Nawlins

Ok, I’m back. Hopefully you weren’t all in too much suspense. So New Orleans. Here’s what I’ve been able to ascertain from talking to various people "in the know." First off, like I’ve pointed out several times, NO didn’t suffer from direct hurricane damage. They suffered from flood damage. They have a pretty different set of problems. Like needing to fix the levees. We don’t have those problems here in MS. Speaking of the levees, I hear two sides of the story. One is that they have been asking for money to fix them for several years, warning that this would happen, but they were denied. The OTHER is that they were allocated vast sums of money to fix them, but the local government decided to spend the money on other things. I honestly do not know which one of these is more accurate than the other. I have a feeling that, to some degree, both apply.

Another big issue I hear a lot on is the way the local level responded. I’m sure you all heard on the news of how NO’s mayor went on and on trying about how no one was there to help. His incessant whining to the media didn’t do much to set up the first responders in a very good light. And the way he acted recently in trying to get people back in when it wasn’t safe - just terrible. The local opinion is that he’s been hogging the media spotlight more than he’s been helping. Like the relief groups I mentioned in the last post, he seems to have fallen victim to the curse of media attention. Next we move on to the governor. Apparently Louisiana has this thing about their independence - almost like Texas. They like to do things their own way and don’t really want anyone interfering. The OTHER thing you should know is that there are many laws protecting state’s rights. Because of this, any federal-level entity, be it the military, FEMA, etc., can’t just come in and start working. They have to be REQUESTED by the state. This is generally done through the process of "declaring a state of emergency," which allows for federal assistance. More importantly, this relinquishes the incident command from the governor’s office to whatever federal entity is taking over. The idea is that they are more equipped to handle the situation. In this case, the governor did NOT declare a state of emergency for WEEKS after Katrina hit. This kept thousands of national guard troops which were at the border out of the state. The governor was convinced that the 300 NO police officers would be able to sufficiently secure the crowds. When things started getting out of hand, she wanted the national guardsmen to come, but to be under the state’s emergency control. That’s not the way it works. The laws are written in an all-or-nothing manner. It was totally naive and political for her to think that the state had the resources/expertise to handle the situation on their own. Because of this, critical help was kept out of the state for much longer than it should have and many people died. In MS, they handled things differently, and things really went better. The biggest problem is that BECAUSE of the mess in NO, the media was completely sidetracked. No one reports on MS. No one seems to care. Their damage is far worse, but very few are doing anything about it. All attention has been focused on NO, so that’s where the help goes. The thinking is that if they can "fix" things there, it will get out of the news and everyone looks better. But it leaves serious problems open in MS.

Finally, and I don’t know a good way to say this, the people of NO added to the mess. I’m sure you heard the news reports where residents were SHOOTING at relief helicopters. They somehow thought this would make them come pick them up. Instead, it scared all relief workers out of the area until the military showed up. These weren’t gangs, these were regular people. Then there were those who refused to leave. I’ve HEARD this has something to do with the schedule for issuing welfare checks - which large portions of the city were on. Last, from what the locals tell me, residents of NO have a strong sense of entitlement. They wanted someone to come in and fix it because they deserve it. They weren’t willing, like MS, to WORK towards that. They wanted the handout. Like I said, there’s no good way to put this, but it sounds like the people were their own worst enemy. I don’t know any of this firsthand, but I have no reason to disbelieve those who have lived in this area for generations and know how things work better than I. I will tell you what PISSES ME OFF more than just about anything else: when people who aren’t there and know NOTHING about the way things are going try to talk like they have all the answers. When they give me their "this is how I would have handled it" speech. You know what, it’s SO DIFFERENT there from what you see on the news. I don’t know how anyone could be so arrogant to think they know how to fix a disaster of this scale. Did people make mistakes? Oh, yeah. But we haven’t had anything like this in the past to "practice" on. If you don’t know what you’re talking about, it’s best to stay quiet. I think that wraps up this bit of news. I’ll get more out about the work later. Just wanted to finish that thought when I had the time.

- Matt (currently in: Orlando, FL)