1464 All dressed up with no place to go

Florida nurse/librarian still waiting for a response from Louisiana. Is Baton Rouge under water too?

1463 Where to point the finger next?

Watching the blame game heat up has caused me to look a little closer to home. I'll toss out some thoughts, but although I'm a "problem solver" by nature, I confess I see the problem in my own backyard, but have no solution to offer, and I'm not using that term idiomatically. I mean the backyard I see when I look out my living room window.

First, I'll digress, as is my pattern. I grew up near the Rock River in northern Illinois. Every spring I would see the flooding, and even as a child I wondered, "Why do people live there?" Same thoughts went through my mind this past week while watching the New Orleans tragedy. Of course, in drier weather as we drove by those same homes perched on stilts next to the Rock River, I would draw my own child-like conclusions seeing the automobiles sitting on concrete blocks in the yards, the mounds of trash, the junk yard dogs barking at us, and the pasty skin color of the children in their shabby clothes. Yes, as a child my conclusion was these people were so poor that there was no place else for them to live but near the water. "They" made those poor people live there. That they wanted to be there, didn't want the confinements of town life, zoning and rules, never even crossed my mind. Here is a recent report on that river with good maps and great photographs. It is available on the web in a pdf form, but I can't seem to get it to load.

I haven't lived there for many years, but when I am in that area I see that people still want the calming beauty of the river area even though there is still some flooding (more controlled now). Only now, most of the shacks are gone. The homes are definitely upscale, just like here in central Ohio where people build gorgeous homes between Route 33 and the Scioto River; homes that sit on stilts or high foundations, property surrounded by walls to push the flooding problem further down stream; houses that require evacuation when the ice flows break and back up at the dam, built some years ago to relieve flooding in our area, but which probably creates problems down stream.

Every city on a river must have dozens of conflicting jurisdictional reports from finger pointing officials--and we have two major rivers flowing through Columbus, bordered by dozens of suburbs. And we have creeks. When we lived on Abington Road there was a creek one house away. The only name I ever heard for it came from a 90 years old I knew in the 1970s--Evans Ditch. It had been created by contractors for run off. But the area was lovely until the terrible storm in the early 1970s when every house (except ours) had 2 or 3 feet of water in the basement. We had no basement. The Ditch was repaired, people built stronger rip-rap to keep water from their yards and basement, and water began to back up further north where there was new building. It was called Turkey Run in that area as I recall, beautiful but often flooded.

We have that creek (Turkey Run Watershed--I'm not sure it is a "real" mother nature creek, or a man made creek for run off) surrounding our condo complex. Our view from every unit is spectacular because of the creek. There are huge trees and wild life, right here in the middle of the city--the scene refreshes our spirits and the air.

Our association takes care of our side. Even so, I'm not sure what our erosion control that we pay for through our assessments is creating further down stream as it flows into Columbus, past the hospital complex and into another jurisdiction. When I walk along the creek, I can see that the other side, bordered by maybe a dozen different properties with near million dollar homes is eroding badly. Those people are on a steep ravine, and although they enjoy the same trees we do, they probably cannot see the creek and the erosion because they wouldn't be able to get to it without great effort. Our side, however, is helpless to control their behavior, like blowing all their leaves into the creek, or not trimming the dead wood.


Deer seen from our unit

1462 Is it yard sale time

Or packing for college? Or sending clothes to relief agencies? Title of a rap song? My broken zipper post is getting a lot of hits. But even on a slow day it gets at least one or two.

1461 He can spell, punctuate and protect himself

AP photographer Jessica Leigh caught this boarded up building sign:

"Don't try. I'm sleeping inside with a big dog, an ugly woman, two shotguns and a claw hammer."

Obviously, a well educated person who doesn't plan to evacuate or put up with looters.

It's not where I first saw it, but here's a version.

1460 A touching scene

This photo of five year old Tanisha Blevin and 105 year old Nita LaGarde 105 being evacuated is one of the best I've seen. It was on the front page of the Columbus Dispatch, but has appeared elsewhere. Eric Gay, AP is the photographer.

