Katrina's fury

[Naselus]

As Hurricane Katrina devestates huge swathes of the southern US, nearly destroying New Orleans completely and leaving thousands homeless and hundreds dead, it seems the American Right-wing press has turned on Bush at last.

Many supposedly Republican papers launched scathing attacks on the current US administrations head-in-the-sand approach to global warming today, citing expert's claims (from the past fifteen years) that hurricane weather will become worse as temperatures rise.

It seems like all hell has broken loose in New Orleans. Law and order has completely fallen apart and deadly gangs now roam the streets, looting and shooting as the hurricane removes all pretence of governance. With over a million evacuated, and all attempts to shelter them rapidly turning into plague pits, this must surely be the worst emergency of Bush's term in office, made even more sour by the betrayal of the press who fawned over him previously.

Suddenly, the American people are asking why Bush has spent five years fighting bogeymen and false alarms, while ignoring the risks posed to his people by their own wanton pollution. He's not helped himself by comparing this with 9/11, a move surely to be interpreted by his opponents as a desperate plea to defend his complacency. It's taken days for him to react to the disaster, which dwarves any terrorist attack ever known, and even now the speed of his actions toward the relief effort are being openly criticized.

And yet still his focus remains on Iraq. It's becoming hard to tell which country Bush think's he's president of; even with the states on the coast facing unbelievable destruction, Bush vowed to remain on the offensive in the middle east. Who will maintain order in the US if he insists on sending all his men to the Gulf? We can see from New Orleans that no-one will.

[HStorm]

Sadly reminiscent of his father in that regard, which is odd, as attitude to foreign policy was one of the only ways he differed from Daddybush a few years ago.

It used to be that Dubya was a total xenophobe who paid only the scantest mind to foreign policy, whereas his father was totally bored out of his brains with domestic matters while in office and couldn't get enough of foreign affairs (and I don't mean sleeping with Charlotte Gainsborough).

It's just so sad that it takes a disaster on this scale for the enormity of global warming to sink in in the USA. And Bush inevitably keeps trying to drive every discussion onto the matter of Iraq instead, as he mistakenly believes that most Americans are still caught up in the bizarre delusion that T W A T has all gone splendidly well. In fact, polls suggest that more than half of the American population have realised the bitter truth there as well. Thus, in the current climate of tragedy, his stance looks even more tactless and irresponsible than usual, and that's one of his mightiest achievements since he took office.

The images from NO are truly astounding though, and things like the movie The Day After Tomorrow suddenly don't look nearly so risible as some people thought at the time.

[Naselus]

Now the US has given a 'shoot to kill' policy to maintain order, undoubtedly swelling the death toll even further. Genius at work from Dubya again.

The Superdome, where people have been sheltering, has become something of a hellhole. Sanitation is non-existant, and there are riots, rapes and murders within, while supplies for the 25,000 people waiting there are running short.

Apparently, in early 2001 a commision declared this exact hurricane-flood scenario the third most likely disaster to hit the US (just behind a terrorist attack on New York, oddly enough...), and the administration... ignored it. In fact, the Administraion ignored all the findings, despite two of them now having been found correct within four years. After 9/11, Bush and co started their terror crackdown, and so diverted away resources which would otherwise have been earmarked for such wasteful exercises as building up NO's flood defences, and sorting out the emergency provisions for hurricane relief. What's the bet Bush is going to go all-out on the southern coast rebuild, and ignore whatever the number 1 predicted problem is? And can anyone find out what the above report says?

[Naselus]

Now a series of explosions have torn NO's docklands apart, as the National Guard head in with rifles at the ready. The images from the city make the disaster films HStorm mentions look tame; even the Book of Revelations seems pretty weak compared to this.

Perhaps the most humbling aspect of all this is that New Orleans got lucky. The main force of the hurricane missed the city and it's flood defences, meaning that the near-total decimation it has suffered is minor by comparison to what could have happened. Only two of the dyke-esque levee defences broke, and most buildings were unaffected until the flooding hit. This could have destroyed the city completely, had Katrina not changed course suddenly.

So, how long until George Bush starts the War on Weather?

[Naselus]

"Flood control has been a priority of this administration from Day One," McClellan said.

Eh? Did anyone else remember that? Do you remember Bush getting into the Whitehouse in 2001 (or even 2005 for that matter) on the Flood Control ticket? Is this what the invasion of Iraq was really about? Are WMDs Wave Machines of Death? Or were Bush's actual priorities Big Business, Big Tax Breaks and Big Holidays?

