Yet More Challenges
As I'm writing this (much earlier before posting here, it's now 9:55 AM), Hurricane Rita has come ashore, straddling the border between Texas and Louisiana. A couple of lucky breaks have occurred, if you can call them lucky, since Rita made landfall. First, Rita had weakened from one of the most powerful Atlantic hurricanes on record (and becoming a strong rival to Katrina) to a Category Three storm as it made landfall in the middle of the night. In addition, Rita has spared major cities such as Houston and New Orleans of direct hits, though that is little comfort for those that ended up in the crosshairs of the storm.
Summary of Rita can be found here at the New York Times.
I might be like a football player that jumps on top of a pile for the hell of it when I say this, but if Katrina didn't violently point out the need for greater planning, Rita should underline it. Houston was plagued with massive gridlock as thousands upon thousands, to millions, of vehicles rushed onto the highways during evacuations. Additionally, while having not come to that stage yet, the rescue and recovery efforts in the areas hit should be followed closely. Hopefully, that will not be the mess that efforts following Katrina were. There should be some resources not far away that could be used for rescue operations following Rita and further supplies should be en route.
The outer bands of Rita have poured rain on New Orleans, breaching levees that had broken right after Katrina hit. The lowest areas of the city were flooded once again. The breaks were given stopgap measures that were by no means a permament solution. Bad luck hit in the form of substantial rain. This will only add to the mountain of problems that already exist along the Gulf coast.
Certainly, everyone hopes for the best. By the time this is posted, Rita should be downgraded to a Category Two or even a One. (NOTE:It has since been downgraded to a tropical storm) It also remains to be seen what kind of political impact these next few days will bring.
The MSNBC article also reports that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin hopes to resume the plan to return residents to the areas of the city that are still dry. Federal officials state that it may take two to three weeks to pump out this new floodwater. Unless Nagin can tell what will happen that far in advance, there is no way he should think about restoring the population to the city. If in the middle of the pumping out the water, more rainfall comes to the city, that would increase the flooding, perhaps even into the areas of the city that are targeted for repopulation. As I said in my last post here, those waters are not safe.
So this leaves me with a question: Is Mayor Nagin looking to be kicked out of office?
I mean, why would a mayor be so willing to put his own citizens in danger? As wonderful as it would be to say that the city is getting some life back so soon, it is definitely is not acceptable to put the people he is supposed to look out for as their elected official in danger just to make that point. Nagin has disgusted me with this constant pushing of repopulating a city that clearly isn't ready for it. I hope others will find those same positions repulsive.
Summary of Rita can be found here at the New York Times.
I might be like a football player that jumps on top of a pile for the hell of it when I say this, but if Katrina didn't violently point out the need for greater planning, Rita should underline it. Houston was plagued with massive gridlock as thousands upon thousands, to millions, of vehicles rushed onto the highways during evacuations. Additionally, while having not come to that stage yet, the rescue and recovery efforts in the areas hit should be followed closely. Hopefully, that will not be the mess that efforts following Katrina were. There should be some resources not far away that could be used for rescue operations following Rita and further supplies should be en route.
The outer bands of Rita have poured rain on New Orleans, breaching levees that had broken right after Katrina hit. The lowest areas of the city were flooded once again. The breaks were given stopgap measures that were by no means a permament solution. Bad luck hit in the form of substantial rain. This will only add to the mountain of problems that already exist along the Gulf coast.
Certainly, everyone hopes for the best. By the time this is posted, Rita should be downgraded to a Category Two or even a One. (NOTE:It has since been downgraded to a tropical storm) It also remains to be seen what kind of political impact these next few days will bring.
The MSNBC article also reports that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin hopes to resume the plan to return residents to the areas of the city that are still dry. Federal officials state that it may take two to three weeks to pump out this new floodwater. Unless Nagin can tell what will happen that far in advance, there is no way he should think about restoring the population to the city. If in the middle of the pumping out the water, more rainfall comes to the city, that would increase the flooding, perhaps even into the areas of the city that are targeted for repopulation. As I said in my last post here, those waters are not safe.
So this leaves me with a question: Is Mayor Nagin looking to be kicked out of office?
I mean, why would a mayor be so willing to put his own citizens in danger? As wonderful as it would be to say that the city is getting some life back so soon, it is definitely is not acceptable to put the people he is supposed to look out for as their elected official in danger just to make that point. Nagin has disgusted me with this constant pushing of repopulating a city that clearly isn't ready for it. I hope others will find those same positions repulsive.
posted by Will at 10:38 PM
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