A new wine for old drinkers

American Daughter has a post about a new wine for seniors. I'm not sure how many people will enjoy it, but I laughed.

1458 Are you prepared for an emergency?

Yesterday I went through my woefully small emergency stash which I put together in the Spring of 2003. I think I had enough food for two people for two days, one gallon of drinking water, and one for flushing. Even my battery operated radio and flashlight were someplace other than the stash. Not good.

Babs who is a doctor has some suggestions on self-sufficiency until you can get help:

"We're an unimaginably wealthy society. Katrina notwithstanding, even most of our poor have electricity, food, shelter, even televisions, radios, and CD players. But our ease is making us soft and complacent. Believe me, I'm looking in the mirror, not only out at the rest of America.

Put down the fork. Run. Hike with a heavy pack. Stock the pantry. Lift weights. Take a firearms class. If the worst happens, the police aren't coming. The National Guard's not coming. The Red Cross, ain't coming.

If the worst never happens, you'll at least be a sharp shot.

And you'll look fabulous."

Well said, Babs.

1457 Misplaced kindness?

Massachusetts is taking them; West Virginia is taking them; Georgia. All the states now want to look generous. But thousands of people have lost loved ones. How will they cope in Massachusetts? How will they identify the dead? How will they bring them back or reconnect the living? The task just boggles the mind. I think the story of the 29 premies is so compelling. Most of their mothers had gone home from the hospital and the babies were in the neonatal unit. The babies have been evacuated to another state (one mother). Who knows where their mothers are?

And there are still people refusing to leave their homes and get in the boats--bodies floating by. Unbelievable. One guy on top of a multi-story building holding a water bottle shouts down, "Everyone who wants to go is gone." Wonder if he is one of the looters. Wonder if he has enough water and food for several months, or if in another week he'll be griping that there wasn't enough help?

1456 Mr. Blitzer, How does this help?

Here's why I seldom watch CNN. Everytime I've switched for another viewpoint from Fox or one of the nationals, I hear whining and complaining and blaming. I am right now watching Blitzer's "State of Emergency" special. His question right now is "How angry are you?" of the Republican (Jindal) and Democrat (Jefferson) Congressmen. His exact words. "How angry are you?" I've heard newspeople ask dumb questions in times of tragedy (how does this make you feel, etc.), but this one scrapes the bottom. Jindal tells him there is plenty of blame to go around and "we should have been better prepared." The Democrat downplayed the violence [a few shots, he said] that kept the rescuers away, but Jindal talked about the terrible toll lack of security took on the rescue efforts.

If it were you and your buddies from Arkansas in a bass boat going in to rescue people in New Orleans out of the goodness of your heart, how many shots from homegrown criminals would it take to stop you?

Blitzer's next question is "How has FEMA failed?". Jindal jumped right in, and said it shouldn't be under Homeland Security, but expressed his frustration at the lack of communication between the Governor's office and the Federal agencies, each thinking the other was supposed to act. If the Democrat commented, I missed it.

While Fox is showing heroic acts of kindness and rescue, Robert Reich is now on CNN's Blitzer-Bash saying, "this is how low we as a people have sunk; and poor people have been hurt most and people are worse off than ever according to last months reports (before the hurricane, blah, blah)." [What an opportunist] Apparently, he knows nothing about the people who refused to leave, or the local people who were in charge of their safety or the plans to put people in the convention center and super dome with one day of food and water. I'm switching back to some balance. I have extremely low blood pressure but I think it's rising.

Lt. Gen. Russel Honore (man in charge, now) is now speaking on both cable channels about how they planned ahead for this [Everything first has to be moved out of the way so it isn't destroyed]. He's making sense, but I doubt that Blitzer will hear it. He's probably gone to the restroom or bar for a drink. Thirty states sent National Guardsmen. Mr. Blitzer, those people work in our communities. It takes a bit of time to get their gear, on to planes and find a place they can land.

