New Orleans After Hurricane Katrina: Live and Let Die
I am like most Americans who do not live within Hurricane Katrina’s wrath, glued to the television set watching the countless people fending for their lives, a tragedy that reverberate to the very depths of my soul and brings tears to my eyes.
I heard one unfortunate man replaying his tragic event when his wife was quite literally ripped out of his hands from Katrina’s forceful winds. He tearfully said she was everything to him, now alone, has to take care of their children amidst the devastation and violence.
The next day, I watched the events unfold. The many trapped in the city’s Superdome surrounded by water, the people stranded on the bridge, a man who has jumped off the bridge to his death, now a three-week-old child without any water or formula teeters on a hopeless chance of survival. Now the looting, the rapes, the criminals taking advantage of the weak, frail and unarmed, are added to the acts of violence.
Amidst all this, may I ask where are all the valiant soldiers to the rescue?
I have watched, like countless others have watched, National Guard troops circling an area while they pass and ignore victims begging for a ride out and only stop and acknowledge them because the news camera was on. It has been a common occurrence and an outcry of Hurricane Katrina’s refugees day after disparaging day.
This is not like Hurricane Andrew where its path and Florida’s devastation was more rural and affected mostly homes and businesses than Hurricane Katrina’s path. But like Hurricane Andrew’s victims, New Orleans also asks where is the cavalry?
The difference in devastation is not only the property damage, but also the human loss and human toll. But property seems to take more precedence when we see Ace Hardware employees armed with their own rifles to fend off looters, protecting what? Their precious store?
The people are hungry. The people are thirsty. The people are scared. This is what happens when we break it down to the lowest denominator. Pandemonium.
New Orleans is urban, highly impoverished and comprised mostly of African-Americans. Those that are trapped and stranded in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina are mostly the have-nots and the unlucky.
Why is the slow response to aid and relief a norm during these disasters? Preparedness or lack thereof? But is this time an unconcern for the underprivileged African-Americans? I would have to almost conclude the latter.
I agree that New Orleans’ city and emergency officials are very limited to what they can do at the city and state level, but by God, we are the United States of America.
There should be choppers covering every inch of the sky, rescuing and evacuating people and dropping down supplies at a much more frequent rate by any means necessary.
If the government can send in troops to restore the lawless city, with Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Blanco declaring practically a shoot-to-kill policy on looters, why on earth can’t they send much, much more to save the people, with an elite military that can mobilize land, air and sea?
It seems that our nation’s administration doesn’t agree with Darwinian theory of evolution, yet they are quick to adapt the Darwinian theory of survival of the fittest, when the need fits.
This is an apocalypse in our own backyard and perhaps a true testament to our own government’s humanity.
When will our own people matter over property, over oil, over money, over vested interest elsewhere? It will take common citizens like you and I to do our part once again.
