Preaching to the choir...

[BreweryYardRat]

This is something I wrote for my English class blog. Thought I'd cross-post it, see if anyone wants to take a look.

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Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and Bush’s Incompetence

As you are all aware, Hurricane Katrina recently devastated Louisiana and Missisippi. New Orleans was hit especially hard, as the levees broke under the storm surge and water came pouring in, flooding almost all of the city and continuing to rise over several days. In one particularly dreadful incident from the storm, “at least thirty-two” (IOL) helpless old people, trapped in their nursing home and unable to escape due to their advanced age, drowned as the water flowed under doors and into their rooms. One can only imagine the horror they must have felt, staring at the water rising and rising, until it filled their throats and choked their feeble screams.

The current number of bodies spotted and/or recovered in New Orleans is at 197, and the death toll for the storm as a whole is at 424, but God only knows how many corpses are going to turn up eventually. The people who stayed in New Orleans, whether by choice or simply because they didn’t have the necessary resources to evacuate, are staring at deep water filled with sewage, chemicals, and the occasional snake, alligator, or floating corpse. According to the EPA, “…initial samples of the floodwaters indicated high levels of lead and E. coli and other coliform bacteria” (CNN). And yet, many the people who stayed in New Orleans are having to make their way through the floodwaters in desperate attempts to obtain food, clean water, and other essentials.

However, the death toll in New Orleans, and the current conditions, are much worse than they should have been, and the blame for this falls squarely on the shoulders of President Bush. He appointed Mike Brown, the director of FEMA (who just resigned today in disgrace) at the time Katrina hit. Brown’s only background in emergency management was as “‘an assistant to the city manager’” (TIME) in Edmond, Oklahoma, from 1977-1980! Brown actually padded his resume on this (and other things), claiming that he “ the emergency services division” (TIME). Bush’s tax cuts and his war in Iraq took away money that should have gone towards maintaining and raising the levees in New Orleans and helping with the aftereffects of the hurricane. Additionally, most of Louisiana’s National Guard units were over in Iraq fighting Bush’s war while Nature’s fury was pummeling New Orleans. The same goes for Mississippi’s Guardsmen. To dredge up a quote (author unknown), “How many people died because the Guard were in Iraq rather than at home?” How many lives could the Guardsmen have saved? We’ll never know.

Bush’s incompetent decisions led to this disaster being far worse than it would have been under any other president. The deaths and destruction in New Orleans, the rest of Louisiana, and Mississippi are his fault. And as American citizens, we have a duty not to forget it.


“At least 30 found dead in nursing home.” CNN 7 Sep. 2005. 12 Sep. 2005. http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/07/katrina.impact/

Fonda, Daren, and Rita Healy. “How Reliable Is Brown’s Resume?” TIME 8 Sep. 2005.
12 Sep. 2005. http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1103003,00.html

“Katrina death toll rises to 424.” News24.com 12 Sep. 2005. 12 Sep. 2005 http://www.news24.com/News24/World/Hurricane_Katrina/0,,2-10-1942_1768931,00.html

Moser, Patrick, and Mira Oberman. “Hurricane flood waters swamped nursing home.”
IOL 8 Sep. 2005. 12 Sep. 2005.
http://www.iol.co.za/index.php?set_id=1&click_id=22&art_id=qw1126181165373U236

Superville, Darlene. “Embattled Brown Resigns As FEMA Chief.” Associated Press
12 Sep. 2005. 12 Sep. 2005. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2005/09/12/national/w155313D65.DTL