1455 I'm with Amy on this one

Conservatives don't walk lock-step (or synchronize swim right now) like some other persuasions. I'm with Amy, who's been fairly restrained in writing about Katrina. Hewitt must be sniffing too much levee sewage. Sometimes you just need a woman to step in and open a window for some fresh air.

"I wouldn't follow Hugh Hewitt's advice, as reported by The Paragraph Farmer, to "Establish a Center for the Study of Mass Casualty Events at Tulane University in New Orleans." If I have a long-term suggestion for Tulane University in New Orleans, it is this: Move. A "Center for the Study of Mass Casualty Events" based in a city that is a sitting duck for mass casualty events every 100-200 years (there could just as easily be another one next month as in 2017 or 2077 or 2111 or any year you pick out of a hat) is a perversity. One is either in favor of reducing mass casualty events or one is not. (If such a center were to be established, it could be entitled the "Center for the Encouragement of Mass Casualty Events.")"

And she's right on here: "(Consider this: People who seem to hate George W. Bush also want him to be their Mommy. Are they twisted or what?)" I think I'll add that to my quote line up top.

And then she lists 13 good suggestions. Here's 9-12:

9) Local and state governments should have very harsh penalties for looting.

10) Local and state governments should have enhanced penalties for violent crime during states of emergency. Very enhanced.

11) Local and state governments should eliminate the statute of limitations for all crimes conducted in an area under a state of emergency. A conviction 20 years from now is better than no conviction at all.

12) No plea bargains should be accepted for anyone who shot at rescue personnel or committed any crime whatsoever that had the affect of impeding rescue operations during a state of emergency. These crimes are very serious and the message must be sent that anyone who does anything like this can kiss his or her old lifestyle goodbye for quite a long time indeed.
Read them here.

1454 The debate/blame is just starting

Is this a natural disaster or a man-made [i.e. Bush] disaster is just one of the debates starting up (the blame-Bush wing got a head start). I've been looking through the environmental documents and recommendations, and it seems to be a given that what the Corps of Engineers did in the 1960s to divert and control the Mississippi River was a huge mistake. Since we can't dig those guys up and whack them, I'm not surprised at some scepticism at experts wanting more millions to fix the wetlands that have been destroyed by that action. It seems to be a given that corruption in Louisiana was so rampant that the millions or billions sunk into the levees for a category 3 hurricane [the recommendations] might as well have been dropped directly on the water. The corruption and crime in the area seems to transcend both parties and washes across both sides of the aisle.

But there was one tiny tidbit of information I noticed last night in an interview with Steve Harvey, a Christian actor who has a foundation to help the poor and had arrived on scene to survey the situation before sending aid. The reporter asked him who he'd been talking with (seems to be a common question to ask celebrities), and he mentioned a man who had chosen to stay with his home during the hurricane. After it had passed and the family left the house (on dry ground) to survey the damage, he saw two grain barges had broken loose and they smashed through the levee wall. Immediately (he lived next to the levee) the neighborhood was up to their rooftops in water. His wife was in a wheelchair and he was unable to save her and other members of his family.

So if a hurricane wave or wind pushes a barge through an inadequate levee, is it part of a natural or a man-made disaster?

Another disaster, this one more man-made, is the sea of rules and regulations each agency worker, volunteer and victim must swim through. I heard one interview where Red Cross workers did not have the authority to give people dry clothes, diapers and medications, so they weren't. I heard that Wal-Mart was giving each flooded out employee (I think they have over 100 stores and distribution centers closed) three days wages and a $250 food benefit, and I'm willing to bet that it will be docked from their government unemployment benefits, when and if they work through that maze without ID or evidence. There were "police" from one parish keeping people from leaving the convention center area (that's what some of the flooded out people said who were trying to walk out to another parish after days of no buses). Bus drivers headed to a particular evacuee destination 8 or 9 hours away were not allowed by local police to drop people off in cities where they had relatives because their centers were full.

When fear of government regulations drowns out common sense, I think I'll name it "man-made."

