[lit-ideas] Re: Essay on New Orleans

> [Original Message]
> From: Carol Kirschenbaum <carolkir@xxxxxxxx>
> To: <lit-ideas@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Date: 9/1/2005 9:55:51 PM
> Subject: [lit-ideas] Re: Essay on New Orleans
>
> This makes 9/11 look like a fender
> > bender by comparison.
>
> ck: Damn, you're good with facile comparisons! But of course you're 
> neglecting to factor in the simple reality that while in the throes of a 
> desperate situation, the victims really don't know what they're facing. 


True.  But they still had the enormous advantage of being on dry ground. 
Days later they weren't still up to their necks in corpse and feces filled
water, without drinking water or food or toilets. Weeks later these people
may be only incrementally better, if better at all, unless they leave
somehow.  NY was back and functioning within days.  There is no comparing
the two scenarios.



On 
> 9/11, initially (and later, too), many thought the attack on the WTC was 
> just the first in a series, possibly close together. More attacks--all
over 
> the US--seemed imminent. 


That resolved itself pretty quickly, in a day it was clear what was going
on.



And the aftershocks of grief, with thousands of 
> people suddenly dead--missing, perhaps worse? But I'm also thinking about 
> NYer behavior during its many blackouts. Looting is famously minimal.
>


Aftershocks of grief are going on in New Orleans too, plus homes destroyed,
no drinking water, no sanitary facilities, no food.  NY didn't face any of
that.  I'm a NY-er at heart but I'm not going to compare what NY went
through with what New Orleans is going through and will be going through
for months.



> However, I came to praise New York, not revile the South. Back to the 
> hot-weather explanation.  Now, I've lived in plenty of hot
climates--central 
> Texas,  Jackson and Oxford, Mississippi, Fresno, and New Orleans. Only in 
> New Orleans did I pass out from heat exhaustion. The humidity is 
> unbelievable. I wonder how much aggressive, nutsy behavior is directly
due 
> to the lack of drinking water (dehydration can alter mental functioning) 


It also feels like hell.  Try not drinking for a day.  If you don't mind
risking a urinary tract infection that is.



> along with FEMA's utter lack of planning.


Bush cut their funding.  He also cut the CDC, whose intervention is
critical.


Andy Amago


>
> FEMA, btw, seems to have few if any sensible plans for *any* disasters in 
> *any* city. For instance, in case of any emergency (nuclear war, floods, 
> whatever) in Austin, Texas, FEMA's plan is to evacuate the entire city
north 
> via Hwy 183, which was a notoriously slow, pot-holed, two-lane road that 
> inspired the bumper sticker, "Pray for me, I drive 183." Roads
surrounding 
> New Orleans make Hwy 183 in Texas look like a better-kempt Autobahn.
>
> Carol
>
>
>
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