Anger, Sadness Mark Katrina Anniversary
August 29th, 2007 . by TexasFredNEW ORLEANS (AP) - On the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, anger over the stalled rebuilding was palpable Wednesday throughout the city where the mourning for the dead and feeling of loss doesn’t seem to subside.
Hurricane Katrina made landfall south of New Orleans at 6:10 a.m. Aug. 29, 2005, as a strong Category 3 hurricane that flooded 80 percent of the city and killed more than 1,600 people in Louisiana and Mississippi. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.
I have great sympathy for the folks of New Orleans, those that lost their homes, their businesses, their fortunes, I have great sadness for the 1,600-1,800 folks that lost their lives, and I extend my sympathy to their families over that loss…
The response by the government over the last 2 years has disappointed the folks of New Orleans, I know it has, I have friends and family from there and have family in South Louisiana, I have seen the damage, 1st hand, up close, not just on the news but with my own eyes and I have to say, when Katrina hit there was nothing that the government, state or federal, could have done to alleviate the damage that massive hit brought on…
The immediate response TO that area could have been a lot quicker in my opinion, but the Louisiana Army National Guard, the organization that is tasked with those type of immediate responses, the 156/256th BCT was in the process of pulling out of Baghdad and were staging in Kuwait for their return home when Katrina hit and there truly was nothing they could do…
The Mayor of New Orleans failed his city, he failed miserably, he left thousands of his citizens in the path of Katrina while he moved himself and his family to a safe place, he left those people there to die, he didn’t issue a mandatory evacuation order and he didn’t enforce that order, but even then there would have been people that ignored evacuation orders, they always do, and Hurricane parties are well know events…
The New Orleans police broke down during the pre-Katrina time period, they were taking their families to safer places as well, and I don’t blame them for taking care of family 1st, but thousands were left behind that may have left New Orleans IF they had had a way to leave, like, oh, maybe all those school buses that were left in place, empty, in ruin…
Protesters planned to march from the obliterated Lower 9th Ward to Congo Square, where slaves were once allowed to celebrate their culture. Accompanied by brass bands, they will again try to spread their message that the government has failed to help people return.
“People are angry and they want to send a message to politicians that they want them to do more and do it faster,” said the Rev. Marshall Truehill, a Baptist pastor and community activist. “Nobody’s going to be partying.”
I know there is sadness and anger in New Orleans, I have sadness and anger too, part of my sadness is caused by knowing that there are people in New Orleans that haven’t got the mental capacity to understand that New Orleans Is Sinking, and as this article points out, New Orleans - The New Atlantis? is a REAL possibility, and make no mistake, New Orleans is ‘sinking even faster’ than in the past, and here’s the source of MY anger at those who remain in New Orleans, WHY should I put MY tax dollars into a futile attempt to save New Orleans from it’s inevitable disappearance??
Some estimates I have read state that New Orleans needs a cash infusion in the $30-35 BILLION range just to have a fighting chance, and that’s just to protect against future hurricane damage and doesn’t address the fact that New Orleans is sinking into the swamp…
If the elderly, the infirm and physically ill need a helping hand to get OUT of New Orleans and are willing to leave that sink-hole, great, that’s money I am willing to spend, but to pour BILLIONS of our tax dollars into a place that’s disappearing anyway?? Not MY money, and if the residents of New Orleans are too stupid to see this for themselves, let them stay there, let them pay their own way in life, and let them sink into the mud WITH their beloved city…
Maybe there’s a reason the Feds aren’t pouring BILLIONS of dollars into New Orleans, money that New Orleans says it needs, maybe our government isn’t as foolish as some believe it to be…
Maybe they realize that some things just aren’t worth the cost of saving…
Full Story Here:
Anger, Sadness Mark Katrina Anniversary
Planck’s Constant get’s it too!
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