I'm sitting here listening to jazz radio station WNCU on the internet. The Dirty Dozen Brass Band are belting out a joyous, repeating chourus, "Big Easy!!! Big Easy!!!", and it's breaking my heart.

Of all the rest of the tragic global catastrophies (natural and manmade) occurring this year, this one has flummoxed me. I NEVER thought that I would see an entire city evacuated.

Can anyone offer some rational optimism, share their pictures, or memories?

I stayed 2 nights in the IYH hostel in New Orleans in '90, but never had a camera. I met someone on the street who showed me around, (best lunch spot I ever been to in a house(!!!) that was converted into a sould food shack), his house had been home to Truman Capote and the garden was a magic, overgrown sanctuary from the teeming city streets.

I can't imagine what's next. It will have to be rebuilt, how can it not? Could there be a brighter future for "section 8" (public owned) housing as a result of this?

Respectfully,

greggV

http://bldgblog.blogspot.com/2005/09/katrina-1-levee-city-on-military.html

Analysis on the catastrophe from an informed blogger (with figs).

I live on the gulf coast to the west of New Orleans: our city is now home to thousands of displaced NO residents. Many businesses are moving here and furthur west to Houston; most will never return to Louisiana.

I spent quite a bit of time in the City as we had business partners in the French Quarter. My favorites were [are] chicory coffee and beignets from Cafe Du Monde ( http://www.cafedumonde.com/ ) and Aunt Sally's pralines ( http://www.auntsallys.com/ ). It does not appear from google maps that that part of the quarter suffered much flooding ( http://maps.google.com/maps?q=new+orleans,+la&ll=29.956849,-90.061820&spn=0.007850,0.016654&t=e&hl=en ) but who can tell about wind damage. It ain't over yet.

As far as "rational optimism" goes, there is not much to be had.

"I can't imagine what's next. It will have to be rebuilt, how can it not?" - I'm not sure that I agree. How can the federal government justify spending Hundreds of Billions of dollars to rebuild a city in a literal hole (21 feet below the level of the Mississippi River)? No insurance company will EVER write a flood or property policy in that part of the state again, I'm betting. I'm not trying to be glib or pessamistic, but building is my business and I don't forsee a lot of it happening. I do not know what will happen to New Orleans going forward: I do know that it won't be like the old one.

Here is the opinion of the NAHB.

http://www.nahb.org/news_details.aspx?newsID=1572

Their view isn't very optimistic on the new build front.

I was a VISTA volunteer (briefly) in the mid 90's and we were the only ones who could do lead paint removal because the Federal Govt. was underwriting our insurance. All the public health heads said that no contractor could do the work, listed as hazerdous, because of the insurance costs. So, I see your point about the denial of coverage, Dan.

I would think that in this situation, with so much at stake, there might be a case for legislation mandating coverage in order to get people back into their homes and restoring normalcy.

I forsee big HAZMAT and salvage contracts. Beyond that, I couldn't guess. I'm not a civil engineer. But surely, a challenge to rebuild and relocate will be met by the resouces and will power. People are still living on the fault lines of California, under the active volcanoes of the world over, and in low lying flood plains from Bangladesh to Biloxi. Could it be that there just needs to be as much money thrown into this effort as is being thrown into other, less contructive (literally) ones?

I think I walked by that cafe you mentioned, it had a famous patio area, yeah? And, you know, I never had a macaroon or a praline until visiting the French Quarter.

gV

New Orleans KMZ FILE (http://bbs.keyhole.com/ubb/download.php?Number=97127) . Opens in google earth and satellite imagery refreshes every 2 secs. What can I say... this is very impressive. Have a look for yourself...
I must agree with you greggV, people are still living in hazardous areas all over the world. And California seems to be a 'good' example... :(

I was fortunate to sit down and have a cup of coffe with beignets at Cafe Du Monde some years ago, just great. I hope they're back soon.

I was just re-reading last monday's "day after" newspaper where it quoted a man walking his dog in the French Quarter saying it was not too bad, definitely not the big one. Louisiana governor told people not to return, levees broke. Days later you hear the news and it seems that New Orleans has become a war zone. Crazy.

Found on the net, from TIMES...

