This will be making waves tomorrow:
It makes no sense to spend billions of dollars to rebuild a city that’s 7 feet under sea level, House Speaker Dennis Hastert said of federal assistance for hurricane-devastated New Orleans.
Democratic lawmakers from Louisiana were quick to disagree Thursday and Hastert sought to clarify the comment during the day.
“It looks like a lot of that place could be bulldozed,” the Illinois Republican said in an interview Wednesday about New Orleans with the Daily Herald of Arlington Heights, Ill.
Louisiana Rep. Charlie Melancon called the comments irresponsible and Sen. Mary L. Landrieu urged Hastert to focus on the humanitarian crisis at hand.
Hastert, in a transcript supplied by the suburban Chicago newspaper, said there was no question that the people of New Orleans would rebuild their city, but noted that federal insurance and other federal aid was involved. “We ought to take a second look at it. But you know, we build Los Angeles and San Francisco on top of earthquake fissures and they rebuild, too. Stubbornness.”
Asked in the interview whether it made sense to spend billions rebuilding a city that lies below sea level, he replied, “I don’t know. That doesn’t make sense to me.”
Hastert later issued a statement saying he was not “advocating that the city be abandoned or relocated.”
“My comments about rebuilding the city were intended to reflect my sincere concern with how the city is rebuilt to ensure the future protection of its citizens and not to suggest that this great and historic city should not be rebuilt,” the statement said.
Perhaps the most tin-eared statement to come out of a politician’s mouth in a long time, but absolutely right. Look at New Orleans and ask yourself if it makes sense if it is there.
But it is there, and we will rebuild. But we should discuss how we rebuild.
Ron Beasley
The first time I have agreed with Hastert that I can remember. If they want to rebuild the comercial/tourist section, OK, but din’t put 400,000 plus people in that bowl again. This will repeat, maybe next year maybe not for 10 years, but it will be repeated.
Zifnab
The problem is that this disaster could have been prevented, but wasn’t. With the right infusion of cash, the levees could have been prepped against Catagory 5 hurricanes. But no one fronted the money so the people of New Orleans are left out in the cold.
Hastert might be speaking practically (and not out of sheer miserliness) from an architectural standpoint, but he’s forgetting the nearly half a million people who have been effectively rendered homeless. If we don’t rebuild New Orleans, exactly where are these people supposed to live? What will become of their jobs? How will they get feed and clothed? Rebuilding New Orleans is more than just replacing washed out cityscape, it’s about replacing the homes of 485,000 Americans. If Hastert doesn’t plan on rebuilding, I’d like to hear his Plan B.
cd6
I’d like to know why its ok to spend hundreds of billons to rebuild cities in Iraq, to house citizens of the upcoming anti-American Islamic Republic of Iraq, but when one of the most well known and unique American cities gets wiped out, rebuilding it is a waste of money?
They can build it above sea level, or with more reinforced walls, or whatever, fine. I lived in Seattle, which has city streets 8 to 30 feet above sea level in many places. So, its not like that kind of thing hasn’t been done before.
Using his logic, we should just abandon the entire state of florida, cause its in hurrican country. Also, every gulf coast state. And all of California, cause its on a fault line. And everything in tornado alley. Sure, thats half the country geographically, but Hastert doesn’t want to waste money.
It’s an American City. We rebuild it. End of story.
ppGaz
I don’t know that the issue is settled.
Cities have purposes and economies. They are not just backdrops for postcards. By October 1, New Orleans will be a ghost town. The city as it was known a week ago will have ceased to exist, the fact that many of its buildings will still be standing, notwithstanding. Yes, I actually said that.
But my point: Before any plan is made to “rebuild” this city, some statements need to be made as to what its purpose shall be. Because right now, whatever purpose it served last week, is gone.
Does it become a sort of truncated amusement park, featuring the (mostly spared) French Quarter and some of its older downtown area? Does it become the “port city” and its infrastructure? Does it become home to half a million mostly rather poor people? If the latter, where do those people live? Where do they get jobs?
Exactly how is this “rebuilding” supposed to work? I don’t think this has been thought through, either by the foot-in-mouth Hastert (good God, is there a Republican anywhere who can speak to a great problem without sounding like a complete ASS???) or by the maudlin Harry Connick or any of the zillions of sentimentalists who “want” the city restored to its former stature.
