Katrina Aftermath
By many accounts the City of New Orleans is still a huge mess. Some things have finally been repaired-- the Port is reopened in full, and the Governor has finally announced a plan for rebuilding. Of course, that's only a plan.
Much of the city is still in ruins-- and the debris continues to fester, six months after the hurricane.
Why?
Why aren't construction crews crawling all over that city? Why hasn't the debris been cleared?
The federal government has authorized unprecedented funding. I would presume that the State is kicking in a couple of bucks. Although the insurance companies are trying to weasel out of paying (surprise, surprise-- shake my hand, you're insured) by claiming the damage was from flood (for which most people aren't insured, and those that are have caps at a few thousand dollars) not hurricane, the bottom line is that they should be paying something by this point.
That there was no plan for a breach of the dikes is unforgivable; the blame can be assessed across three levels of government, across decades of "leadership".
That the pre-storm response was woeful is unforgivable; there I think the blame rests on the City and the State mostly.
That the immediate response to the disaster was horrific should haunt those involved all their days; again, I think the blame can be assessed across all three levels of government.
There is nothing we can do about those failures, except hope that every locality is creating or reassessing its own disaster response plan.
But this nonsense in not clearing the debris, in not rebuilding the water, sewage and power systems; in not rebuilding the neighborhoods-- that's something we can affect, right now. If the State and City are dragging their heels, the federal government should pull out all money until the Governor and Mayor sign off on a "Marshall Plan" type response; Colin Powell as Czar?
If it's FEMA and the Feds still bumbling their way (see the trailers of St. Bernard's Parish), then Congress should be torching them.
Either way, it seems to me that Bush should be leading this reconstruction; in the absence of leadership from the White House, Congress has to step in. Louisiana has already shown it is incapable of providing leadership, moral or otherwise. Our choice is to allow this City to die, taking with it billions of our dollars, or to proactively rebuild it.
I loved New Orleans. And I love big challenges.
In retrospect, you know who we need?
Teddy Roosevelt.
Under Teddy the hammers would be pounding, the City would be a beehive of activity. He wouldn't stand for any bureaucratic nonsense. New Orleans would be alive.
And if the State or the Mayor or Congress had a problem, he would probably respond as he did when Congress dithered on the Panama Canal:
Much of the city is still in ruins-- and the debris continues to fester, six months after the hurricane.
Why?
Why aren't construction crews crawling all over that city? Why hasn't the debris been cleared?
The federal government has authorized unprecedented funding. I would presume that the State is kicking in a couple of bucks. Although the insurance companies are trying to weasel out of paying (surprise, surprise-- shake my hand, you're insured) by claiming the damage was from flood (for which most people aren't insured, and those that are have caps at a few thousand dollars) not hurricane, the bottom line is that they should be paying something by this point.
That there was no plan for a breach of the dikes is unforgivable; the blame can be assessed across three levels of government, across decades of "leadership".
That the pre-storm response was woeful is unforgivable; there I think the blame rests on the City and the State mostly.
That the immediate response to the disaster was horrific should haunt those involved all their days; again, I think the blame can be assessed across all three levels of government.
There is nothing we can do about those failures, except hope that every locality is creating or reassessing its own disaster response plan.
But this nonsense in not clearing the debris, in not rebuilding the water, sewage and power systems; in not rebuilding the neighborhoods-- that's something we can affect, right now. If the State and City are dragging their heels, the federal government should pull out all money until the Governor and Mayor sign off on a "Marshall Plan" type response; Colin Powell as Czar?
If it's FEMA and the Feds still bumbling their way (see the trailers of St. Bernard's Parish), then Congress should be torching them.
Either way, it seems to me that Bush should be leading this reconstruction; in the absence of leadership from the White House, Congress has to step in. Louisiana has already shown it is incapable of providing leadership, moral or otherwise. Our choice is to allow this City to die, taking with it billions of our dollars, or to proactively rebuild it.
I loved New Orleans. And I love big challenges.
In retrospect, you know who we need?
Teddy Roosevelt.
Under Teddy the hammers would be pounding, the City would be a beehive of activity. He wouldn't stand for any bureaucratic nonsense. New Orleans would be alive.
And if the State or the Mayor or Congress had a problem, he would probably respond as he did when Congress dithered on the Panama Canal:
I took the Canal Zone and let Congress debate; and while the debate goes on, the canal does also.
posted by A Red Mind in a Blue State at 7:55 AM