I think the main difference between areas prone to flood around the world and here in the USA is the issue of liability. Most of America is not used to floods of this magnitude ( states that lie along the Mississippi River further north do see frequent flooding but certainly not at this level ) and our society seems to be very prone to blame anyone beside themselves for anything bad that happens to them. Louisiana in particular has fostered a culture of welfare and big government that meets people's needs through our politics of the last 70 years and now we must deal with it. On a bright note, I am thankful at the outpouring of help and aid being brought to bear at the local city levels where the displaced are now residing.

I hope I'm not being too short sighted and/or too USA-centric in my viewpoint, but I just can see a ton of lawsuits blaming everyone from the federal, state, and local governments and insurance companies if they encouraged people ( financially, emohionally, materially ) to resettle in a known flood zone BELOW SEA LEVEL - I just cannot see them taking that chance. I also don't think the government can mandate a company to assume liability against their policies. I do believe that there will be suberbs and outlying areas (kenner, metarie, etc.) around NO and industrial sites (port, oil fields) that will be addressed but I fear that the occupied areas within the 100-year flood plain are things of the past. I don't know how they will keep people from [re]developing there short of claiming the land as federal property - who knows?

I was just re-reading last monday's "day after" newspaper where it quoted a man walking his dog in the French Quarter saying it was not too bad, definitely not the big one. Louisiana governor told people not to return, levees broke. Days later you hear the news and it seems that New Orleans has become a war zone. Crazy.

I was watching the news the day of the storm and one of the big tv show reporters was showing his video of the storm and then him walking down Bourbon Street afterward pointing out the shutters damaged, a street sign bent, etc. and saying that it was not bad at all.

The next day, the same guy is wading around in 5 feet of water pointing out the tops of cars in the water - no one expected the levees to break. The mississippi river is 4 feet above the lake level. If one of those along the River breaks, it's over. I hope that they can stabilize the levees before long.

We traveled toward New Orleans today and back and there were constant convoys of Army reserve vehicles stacked high with rations, bottled water, generators, etc. I also saw an awful lot of civilain cars heading east with gas cans and bottled water strapped on top.

I was just hearing the results of a survey by the United Nations relief fund:


For every dollar spent on catastrophe and humanitarian relief the developed countries spend an average of 14 in Military armament!

The USA tops the list of course, 26 U$ on armament for every dollar on disaster / humanitarian relief.
This is coming to light of course due to the late response to the Catrina catastrophe.

There is enough weaponry to kill every human being 40 times, yet we cannot give dignified living to every one!:(

Not that I support the high funding in military and also we don't know exactly how that analisys has been carried out, but the military are the main characters in helping civilians in these cases.
So the comparison between funding of each might not be as drastic, but it definitely is not how it should be.

Not that I support the high funding in military and also we don't know exactly how that analisys has been carried out, but the military are the main characters in helping civilians in these cases.
So the comparison between funding of each might not be as drastic, but it definitely is not how it should be.

The study says the expense in ARMAMENT, not in the army as a whole.

I don't see how weaponry might be used in this case...

I don't see how weaponry might be used in this case...

unfortunately it seems that the shoot to kill policy with looters is an example. - shooting people who are trying to get water and food seems just plain wrong to me.

The only people I heard they shot were shooting at engineers trying to rebuild a levee. It seems some criminals have made a way of living in without police order.

There have been reports of crimes including rapes. I read a report from a newsperson fleeing the area at night and getting shot at and persecuted by criminals with weapons mounted in vans. I have seen footage of persons looting gun stores.

I would like to hear from someone in the area, but it seems that there is a need for weapons to bring the area back to civilization.

I was just hearing the results of a survey by the United Nations relief fund:


For every dollar spent on catastrophe and humanitarian relief the developed countries spend an average of 14 in Military armament!

The USA tops the list of course, 26 U$ on armament for every dollar on disaster / humanitarian relief.
This is coming to light of course due to the late response to the Catrina catastrophe.

There is enough weaponry to kill every human being 40 times, yet we cannot give dignified living to every one!:(

It was interesting to watch a news cast / interview this morning about humanitarian aid world wide. It was stated that the US are the single biggest contributor to humanitarian aid world wide. Howver in comparison to GNP it is well down the list which is actually headed by Norway.

It was interesting to watch a news cast / interview this morning about humanitarian aid world wide. It was stated that the US are the single biggest contributor to humanitarian aid world wide. However in comparison to GNP it is well down the list which is actually headed by Norway.

