Watching the coverage of what has been occurring in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama late tonight, I saw a clip of a local news reporter talking to a man who was lost. Lost because he had done everything to save his home and family from rising floodwaters. In the turmoil, he began to lose contact with his wife. She told him to take care of their boys, to keep them safe. And he lost her. Now, he was wandering the streets in a devastated daze, his sons clinging to his hands, fear in their eyes.
Ans as the reporter asked him what happened, she started to crack. As she asked for his wife's name, in case she is found, she began to shake. Her voice began to break. And she began to cry. And I wept.
For such is the tragedy that is unfolding. Thousands are already homeless, their homes destroyed by waves of water driven by raging winds. Untold numbers have likely perished in the flooding, many trapped in homes they could not escape.
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And the nightmare is only beginning. While some areas, like Gulfport and Biloxi, suffered rapid damage, New Orleans is suffering what some have already described as slow-motion destruction. In the late hours of Monday night, a two-hundred-foot section of storm-weakened levee gave way, sending flooding waters down Canal St. towards the downtown area. The areas that seemed to escape damage are now being inundated. Two downtown hospitals are requesting airlifts for their patients as flood waters have already reached the second floor where emergency generators are located.
As the city floods, the dangers increase exponentially. There is no power, sewage lines will overflow and flow into streets, chemical and petroleum storage tanks will spill into the floodwaters. And New Orleans famed "above-ground" cemeteries will flood, creating yet another health issue.
Pumps that normally keep New Orleans free from flood are overwhelmed, if functioning at all, and as levees breach, the pressure put on remaining sections threatens to continue to cause even more sections to fail. What will stop the waters of Lake Ponchartrain from flowing into the basin that is New Orleans? The leveling of water level between the two. The removal of the water may take months. Meanwhile residents of the vibrant city are left homeless.
And help will be difficult to bring in. Of the three main paths of entry into the city, two have been destroyed. Emergency vehicles, heavy construciton and salvage gear, supplies - all must come down the same path, a path that also is the only means of leaving the city.
This is the tragedy that is unfolding.
But the part the raises the anger in me, that keeps me from sleeping, that makes the bile rise up in my throat - the part that is a travesty, is that more than 24 hours after it was clear that New Orleans would be hit (I saw it reported at by 2pm on Sunday), officials in the area are still looking for help. While governors and mayors are careful not to politicize this event, the facy is simple - the National Guard troops, equipment, and assorted resources aren't there. They are half a world away, in a desert land fighting a war that was ill-conceived, poorly planned, and has cost nearly 1900 American lives. The party line is that they are there to keep us safe. Right now, the folks of the central Gulf Coast need them here to keep them safe. They are there to spread freedom and democracy, we are told. They need to be here, spreading aid and comfort to the thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands who need it.
And while fat cats with huge amounts of disposable income and corporate barons fill their coffers with tax cuts and incentives that help only the smallest percentage of the populace, funding has been cut for projects that could have mitigated some of the damage we've seen in the last 24 hours. Plenty of talk goes around about homeland security. And yet, the homeland is suffering one of the greatest natural disasters in modern history. While no one can stop a hurricane, personnel and resources can be assigned to move people to safety, so they don't have to wait on hospital roofs to be evacuated.
And then there is the hypocrisy. When the tsunami devastated Southeast Asia, I was among the folks who was absolutely embarassed by the slow and miserly response put forward by our government. I agreed with the folks around the world who cried "Where is the US?"
These cries came with 24 hours of the devastating news. And continued, as they should have, until the US ponied up. But here is where the hypocrisy lies.
Where are those same countries now? Where are the offers of aid? Of resources to help feed, clothe, shelter the thousands, perhaps over a million individual who will be homeless for months? Where are the groups that decried the US' slow response?
Of course, many will say "Hey, they're big boys, they can handle it", or "Their policies have brought about the lack of response".
And I call those statements hypocritical. When others need help, we are expected to be first in line, doling out the aid. But when we need the assistance, and we do now, no one jumps forward.
Do I mean to say that we should not give aid in the course of events? Absolutely not. We should be first. But I have little sympathy or patience for those that cannot or will not make the same offers with the same urgency when we need it.
The days, weeks, even months ahead will be difficult for a large area of the central Gulf Coast. They will need assistance in many forms. We can only hope that cities like Gulfport, Biloxi, Bay St. Louis and New Orleans will recover.
If you would like to help you can make donations to the American Red Cross