I can't help but feel slightly smug about all this, while obviously recognizing the enormous horror of the disaster. People have been warning the US that global warming will make hurricanes worse; that it may have made the Tsunami at New Year into the world-shattering event it was; they've told Bush that the flood defences in the southern states are insufficient, and that the Disaster Recovery agencies are underfunded; but the Bush administration has refused to listen, as have the majority of the American public. And now they're facing the music.

Bush has, at least, stopped underplaying the scale of the crisis. While yesterday he rather tactfully described it, during a 'war on terror' speech, as 'a distraction', he's now come clean and admitted that the Federal response to the problem has been too late, too slow, and too little. Hopefully he includes his own decision to remain on holiday until a full 36 hours after NO was flooded in that, though frankly I can't imagine why he feels that his return will help.

[HStorm]

naselus said:

I can't help but feel slightly smug about all this

Well I might have been with you there, were it not for the oh-so-typical point that, as usual, the people responsible for the balls-up are the ones who are least affected by it. As it is, I just feel angry about it.

Hopefully he includes his own decision to remain on holiday until a full 36 hours after NO was flooded in that, though frankly I can't imagine why he feels that his return will help.

No, the only mistake his holiday brings into this is that he decided to come back. At all. Ever. That and not going to NO in person in an attempt to drown himself there.

[Naselus]

I think this is perhaps just another example of how Bush's Administration is a purely reactionary force. He cuts funding to, well, everything, really, and then once a disaster does happen and thousands are killed he immediately drains another aspect of the budget and throws money at the problems he's caused, leaving himself vunerable from another angle entirely.

This is not merely immature and stupid, but I would barely even refer to it as governance. It's not just a governments duty to foresee such dangers (and frankly, they've had over twenty years of warnings), it's practically the main part of the job. Bush, on the other hand, shows no ability to foresee anything other than more tax cuts. He ignored warnings about 9/11, and then once the threat was past he hurled resources into what is essentially a wasted effort. Now he's going to work himself up into a frenzy, with thousands dead, about flood dangers, probably at the expense of Earthquake preperation (the number one threat to the US, according to the eerily accurate 2001 report, is a complete breakdown on the San Andreas fault line).

And still, despite the glaringly obvious comedy of errors that is Dubya's term in office, Americans would rather vote for him than pay an extra cent on the dollar in tax.

[HStorm]

I was watching a press conference given by FEMA on TV last night, headed by Senator Michael Chertoff. It was supposed to be a straightforward, non-politicised update and appraisal of the current situation in the American south-east. However, it quickly and very blatantly lapsed into an exercise in positive spin doctoring on the ongoing shambles, and embarrassed attempts at self-justification. I was truly bewildered by some of the excuses they came up with for the pained slowness of the rescue operation. Perhaps the worst insult to the audience's intelligence was his claim that the US Government was well prepared for one disaster hitting New Orleans but not two.

His implication is that the hurricane and the flood were two separate events, and that the provisions for protecting the population of Louisiana and Mississippi were overwhelmed by the enormity of both impacting at once.

This is clearly the most insulting b****hit I've heard yet in the entire fiasco, not least because it's a lie to suggest that the two disasters are separate. The storm caused the flood, and if there truly is any surprise in that fact, then the entire US Government should resign and not stand again until they've learned the basics of physics; any schoolkid could've worked out, just from analysing the available evidence and the enormous panoply of warnings about this dating back nearly 30 years, that if a powerful enough hurricane set in on the coastline off New Orleans a flood was a distinct possibility. And hurricanes even more powerful than Katrina are a matter of annual routine in the Gulf of Mexico.

To try and separate the two phenomena when it is so absurdly clear that the flood is a direct knock-on effect of the hurricane (and an all-too-common effect of many such storms) is either a desperate lie or the most grotesque stupidity. Either way, it should be the point of no return for Bush, if only enough Americans could recognise it.

[modeski]

If there was an emoticon that could combine apoplexy, smugness, rage, horror and sadness I would employ it here, for that begins to sum up what I feel over this issue.

The death toll continues to rise, and is projected to number in the thousands. It is a tragedy of epic proportions, but to compare the hurricane to 9/11 is facile and just plain wrong. I'm only half-joking when I say that Bush may yet link it to Osama Bin Laden (who?) or Iraq. "Terrirsts" are not to blame here. The only enemy is, as has been said, the Bush administration's complacency, and ignorance of the power of nature.

