If New Orleans dissapeared, would anyone care?

[Adam Gamradt]

Sorry for the subject line, but consider it satire, given the similar subject posted a while back about Iran.

This video includes a couple of people I know, who are fighting their insurance company, trying to get them to honor their claim.

http://www.startribune.com/1741/story/620527.html

Seems like we've already forgotten how unprepared we were for this, and how many people suffered and died needlessly.

Anyone see the Spike Lee film?

Anyone else have friends and family down there?

Anyone else get the feeling that nothing has really changed, and we're just waiting for the next disaster?

[ZagGrad]

My cousin was down there when the whole thing happened. She works for a successful pharmaceutical company (who picked up the tab for everything) and comes from a very financially secure family, yet she received one the infamous debit cards.

I grow tired of hearing about it and how much Reggie Bush is going to do for New Orleans. I haven't done much to help though, so I guess I can't complain too much.

[sohotrightnow]

I was watching Fox News, my favorite channel, and they said the government has given too much money to New Orleans!!! I mean, it's ok if we rack up billions of dollars in tax money in Iraq, but not New Orleans...not enough Mayflower material down there.

[TexOle]

No matter where you live there are risks involved. If you choose to live in an area then you should understand the inherent risks. I understand darn well that I have to deal with blizzards in Minnesota, and I don't complain. I am for the government rebuilding infrastructure in New Orleans. I am not for rebuilding private property. Most people are complaining about flooding. It is no secret that floods are not covered in a normal home insurance policy. Those people complaining they are not getting enough money can shut up. You knew you lived in a flood area and your home flooded. Parts of the city should be rebuilt, but it cannot survive as a large city. It will be a great tourist city, but not the major city it once was.

[michlaxref]

Sorry, but the Fed's screwed this one up and now won't take responsibility. Their own agencies said the levees would not take that category of hurricane but a budget cut took out the levee improvements. A single resident cannot build the levees. It takes the infrastructure of the government. Not only the residents got screwed but all the US got screwed because we pay for the rebuilding and it would not have cost nearly as much if they had spent the preventative money that was recommended in the first place. That's the kind of insurance that should have been paid...... It would have been cheap in comparison. Not to mention the disaster relief management afterwards.

[Sonny]

Do we think it's wise to rebuild a city under sea level again?

[Gvlax]

... it would not have cost nearly as much if they had spent the preventative money that was recommended in the first place...

Its easy to say what should have been done AFTER the fact, its alot harder to say what should have been done BEFORE. People seem to forget that, and to think that the levees were the only problem that the city of New Orleans faced at that time in history i could imagine to be false. No one expects this such devestation until after it happens, it happens to all societies in the past and WILL happen in the future. We never seem to learn from the past.

thats my two cents

[mbuff]

Do we think it's wise to rebuild a city under sea level again?

Sure it's wise--if you relocate it to Death Valley

[Danny Hogan]

Sorry, but the Fed's screwed this one up and now won't take responsibility. Their own agencies said the levees would not take that category of hurricane but a budget cut took out the levee improvements.

not making excuses for the feds but no one ever said the levees could take a cat 5. not much can.

[Sonny]

Sorry, but the Fed's screwed this one up and now won't take responsibility. Their own agencies said the levees would not take that category of hurricane but a budget cut took out the levee improvements. A single resident cannot build the levees. It takes the infrastructure of the government. Not only the residents got screwed but all the US got screwed because we pay for the rebuilding and it would not have cost nearly as much if they had spent the preventative money that was recommended in the first place. That's the kind of insurance that should have been paid...... It would have been cheap in comparison. Not to mention the disaster relief management afterwards.

And what role/responsibility should the local and state govt. take?

Furthermore, what responsibility should individual residents take to get out of harm's way when a natural disaster is looming?

(The federal government is not the end all, be all for every problem/ill in society.)

[StrykerFSU]

I'm at a loss about New Orleans. I saw on the news the other day that residents were fighting against HUD demolishing housing projects in order that they be rebuilt. These are Great Society era housing projects in the worst parts of New Orleans and were notoriously crime ridden but here were these folks arguing that they should stay. I don't get it.

I also heard on the radio yesterday that a firm from Texas offered the city of NO $5 million to remove all and crush all of the 50,000 abandoned cars in the city. The firm would also handle all environmental remediation and they would do it all in 5 weeks, this would have had all of the cars cleared by January 2006. His eminence Ray Nagin said no and is still trying to finalize a government contract to PAY someone $33 million to clear the cars in 15 weeks. Now "Smokey, I may not be the smartest man but from where I'm standing it looks like you takin' a ..."

[CATLAX MAN]

One thing to keep in mind here is that the Army Corps of Engineers had predicted many years ago (over 25 years) that the levees would not withstand a major hurricane/storm. It was a ticking time bomb waiting to go off. It is just irresponsible to pin the failure to address the levee situation on the current federal government when all the past city, state, & federal governments knew that this was a very real possibility at any time and they continued to ignore/not address the problem.

Did FEMA and other rescue operations react slowly? Absolutely, there is no debate about that. They could've done a lot of things differently and should be criticized. However, they are not responsible for the calamity itself. That blame is shared by a lot of people - and in my eyes - the blame is mostly attributable to the local & state government not pursuing a solution to this long known potential problem more aggressively over the many years that they had to address this problem.

[Sonny]

Good point CatLax. Also note that Bush couldn't legally send in troops to New Orleans unless the federal government was specifically allowed by LA Gov. Blanco. She delayed that decision (3 - 4 days) before things got out of control in New Orleans. Bush should have went public with the pressure against her, but at the time - It would have probably been viewed negatively.

The biggest transgression in all of this is Nagin's failure to mandate an evacuation of the city, IMHO.

[Adam Gamradt]

Projects were ongoing to repair the levee's, but funds were diverted to Homeland Security and the Iraq War.

If you look at the numbers, the funding went down drastically, after 2001.

State and local governement, while not without fault, were way ahead of the federal government.

Edited to remove humorous, yet inflamitory remarks.

[Adam Gamradt]

The manditory evacuation was ordered on the 28th.

The state of emergency was also declared on the same day.