole street was taken out, several of my friends in high school lost their homes, clothes, family photos...  Just losing one street in the town made a huge impact on everyone in our school and the community.  Now that tornado seems like nothing... And I suppose in retrospect it was.  That tornado gave me a healthy respect for what 'mother nature' can do.  But it's hard to fathom a destructive force that was so huge that took out a whole state and has wrought devastation and death to multiple states and whole region...

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One other thing that really has me bothered about this disaster is some of the finger pointing that has occurred.  I could not believe my ears the other day when I heard that the Environmental Minister of Germany as well as Robert Kennedy Jr, actually argued that President Bush was responsible for the Hurricane because of his environmental policies.  First, I think that it's disgusting that someone would use this tragedy to advance their politics.  Second, I think that the idea that we as human beings are actually significant enough to bring about such massive environmental change is proposterous.  While I do believe that we have a responsibility to be good stewards to think that we can somehow cause the nature to behave in a certain way is incredibly arrogant.  And finally, if these hurricanes are caused by human caused "global warming"... which melts the ice caps, how is is that the ocean actually gets warmer??  One theory I heard the other day was that the President must have gone to Africa and waded in the waters, which caused ripples that caused a disturbance in the Atlantic...

At any rate, that has been but one annoyance.  The other is the accusation that I have heard on several occassions is that the slow response to the aftermath of the hurricane was because it 'affected a bunch of poor black people."  Now THIS I find disgusting!  This hurricane wiped out an ENTIRE region of United States. It affected people of all colors and income levels in a way that has not been seen in this country.  And for some to think that our government officials actually distinguish between the rich and poor, black and white during a time like this is absolutely repulsive to me and has no basis in reality.

I do think that the federal government's response was initially slow and inadequate but when one considers the devastation, and the fact that in the case of New Orleans there were actually two disasters, which is on a scale that we have not seen before is it any wonder that it took time to assess just what happened on how much happened??  Watching on the news it took two days just to figure out how much damage was done, let alone figure out that the first responders, which are the ones that we have traditionaly relied on, have also been decimated. 

If anything can be taken from this disaster it is a learning experience.  We have learned that the traditional ways in which we have handled disasters is not effective when there is a large-scale disaster.  State and local officials were overwhelmed to the point of impotence... there was no single authority to proffessinaly coordinate rescue, as well as law enforcement activities in an effective way as has happened in the past.  I imagine that after this disaster efforts will be made to correct the shortcomings that were highlighted by Katrina.

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And on an insignificant note...

Looks like the plans to go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras and a friends bachelorette party are 86'd.

Also, it looks like I may be waiting even longer for that phone call from Southwest... Because flights have been stopped to NOLA's airport as well as slowed down to other affected areas there is some question as to how this will affect the airline.  They are not only loosing business they will also have to deal with the large number of employees that will have less opprotunities to pick up trips.

Well, enough for now. Time to get ready for another day of work.

Chelle, I appreciate what you said. This hurricane situation is a disaster in more than one way from any angle, but placing blame anywhere right now is inappropriate, as is dividing the country into segments of "different types of people". A lot of things should have (could have?) been different about how it was handled, but you know what they say about hindsight...

And for you...I hope things work out for you at Southwest and you aren't kept waiting too long.

Amen to everything you said in the 1st part of your entry!!!
I'm sorry you want get to experience Mardi Gras and that your job is being held up.

Sorry, that supposed to be *won't get to* rather than want get to.

Wednesday, September 7th 2005 @ 8:23 PM (1219 days, 10h, 21min ago)