Last but not least: Who is footing the bill for this great undertaking? If it is yours truly, the answer is: No, you are going to have to convince me of the rightness of the goals and objectives, and then show me a plan that meets them. I ain’t seen either one.
Mr Furious
He’s correct on paper—it doesn’t make sense to rebuild there. At least not as it once was. But he might want to lay off that kind of commentary until they’ve gotten a chance to step back from the brink.
I don’t know what the plan should be. I’ve never been to NO, and frankly never knew much about it until this week. I would say that wwith a fresh start the engineering could be upgraded and improved over what existed. Building codes need updating, and a new master plan for the city should skew the residential areas towards the higher ground areas. Putting a half million people back into the same situation is foolhardy.
Lis Riba
As I’ve seen pointed out elsewhere, we need a port in that location. And for a port to exist, there needs to be workers living in that area. And if workers live in that area, there have to be stores and other support services to meet the needs of those people.
In the past few hours, I’ve seen predictions that Chicago was a goner after the 1871 fire; that San Francisco should close up shop after the 1906 earthquake…
demimondian
I don’t think that we’re asking the right question. The right question is not whether or not the city will be rebuilt — it will be. There’s too much economic and strategic value to the mouth of the Mississippi river to not rebuild the city. Also, despite the news and the images, there’s still a lot there that’s in good enough condition to be worth repairing. Yes, there’s a lot of damage, but the causeway is running again, and there are still roads, and, in fact, a lot of buildings.
No, for better or for worse, whether wise or stupid, the city will come back. All we can do is try to shape the rebuilding city to avoid a repeat of this disaster. When we do that, we need to realize that the vulnerable people will build in the cheap land…so we need to make sure that any cheap land is high enough up to not we flooded quite the same way.
ppGaz
Don’t agree. The value you speak of is in the port, not the city of New Orleans. The port and its infrastructure can come back without any rebuilding of New Orleans at all, no?
demimondian
I don’t think so. The port will create jobs. Some of those will be great jobs (unionized longshore, etc.) Most won’t be. The people who work those not-so-great (and mostly not-even-good) jobs will settle near the port. That’ll bring in people to supply those people, and their inevitable families. That’ll bring in more people.
The problem with seaports is that they’re contagious.
Geoduck
No. A port needs workers. Workers need a place close to the port to live, and services when they aren’t working. There’s going to be some kind of city at the mouth of the Mississippi River; it’s unavoidable.
Charlie (Colorado)
Its worth remembering that NO hasn’t sunk beneath the waves like Atlantis. The French Quarter is apparently out of the water, and lots of other places that get flooded regularly manage to get by (see, eg, Davenport IA.)
ppGaz
I think you’ll find that port workers are a pretty small slice of the city’s population.
There is no need to “rebuild” New Orleans in order to support the port.
Rebuilding the city as we know it now, to support the port, is just economically out of the question.
For that matter, rebuilding the city as we know it now, to house half a million mostly poor and minimum-wage workers and their families, is also economically out of the question.
Somebody is going to have to propose (a) a set of imperatives that are sufficient, and (b) a cost-benefit model that works, and (c) a plan that will work.
I don’t see that coming. I sure as HELL don’t see it coming from a government that is 100% run by this GOP. Where would these ideas and funding streams come from?
srv
The French Quarter is the high point in N.O. That’s because the French weren’t stupid enough to build below sea level. 40 years ago, N.O. was less than a 100K people. Everyone since then has built somewhere not so smart.
Tourism, great. Port, great. Slidell, great. You don’t need a 500K population to support all that.
ppGaz
Probably an inapt comparison. Who will come back to NO, in three or six or ten months, to reoccupy and refurbish a stinking, contaminated house in a city with no jobs? These people couldn’t leave town; what will bring them back? What resources will pay to reclaim and refurbish their homes?
Most places that “have flooding” have flooding along a strip of land close to a waterway. This is not the case in New Orleans. Take a look at the aerial on CNN and observe the size of the drowned area.
New Orleans Under Water
Then, remember that in a conventional flood, the floowaters recede and the flooded area drains. Here, this will not happen. The waters are not going to recede, there is no drainage out of the city. The water is trapped in there.
Like I said, this issue is not settled. At all.
NYCmoderate
I agree that this is a valuable conversation (I just saw a suggestion over at The Moderate Voice that maybe they should raise the ground, so to speak – DC is built on landfill, after all) and maybe Hastert was taken out of context, but really, was it necessary to say it *now*? It couldn’t have waited at least until, you know, the people were all safe?