Suddenly, the American people are asking why Bush has spent five years fighting bogeymen and false alarms, while ignoring the risks posed to his people by their own wanton pollution

You know that Rage Against The Machine song, "Wake up"? That about sums up my feelings for most of the American populace. I'm glad they've finally taken their heads out of the sand on this issue, but it's sad that it took such an epic tragedy to make them do so. I don't know, maybe it's because I've always kept myself informed, perhaps it's because we have superior news coverage and greater awareness as a nation - but so many Americans seem wilfully ignorant. It's sad.

On this forum, I don't need to recite the litany of horrors that is George W Bush and his administration, I'd be preaching to the converted. If America is on the verge of waking up to what we've all known for years, then I suppose it's better late than never. Thank $deity for the two-term rule!

What gets my attention however is the lawlessness, and that the police were involved. I read in the paper that one woman asked a cop for help and was told to get lost because it was "every man for himself". British tourists returning home report of men forming a circle around women, and shielding them with chairs to protect them from rapists. There are rampaging gangs of armed crack-addicts looting, pillaging and popping numerous caps in vulnerable asses.

It's a shocking reminder of how little it takes for the basest elements of mankind to come to the surface. I think that, more than the predictable Bushco mismanagement, will leave the longest impression on me.

[edit: i before e, except after c]

[TheCritique]

He ignored warnings about 9/11, and then once the threat was past he hurled resources into what is essentially a wasted effort.

I hear the doors of empty stables slamming shut.

Hopefully he includes his own decision to remain on holiday until a full 36 hours after NO was flooded in that, though frankly I can't imagine why he feels that his return will help.

I imagine his underlings were dismayed at the prospect of now having to contain him as well as the NO anarchists.

[HStorm]

Casualties are now being projected to tens of thousands. We should be careful to take that with a pinch of salt as these sorts of projected death tolls have a habit of going wildly beyond what the real figure turns out to be. Nonetheless, seeing the bewildering pictures from NO, the figures are quite plausible.

Here's an embarrassing detail for the Bush administration, if only the wider US public were aware of it. People in the Tsunami zone of the Indian sub-continent have been interviewed by British media about Hurricane Katrina. The general, bemused and irritable attitude there seems to be, "When GWB is done telling us how to run our countries, perhaps he'd like to ask our advice on how to organise an evacuation in the event of a natural disaster." It says a lot when you consider that the response of the authorities in the sub-continent to the Tsunami were noticeably quicker and more efficient than those of the Americans to HurriKat, despite (supposedly) poorer infrastructure and complete absence of funds.

Moral of the story; organisation is half the battle... and attitude is everything. And the US authorities have neither.

[Naselus]

Deja vu. Bush is blocking all attempts to set up an independant investigation. Now where do I remember this from?

He's insisting that HE should personally lead a whitewa- um, inquiry. I wunda if 'e'll fink 'e did anyfing rong?


Meanwhile, 58% of the US public think the Whitehouse made a big mess of the whole situation. 67% think Bush could, and should, have done more. 99% of the rest of the world think he's a total moron and should be shot at dawn. There's a 1% margin for error in that last one, by the way.

Republicans and Democrats are now criticising Bush over the whole issue. While the White House maintains it's done no wrong, and that opponents are just 'playing politics' (How can both sides be playing politics by agreeing over the issue?) Bush's approval rating is down to 40%, showing that, for once, some 10% of the American public have noticed what the hell is going on around them. Amazing.

Bush has declared a 'prayer day'. Wonderful. I can see he's really doing all he can for the disaster there. F**king idiot.

Meanwhile, the US continues to follow it's 'Earth is God's gift to man, and so we can do what the hell we want with no consequences' policy by pumping the filthy water of New Orleans straight into the surrounding lakes, dispite scientific objections to the idea as it will cause massive environmental damage. To be fair, it's hard to see what choice they have.

I think the most telling aspect opf the whole thing is that one of the first things Bush ordered when he (finally) noticed the disaster was to 'shoot to kill' looters. Such compassion.

[HStorm]

One of the horrors about the Mexican Gulf at this time of year is hurricanes - not just the odd one or two, but, it's easily forgotten, an entire season of them. And sure enough, a second gigantic storm is now heading for the devastated south coast of the USA.

