Saturday, September 03, 2005
Situation Begins to Improve for Those Trapped in New Orleans
The evacuation is really starting to bear fruit as things begin to ease in New Orleans. There has been a lot of legitimate criticism of the relief efforts to date. This does not detract from the super human efforts of many of the rescuers, police, and businessman, not to mention ordinary people. Normally I consider Wallmart as a sign of all that is wrong in the world, but in this instance I feel that special mention must be made of the actions of one Wallmart store. I can't remember where this store is exactly, I know that it was close to the disaster. I know also that in the days following, this store opened it's doors and allowed those in need to come in and take supplies that people needed to survive. This is the only store that I have heard of who has done this. I hope that there were many more.
The stories keep coming out about the horrors at the shelters, complete with murder and the rape of children. The rest of the world reacts with shock at how this can happen in the world's most powerful country. The situation is being compared to the Tsunami. In specific, it has been noted that no tourists were robbed or raped in the far East in the aftermath. The level of civilization of the Americans has also been brought into question. Many are now saying that perhaps the American way isn't so fair and democratic after watching so many poor being neglected and victimized. A four month and a six month old baby have died at the stadium. Quite simply, none of the emergency plans had taken into account a tragedy of this magnitude and once it occurred, the poor and desperate were pretty much ignored in the immediate efforts.
One thing I hadn't really given any thought to was the reaction of the lenders and mortgage companies to the events. They are now saying that the banks will put everything on hold for those affected, at least for the time being! What surprises me is the fact that this is even news at all. I would have thought that this would be an automatic thing once a state of emergency was declared!
And finally, climatologists are issuing new warnings. These are mainly about the fact that the storm season is not over and that they expect more category storms to come!
The stories keep coming out about the horrors at the shelters, complete with murder and the rape of children. The rest of the world reacts with shock at how this can happen in the world's most powerful country. The situation is being compared to the Tsunami. In specific, it has been noted that no tourists were robbed or raped in the far East in the aftermath. The level of civilization of the Americans has also been brought into question. Many are now saying that perhaps the American way isn't so fair and democratic after watching so many poor being neglected and victimized. A four month and a six month old baby have died at the stadium. Quite simply, none of the emergency plans had taken into account a tragedy of this magnitude and once it occurred, the poor and desperate were pretty much ignored in the immediate efforts.
One thing I hadn't really given any thought to was the reaction of the lenders and mortgage companies to the events. They are now saying that the banks will put everything on hold for those affected, at least for the time being! What surprises me is the fact that this is even news at all. I would have thought that this would be an automatic thing once a state of emergency was declared!
And finally, climatologists are issuing new warnings. These are mainly about the fact that the storm season is not over and that they expect more category storms to come!
# posted by Wil Smith : 4:47 p.m.
