I just got a text from a friend in Baton Rouge, who asked me to help him get the word out about what's happening in the wake of Hurricane Gustav. Since the press has moved on to the GOP convention and HurriMcCain Palin, they don't seem interested in covering the after-effects of the storm in the Gulf Coast. In the meantime, 700,000 people throughout the Gulf region still don't have electricity. And while the response to this hurricane is incomparably better than the "heckuva job" done during Katrina, the need to make things look good for the GOP may be causing some problems, too.
From my friend Ari's blog:
Andy and Star drove up here from New Orleans in their friends van. They parked this van, legally, in front of my house. This morning as we went out to scrounge for food, Baton Rouge police towed their van. They did not inform us to move it, by sign or anything. There were police on our street as we left the house, but they said nothing as we passed. When we got back, the car was gone. Asking around, we come to find that the car was towed in order to make way for Bush's motorcade who was passing through the area to asess the damage. I guess he can add "cars unnecessarilly towed" to the list of things that residents here are pissed off about.
Now I realize that this might seem like a relatively small incident. But it's indicative of the way in which this storm has been handled. The emphasis is being placed on making an appearance of competent handling. That does not mean, however, that everything is wrapped up and done. As (Republican ;->) Governor Bobby Jindal points out,
We're not quite at halftime... . This is a serious storm that caused serious damage in our state. ... We have many hardships ahead.
The death toll from Gustav has been a mere fraction of what Katrina's was. But it is still rising. The damage is no where near what Katrina's was. But it is still being factored. People are still not back in their homes. People still don't have the food, water, shelter, and especially power that they need. While it's obvious that FEMA learned some lessons from Katrina, that doesn't mean we can let them off the hook and stop demanding accountability for this storm.
And I, for one, don't believe that this should be the "take away lesson" from Hurricane Gustav:
President Bush, monitoring the storm from Texas said Tuesday that while it's too early to assess Hurricane Gustav's damage to U.S. oil infrastructure off the Gulf Coast, it should prompt Congress to OK more domestic oil production. He said when Congress comes back from recess, lawmakers "need to understand" that the nation needs more, not less domestic energy production.
Obama's Gustav aid relief links page
Red Cross