The US is the biggest contributor to almost anything considering its size of course.
I didn't mean to criticize the USA in particular, specially in front of a catastrophe like this one. I was just reflecting on the way things are in our world.

I apologize if my remarks have hurt some national feelings.

I've been skimming through the City of New Orleans "Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan" at

http://www.cityofno.com/portal.aspx?portal=46&tabid=26

It is interesteing to note that this document which was prepared for Katrina like events, does not appear to have been followed - at all. Read through Annex I on hurricanes for instance.


The safe evacuation of threatened populations when endangered by a major catastrophic event is one of the principle reasons for developing a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan. The thorough identification of at-risk populations, transportation and sheltering resources, evacuation routes and potential bottlenecks and choke points, and the establishment of the management team that will coordinate not only the evacuation but which will monitor and direct the sheltering and return of affected populations, are the primary tasks of evacuation planning. Due to the geography of New Orleans and the varying scales of potential disasters and their resulting emergency evacuations, different plans are in place for small-scale evacuations and for citywide relocations of whole populations.

Authority to issue evacuations of elements of the population is vested in the Mayor. By Executive Order, the chief elected official, the Mayor of the City of New Orleans, has the authority to order the evacuation of residents threatened by an approaching hurricane.

All I can ask after viewing this is "Why wasn't this followed"? The mayor is now yelling and screaming at everyone he can about how slow FEMA has been to fix New Orleans' problems, yet he didn't execute his most important task as Mayor which is to safeguard those under his care.

The person responsible for recognition of hurricane related preparation needs and for the issuance of an evacuation order is the Mayor of the City of New Orleans.

Nagin is of course now calling for a complete evacuation of the City.

Any inquires, such as those called for by Nagin, needs to start at his door, provided of course that the CIA doesn't kill him first -

http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=46134

Food NOT Bombs! is the best name for an "organinzation" I ever heard.

Back in the mid-20th century alot of very smart people with superior design skills were working out how to solve global hunger and ensure that food, shelter and other basic human necessities were evenly distributed to everyone on this planet. They really thought it was going to happen. I've read only some of Bucky Fuller's work and he wasn't a kook, he just believed that if a global war could be waged, why not a global peace.

Why not indeed?

I'm not going to start playing the blame game. But I do think that when a mayor of any city the size of New Orleans issues an evacuation order (which mayor Nagin did do before the hurricane landed) then such a serious gesture deserves the IMMEDIATE attention of every possible agency and executive with the resources and power to effect rapid and orderly action. This was clearly NOT done, and I'm all for finding out why in order to prevent such costly mistakes in the future.

The events of Katrina have been truly shocking. The course of events has been more akin to a disaster movie or computer game . While the USA is fully extended in Iraq with their focus elsewhere this sucker punch is all the more tragic. The mayor as you say is now zig zagging in the cross hairs no doubt !
The built enviroment will surely adapt now. Large scale civil engineering works will follow. The USA i always thought had good water management and had adopted the storm drain perhaps better than anyone .
In this time of changing weather systems it is a lesson for us all in a worse case scenario. In the midwest of america hurricane alley exists from land clearance and intensive farming (dorothy). These natural disasters are starting to look like non random events so is the prophecy of global warming coming true ? Is this the start of the norm ? Housing will be moored boat like in the future and citys will exist stilted over flood waters ? Or is the power of the media bringing us disaster news and sensationalism in more shocking realism ? Only the future will tell , hold onto your braces ! Definitely more storm drain car chases .

An interesting point I saw raised is whether NO should be rebuilt where it was at all. Originally, it was on low-lying coastal land, but with the re-routing of the rivers and building of canals, it has subsided until 90% of New Orleans was below sea level. Now in the Netherlands, where there are no other options, it makes sense to build in an area like that. Does it make so much sense in the US? Surely it would be safer to build a New New Orleans, in a safer location (ie. 1 m above sea level i nstead of 3 m below)?

?eter

An interesting point I saw raised is whether NO should be rebuilt where it was at all. Originally, it was on low-lying coastal land, but with the re-routing of the rivers and building of canals, it has subsided until 90% of New Orleans was below sea level. Now in the Netherlands, where there are no other options, it makes sense to build in an area like that. Does it make so much sense in the US? Surely it would be safer to build a New New Orleans, in a safer location (ie. 1 m above sea level i nstead of 3 m below)?

