[StBernard] Point of View by Ron Chapman

[Westley Annis]

Point of View
St. Bernard Voice

Hurricane Katrina

By
Ron Chapman

It was Friday night August 26th and the Saints were on the field, once again
serving disappointing performance to adoring fans.  Around town the high
school football season had begun as well. The smell of sweat and the sound
of cheers permeated the air.  Gridiron play distracted the city of New
Orleans.

Few noticed that the National Hurricane Center had altered its projected
course for category 2 Hurricane Katrina that night.  Prior to that evening
everyone believed that this moderate hurricane would pummel the southeastern
panhandle of Florida.near Apalachicola.  Instead, the cone of probability
had suddenly and uncharacteristically shifted 150 miles to the west placing
it on a direct collision course with southeastern Louisiana. Meanwhile, the
storm intensified.  

But this all occurred unbeknownst to Louisianans.  They were still relishing
football action at a variety of different venue. People tuning into the
radio Friday night heard the Bobby Hebert Show and discussions about the
Saint's missed opportunities. There was only slight mention of the
hurricane, and that was a statement to the effect that the ".Saints had
evacuated earl.y" No one really focused on what was about to come.

New Orleaneans then went to bed.  Slept late.  Missed the news.  When they
awoke they went about their Saturday business.  It was only Saturday
afternoon that any hint that something was amiss begun to filter through to
the population.  By then it was too late to organize an effective evacuation
of over 1.5 million people.  The storm would strike within 30 hours.far
quicker than the 50 hour contra-flow plan envisioned.   Many lacked the
resources to escape the coming terror.

As for the much discussed emergency plan.it apparently did not exist!  A lot
of talk, some expensive studies, but no true measures were devised to
protect New Orleans nor its citizens.

Residents watched televisions in horror as the storm approached.  Never
believing that it could actually strike where the experts predicted, never
accepting that it was developing into a fierce category 5 storm. It couldn't
happen, could it?  Were the experts right? Certainly not!  They couldn't be!


The Federal Government knew there would be a problem.  President Bush broke
precedent by declaring a disaster area two days BEFORE the storm hit.  It
was now up to local and state officials to implement their plans and make
specific requests of federal authorities as dictated by the constitutional
process.  

The city failed to prepare.  There was no effective plan for evacuating the
many poor and disadvantaged who lived in the city.  70% of the population
was African/ American.  Most of whom live in poverty.  They lacked the
money, credit, and vehicles to flee. Someone should have considered this
plight.someone local.this was NOT a federal responsibility.

There were resources that could have been pressed into service. How is it
that hundreds of school and city buses were lost to the flood?  They could
have been used to remove a significant portion of the population beyond
Interstate 12.  What of rail service?  Was that even considered? Who failed
here?  Not the federal government!  

What about England Air Force base in Alexandria, couldn't that have been
pressed into service early as a destination?   Fort Polk?  Why wasn't some
plan devised long ago by the governor's and mayor's offices to address the
situation?  Too many hurricanes have hit or just missed southeast Louisiana
since 1965 to not be prepared. Hurricanes Betsy ,Camille, Felix, Irene,
Fern, Carmen, Bob, Claudette, Danielle, Danny, Juan, Elena, Debby, Beryl,
Francis, Danny, Georges, earl, Allison, Lili, Edouard, Hanna, Mathew, Cindy,
and Dennis provided much needed practice. Yet, nothing was done!

Some political opportunists and apologists for the post Katrina savagery
have blamed racism for the lack of preparation, but New Orleans has been
under Black rule for 27 years. What racism?   The Mayor is Black, the
District Attorney is Black, the Sheriff is Black, the City Council is
majority Black, the School Board is Black, The Fire Chief is Black, and the
Police Chief is Black.  Most local political leaders in the city are Black.
How can it be that racism contributed to the failure of local authorities to
prepare when minorities controlled all of the levers of power?   This is not
a Black/White issue, as much as some opportunists might want it to be.  This
was a human failure that bears no racial stamp. 

 These are the accusations of a collection of national media personalities
and political mischief makers who seek to squeeze political advantage from a
cruel situation.  If there is fault.it lies with the local and state
leadership, not a distant federal authority!

Where was the governor in all of this?  As an evacuee myself in Natchez
Mississippi all I saw are the governor's sorrowful, tear filled eyes.
Angst, but no leadership.  When questioned about her calls for federal
help.she sputters, evades, and cries again. Then she admits that she never
got around to it.  She failed!

The governor's office should have been prepared.  The National Guard
stationed, emergency rations of food and water pre-positioned, emergency
transportation in place. All of the models painted a vivid picture of what
would occur.  Did they not believe it?  Or, were they too incompetent to
fully address the situation? Whatever the case, nothing was done.  All of
the experts had accurately predicted what would happen, but no plan was set
in motion.  Why is this so Governor Blanco?  Why Mayor Nagin?  Why has
noting been done for 40years despite the continued threats?

Now lets talks structure.  A series of open drainage canals run the length
of the city to the Lake.Industrial Canal, Peoples Avenue Canal, London
Avenue Canal, Marconi Canal, Seventeenth Street Canal.  Water is pumped into
them so it can flow into the lake. However, that process works when the
level of the lake is lower than the height of the canal levees.  When Lake
Pontchartrain's water level gets too high, as is the case with a hurricane
tidal surge, pumping water uphill is useless.  These canals then become a
threat, not a valuable resource.