I just. Look, I’m not blaming the federal government or the Bush Administration or the GOP or, you know, anyone for the hurricane. But there’s something to be said for morale and for giving people hope and kindness of words. And okay, yeah, clothes and shelter and food is more essential right now, but I don’t know. I can’t articulate it. Which is one of the many reasons I’m not a professional politician.
hadenoughofthisyet
So while bloated bodies are still floating in muck this is what is on Hasert’s mind?
rilkefan
Put New NO up on higher ground, get the workers to the port on light rail or whatever. Don’t build a city in the middle of a fragile ecosystem at the end of a river which is going to bust out sooner than later, and if you already did then take advantage of the inevitable catastrophe to ameliorate the situation for next time. Compensate those who lost their community; don’t put them back where the problem will recur – will be caused in part to recur because of them.
KC
I saw that Denny Hastert got a lot of heat earlier for that comment, but lets face it, he brings up a good issue. I think turning it into New Orleans National Floodzone Park would be sort of interesting. Keep the French Quarter and let tourists float between the buildings as it turns into what it was orginally–a swamp. Let the ports go back to doing what they do. Or, New Orleans could do as Sacramento did, raise the streets of the entire city by 10-15 feet and go broke doing so.
demimondian
I hate to play Kassandra, but…damn it, that’s not the way it works.
Where are you going to put the people? What will keep them away?
New Orleans is a cesspool in a fetid swamp. It’s been that way for a hundred and fifty years — Anne Rice didn’t put her vampires there because of how healthy the place was, after all. The House of the Rising Sun was in N.O., baby.
And people came anyway. I have faith in very few things: but the unimaginable stupidity of humankind is one of them. How will you keep them away?
jobiuspublius
I agree. He should have said something like:
“We need to see if we can take advantage of higher ground when we rebuild. The swamps are crucial and have to be rebuilt. We should think about the mississippi. … We need to build for evacuation and disaster relief”
Historic N.O. should be preserved. But, the rest of the city can probably stand to be relocated a bit, assuming the whole area is not one big floating sponge. Really, it’s just common sense.
jobiuspublius
And what to do about biloxi, etc.? That’s right on the ocean, totally exposed. Really, disaster relief and preparation needs to be rebuilt to.
jobiuspublius
Eminent domain, zoning and building codes.
jg
Cities happen.
Ancient Purple
If the sentiment is that New Orleans is not to be rebuilt, then aren’t you – after the fact – suggesting that people were in error in rebuilding San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake or Anchorage after the 1964 or (fill in city devastated by natural disaster here).
I want New Orleans to be rebuilt. I want the President to call together the leading scientists in the world to develop a plan by which New Orleans can deal with a hurricane with moderate damage and limited flooding. I want to see, as a monument to the human drive to survive, to make New Orleans bigger and better than it ever was before.
Want the first step? After the flood waters are gone, put the people of New Orleans and Biloxi and the Gulf Coast back to work by re-activating the CCC and the WPA.
ppGaz
Ancient Purple Says:
If the sentiment is that New Orleans is not to be rebuilt, then aren’t you – after the fact – suggesting that people were in error in rebuilding San Francisco after the 1906 earthquake or Anchorage after the 1964 or (fill in city devastated by natural disaster here).
Well, after we listen to these empty paeans to futility … the question remains: Who pays for this?
Like I said, if the answer is me (good old John Q Public) then my response is … no. Show me the plan, and I’ll let you know if I am going to write that check.
I can’t envision a model and a plan that works and makes sense, but, that’s just me. I’m a hard sell.
jobiuspublius
I’m sure there is an intelligent, economical, equitable way to rebuild. Not sure it will get implemented.
jobiuspublius
That would be awesome.
ppGaz
Hmm. That’s starting to sound downright Chimpy, if you get my drift.
In the last couple years, I’ve had my fill of glib talk and pie in the sky expectations about big problems.
Show me a plan, and a price tag. Otherwise, AFAIC, the “rebuild New Orleans” meme makes as much sense to me as the “Democracy on the march” meme.
You are talking many billions of dollars. I’m a tax and spend liberal commie pinko, and you won’t get a damned dime out of me for this boondoggle idea.