?eter

I'm not exactly sure that that is what will happen, for a couple of reasons. Firstly, New Orleans is greatly steeped in culture and historical value; considered as it is the home of Jazz, creolle, cajun culture, and typical Southern charm. Even as it is flooded now it still holds a great deal of Sentimental value to America as a whole; so much so that the thought of rebuilding another New Orleans IMO simply wouldn't pass. Secondly, the gulf region as many well know is the gateway to a lot of imports and oil refinfery and oil processing facilities for all the oil rigs in the gulf area, so the economic significance cannot be underplayed. Of course one can always relocate the Port and refinery facilities elsewhere along the gulf region, but the cost to underwrite such a venture over the long term, in terms of infrastructure to be replaced and built, and the protocols to be revised, would prove to be rather prohibitive and ultimately self-defeating.
There are many examples all around the world where a destroyed or devasted city was soon re-populated from its core or within close proximity of where it once stood, and this is what I believe will happen to New Orleans as well. Don't forget that the biggest reason that this disaster was so catastrophic in magnitude was because the Levees, which were built at the turn of the century for category 3 storms, failed, when a category 4 storm hit. There's nothing surprising about that, other than the fact that the city and State officials neglected to upgrade and reinforce them when numerously presented with oppoturnities to do so. As a human race we learn from our mistakes.

Consequently, I think after the water is all drained and most of the vital infrastructure is reconstructed, people will come back to resettle, and I believe that that is the right way to go.

On the other hand.........






I was just hearing the results of a survey by the United Nations relief fund:


For every dollar spent on catastrophe and humanitarian relief the developed countries spend an average of 14 in Military armament!

The USA tops the list of course, 26 U$ on armament for every dollar on disaster / humanitarian relief.
This is coming to light of course due to the late response to the Catrina catastrophe.

There is enough weaponry to kill every human being 40 times, yet we cannot give dignified living to every one!

........as much as I value the input of the information you provided on comparative spending, I seriously question the prudence and judgement of bringing it up at a time like this and in this forum much like the other post that you brought it up in. Whether it's to demonize the American government or to provide insightful information, you have to remember that most of the people who are suffering physically, emotionally and psychologically in the Gulf region, largely had nothing to do with the policies with which you seem to find so much fault. Just like the Russian sailors (whose own country has a comparatively lopsided spending on humanitarian to armanent budgets) who died in the Kursk submarine disaster last year, or the ones who were trapped and thankfully rescued this year, also had nothing to do with the military spending decisions, in the Kremlin. The basic point I am trying to make is that this was a natural disaster ( which no one could have accurately predicted or adequetely prepared for) followed by a regrettable lapse in response effort and effeciency by the government on all levels, resulting in a lot of suffering. Why not exercise a grain of sensitivity and compassion to these facts or to the plight of the many suffering, when considering who to label as the bad guy, as everyone loves to do with the US, or when considering where to cast rebuke, here?

just my 2 cents

As I said i a previous post , I apologize for my comment being felt as insensible or offensive, because it was certainly not my intention.

I was just reflecting on world issues and came up with this news I just heard, how difficult it is to give relief to disaster areas, famine , etc.


I feel much respect for the USA and its people, though I might disagree with the circumstantial man in charge.

Bricklyne, I'm pretty much sure that sensitivity and compassion are actually there in primocordara words. The fact that he's raising this UN survey is just an indicator of how our mad world is turning nowadays... I wouldn't look at that as an "american persecution", if I can call it this way... Of course, as you pointed out, we are all humans and we learn from our mistakes and the US is certainly not an exception. Of course, like in any other (major) catastrophy, we all (hopefully) feel compassion for the victims... But this shouldn't let us distract from the reasons that lead to such events. I'm also sure that New Orleans will raise up again, in that very same position, and people will be proud of that. But will we really learn from our mistakes? By the way, what are exactely our mistakes? Let us hope that that this event will be the start for a broader thinking about so called 'natural disasters'... :peace:

The following is an article with a different point of view, not that I agree with it, but there is some truth in it.

I think that the government should have prepared people for the flooding which is the problem that gave way for the criminals that were able to overtake New Orleans briefly. The truth is that many large public housing projects have become small dictatorships for drug dealers and criminals. Some may say it has to do with the welfare state, but it also has to do with lack of opportunities within the mini-mafia system that feeds itself. Have you seen the Brasilian movie "City of God"?, ( Cidade de Deus, 2002).