1453 What they were saying in 2000 about New Orleans

Was anyone listening?

"New research by the U.S. Geological Survey, however, indicates that New Orleans is sinking faster than many realize and could be under water within 50 years. The city is facing a series of issues--disappearing wetlands that protect from hurricanes, levees that are too low to hold back flood waters, rising water tables, to name a few--that if not addressed soon could have New Orleans suffering the same fate as Atlantis.

Dramatic, yes. But not unlikely, according to Shea Penland, geologist and professor at the University of New Orleans. "When we get the big hurricane and there are 10,000 people dead, the city government's been relocated to the north shore of Lake Ponchartrain, refugee camps have been set up and there $10 billion plus in losses, what then?" he asks." Risk and Insurance, Dec. 2000.

So do you go with the "old" plan, the one that prepares for a category 3 storm, or to you go back to the drawing board with the new information?

1452 Vacuum up the cat hair

That's what I did during the President's speech this morning. I'm so frustrated. The most powerful woman in the world is not a white woman from New York, Hillary Clinton, she is a black woman from Alabama, Condoleeza Rice, and all she is allowed to say when the criticism pours in, even from a mayor who had a full week to prepare, is something like, "Now, now, it's going to be OK." It was so bland, I can't even find it on Google. Meanwhile she lets the media shred the administration. It is so frustrating.

No Republican politician wants to say that letting states decide what to do during a multi-state catastrophe probably isn't a good idea. That would be very bad for their base. No state government wants to acknowledge that their bloated bureaucracies are just that--filled with incompetents. No Democrat in Washington wants to point fingers at a Democratic mayor and a Democratic governor so they point to a Republican president. No FEMA employee wants to say, you local folks ought to know how to do your job so we can do ours. But no one elected me, so I say, "a plague on all your houses."

1451 At last, someone acknowledges. . .

An African American reporter on Fox News is interviewing a New Orleans black woman who was in New York to care for an elderly relative. She is seeking information about her family who had not evacuated and is showing photographs. The reporter asked her why they didn't leave. I'm paraphrasing: "You have to understand these people in the south. Their home is everything to them. They are afraid looters will come in and steal if they leave."

1450 Nevertheless, we need to address in this country. . .

Blah, blah, blah. That's what is said when the talking heads discuss why all these people waiting on bridges and in sports palaces in a town built on the shaky economic base of tourism are African American. It couldn't be that the city is 70% black or that they elected people who were inexperienced or incapable of addressing the problem.

No, it is white racism. No one has said, at least not that I've read, "Where are the men?" I saw so many touching, heart warming scenes of women helping women--pushing an elderly relative in a grocery cart, or four women floating a mother or auntie through the sewage filled water on an air mattress. Yes, I did see some men, many of whom looked like they may have been homeless before the flooding (they were mostly white, btw), but overwhelmingly the cameras picked up on the faces of the women. There would be groups of 10 or 15 making their way to safety with only 2 or 3 men. Now is that TV bias to get our sympathy, or is it reality? I'm sure someone will raise this issue and blame CNN and Fox or whoever provided the feed.

Another thing I didn't see (doesn't mean it didn't happen) was the flooded out people attempting to organize themselves to help each other. Families were helping family members, that much was clear, but did anyone create safe areas, or latrine areas, or organize in any way to protect the larger group against thugs? Yes, they were expecting help momentarily, but it was also 90+ degrees, the town was flooded and on fire. Was there no one in those crowds who could have at least provided some organization until help arrived?

1449 They are not refugees, they are peeps

That's my suggestion. I can't tell you how many irate people I've seen on TV complaining about the word "refugee." Some were just purists--it's a French word meaning to go to a foreign country for refuge. Others thought it was a way to dehumanize and demonize blacks. Well, lots of trendy people, like Paula, use the friendly word "peeps" to refer to a general clutch or group of people--sort of like using the word "they." And if you know peeps personally, I think they become "freeps."