Vladi G
Me too. But this president would either a) call in a bunch of “scientists” who will reccommend nationwide prayer as the solution, or b) appoint a panel to act on the scientists reccommendation who will then dump all of the good science and pick the plan with the most fundy-friendly junk science.
eileen from OH
I’ll tell ya what. . .when Hastert can move his big fat ass far enough to oppose pork barrel spending that builds bahgillion dollar bridges in Alaska to islands with 50 residents then I’ll listen to what he has to say about the “practicality” of re-building New Orleans. Until then, he can STFU.
Can I have an “amen”?
eileen from OH
jobiuspublius
Oh, there will be rebuilding. What besides the oil industry and the port will be rebuilt with our federal taxes? I don’t know.
The mississippi has a tendancy to whip around like a flagelum. That has to be a pain to live near to. I keep imagining a channel that cuts inland from the mississippi into a port on safer ground. Maybe I could build it on the moon.
jobiuspublius
THATS IT!! WE’LL REBUILD IT IN ALASKA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! It already has a bridge, schedualed.
jobiuspublius
John Cole, you can get sued and jailed for being our ring leader. You know engineering requires a liscense.
KC
The president will figure it all out. That’s his job, right?
jg
Its hard work.
scs
I don’t think it will be that hard to keep people away from there. Developers are usually going after the yuppie market. I’m not sure they are going to be so eager to go after the poor market on floodland. What landlord will want to buy there? Any building there will have to be done by the government, and I don’t think they will want to do that either as they will be the first ones blamed if the same thing happens.
ppGaz
I realize that your remarks are well-intended, but the fact is, Hastert’s view on this really doesn’t matter much.
What matters is the physical, practical and economic realities that pertain here. Forget the postcards and the Mardis Gras and the memories of trips to Bourbon Street. It’s going to be about big forces and big obstacles.
To be honest, speaking as a member of this new club of folks called “New Orleans Was Nice … But Don’t Rebuild It”, rigid sentimentality is not going to feed the bulldog.
You would think that in the era of “let’s rush to war in Iraq” people would want to slow down and think over these big boondoggle ideas before jumping in with both feet.
KC
I saw the Senator Mary Landrue (forgive the spelling, but that’s how I feel) on CNN and found her to be less than compelling. Honestly, she looked overwhelmed and awestruck, like someone slapped her senseless and as a result all she could do was thank people “working hard,” mostly her friends in Washington. Her sentiments are admirable of course, but truthfully, her performance just shook my confidence all that much more.
KC
This is really really disturbing. I guess those sentiments about preserving the French Quarter are already in effect.
rilkefan
Parts of SF will not survive an earthquake, being basically sand. I’d accept sacrifing them given current engineering capabilities. Parts of SF are reasonable places to build earthquake-resistant buildings.
Find the hoi polloi of NO good jobs elsewhere and they won’t come back, or many won’t. What are they going to come back to? The streets and roads and buildings (outside the FQ) are a loss, and the soil’s going to be full of nastiness for a long time. Instead of having the poor of NO be refugees for the next months and years, how about the country helps them make new starts elsewhere?
Nothing short of magic (or a sufficiently advanced technology indistinguishable to us from magic) is going to make the hurricane-infested mouth of the flood plain of the Big Muddy a sensible place to put 10**6 people in the face of global warming and the collapse of the coast environment.
rilkefan
BTW, I hear the worst-case scenario for the Lake George portion of NO is 3-5 years before resettlement. My dad’s putting up some refugee family currently, but four years in a small house is a long time for guests.
eileen from OH
Ohferpete, ppgaz. . .my “listen to what he has to say” was tongue-in-cheek and had nuthin’ to do with the relevance of Hastert’s view and everything to do with the priorities of the Republican Congress. His (and their) new-found concern about fiscal pragmatism is laughable, is all. It’s freakin’ pathetic and incredibly ironic that it took a national disaster with thousands suffering to suddenly awaken this streak of cost vs benefit, when a war that has a LOT of the former and little of the latter didn’t do it.
eileen from OH
rilkefan
Actually informed info – op ed from Sci.Am. guy in the NYT.
foolishmortal
They said I was mad to build a city on a swamp, but I did it anyway, just to show ’em…
Seal Pool
I think Hastert’s house is in a stupid place. Anyone got a bulldozer?
Kimmitt
Man, it takes a callous mofo to talk about knocking the city down while people are still dying in there from lack of Federal disaster preparedness.
Must be brown people involved.
