Note: Due to the fact that I am not a professional nor am I perfect the following my be erroneous or deficient in some areas. I will gladly welcome any comments.
Recently I went to Louisiana and visited some of the areas that Katrina damaged and destroyed. I was able to visit New Orleans, Slidell (North of New Orleans) and Lakeshore, Mississippi and I was able to talk to people down there doing volunteer relief work. Though the time I was down there was short and I did only a small amount of work, I was able to learn about the character of America.
I learned first of all that Katrina really was a big deal, and still is a big deal. There are still miles of streets without houses on them. There are and unimaginable number of properties where nothing has been done to rebuild the houses that were just removed by Katrina. There are an equally unimaginable number of houses that have to be gutted and repaired. For people to say that Katrina is not still news worthy is to ignore reality, however I can understand some incense at the mishandling of the topic by the media.
I saw the culture and some of what would make a person want to live down there. Shrimp is actually cheaper per pound then chicken in some places down there. Family and friends seem to be closer down there. In New Orleans itself the architecture is very unique. People there are more deeply rooted. All of the above are reasons why many people still want to live there.
Unfortunately I also learned that Americans every where are governmentally dependant – they seem to rely on the government (especially the federal government to get them out of any tight spot. Hurricane Katrina was going to be big – that is what every one was told – they were told to evacuate. Not everyone did. There are two possible reasons for that. Either they were able to go and just did not go, or they were unable to go; either they did not ask for help or it was not given.
It is the local and state government’s job to 1) Evacuate for an emergency. 2) Make sure that local and state emergency workers are prepared. 3) Start the relief effort and maintain it for the first three to four days. None of these was done adequately by states and local governments. Those people who were running the relief effort also failed to allow volunteers to help out, they were turned away when is some cases they were adequately prepared for doing work. NOPD was unable to respond adequately not because the officers went AWOL but because the officers were not supplied to handle the job, thus many of them went AWOL.
For the recovery stage I learned that too many people did not have and good way to recover- FEMA, being a federal agency, is full of bureaucracy and a general waste of taxes and therefore unable to do an adequate job of recovery. It seemed that a community effort to recover should have been present; instead of relying on federal government and volunteer groups from outside that area. The affected communities (families, friends, and neighbors, not government) should have worked together to recover quickly, with outside volunteers as support or backup. It may be that I just missed that part of the recovery effort or that there was no community left, but I think there should have been a greater community left, but I think there should have been a greater community effort than what I saw.
I think that most of the problems that were revealed by Katrina were ultimately from laziness. I realize that I am part of the problem and I am going to work to change that.
Recently I went to Louisiana and visited some of the areas that Katrina damaged and destroyed. I was able to visit New Orleans, Slidell (North of New Orleans) and Lakeshore, Mississippi and I was able to talk to people down there doing volunteer relief work. Though the time I was down there was short and I did only a small amount of work, I was able to learn about the character of America.
I learned first of all that Katrina really was a big deal, and still is a big deal. There are still miles of streets without houses on them. There are and unimaginable number of properties where nothing has been done to rebuild the houses that were just removed by Katrina. There are an equally unimaginable number of houses that have to be gutted and repaired. For people to say that Katrina is not still news worthy is to ignore reality, however I can understand some incense at the mishandling of the topic by the media.
I saw the culture and some of what would make a person want to live down there. Shrimp is actually cheaper per pound then chicken in some places down there. Family and friends seem to be closer down there. In New Orleans itself the architecture is very unique. People there are more deeply rooted. All of the above are reasons why many people still want to live there.
Unfortunately I also learned that Americans every where are governmentally dependant – they seem to rely on the government (especially the federal government to get them out of any tight spot. Hurricane Katrina was going to be big – that is what every one was told – they were told to evacuate. Not everyone did. There are two possible reasons for that. Either they were able to go and just did not go, or they were unable to go; either they did not ask for help or it was not given.
It is the local and state government’s job to 1) Evacuate for an emergency. 2) Make sure that local and state emergency workers are prepared. 3) Start the relief effort and maintain it for the first three to four days. None of these was done adequately by states and local governments. Those people who were running the relief effort also failed to allow volunteers to help out, they were turned away when is some cases they were adequately prepared for doing work. NOPD was unable to respond adequately not because the officers went AWOL but because the officers were not supplied to handle the job, thus many of them went AWOL.
For the recovery stage I learned that too many people did not have and good way to recover- FEMA, being a federal agency, is full of bureaucracy and a general waste of taxes and therefore unable to do an adequate job of recovery. It seemed that a community effort to recover should have been present; instead of relying on federal government and volunteer groups from outside that area. The affected communities (families, friends, and neighbors, not government) should have worked together to recover quickly, with outside volunteers as support or backup. It may be that I just missed that part of the recovery effort or that there was no community left, but I think there should have been a greater community left, but I think there should have been a greater community effort than what I saw.
I think that most of the problems that were revealed by Katrina were ultimately from laziness. I realize that I am part of the problem and I am going to work to change that.
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