I'm not sure if "peeps" can replace "refugees." It's sure to make someone mad. Where I grew up, peeps were baby chickens. They are sort of helpless and scatterbrained, and various groups will take offense. Also there is a confectionary product called marshmallow peeps, sweet and sticky with an easy melt down which comes in pink, yellow and green.

Language is very tricky--who can say what. A rapper I've never heard of who probably uses the words Ho and Niggar regularly in his music and takes buckets of money to the bank doing it, announced at an NBC fund raiser yesterday that "George Bush hates black people" because there was footage of looters on TV. Where are the film editors when you need them?

1448 The next group of looters

will be the lawyers descending on New Orleans. They probably won't be representing the poor, but will rush in to "help" the upper range income folks who lost everything, but still have assets. Yes, they'll make a luke-warm effort to sue the President, but I think they'll go after private companies with deep pockets that didn't provide enough security and an employee was killed, or which released toxic fumes when things exploded and someone got sick. They'll even try to sue the clean up companies a year from now when mold grows. Yes, I see them on the horizon now, brief cases loaded, text messaging their offices, sending faxes, a little spittle in the corner of their mouths.

1447 Write two checks

If you can spare it, write two checks. One for disaster relief and one to an organization locally you also support. I suspect there are just so many relief dollars to go around, and some local agencies that do good work in your own community might be hurt. I'm sending a check to the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief Fund, North American Mission Board, P.O. Box 116543, Atlanta, GA 30368-6543 to help the Katrina victims and one to our local Pregnancy Decision Health Center to save some unborn babies.

1446 A volunteer gets no response

Be sure to read Matthew's comments on my blog about his efforts to volunteer either in a medical clinic (he's a nurse as well as a librarian) or in the morge. No one's home in Louisiana. Read it here.

1445 Dear Rep. Elijah Cummings

Dear Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md),

I see the Black Caucus has finally emerged five days after the hurricane--to criticize the federal government’s response to the disaster in New Orleans. One of your members, Stephanie Tubbs from my state, said this is not about race--right now. Meaning it will be later. But I think it is.
Stephanie Tubbs, (D-Oh)
It’s about ethnic and party loyalties, and sometimes it’s a two-fer. Your Black Caucus has been afraid to criticize the Mayor of New Orleans who is an African American Democrat. I think he did the best he knew how, but wasn’t up to the job. I don’t know how he got this office, or what experience he brought to it, but he was certainly no Rudy Giuliani, and that’s what the city needed--several, considering the breadth of the disaster. It was the mayor’s responsibility to have a plan to get the poorest and most vulnerable to safety, not the President of the United States, not the military, not the governor. It was his responsibility to ensure that the security forces of New Orleans had radio frequencies that could work together. It was his responsibility to have search and rescue plans in place, and equipment on hand to repair levees. These are local issues, and the people of New Orleans have been taxed for that.

And Louisiana’s governor is a Democrat. Again, I’m sure she is a nice person and means well. She speaks beautifully, as many politicians do (our president does not), but does not appear to be up to the task of facing down hurricanes. She just cries and asks people to pray. Someone said today she hasn’t yet called in the Louisiana National Guard. Surely that isn't true. Gracious!

Too much emphasis on looters? Really? Does Rev. Jackson mean the guys stealing bread and milk for their families or the thugs who were killing, stealing, holding firemen hostage and keeping rescue boats and helicopters from bring people to safety? Why shouldn’t anarchy in the streets, streets that should be under local control, be pinpointed by the media as a huge problem in a city crippled by a storm and poor preparedness. Why should the people of New Orleans have had to endure such a high crime rate by these same thugs all these years?

I’m not surprised the Democrats are running and hiding from this with wild theories about global warming, troops over extended in Iraq, and President Bush being on vacation. But you can’t hide forever. You’ll need to roll up your sleeves and do some house cleaning, and I don’t mean flood waters and sewage.

Update: I was just listening to George Pataky (Gov, NY) and he says his National Guard was there in LA Monday night. Could that be or did I not hear him right? Just googled it. Yep. They were there.