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Anyone want to play the blame game? I don't... But I would like to share some of my thoughts on the recent events and all the media hype.
First, the initial evacuation. Many people are questioning why we didn't brings buses and planes, and trains, etc to the area to help in the evacuation effort prior to the storm. Where did this even come from? Ever hurricane season, people are told to evacuate (mainly in Florida), and I have yet to ever see any transportation being brought in to evacuate the area. Why would we do it this time if we've never done it before?
Next, the levee breaches. Although it was talked about prior to it happening, how many people actually thought they were going to breach? As stated from several engineers, the levee system would have had to been fixed many YEARS before now to make it safer. They were designed for a Cat 3 hurricane. So... The Superdome was designed for a Cat 5, and yet it still had severe damage. So who is to say that even if the levees were Cat 5 rated, they would have held? And, there are plenty of previous Republican AND Democratic people would could have (and should have?) fixed this earlier. Money was there, but was used for other projects.
Response time. I have very mixed feelings on this one. Could they have gotten there sooner? Sure. Should they have gotten there sooner? Maybe not... If we had sent tens of thousands of people into New Orleans as soon as possible, they would have made it before the levee breaches. And if that would have happened, how many more deaths would we be dealing with right now? How many lost supplies would there have been? And, its not like people can instantly be there. Even with a few days advance notice, you still have to move people into the area, mainly by interstate roadways. That takes some time. And you can't expect people to get down there without resting. If they did, they you'd have more issues because of less aware/reactive personnel, which could lead to more deaths.
The media. First of all, if there was a mandatory evacuation, why is the media allowed to enter the area. This is one thing that really pisses me off. But what pisses me off even more is the people that AREN'T there that are creating stories from the pictures and initial reports from the field. They can always manage to twist the stories to make everything sound so much worse than it actually is. But even if it is that bad, the media 75% (at least!!) of the time focuses on the bad instead of the good. And its that bad that brings on the critizism of the nation.
Hmm.. what else. No matter how prepared you are, or a "system" is, it is never good enough for the worst case scenario. The Twin Towers were designed to withstand a hit from a plane, but no one ever thought it would need to be designed for a plane full of full and going at full speed. And future buildings won't be either. New Orleans has always been in danger of substantial flooding due to being below sea level, being surrounded by levees and also by a huge lake and river. Yet did anyone ever imagine it actually flooding? Ford currently has a recall on like 3 million SUVs and trucks because a "potential" fire risk. They are offering to fix it for free. How many people will get it fixed? I bet less than 50% because of the mentality "it won't happen to me", or the simple fact that they weren't informed. Is this a governmental issue as well? Should the President act as this as well?
And finally (I think), the recent discovery that we "ignored ground zero". Everyone has been so fixed on New Orleans that they are ignoring all the other areas. Or at least the media is. Parts of Mississippi were hit harder than N.O., yet the area gets a fraction of the coverage that N.O. gets. And St. Bernard parish, an area very close to N.O. was basically ignored by rescuers and the media because everyone (the gov't opposed to Bush?) was so focussed on the devistation in N.O.
I'm sure I will have more.... Reading the news every day continues to lead to more frustration. Not with the government, because I don't necessarily feel it was the US government's fault. I feel most of the fault should be on the government of Louisiana and the local governments. The US Gov't is ultimately responsible for the protection and well being of the nation, but the reason we have local and state governments is to take most of the load off the higher up gov'ts and manage/protect the local areas.
Comment and critizize, and maybe even argue, but don't bash or blame. If I see any comments bashing, they will most likely be deleted. Yeah, I'm an admin and I can do that. But I won't do it just because I'm a Bush supporter. If its a valid comment/arguement, it'll stay. But if its just an outlandish bash, its not needed and will be deleted.
First, the initial evacuation. Many people are questioning why we didn't brings buses and planes, and trains, etc to the area to help in the evacuation effort prior to the storm. Where did this even come from? Ever hurricane season, people are told to evacuate (mainly in Florida), and I have yet to ever see any transportation being brought in to evacuate the area. Why would we do it this time if we've never done it before?
Next, the levee breaches. Although it was talked about prior to it happening, how many people actually thought they were going to breach? As stated from several engineers, the levee system would have had to been fixed many YEARS before now to make it safer. They were designed for a Cat 3 hurricane. So... The Superdome was designed for a Cat 5, and yet it still had severe damage. So who is to say that even if the levees were Cat 5 rated, they would have held? And, there are plenty of previous Republican AND Democratic people would could have (and should have?) fixed this earlier. Money was there, but was used for other projects.
Response time. I have very mixed feelings on this one. Could they have gotten there sooner? Sure. Should they have gotten there sooner? Maybe not... If we had sent tens of thousands of people into New Orleans as soon as possible, they would have made it before the levee breaches. And if that would have happened, how many more deaths would we be dealing with right now? How many lost supplies would there have been? And, its not like people can instantly be there. Even with a few days advance notice, you still have to move people into the area, mainly by interstate roadways. That takes some time. And you can't expect people to get down there without resting. If they did, they you'd have more issues because of less aware/reactive personnel, which could lead to more deaths.
The media. First of all, if there was a mandatory evacuation, why is the media allowed to enter the area. This is one thing that really pisses me off. But what pisses me off even more is the people that AREN'T there that are creating stories from the pictures and initial reports from the field. They can always manage to twist the stories to make everything sound so much worse than it actually is. But even if it is that bad, the media 75% (at least!!) of the time focuses on the bad instead of the good. And its that bad that brings on the critizism of the nation.
Hmm.. what else. No matter how prepared you are, or a "system" is, it is never good enough for the worst case scenario. The Twin Towers were designed to withstand a hit from a plane, but no one ever thought it would need to be designed for a plane full of full and going at full speed. And future buildings won't be either. New Orleans has always been in danger of substantial flooding due to being below sea level, being surrounded by levees and also by a huge lake and river. Yet did anyone ever imagine it actually flooding? Ford currently has a recall on like 3 million SUVs and trucks because a "potential" fire risk. They are offering to fix it for free. How many people will get it fixed? I bet less than 50% because of the mentality "it won't happen to me", or the simple fact that they weren't informed. Is this a governmental issue as well? Should the President act as this as well?
And finally (I think), the recent discovery that we "ignored ground zero". Everyone has been so fixed on New Orleans that they are ignoring all the other areas. Or at least the media is. Parts of Mississippi were hit harder than N.O., yet the area gets a fraction of the coverage that N.O. gets. And St. Bernard parish, an area very close to N.O. was basically ignored by rescuers and the media because everyone (the gov't opposed to Bush?) was so focussed on the devistation in N.O.
I'm sure I will have more.... Reading the news every day continues to lead to more frustration. Not with the government, because I don't necessarily feel it was the US government's fault. I feel most of the fault should be on the government of Louisiana and the local governments. The US Gov't is ultimately responsible for the protection and well being of the nation, but the reason we have local and state governments is to take most of the load off the higher up gov'ts and manage/protect the local areas.
Comment and critizize, and maybe even argue, but don't bash or blame. If I see any comments bashing, they will most likely be deleted. Yeah, I'm an admin and I can do that. But I won't do it just because I'm a Bush supporter. If its a valid comment/arguement, it'll stay. But if its just an outlandish bash, its not needed and will be deleted.
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