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writing for godot

SEVEN THINGS I HAVE LEARNED FROM HURRICANE KATRINA AND THE FLOODS

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Written by Paul Harris   
Sunday, 26 August 2012 15:23
As the 7th Anniversary of Hurricane Katrina arrives I have reflected upon my experiences as a California tourist who was stuck in the Superdome. Amongst my thoughts I share the following observations on humanity:

1. Group Think is alive and well in society. As a 12 year old or so attending the California State Fair in Sacramento circa 1968 ribbons adorned the many fruits and vegetables grown by proud children in the area. An adult started the rumor that since the judging was over it was fine for fair goers to take any of the produce they wanted. It turned in to a minor riot with parents instructing their children which choice prizes to steal. As a minor I knew well that this was wrong and disgusting, and that every one of those parents knew this as well, but the mob mentality seemed to make it okay in their eyes.
Approximately 37 years later I observed identical behavior when our group of about 100 was covertly smuggled out of the Superdome after Hurricane Katrina. In the nearby Hyatt Regency Hotel where we were later escorted to, a couple in our group got the idea to break into the upstairs bar and steal as much beer as they could carry. It was déjà vu. Just as at the State Fair, the momentum grew and within minutes about 25 adults had broken in to steal alcohol, knowing full well that this was neither a necessity nor morally okay.

2. Fear is an incredibly powerful emotion that politicians, religious leaders, and the media use quite effectively towards us and its use can make the difference between life and death. While most if not every one of us inside that Superdome were at times scared to death, it was the lack of accurate information and communication that led to most rumors and hysteria. While you TV viewers thought that kids were being raped and murdered and that hundreds were dead inside the Superdome, and that helicopters were being shot at by ambushers outside, we too began to believe it. The trouble was that it wasn’t true, but the fear level created such distrust that it was a tender box inside that could have exploded, possibly resulting in race and/or class warfare.

3. We humans believe what we want to believe. It’s perfectly acceptable for people who comment on news reports to repeat misinformation thousands of times without any accountability when we get it wrong. To defer criticism against the President and FEMA the battle cry of many was to keep referring to those 100 busses in New Orleans that should have been used to rescue the masses still left in the city. It was simply too painful for many to admit that their leader’s actions could be so callous and negligent. They simply repeated what they heard via a certain “news” corporation’s reports without realizing that those busses belonged to the local poverty-stricken school district and only about ½ were even operational before Katrina. So under best conditions those busses might have transported a maximum of 3,000 individuals, hardly a dent in the total number of people stranded. What’s more, many of those people who screamed that those busses would have been the saviors of New Orleanians were the same people who screamed that people should have gotten out of town earlier. Well, in fact those people who were able to drive the busses had their own families who they were trying to get out of town, just as these commentators urged.

4. For the city of New Orleans the fallout from Hurricane Katrina was mainly an unnatural disaster. Independent studies and a Federal Judge have ruled that the Army Corps of Engineers continually cut corners, which created a shoddy levee system, which was unable to withstand a Category 3 storm. The vast majority of death and destruction in the city was thus due to man-made causes (an engineering disaster and slow human response.) For the Mississippi Gulf Coast though where Katrina made landfall it was a devastating natural disaster.

5. It’s acceptable in many circles of American society for people and politicians who call themselves compassionate, God-fearing folks to repeatedly ignore or make cruel verbal attacks towards poor or less fortunate American citizens. For years post-Katrina many of these individuals exclaimed that anyone who lived in a city vulnerable to hurricanes (New Orleans) or below sea level deserved what they got, yet these same people are strangely silent when it comes to describing victims who live in tornado alley, areas that are vulnerable to regular wildfires, spring time flooding, earthquakes, or the tens of millions of other Americans who live in cities with a higher proportion of their land mass below sea level than New Orleans.

6. Local politicians will try and spin their own city’s response to a disaster as a contrast to the local leaders’ responses to Katrina. They fail to disclose though that Katrina and the floods was a more massive disaster in terms of lives lost, homes lost, and dollar losses than the Oklahoma City bombing, the San Diego Wildfires, and the Northridge, California earthquake combined, all of which elicited massive and immediate Federal responses to aid the victims. That response was almost absent in New Orleans.

7. I have learned that those who tend to complain the most in life and criticize those in need very often are those who volunteer the least in society. Fortunately there are hundreds of thousands of incredibly compassionate, selfless human beings who have given so much of themselves to try and help the vulnerable on the Gulf Coast and the New Orleans areas. These people come from many different countries, races, ages, and many who are religious and many who are atheists or agnostic. They understand that those affected by disasters may spend years trying to rebuild their homes and may be suffering from PTSD for years to come. I have learned that so many of these people have given so much, asking nothing in return. I have thus learned to never give up hope in life. And finally, I have learned to prepare survival kits for my family and pets that last for a week, not just 72 hours. You never know if the next President will make invading other countries under false pretenses a higher priority than helping his or her fellow Americans in immediate need.


Paul Harris is a librarian in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. In 2005 he was a San Diego tourist in New Orleans who tried to get out of town the moment the evacuation order was given, only to discover that the Airport, Amtrak, and Greyhound had all been shut down the day before the evacuation. He is author of the memoir, "Diary From the Dome, Reflections on Fear and Privilege During Katrina".
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