KC
I know I pointed to this already, but take it and add it to Drum and what do you get?
DecidedFenceSitter
No, it doesn’t Kimmitt. I’ve given my money to the Red Cross, I have a friend who is going thorough crash training locally (as he’s a state employee), and if he does get sent down there and it is still willy nilly I’ve told him I’m sending him off with gas money to get down there. My friends have done the same.
I’m agnostic, so I don’t pray.
So what else is there to do but plan for the future? What is, is. There is nothing more I can do at the moment that will have an effect on the current situation. So I want to plan for what comes next. I want to think ahead, rather than live in a perpetual “wing-it” situation.
Winging-it works great for my weekend plans. But for saving lives, I want to live by procedures and processes. For rebuilding I want a planned city, not a naturally occuring one with all the headaches that arise.
I want to plan and strategize because that is how I deal with the stress of a crisis situation. I work in a fairly high stress, tight deadline industry. The “panic” button gets hit and frequently I just wing it till I find a solution, but I also, immediately after issue passes from my hands start planning for how to deal with the situation the next time it arises, cause it will.
Don Surber
Tin-eared? OK, rebuild right where we are and wait for the next hurricane to wipe out the city
John Cole, you amazeme with your shortsightedness sometimes
John S.
So I guess this is the surest sign of a failed disaster recovery?
Five days later, everyone is talking about abandoning the city before tens of thousands have even been rescued.
Pathetic.
Semiond B
Ancient Puple wrote:
Fair enough. But are you willing to actually pay for it? Via a tax hike or something?
BumperStickerist
Both political parties should declare today that their 2008 Nominating Conventions will be held in New Orleans.
First party to do wins.
John S.
Where was all this contemplation before the government decided to spend however many billions on rebuilding Iraq? I mean, sure it isn’t in a swamp, but it is in the unforgiving desert, and more importantly they have man-made threats that rival natural disasters (as seen by 1000 people dying in this week’s stampede).
And yet I don’t recall anyone (aside from those lunatic moonbat lefties) agonizing over whether Iraq should be rebuilt with US taxpayer dollars. Nobody (besides the troop hating communists) seemed to question the merit of dumping so much money into a foreign country’s efforts to recover from disaster. And yet, here so many (of all political stripes) are wondering aloud whether or not it is worth it to rebuild on of the largest American cities.
Maybe if New Orleans were in located on the Euphrates rather than the Mississippi, people wouldn’t blink about reconstruction, because then the cheap refrain of ‘freedom is on the march’ could be thrown at the situation, and who then would dare question the decision?
Stormy70
Cananda’s teams are already in LA. Looks like some of you have no clue about what is going on, since you were claiming they were being kept out. My cousin, a TX game warden was just called in to go to LA. While you are bitching people are doing. My company is trying to place their EEs from the affected areas into homes. I have a bedroom waiting for someone. They are having a free garage sale for the refugees in Dallas. We are dropping off everything imaginable. Local employers are giving people jobs. Some of you sound like petty whiners, just wanting to bash Bush. The level of hatred is toxic. I have better things to do. Enjoy your hatred, I hope it keeps you warm at night.
jobiuspublius
How many days can one go without water? How about babies? My conscience is killing me for participating in this thread. I guess I was tired and optimistic. Or, did I subconsciously give up on the rescue “effort”? I guess it’s easy to play city planner when you’re not much use and the clown show won’t stop. THE CLOWN SHOW WONT STOP. TV fund raising efforts are happenning, but, the red cross has collected millions. People are trapped in N.O. They need water or they wont be alive to be rescued and when that 10,000 NG force gets there who will be left alive to rescue? Good thing I have no authority.
zzyzx
I refuse to believe that in the 21st century, we can’t build a better system of levees than we had. How much of the disaster of NO happened because the city was depending on 1960s technology.
I live in a city threatened by earthquakes and an active volcano 70 miles from town. If Rainier erupted, I’d be back here as soon as the lava cooled. Some places are just special and you do what you can to protect them.
Jim Caputo
But that would be the best idea. You see, what New Orleans needs is not a big ol’ Cat5 levy wall; New Orleans needs a big ol’ statue of Moses (preferably with his arms outstretched). If Moses could part the Red Sea and save all the Jews (you know…the Jews…we need then in Israel so they can die during Armageddon…except for the 144,000 of them that we’ll convert into good Christians), then he can certainly hold back the flood tides from one little city.