The article is right that this is a long term problem. The government has not addressed it properly, helping create real opportunities for those poor people who really want to work, and giving out a free ticket to those who do not merit it.

"An Unnatural Disaster: A Hurricane Exposes the Man-Made Disaster of the Welfare"

by Robert Tracinski | The Intellectual Activist

September 2, 2005

It has taken four long days for state and federal officials to figure out how to deal with the disaster in New Orleans. I can't blame them, because it has also taken me four long days to figure out what is going on there. The reason is that the events there make no sense if you think that we are confronting a natural disaster.

If this is just a natural disaster, the response for public officials is obvious: you bring in food, water, and doctors; you send transportation to evacuate refugees to temporary shelters; you send engineers to stop the flooding and rebuild the city's infrastructure. For journalists, natural disasters also have a familiar pattern: the heroism of ordinary people pulling together to survive; the hard work and dedication of doctors, nurses, and rescue workers; the steps being taken to clean up and rebuild.

Public officials did not expect that the first thing they would have to do is to send thousands of armed troops in armored vehicles, as if they are suppressing an enemy insurgency. And journalists--myself included--did not expect that the story would not be about rain, wind, and flooding, but about rape, murder, and looting.

But this is not a natural disaster. It is a man-made disaster.

The man-made disaster is not an inadequate or incompetent response by federal relief agencies, and it was not directly caused by Hurricane Katrina. This is where just about every newspaper and television channel has gotten the story wrong.

The man-made disaster we are now witnessing in New Orleans did not happen over the past four days. It happened over the past four decades. Hurricane Katrina merely exposed it to public view.

The man-made disaster is the welfare state.

For the past few days, I have found the news from New Orleans to be confusing. People were not behaving as you would expect them to behave in an emergency--indeed, they were not behaving as they have behaved in other emergencies. That is what has shocked so many people: they have been saying that this is not what we expect from America. In fact, it is not even what we expect from a Third World country.

When confronted with a disaster, people usually rise to the occasion. They work together to rescue people in danger, and they spontaneously organize to keep order and solve problems. This is especially true in America. We are an enterprising people, used to relying on our own initiative rather than waiting around for the government to take care of us. I have seen this a hundred times, in small examples (a small town whose main traffic light had gone out, causing ordinary citizens to get out of their cars and serve as impromptu traffic cops, directing cars through the intersection) and large ones (the spontaneous response of New Yorkers to September 11).

So what explains the chaos in New Orleans?

To give you an idea of the magnitude of what is going on, here is a description from a Washington Times story:

"Storm victims are raped and beaten; fights erupt with flying fists, knives and guns; fires are breaking out; corpses litter the streets; and police and rescue helicopters are repeatedly fired on.

"The plea from Mayor C. Ray Nagin came even as National Guardsmen poured in to restore order and stop the looting, carjackings and gunfire....

"Last night, Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco said 300 Iraq-hardened Arkansas National Guard members were inside New Orleans with shoot-to-kill orders.

"’These troops are...under my orders to restore order in the streets,' she said. 'They have M-16s, and they are locked and loaded. These troops know how to shoot and kill and they are more than willing to do so if necessary and I expect they will.' "

The reference to Iraq is eerie. The photo that accompanies this article shows National Guard troops, with rifles and armored vests, riding on an armored vehicle through trash-strewn streets lined by a rabble of squalid, listless people, one of whom appears to be yelling at them. It looks exactly like a scene from Sadr City in Baghdad.

What explains bands of thugs using a natural disaster as an excuse for an orgy of looting, armed robbery, and rape? What causes unruly mobs to storm the very buses that have arrived to evacuate them, causing the drivers to drive away, frightened for their lives? What causes people to attack the doctors trying to treat patients at the Super Dome?

Why are people responding to natural destruction by causing further destruction? Why are they attacking the people who are trying to help them?

My wife, Sherri, figured it out first, and she figured it out on a sense-of-life level. While watching the coverage last night on Fox News Channel, she told me that she was getting a familiar feeling. She studied architecture at the Illinois Institute of Chicago, which is located in the South Side of Chicago just blocks away from the Robert Taylor Homes, one of the largest high-rise public housing projects in America. "The projects," as they were known, were infamous for uncontrollable crime and irremediable squalor. (They have since, mercifully, been demolished.)

