The ramifications of the devastation wrought by Hurricane Katrina are just beginning to see the light of day.
In a press conference this morning, the governor of Texas announced that Houston has offered the Astrodome as a new refuge for evacuees from New Orleans. An armada of nearly 500 buses will be used to ferry folks from the Superdome in New Orleans to Houston. The schedule for the Astrodome has been cleared through December to allow the building to be used as a shelter for up to 25,000 people.
But in the rest of the press conference, the governor began to lay out some of the additional changes and challenges that Katrina is creating.
More below the fold...
By federal law, displaced children have the right to enroll in schools in their temporary location. This means that children displaced from New Orleans will have to assimilated into the Texas school system. As Gov. Perry outlined in his presentation, this will require more textbooks, more funding for free lunch and reduced fee lunches, more transportation for students, and waivers for class size.
Other impacts include the fact that major pipelines from the Gulf Coast supply oil to areas up and down the East Coast. These pipelines pass through Mississippi. While there have not yet been reports of direct damage to these pipelines, the pumps that keep the oil flowing have no electricity to power them. Florida will be getting some shipments via tankers to alleviate the lack of supply. This, of course, will drive up the cost of fuel.
And yet, the real effects have not begun to show themselves.
Economically, this devastation will have a massive trickle down effect. Thousands of homes have been destroyed, as well as the livelihodd of those who inhabited the homes. This means mortgages that will not be paid will end up defaulting. Families who have been using credit cards to escape the area will find it more and more difficult to pay their bills, eventually defaulting. Credit companies will begin massive moves to try to recoup losses.
And in the midst of this, the bankruptcy changes that were voted in earlier this year will come into play, making it much more difficult for these affected families to seek relief from the mounting pile of creditors they face.
Unemployment rates will begin to soar as potentially millions of workers across the Gulf Coast region will have no job to return to. States like Mississippi, who rely on industries like the "riverboat" casinos, will face budget shortfalls as they lose an estimated $500,000 per day in taxes from gambling, not to mention the sales taxes generated by the tourism industry in these hard hit areas.
And as water sits stagnant in these areas, health problems will begin to rear their ugly heads. Mosquitoes bring the risk of West Nile Virus and a host of other vector-borne diseases. Sewage lines have ruptured and leaked into floodwaters, releasing waste and contaminating everything the waters come in contact with. In addition, gasoline and chemical tanks are also underwater, releasing their contents, creating a toxic mix that threatens everyone in the area. Gruesome as it is, the victims of drowning, building failures and exposure to the elements, as well as animals who have perished in the disaster also add to the health dangers. Water supplies are fouled, leaving no potable water for those stranded. And as time passes, the danger increases.
But the fallout that needs to be realized is the political fallout. Military resources were not put into place before the event, although it was forecast at least 48 hours prior to Katrina making landfall. Funding for projects that might have mitigated the effects of the storm was cut. Personnel and money is being spent in Iraq that could and should have been spent here already in the recovery and rescue efforts in storm ravaged areas.
And yet, this will likely be portrayed by the current White House administration as a show of their command of the situation. Indeed, they have already co-opted the hurricane as thier own opportunity to wrap themselves in the flag.
As you can see from this banner, taken directly from the White House website this morning, an image of the hurricane is set side-by-side with an image of the President and the American flag.
But the President hasn't been to the hurricane area yet. In fact, he is just returning to work from his five-week vacation today, two days after the hurricane. He won't see the affected areas until at least Friday.
The White House insists that they don't want to get in the way. But they have wasted no time in wrapping this tragedy and the flag around the President once again. Just as they used, and continue to use, the tragedy of 9/11/01 to justify their actions, they have already begun to use this tragedy to further their image.
The failures leading up to this should have consequences. But if this administration makes this tragedy another piece of their propaganda campaign, the fallout should be "nuclear" in scope. We should, as fellow travelers on this planet, do whatever we can to alleviate the suffering and mitigate the damage that will come out of this disaster. What we should not do is allow a cynical, self-serving, blind-to-reality administration use another national tragedy as a platform for their continued fleecing of the nation. They should be embarrassed that this could have happened on their watch. Unfortunately, that is a sensation they seem incapable of feeling.
Crossposted at WhatsTheQuestion.org