Yeah, Moses is the answer! Moses will save us! Moses for FEMA Secretary!!!
Jim Caputo
And you enjoy whatever it is that sheep eat.
Bob
When Hastert says New Orleans is expendable the message is that all those people are expendable.
Of course, it’s not going to be the same, with or without the Republican greedheads. But poor people will still be living on marginal land. God doesn’t hate trailer parks. People who hide behind God hate poor people.
jobiuspublius
It’s huge. I keep survaying the “landscape” only to find myself having to resurvey it again and again …
It’s surreal. The clown show is running. Everybody is out of touch and stumbling around.
chadwig
Stormy70 spat:
Have you ever heard of “projection”? Kettle, meet Pot…
Davebo
Thank God there’s no electricity in New Orleans right now because if those people were able to see Bush right now talking about the “hard work” he and his are doing they’d probably take a header from the upper rows of the stadium.
This is pathetic. And our local leaders (Houston) aren’t doing any better. Volunteers have been TURNED AWAY from the Astrodome because the authorities there need time to organize. Trucks carrying BBQ pits and loaded with food have been asked to turn around and come back later.
Good God it’s embarrassing.
John S.
Stormy-
I’m glad that you can turn on the news and watch what is unfolding without feeling the slightest tinge of anguish or dismay. It must be nice to watch what has unfolded over the past week and feel the response was adequate and that we couldn’t have done better. I’m glad that President Bush is in your thoughts and that you are concerned for how people are treating him. You’ve definitely got your priorities straight.
It must be very comforting to be content with mediocrity, because what keeps me up at night is expecting greatness from leaders (all of them) who are incapable of it.
cfw
I like the idea of an international contest to come up with a new city plan, like the contest in the Renaissance that led to the best cathedral in Florence. We need to hear from places like Holland about best practices in Europe. Also good to hear from places like Hong Kong. On the plus side, the land around NO is cheap and undeveloped. Perhaps a good opportunity to build exurbs connected by light rail to a small downtown.
Not clear why port (such as it is) must be at the mouth of the river and not 20-30 miles up river.
Key is to get good ideas from the private sector, and not rely too much on tax dollars.
That said, I am amazed at the ineptitude in the evacuation of 50,000 souls. If a bus holds 50, that translates into 1000 bus loads. Each trip might cost $1000. A state like LA should have not trouble coming up with $1 mm to bus 50,000 out of NOLA, rounding up the buses, and moving the people.
I am also surprised there are significant food or drink issues that could not be managed better. We had grocery stores for 500,000 a week ago. Reasonable “off the land” living would suggest using such stores to feed, clothe, support the 50,000 who did not evacuate. Looks like not much effective leadership on the ground from the NOLA mayor or police.
Lack of elecricity and lots of water are huge hinderances, but (having lived through several storms in Mobile and FL) one might have expected a quicker effective response.
Looks like LA did not have a guard force when it needed it, or a plan b to draw on other states for support. FEMA looks like it expected a completly different senario. FEMA head’s resignation might be in order, in the not too distant future.
Vlad
Just dump a skajillion tons of fill on top of whatever’s there right now, and raise the town up well above the level of the river. Thereyago, problem solved.
Yeah, it’d be expensive, but we have a moral obligation to try and help these Americans rebuild their lives. I’m sickened by the thought of individuals who say, “Yeah, we’d help you rebuild your home, but it seems like a lot of work.” Bollocks.
jobiuspublius
Let’s not forget that a hurricane in N.O. ranked right up there with terrorism on the disaster list. If they can’t get it together for this … What have they been doing since 9/11?
Joe Albanese
Emergency Planning 101: First thing you do in an emergency is set up Direction and Control. In other words a Command Post.
Today on CNN, I heard the guy from FEMA say that they didn’t know about the people at the convention center until the day before (Thursday). Huh? The freaking mayor put out a public S.O.S. for help.
The newsmedia was there in force. But FEMA had NO FUCKIN IDEA there were people at the Convention Center without food or water. The authorities has SENT people to the Convention Center.
But FEMA says they had no idea.
Oh, btw, FEMA stands for FEDEARAL EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT AGENCY.
So is FEMA talking to the mayor? Is the mayor talking to the governor? I heard a radio interview with the mayor where his comments indicate that there is no communication between all of these various agencies and entitites.