What Sherri was getting from last night's television coverage was a whiff of the sense of life of "the projects." Then the "crawl"--the informational phrases flashed at the bottom of the screen on most news channels--gave some vital statistics to confirm this sense: 75% of the residents of New Orleans had already evacuated before the hurricane, and of the 300,000 or so who remained, a large number were from the city's public housing projects. Jack Wakeland then gave me an additional, crucial fact: early reports from CNN and Fox indicated that the city had no plan for evacuating all of the prisoners in the city's jails--so they just let many of them loose. There is no doubt a significant overlap between these two populations--that is, a large number of people in the jails used to live in the housing projects, and vice versa.

There were many decent, innocent people trapped in New Orleans when the deluge hit--but they were trapped alongside large numbers of people from two groups: criminals--and wards of the welfare state people selected, over decades, for their lack of initiative and self-induced helplessness. The welfare wards were a mass of sheep--on whom the incompetent administration of New Orleans unleashed a pack of wolves.

All of this is related, incidentally, to the apparent incompetence of the city government, which failed to plan for a total evacuation of the city, despite the knowledge that this might be necessary. But in a city corrupted by the welfare state, the job of city officials is to ensure the flow of handouts to welfare recipients and patronage to political supporters--not to ensure a lawful, orderly evacuation in case of emergency.

No one has really reported this story, as far as I can tell. In fact, some are already actively distorting it, blaming President Bush, for example, for failing to personally ensure that the Mayor of New Orleans had drafted an adequate evacuation plan. The worst example is an execrable piece from the Toronto Globe and Mail, by a supercilious Canadian who blames the chaos on American "individualism." But the truth is precisely the opposite: the chaos was caused by a system that was the exact opposite of individualism.

What Hurricane Katrina exposed was the psychological consequences of the welfare state. What we consider "normal" behavior in an emergency is behavior that is normal for people who have values and take the responsibility to pursue and protect them. People with values respond to a disaster by fighting against it and doing whatever it takes to overcome the difficulties they face. They don't sit around and complain that the government hasn't taken care of them. They don't use the chaos of a disaster as an opportunity to prey on their fellow men.

But what about criminals and welfare parasites? Do they worry about saving their houses and property? They don't, because they don't own anything. Do they worry about what is going to happen to their businesses or how they are going to make a living? They never worried about those things before. Do they worry about crime and looting? But living off of stolen wealth is a way of life for them.

The welfare state--and the brutish, uncivilized mentality it sustains and encourages--is the man-made disaster that explains the moral ugliness that has swamped New Orleans. And that is the story that no one is reporting.

interesting, franjayo...thanks for the alternative viewpoint.

tr

I think the sheep and wolves is a little over-cooked for my liking.
Interesting article though....

........... But will we really learn from our mistakes? By the way, what are exactely our mistakes? Let us hope that that this event will be the start for a broader thinking about so called 'natural disasters'... :peace:


Well, actually in this particular case there was a blatant mistake made by both the city and State government officials; but given the circumstances, I wouldn't be too quick to jump on them for it. In the mid-nineties ( I believe it was in '96 actually) a non-governmental group did a research study and report on the New Orleans Levee system that's supposed to, or rather, that was supposed to prevent water from flooding into the city. The existing Levees were constructed in the early part of the last century and built to withstand Category 3 Hurricanes, a task which the performed as per specification and to satisfaction. But the group that wrote the report warned that unless the levees were upgraded to withstand Category 5 hurricanes, the exact same situation that we are witnessing today would occur; and this was a Category 4 Hurricane when it hit landfall. The report did the usual merry-go-round with State officials eventually ending up at the bottom of someone's file cabinet. As you can imagine it eventually came down to money, or rather the State not having the necessary funds to do the upgrade; consequently the project was shelved and more "pressing issues" were addressed instead. I'm sure looking back now we would all rather that they had spent as much as would have been required to reinforce those levees, but what's that thing they say about hindsight?

At the end of the day it came down to gambling the percentages and waging that nature couldn't possibly throw a Category 5 Hurricane their way. And on the surface I tend to agree somewhat with that because we all take risks in imperfect systems every single day, because as we all know there's no such thing as a foolproof system. But regardless I still think this will come up when the eventual commission that will inevitably be convened to probe the disaster and what went wrong, starts asking question. And some people will probably get a lot of heat for this. But chances are the same kind of oversight will likely happen again somewhere else in the future even given what we are all witnessing now.

