Comments on: Rising waters.

By: A N N A

A N N A — Tue, 06 Sep 2005 20:45:00 +0000

your cousin is heroic– i’m praying for his safety while i share your point of view regarding how this was (not) handled. please let us know if he’s okay?

By: Galactichero

Galactichero — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 03:01:00 +0000

The average person in that area is too black, too poor, and too unlikely to vote for the Bushies to care about them. I’m most amazed that it took FOUR DAYS (and being cursed out by the mayor of New Orleans) for them to get their shit together. If Long Island faced a similar risk, the levies would be WORLD CLASS.

So is your relative out of there yet? One of our secretaries’ family is missing and her parents’ house no longer exists.

By: The Malcontent

The Malcontent — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 17:36:00 +0000

Thanks for the good wishes for my cousin. Sounds like he is going to need them.

My core point is less about whether anyone could build levees high enough and more about the tendency of politicians, and particularly the current administration, to be reactive and not proactive policy makers. What is the point in having tons of truly expert advice if not to use it to prepare?

One cannot prepare for all contingencies, but this one (as Kelman's article makes all too clear) was a matter of when, not if.

So, I agree that New Orleans has been living on borrowed time, but you address the situation you've got, not the one you would like to have ideally.

By: DaB

DaB — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 16:15:00 +0000

While everything Blumenthal writes may be true, I find it really hard to imagine that anything could have been done to stop Katrina’s effects between the time funding dried up in 2003 and the time the storm rolled through this week. Reading Ari Kelman’s explanation of why N.O. was built where it was in the first place (http://slate.msn.com/id/2125346/nav/tap2/), it makes it a little easier to understand that N.O. was living on borrowed time anyway and was to the point where there wasn’t a whole lot more that could have been done to protect the city from a natural disaster; you can only build levees so thick and so tall. And nothing that may have been done to protect it could have possibly been put in place within 2 years even if there was additional funding rather than funding cuts.

It’s easy to sit back and point fingers, but sometimes people have to realize they can’t fight nature and win forever. Even if they did advise a president.

I do sincerely hope your cousin gets out ok.