REPEAT: EMERGENCY RESPONSE 101: DIRECTION AND CONTROL
REPEAT: EMERGENCY RESPONSE 101: DIRECTION AND CONTROL
I just don’t understand those that are making excuses for the response to this. This is a disgrace. No, not saying Bush is responsible for the hurricane.. and we can debate the whole levee issue when we have more facts… but damn it, it is not a partisan attack to expect our government to do a better job at SAVING the lives of our citizens.
Mr.Ortiz
GAAH! They have to rebuild New Orleans, I haven’t been there yet!… I was actually planning to visit after the first reports of the storm came in, before we realized how bad it was. I thought they could use the tourist dollars.
New Orleans will be rebuilt. The government doesn’t even have to get involved. It will be rebuilt the same way it was built the first time: because people want to live there. Time will erase the horror of this week and people will say “I wish I lived closer to work.” So they will buy land and build houses on it. After a while, a developer will buy several houses, tear them down and build condos. A few years later, you’ve got a vibrant metropolis. We can call it New New Orleans.
In the meantime, the area formerly known as NO should be turned into a landfill. This will raise it up a few feet so that, when the rebuilding begins, most of the city will be at or above sea level. There are other things that can be done, things that people who have actually studied the problem have been proposing for years. I don’t understand why, but I’ve read that restoring the wetlands around the city would create a natural barrier against storms. Ok, do that. And, of course, make the levies Cat5 ready (as in hurricanes, not ethernet). Come to think of it, throw in free wifi access with purchase of a regular coffee and I am so there.
Mr.Ortiz
Did somebody say Emergency Response 101?
Joe Albanese
more partisan attacks from “Bush haters”:
Jonah Goldberg:
John Derbyshire of National Review:
..
TallDave
Fuck it. Let’s build our next city on an active volcano.
Halffasthero
I never posted on this because I have been in stunned disbelief of what has happened there. The scope of the mess is beyond anything I have been able to accept. The sad truth is that New Orleans was a train wreck waiting to happen. It is natural that things like this happen and, sooner or later, New Orleans was going to go down. Nature does not care about our “property rights” and does whatever she sees fit. Could that city have been better protected? Absolutely. We could have bought them more time, but in the end, that town was going to be exposed to the gulf and then taken out.
Hastert was only wrong (very wrong) in how he said it. But I believe this beautiful city has probably seen her last days as we knew her. I have visited her 4 times and loved it so it is hard to say this. Anyway, that is my thought.
Mr.Ortiz
cfw: I like the idea of a design contest. My biggest long-term concern (after the humanitarian crisis has subsided) is that NO will be rebuilt without any character.
No wait, I hate the idea of a design contest. It virtually guarantees that the city will be rebuilt without any character. Ok, hold the contest, but use complete lunatics as judges, that way there’s at least a chance of an interesting winner. Forgive me, I visited my sister in Florida last month and the gated communities there just bore me to death.
TallDave: You mean like Hawaii? Damn, another place I should visit while it still exists.
I apologize to anyone who thinks I’m being glib. I’m feeling optimistic today. I should probably keep my eyes off the news if I want to stay that way.
Joe Albanese
I guess the guy that put up this sign on his business in NO believes the city will be rebuilt.
The sign says:
.
Jim Caputo
How much do you want to bet that he gets a medal instead?
Accountability is a dirty word
Since Bush himself has called the relief efforts unaccetable it’ll be hard for the right wingers to say otherwise.
DecidedFenceSitter
In case other people who like to help with housing, I provide Housing Katrina.
Joe Albanese
Well… guess George Neumayr of the American Spectator doen’t think NO should be rebuilt:
Compassionate Conservatism in its full glory.
BinkyBoy
“We stopped some buses, others got in. And we are — when we scoop up people in these raids, we find people from other nations who came there to oppose the regime — correction, to oppose to the coalition. There are clearly people that are being influenced by Cuba.”
Mr Furious
Which one will the “ugly woman” use on this clown?
Brian
Pretty much the whole nation of Holland is under sea level. They do alright, despite being the dreaded Old Europe.
We can flush $200 billion down the toilet in Iraq, but can’t spend some fraction of that on New Orleans? Good luck selling that.
