UPDATE: I have relatives who live in the greater NO area, they left for Baton Rouge in time to escape Katrina. They are honest, hard-working people with a young daughter. What awaits their return to their home is unthinkable. All they've worked for, all they've accumulated, if it didn't fit in the trunk of their car, it's gone. Blame Bush? Whew. The mayor of New Orleans, the governor of Louisiana, abdicated their responsibilities to protect the poorest of their constituents (along with all the other constituents) long before Katrina became a tropical depression. There was no emergency plan in place. There was no help because there was no plan, no organization and no leadership. All that has to start on the local level, the federal government provides money and military personnel, ready to obey orders. Until this incredible example of government cowardice and incompetence, I had assumed that every major US city had a basic disaster preparedness plan. New Orleans, which sits on the runway for how many hurricanes, had NO PLAN??!! That kind of incompetence is criminal, in my opinion. You take your salary and all the perks of political office, and someone is unlucky enough to be mayor at a time like this. Rudy Giuliani, love him or hate him, stood tall in his moment of trial. How do you think your local mayor would fare? Is such a plan in existence? Now we know what can happen when disaster strikes and all the mayor and governmor can do is cry for help, looking for someone else to lead, and blaming others for their own failure. ORIGINAL COMMENT 8/30/05: Each of us, no matter where we reside, live with the unspoken fear of some natural disaster occurring to our lives, destroying our homes, things we love and take for granted every day, hoping that discussion about it will always be unnecessary. Witnessing these people experiencing such a mind-bogglingly enormous disaster to a densely populated area, one we like to visit to have fun, adds to the irony and sadness. Those who have survived (the death tolls are nowhere near finalized) will return the Big Easy to its former stature over time, and will return themselves to a normal state, but thank God there are people trying to help. The US Military, the Red Cross, countless other relief organizations. Sometimes heroism seems to be in short supply in a country obsessed with its superficial distractions. But true heroes will show their true colors when their neighbors need the most.
