The City Dies
Mood:  sad
Now Playing: Preservation Hall Jazz Band
Topic: The City Dies
Pompeii in 79AD
Atlanta in 1864
Galveston in 1900
Hiroshima & Nagasaki in 1945
New Orleans in 2005

Such now reads a grim list of cities that have suffered utter destruction from either manmade or natural disasters.

Hurricane Katrina has become the most destructive natural disaster in the history of this great nation. The proud Southern people of the Gulf Coast have been blasted by a category 4 storm that has unleashed the equivalent energy of several thousand nuclear warheads.

And it shows.

The entire coastal region, especially, but not limited to, Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi, seem scrubbed clear as if by a giant belt sander. I have never seen anything like it, at least not at this enormous scale. I’ve heard of a region of a state being devastated by a storm, but never an entire region of a country!

The dimensions of the humanitarian crisis are just starting to become clear with hundreds of thousands of people now homeless, no electricity in many areas of the South, and only sporadic phone service. Things cannot be expected to improve for some time---possibly months to more than a year….

Therefore, our fellow citizens of the Sunny South need our help. Please contribute what you can to these, and other, charities:

Catholic Charities

Red Cross USA

The Salvation Army

Visit Charity Navigator for a list of other reputable charities. Be sure all donations are specified for Hurricane Katrina relief efforts!

While the entire Gulf Coast has been hit hard, the city of New Orleans has proven to be a particularly grim situation. With two or more levees burst, the city, which lies below sea level, has suffered a flood comparable to the tsunami that struck Asia and India last December. Entire neighborhoods are underwater, making escape difficult or impossible. Like the rest of the Gulf Coast, Katrina knocked out all electricity and telephone service. However, because of the flooding, water service has failed as well and no infrastructure repairs are possible until the water can be pumped out of this fishbowl of a city.

And that could take over a month!

Worse, New Orleans has fallen victim to a spate of violence. In scenes reminiscent of The Road Warrior, civil authority has given way to gang authority. Rape, murder, arson, and lots of looting are sweeping the partially abandoned city as law enforcement officials appear unable or unwilling to intervene in many cases. Again, I have never seen anything like this! Firefighters come under attack as they attempt to put out fires and police are forced to engage gangs in battle to ensure that emergency supplies reach the needy.

It’s apocalyptic.

All civil authority seems to have collapsed in the city. Unlike New York after 9-11, Governor Kathleen Babineaux Blanco and New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin seem incapable of reasserting any sort of control. The governor’s actions, practically since Katrina had first appeared to be on a collision with the state, have been haphazard and a textbook definition of ‘too little, too late’. Mayor Nagin doesn’t even deserve that meager credit. In fact, the good mayor has refused any more press conferences because he is unhappy with the lack of progress in the rescuing of his city. Of course, he fails to recall that he was elected mayor and, therefore, he is responsible for getting things done. Instead, Mayor Nagin finds it easier to rant and rave, and place the blame for the entire situation at the feet of the federal government (as if President Bush and/or FEMA is solely responsible for welfare of his constituents) instead of getting out there and leading the people of his city during this time of crisis. It is shameful display of a mayor abrogating his responsibilities.

Clearly, he is no Rudy Giuliani!

The entire situation smacks of incompetence---doubly so since this disaster has been studied in detail for decades. Despite countless warnings, the civil authority of Louisiana seems to have given little more than lip service and a wink and a nod to emergency planning. The wretched spectacle at the Super Dome, where 30,000 citizens have been virtually abandoned by city and state leaders for the last four days, is proof of the fact.
The whole sorry mess is a disgrace, from the lack of state and city leadership, to the criminals who now prowl the flooded streets. New Orleans has moved from a wound to a festering sore on the body politic. Huey Long must be turning over in his grave….

And things are only going to get worse. It is no exaggeration to say that we are all watching the death of an American city as it is simply not habitable in its current state. Disease will soon become rampant as sewage and perhaps thousands of bodies begin to fester. Before the month is out, New Orleans will be a ghost town and removed from the American map indefinitely. Incredible.

Fortunately, the response of the federal government, with President Bush at the helm, has been swift and massive. In less than four days, an armada of federal aid has been unleashed throughout the South, filling the Louisiana power vacuum (it is interesting to note how the strong civic leadership in Mississippi and Alabama has not encountered any of the problems now plaguing Louisiana). This FEMA assistance has proven critical, along with the aid offered by The Red Cross, The Salvation Army, Catholic Charities and numerous other organizations. As is always the case, when people are in need, the American people, either directly or through the national government, have stepped up to the plate.

Unfortunately, some are seeking to use this unprecedented disaster as a platform for racial politics. Confronted with thousands of poor black folks wandering New Orleans and televised scenes of wholesale looting by portions of the city’s 65% black population, professional race baiters like Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson have begun an attempt to divide America in a time when unity is needed. Truthfully, no one should be surprised. After all, Sharpton was the guy who explained that white America had it coming after Colin Ferguson, a paranoid black racist, shot up white men and women on the LIRR, and Jackson is the professional racial blackmailer of American corporations. Nonetheless, these disgusting purveyors of racist schemes need to be held accountable for their despicable accusations during this time of crisis. “White America” is not to blame for the plight of the black population of New Orleans. If Sharpton, et alia are dissatisfied with what they see, they should look to the racial politics of the Democrat party---after all, New Orleans specifically and Louisiana in general have been bastions of liberal democrats for countless generations. Is it any surprise that Louisianan minorities have proven to be so vulnerable during this crisis? America is witnessing nothing more than the logical result of decades of liberal policies that cared more about racial demagoguery than about helping people of all color to improve their lives, become self-sufficient, and depart the helpless projects.

Believe me, there is a special place in hell for the people who are pouring gasoline on this human catastrophe, and it won’t matter a darn whether or not they have “Reverend” before their name.

And that is where we stand for the moment. Like a scene from The Day After, the Gulf Coast has been devastated as if by a nuclear war. But the Southern people are strong and will persevere with the grace of Christ. They will rebuild soon enough. But until then,

Look away, look away, Dixie Land….