Profile In Blurrage

When President Bush left Texas for Washington DC, he left just as storm refugees were set to arrive at the Houston Astrodome, which has been turned into highly organized emergency housing. Very convenient timing – he gets away from Cindy Sheehan and her supporters, and also gets away from all those icky refugee people who might make him look like he’s not helping very much. He can certainly do more from Washington, can’t he?

If this were 1977, Jimmy and Rosalind would have been in N’Awlins for 3 days already, coordinating relief efforts and handing out food and supplies at a shelter. But this is 2005, and Presidential photo ops must only show happy clean grateful Republican supporters, not pissed off, foul-mouthed, smelly, hungry refugees of dubious political views.

Air Force One diverted for a flyover, and passed right over the beleagered Superdome, where the preparations were not so well organized and where reportedly conditions were horrible, unsanitary, and possibly dangerous. The next day, the evacuation of the Superdome was halted because shots had been fired at a military helicopter, and arson fires had broken out in the area. The presidential flight also overflew Biloxi and other areas.

I get the impression that the poor of New Orleans were simply left to fend for themselves, while more prosperous people with cars were able to get out. Why weren’t people loaded onto buses and trains before the storm hit? Why weren’t there better preparations for sheltering a large number of people?

Well, their evacation plan at first glance seems geared toward people driving their own cars.

Hurricane evacuation planning is made more difficult for the City, due to the large percentage ofresidents without access to a private automobile. Only 27% of Orleans Parish residents evacuatedthe city during Hurricane Georges, while 45% of Jefferson Parish residents evacuated. Orleans Parish residents were more likely to stay during a storm for lack of transportation, financial resources or a tendency to ignore evacuation warnings. Evacuation is also closely related to income. During Hurricane Georges only 16% of those with incomes below $25,000 left town, while 54% of those with incomes over $80,000 left.6In addition to those unable to afford vehicles or transportation there are the disabled, hospitalized, elderly and incarcerated who would not beable to drive from the area. Development of alternative means for citizens to leave the area iscrucial. RTA provides transportation for citizens to shelters and places where out of town transportation may be obtained, but has no provision to use its buses to evacuate citizens out of the city (emphasis mine). While the RTA has expressed a willingness to assist in emergency evacuation, a regional cooperative agreement with other jurisdictions is needed. Visitors and some residents may choose commercial transportation, but at some point commercial bus, rail, and air transportation out of the city will not be available. Greater involvement of local churches, businesses and non-profit groups in providing transport and assisting people without their own transportation or with special needs is needed. — Special Emergency Transportation Planning and Massive Evacuation

So although the plan notes that up to a million people may need to move at least 80 miles inland, the bulk of the planning assumes they’re driving their own vehicles, while recognizing that the very poorest people are the ones least likely to leave. There were plans on paper to provide transportation for them, but now I hear on the TV news in the break room that they’re scrambling to bring in school buses from all over the state. What, now? Why weren’t they queued up to bring them in before the storm? Why weren’t people put on the freaking City of New Orleans? Oh, right, this train got the disappearin’ railroad blues.

Why, indeed.

Chicago Tribune | Flood-control funds short of requests

WASHINGTON — Despite continuous warnings that a catastrophic hurricane could hit New Orleans, the Bush administration and Congress in recent years have repeatedly denied full funding for hurricane preparation and flood control.

…”I’m not saying it wouldn’t still be flooded, but I do feel that if it had been totally funded, there would be less flooding than you have,” said Michael Parker, a former Republican Mississippi congressman who headed the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from October 2001 until March 2002, when he was ousted after publicly criticizing a Bush administration proposal to cut the corps’ budget.

Meanwhile, BoingBoing notes that someone is blogging from inside a data center that’s still operational in the city. It’s fascinating and disturbing reading.

And finally, the item that infuriates me the most: Mississippi Goddamn. On August 30, our Duh Leader is shown picking and grinning at an event at a Mississippi military base to commemorate V-J day. That same day, some other people in Mississippi were being picked up and are definitely not grinning.