So in a sense I completely agree with you, in that, even in the face of disasters such as these, we as a race are still prone to repeating our mistakes. For me it all goes back to the fact that you can never have a perfect system that anticipates everything. For example, in our field as architects: Is there any architect in the world that could possibly ever have designed a building prior to 9/11 that allowed for the remote possibility of a fully-fueled plane crash into the building?

Is the media and the power of the internet changing our interpretations of world events ? This image i believe is bad taste, although its message is acute and dramatic....

MMM, bad taste?:

Just read these excerpts from an article in the Economist:
http://www.economist.com/agenda/displaystory.cfm?story_id=4382412&fsrc=nwl


"The pathetic official response to Katrina has shocked the world. How will it change America?"

"both Republicans and Democrats were appalled at Mr Bush’s failure to grasp the scale of the catastrophe; shocked that his senior staff were absent, or on holiday, while thousands of Americans were stranded without food and water"

"Barbara Bush, the president’s mother, earned no thanks from him for her remark that because many survivors “were underprivileged anyway”, their Astrodome quarters are “working very well for them”. Some white Texans (including many in the Republican base) will “feel that we’ve got enough minorities in Texas already,” "

"Yahoo! News drew flak for picture captions describing a black man as “looting” and whites as “finding” goods. "

None of these oppinions are mine, but I beleive "bad taste" is elseware...

Looking ahead with hope, here is an article from the weekly trade paper, Building Design, published in the UK:

New Orleans’s exiled architects have pledged to return and help rebuild their city.

By James Rose

The Louisiana branch of the American Institute of Architects has played down fears that architects who fled the city in the wake of Hurricane Katrina would find jobs elsewhere and not return.

The AIA was holding an emergency meeting as BD went to press on Wednesday to discuss both the next phase of the response to the hurricane and support for its members.

Executive director for Louisiana, Lynn Robertson, said: “Most of the architects I have spoken to have indicated a willingness to return to New Orleans. They are concerned that they should be involved in the rebuilding process.”

Many of the city’s architects have temporarily settled 80 miles north in Baton Rouge, but those contacted by BD said they wanted to come back to the city as soon as possible.

Mark Ripple, a partner in New Orleans practice Eskew Gomez Ripple, now based temporarily in Baton Rouge, said: “We have talked with a number of our colleagues who have been displaced. The general attitude is that the city should be rebuilt and most of us are very optimistic that it will be.”

But he admitted that the hurricane could not have come at a worse time for the local construction industry, which had been enjoying a boom.

He said: “Business was up, both our firm and the construction industry in the Gulf States in general — it’s been a huge disruption for us. Fifty per cent of our client base is on indefinite hold, and two hospital construction projects are high and dry.”

It is still unclear when or how New Orleans will be rebuilt. Ripple said local architects were talking about how a buffer zone could be created around the city and how to deal with the erosion of the Mississippi delta.


www.bdonline.co.uk (it's a free registration to view content, which is kind of a hassle I know)

Check out the following stories that were on NPR (National Public Radio) this morning. Apparently, the property value in desirable areas after natural disasters goes UP! I am positive that the city will rebuild. The property value will determine this. The port of N.O. is one of the busiest in the world. That is part of the reason that New York is rebuilding @ the World Trade Center Site: Some of the most valuable property on the planet is there. Money talks. Based solely on ones proximity to disaster, people all over the world live where they probably shouldn't.

Housing Boom on the Gulf Coast (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4853757)

Envisioning Open Spaces for New Orleans (http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4853742)

I'm not trying to reduce the disaster to a monetary discussion only, we all feel bad for the people and their families. Tragic, can only begin to explain the loss that the city of N.O. and its citizens are experiencing. It can go without saying that we always feel bad for people involved in instances like this, but when we are removed a bit geographically and historically, we are able to cast a less emotional light on any event and discuss other, broader topics related to the tragedy. We benefit as a nation from N.O. (monetarily and culturally) and we should be there to help when they are ready to heal themselves and their communities.

Here's an article from the NYT giving some insight to the developing debate regarding rebuilding/replanning issues:

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/18/arts/design/18futu.html?adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1129598286-uLYCVr/E1hiJSzPM7mHqeg