Interesting Stuff
Disaster Good, Bad, Ugly
September 5, 2005 
We were gratified to see better organization and use of resources as the brain trust expanded in the hurricane Katrina relief efforts. 
Some needy Southern old timers are getting assistance at facilities in Nampa, thanks to transport aboard Idaho Air Guard c-130 planes and GUARDIAN readers are responding with thoughts and offers. Wanna guess who was at the airport to greet the 10 wheelchair survivors in front of the TV cameras?
If you would like to see the New Orleans area before the disaster, check out this link to images from the GUARDIAN editor’s other life.
SOME EARLY OBSERVATIONS
–Mayor of N. Orleans was critical of Feds when he himself was not leading.
–All government types failed to heed their own warnings of the “dangerous storm” and did not prepare.
–Society may not have made as much progress in race relations as we thought over the past 150 years.
–The sociological aspects of the disaster will last a long long time.
–The 300-400 N. Orleans cops who went AWOL will not be welcomed back soon.
–We don’t care if TV newsies have to sleep in cars or get “tainted water” inside their Orvis chest high waders.
–For all the lost homes and wages there will be lots of profits and career jumps.
–Florida had $500 million in extra sales tax last year from purchases after the hurricanes.
–Prez Bush should at least respond to Cuban Prez Fidel Castro’s friendly offer of 1,500 doctors…a perfect chance to make a peaceful gesture between the neighbors 90 miles off Key West.
To insure more advertising-free Boise Guardian news, please consider financial support.
Comments & Discussion
Comments are closed for this post.
Sep 6, 2005, 3:10 pm
Thank you for sharing your beautiful photographs of New Orleans from “your other life”. I wrestle with the idea as Sharon Ullman has posted, that no Federal funding should be used to rebuild the City “in a bowl”. Surely federal monies have been tossed down all manner of pits over the years. While two (or 200) wrongs don’t make a right, this doesn’t seem the place to draw the line. I guess when we stop paying Idaho farmers to leave fields idle, and when we stop rebuilding the Florida coast every other year or so, and when we stop flying C-130s to transport water more than half way across the US, then I can agree that New Orleans is a poor use of funds. Until then….Iko Iko!