It’s not an original thought, but I look at the pictures and I think that America has become a Third World nation. It’s like something from Bangladesh or Liberia. We’re now officially a banana republic.
metairie mike
I’m a Lousiana native, and I predicted this bungle from jump street. If you could’ve voted from a list of “City/state governments that would be totally inept and unprepared for a huge disaster in their community,” NO/La would’ve won in a landslide. No government in the US (and few in the third world) has the history of self-serving corruption, ineptitude and apathy toward public service as the city of NO and the state of LA.
Pug
Just dump a skajillion tons of fill on top of whatever’s there right now, and raise the town up well above the level of the river. Thereyago, problem solved.
There is precendent for this, you know. After the devastating 1900 Galveston hurricane that city was literally raised more than ten feet. If they could do it in 1900, I guess we might be able to do it in 2005.
There’s a great book called “Isaac’s Storm”, named for the director of the National Weather Service in Galveston whose wife died in the hurricane, that is a blow-by-blow description of that terrible storm.
Galveston never really recovered after the 1900 hurricane and was displaced by Houston as the major port city on the Texas coast. Anybody for moving to Baton Rouge?
Pug
I’m sure George Neumayr is leading the shoot-to-kill charge and singing the “they decided to stay it’s their problem” chorus.
mac Buckets
2000 Dutch were killed and thousands of farms lost when the dikes burst in the 1960’s (IIRC from a tour I took) after a storm that was nowhere near as ferocious as a Class 5. Holland just is situated in a calmer part of the ocean, so the comparison is probably a bad one.
I don’t think wild hyperbole (or a bit of racism?) helps.
Toni Trammal
Hastert may have point, but his judgment is sorely lacking, along with his timing. Can’t any politician think before opening their mouths. Now is not the time to be talking about rebuilding; now is the time to get those people out of there and get them the help they need.
Joe Albanese
Oh wait, I take everything back about FEMA’s response, they are doing a damn fine job. How do I know? Well, thats what the deputy director of FEMA says:
Do these guys actually belive what they say?
capelza
Mac Buckets, are you thinking of the 1953 flood in the Netherlands? Also, the North Sea is anything but “calm”. Coastlines around it have been losing ground for centuries. Entire cities from Denmark to East Anglia have disappeared from at least the medieval period on.
The Netherlands have an enormous engineering project to keep the North Sea at bay now.
capelza
While I’m thinking about it, in East Anglia, the Fens were notorious for flooding from the North Sea. Windmills were used to pump out the water. And of course, Holland was famous for this…could something that low tech work in the N.O. area?
neil
Yes, I think Hastert was probably being misunderstood. If nothing else, I think the new New Orleans will be built on higher ground, if not in a different location, because of the probably-several-feet of silt which have found their way into the city. This will probably also necessitate bulldozing of much of the city, like he said.
However, I am all in favor of holding Republicans’ feet to the fire over technically correct, but tonedeaf, statements. Fry the bastard.
capelza
It wasn’t just Democrats that took umbrage at his statements. I can’t remember his name now, but a Republican Congressman from the area also publically said it was a bad thing to say.
Brian
The utter, staggering incompetence of all levels of government is what I mean by “Third World”, from El Presidente on down.
BinkyBoy
So wait a fucking second, its NOT ok for us to demand leadership and accountability for this collosal fuckup, but its ok for Dennis “I havn’t met a pie I havn’t liked” Hastert to already discuss the final plans for New Orleans?
Horse before the cart? Or in Dennis’ case, the Ass(hole) before the cart?
mac Buckets
I’m always more staggered by the occasional competence of government, from President on down, and as a result, I’m almost never staggered. Expecting the government to react quickly to save us from Evil Mom Nature seems like setting yourself up for disappointment. When delivering the mail or running a DMV seems to be too big a task for the government, I don’t give them much shot at disaster coordination when the devastation is at this level.
DougJ
Well, you can justify pouring billions into rebuilding Iraq what with all the oil sitting there. New orleans, on the other hand, is pretty much populated by a bunch of poor black people living on the welfare rolls, who needs it! Let’s just bulldoze what’s left and let it turn back into swamp…
wilson
Why pump out all the water?
Seems better to bring lake and river in, with canals.
Use air-conditioned, natural gas boats in place of buses. A modern Venice.
Build limited cat 5 levees to protect French Quarter, downtown, port.
Consider houseboats plus over-water structures in place of traditional houses.
I hear the median house price was only $87,000, compared to around $500,000 in Los Angeles.
Looks like there is considerable room for improvement over the housing status of NO pre-Katrina.