"America is free from natural disaster", that statement is no longer true. America was shaken. The very very few time during her history of 300 years. It was put to the test, and it failed. Lack of preparation, weak response, slow process. Americans were angry. Government officials hastily gather together to fix the problem, or at least to find a temporary solution to reduce the anger of people in the once beautiful city New Orleans, now a total mess with deaths and corpses and chaos. A storm came and stole away the peace and charm of America, and to prove that even the most powerful nation is still vulnerable in comparison with the unpredictable power of Nature. After this disaster, America's administration will probably rethink its policies and its opposition against the worlwide efforts to preserve the environment. And, who knows, they may return to the negotiation for the Kyoto treatment. Before this event, they have already shown some changes. From ignoring the problem with glass house gas, some states in the US have imposed limitations on some types of products and materials. Now, they have the right reason to go further and to prepare more for their own future. Weapons cannot be used against typhoons. Helicopters and carriers cannot strike down hurricanes. And money cannot be the solution to all problems. After 5 days, people in the heart of the richest nation in the world are still lack for bread and fresh water, and the most fearful security forces cannot prevent thefts and robberies. Last year, when the Tsunami stroke Asia, America felt sympathy for them. Those countries were too poor. But America is not poor. And the same scene, once observed on the beaches of Thailand and Indonesia, can now be found in America. This price is high, very high. But we all hope that the leaders of the country will learn a lesson and do something useful in return, or else they will destroy their own future because of greed and temptation.
From a beautiful and colorful city
To a total mess
A deeper insight to Katrina incident and the root of the problem.
said...
A comment from another site (http://joi.ito.com/archives/2005/09/03/the_underprivileged_victims_of_katrina.html#c026149) got me thinking:
"3. The blatantly poor preparation for the hurricane. This has been predicted for years and if you have a city below sea level, surely much better defence against the waters should have been planned. Heck, the Dutch have been doing this for ages. It turned out the budget for this was cut by the Bush government. Way to go."
It is difficult to find the root of this problem. One would think that upon finding that New Orleans is below sea level and that hurricane happens annually around the city, the US federal government would better prepare the city for occasions such as Katrina. But as it turned out, they didn't. It is easy to put the blame on them, but that would not solve anything now.
If indeed the Dutch solution can be applied to New Orleans, wouldn’t that save so much money? Then, lives would not be lost and buildings would not be submerged under water. One conclusion that can be taken from this unfortunate situation is skimping on necessity can result on devastating consequence.
Hi Surya
Thanks for your comment. I have thought that I am now the only one paying attention to the blog. Glad to know you still read it :)
Yeah. The preparation was very little and has been proven useless. The borders were lower than the waves, so now the city is like a huge lake with cries and caskets and rubbish. And the relief efforts are very limited and slow. Cannot figure out why. Maybe they underestimated the storm. Now the US is calling for international relief efforts. They have been moving from the role of the one who goes around the globe, offering "aids", although many receivers did not want, to the one who needs assisstance. Everything has its time. But for this, they can only blame themselves. No terrorism in this case. Just a butterfly flying up somewhere, and 100 billion dollars flew away. Such a great cost, yes, but the matter is whether this cost will incurr anything positive moves from the US administration.
1:36 PM