Hurricane 'Rita', as it's been dubbed, is actually slightly stronger than Katrina - although it is weakening while it is still over the sea - and is expected to make landfall further west than Louisiana (which is still sure to be heavily affected in any event), hitting the Texan coastline at some point in the next 32 hours. Houston, one of the largest industrial centres in the south of the country, lies right in its path, as do the large towns of Galveston and Corpus Christi.

After the recent horrors in Louisiana, it hardly needs pointing out that the response from the authorities in evacuating inhabitants north has been far more urgent and less sluggish. (In a cynical way, this almost counts as a lucky break for the Bush administration as it gives them a second chance to get it right. It further bears mentioning that Texas is also Bush's home State, and one of the biggest core territories of his support base, so one might infer that the Government was always going to be more eager to take action there...)

But for all the greater urgency this time, familiar problems of traffic congestion and shortages of food and fuel are setting in already. The Mayor of Houston, Bill White, has warned that there are not enough government vehicles available to evacuate everyone in the affected areas, and has urged people with their own transport to help friends and neighbours to flee the city.

Ironically, several thousand Louisiana residents who took shelter in Texas after their homes were wrecked by Hurricane Katrina are being uprooted again and moved to Arkansas and Tennessee.

Commercially, the damage is already substantial, before the new hurricane has even arrived. More than 70% of oil production in the Gulf has now been shut down, and US space agency NASA has closed the Johnson Space Centre in Houston.

[HStorm]

On the brink of Rita's arrival on land, the partly-rebuilt anti-flood levees in New Orleans have failed again. Still some way short of their full strength, the flood defences can currently hold back only 15cm of rain. With Rita causing monsoons and raising the water level all along the Gulf's coastline, New Orleans is set to face a fresh wave (almost literally) of damage.

[Naselus]

Looking at the comments left on BBC's website, it seems that many Texans have simply barricaded themselves in their homes and built up large supplies of food, beer and ammunition. It takes a very special sort of mindset to see the devestation in New Orleans and, rather than think "Oh shit! I'd best clear out before my house ends up in Kansas", decides "I'll bang a cap in any f**k*r who tries looting my place after a storm." Unfortunately, most of Texas has that mindset, including a certain ex-governor.

[HStorm]

Still, might mean not so many Republicans left in the world... (Just kiddin'.)

The projected path of the storm has shifted east somewhat, which means Houston will now escape the worst of it... but the problem is that the worst is liable to be far worse than expected, meaning just getting caught in the broader area of the storm could be just as bad.

The storm, although still several hundred miles from the coast, is already causing larger waves on the shoreline than it was expected to cause by Saturday morning. Meanwhile, traffic jams remain stuck moving at barely a hundred yards an hour as they have been for several days as people battle to flee the area.

[Naselus]

It's almost like watching 2001 again.

It's come out that FEMA, who's director (if I remember correctly) resigned over the Katrina disaster, actually told the Whitehouse that NO would flood two days prior to the hurricane.

Anyone find this just a tad familiar? Dubya's informed of something, but is too busy on holiday to actually do anything about it until it's far too late? Hell, all it really needs is some footage of Bush reading to some kids when Katrina was landing.

Bush should be impeached immediately, for his total disregard of the US constitution, his utter disinterest in the daily presidential security briefings, and his dishonest handling of all affairs.

[HStorm]

Well, there were whispers from a number of different directions in the run-up that something big was about to hit; this is just the latest example to slip out.

I also have to re-iterate the point that these warnings were a matter of almost monthly routine going back around 30 years, so I suppose it was inevitable we'd find a dozen or so from the head of FEMA. But yeah, it does make you want to spit that this particular individual should offer this particular warning at that particular moment... especially as he was the one who had to fall on his sword over the whole catastrophe.

[Naselus]

A report has come out admitting that the US is 'not prepared for disasters'.

Well done, that man! It took a vast terrorist attack on the tallest building in the world, and a huge hurricane destroying an entire city, but someone has actually noticed the complacent attitude of the whole thing.

It's time the US started paying tax, and stopped spending all it's money on weapons. The sheer idiocy of the entire US system points to a total re-working of their spending stategy. Perhaps Hillary will sort that out.

[modeski]

Well, colour me unsurprised. Did that report come from the Department of the Bleedin' Obvious?

Preparedness = weakness. Unless of course we can build a weapon to defend against it. Quick! Let's give the Carlyle group another few billion to research disaster defence weaponry.