New Orleans: After the Storm
Every time I saw an image on televison about Katrina's devastation of New Orleans, I would cringe in disbelief. This is not the New Orleans I know. This is not the New Orleans which I visited only last year. Indeed, I was right. This is a different New Orleans, a New Orleans facing annihalation, a city drowning in its own waters, a city where death and destruction have become the norm. Whatever happens in the next few weeks, New Orleans will never be the same.
I am not going to start to allot blame,for me there are too many individuals who are already doing that. But there were times when following the sequence of events, I could only feel shock, and outrage. Hurricanes always bring a mixture of emotions, and this one seemed no different . At least, that was the way it looked at the start. But then the rot set in,and everything seemed out of control. Suddenly, the human face of tragedy was everywhere.
Many of us watching from around the world couldn't comprehend the unfolding of events. The shock of the storm, the shock of the floods, and then, the greatest shock of all, the shock of the response. Why did it take so long for the establishment to get organised, and deliver? After all, this is the great USA, the self proclaimed last superpower. Where is everybody?
And then,there was the suffering. Every time I looked, there was suffering. People in need of help, people in need of food, people needing rescue. It was quite obvious most needed some kind of direction. To look at these people, and the unfolding of events, from such a distance away, and yet be unable to lend a helping hand, was quite traumatic. No matter how sympathetic I felt, all I could do was to stare, and hope. Of course, later when everything changed for the worse, and a great degree of ugliness crept in, the trauma became much more painful. Compassion seemed to be lost somewhere in the waters. Despair was everywhere. Where were the miracles when you needed them most?
There are numerous lessons to be learnt from Hurricane Katrina, not only by the the people of the USA, but also by all others in the rest of the world. How prepared are we for dealing with emergencies? How prepared are our elected officials for dealing with local and national disasters? If we are not, we should be. We should always expect the unexpected, and be prepared for it, even if it does not happen. The devastation of New Orleans, and the lack of preparedness, is a mirror for all the world. It is a reflection we must not ignore. If we do, we ignore it at our own peril.
Every time I saw an image on televison about Katrina's devastation of New Orleans, I would cringe in disbelief. This is not the New Orleans I know. This is not the New Orleans which I visited only last year. Indeed, I was right. This is a different New Orleans, a New Orleans facing annihalation, a city drowning in its own waters, a city where death and destruction have become the norm. Whatever happens in the next few weeks, New Orleans will never be the same.
I am not going to start to allot blame,for me there are too many individuals who are already doing that. But there were times when following the sequence of events, I could only feel shock, and outrage. Hurricanes always bring a mixture of emotions, and this one seemed no different . At least, that was the way it looked at the start. But then the rot set in,and everything seemed out of control. Suddenly, the human face of tragedy was everywhere.
Many of us watching from around the world couldn't comprehend the unfolding of events. The shock of the storm, the shock of the floods, and then, the greatest shock of all, the shock of the response. Why did it take so long for the establishment to get organised, and deliver? After all, this is the great USA, the self proclaimed last superpower. Where is everybody?
And then,there was the suffering. Every time I looked, there was suffering. People in need of help, people in need of food, people needing rescue. It was quite obvious most needed some kind of direction. To look at these people, and the unfolding of events, from such a distance away, and yet be unable to lend a helping hand, was quite traumatic. No matter how sympathetic I felt, all I could do was to stare, and hope. Of course, later when everything changed for the worse, and a great degree of ugliness crept in, the trauma became much more painful. Compassion seemed to be lost somewhere in the waters. Despair was everywhere. Where were the miracles when you needed them most?
There are numerous lessons to be learnt from Hurricane Katrina, not only by the the people of the USA, but also by all others in the rest of the world. How prepared are we for dealing with emergencies? How prepared are our elected officials for dealing with local and national disasters? If we are not, we should be. We should always expect the unexpected, and be prepared for it, even if it does not happen. The devastation of New Orleans, and the lack of preparedness, is a mirror for all the world. It is a reflection we must not ignore. If we do, we ignore it at our own peril.
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