How is it that the 17th Street canal flooded a city that believed it has
escaped the wrath of Katrina.  We all knew the danger of a broken levee.
During terrors of hurricane Betsy in 1965, forty years ago, rumors spread
that the London Avenue Canal in the city's center had been breached.  Then
Mayor Victor Schiro dressed in a Civil Defense hardhat and raincoat made his
famous malapropism "Don't believe any false rumors until you hear them from
me" in response.  Remember that?  But the levee held during Betsy and we all
breathed a sign of relief.

The threat of a breached drainage canal levee was known 40 years ago. In the
1970s discussions were held about constructing flood gates at the terminus
to prevent such flooding.  Why were these locks not fabricated at the ends
of the several drainage canals that lead into Lake Pontchartrain.  Had there
been some means of closing the canal, only the contents of the ditch, NOT
the lake would have entered the city this past week.  But nothing was done
for 40 years!  Whose fault is that?  Certainly not President Bush's!

How unprepared was the city?   Consider this.  Despite continued warnings by
the Hurricane Center, local experts, and those responsible for informing
city leaders of the dangers of a strong storm from this quarter.denial
prevailed.

I personally experienced this denial in a NORLI (New Orleans Regional
Leadership Institute) meeting this past Spring.   An august member of our
community, one who the state depends upon for his economic advise, responded
to my private inquiry about the existence of a model for rebuilding New
Orleans after a devastating hurricane in this way.   He informed me that no
such study had been performed.  Then he added, as an aside, that he did
believed the hurricane models were accurate and he considered that the
projections of destruction were highly exaggerated.  What does he think
now???  What price this error in judgment?

Where were the engineers?   Shouldn't massive sandbags have been
pre-positioned?  Why did they try to close the wide breach in the 17th
Street Canal levee instead of immediately cutting off the canal's access to
the lake? 

  Had anyone considered opening the spillway as a contra-flow for water?
That was built to mitigate river flooding.  But, it can work in both
directions.  The Mississippi River is at its lowest in years.  Might opening
the spillway and allowing the lake to flow into the river have taken
pressure off of the levees?  Had anyone even thought of that plan of action?

The levees along the Mississippi River Gulf Outlet  (MRGO) are a special
problem.  The people of St. Bernard Parish have been crying about that
monster for years.  It was built in the mid 1960's to a width of 500 feet.
Today it is over 3,000 feet wide in places due to erosion.  Worse, nearly
40,000 acres of cypress swamp.a natural tidal surge protection system, had
been destroyed by the saltwater intrusion generated by MRGO.  We all knew
the problem and have continually reported it, but the Corps of Engineers
dragged its feet.  That is where the water came from that flooded the lower
9th Ward of New Orleans and St. Bernard Parish, just as we have warned for
nearly forty years.  Just as happened in Hurricane Betsy in 1965, just as
nearly happened in Hurricanes George and Ivan.  

The MRGO protection levees are designed too low for any storm of significant
strength.  The corps of Engineers knew that! Worse, these levees were below
even the specified height according to the Corps of Engineers actual levee
profiles.  Furthermore, the medallions used for measuring the REAL height
above Mean Sea Level (MSL) had not been revisited since the 1980s.  How much
subsidence had taken place?  How accurate are these benchmarks?

 Just how high are the levees REALLY??? The 14-foot levee designed on paper
nearest the Industrial Canal was actually less than 12 feet in places
according to the profile.  But that is not taking into consideration the
level of benchmark subsidence since the 1980s.  Is a foot of subsidence in
twenty-five years a conservative estimate? Then the 14-foot levees that were
measured from the benchmark at 11.5 feet, were actually 10.5 feet. Far below
mandated height!

The blame for this tragic event runs deep and long.  New Orleans has never
missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity! The storm could not have been
stopped, but the damage visited on our fine city could have been mitigated
had those in charge locally taken the threat seriously and responded with
vigor over the past 40 years.  

This is not the failure of one man occupying the White House as much as some
political operatives would like to make it appear.  Louisiana is run by a
Confederacy of Dunces. They care not for the people of New Orleans, they are
motivated by political advantage, which is sad at such times as this.
People are appointed not because they know their business, but because they
know someone.  In times of crisis, such decisions come home to rest. 

But despite the lack of preparation and anticipation, New Orleans
experienced a far greater tragedy.

When the Twin Towers were struck on 9-11, the citizens of New York rushed to
the defense of their city.  They volunteered their muscle and willpower to
overcome the adversity. All rallied to the cause to defend their city.  Such
was not the case in New Orleans.

In New Orleans, street gang savagery prevailed.  Taking food and water is
understandable.  Rape, Murder, pillage, looting, attacking doctors and
nurses for drugs, assaulting college co-eds in dormitories, and terrorizing
shocked victims of the storm are not acceptable under any circumstances.
There can be NO JUSTIFICATION for such heinous actions. 

The likes of Maxine Waters, Jesse Jackson, and Al Sharpton, joined at the
hip by the Congressional Black Caucus and the Louisiana Black Legislative
Black Caucus, have shown their true color.  They care not for law and order.
They care not for the displaced citizens of New Orleans, Black and White.
They care not for the plight of their fellow African/American brothers and
sisters who endured the greatest torments of these thugs. (Because that
population suffered the most from the savagery visited on the city during
days of mayhem.) 

 No!  This collection of pathetic racists sought political advantage by
seeking to justify criminal atrocities as some sort of natural response to
the stresses of the crisis.  Murder. Rape. Looting. shooting at rescue
workers?  They consider this "a natural response?"   The victims of the
Tsunami had greater respect for human life than the gangs of New Orleans.
These comments say much about these "Black leaders."  They should be
criticized, not lionized, for their vicious words. !  Criminal activity
cannot be excused, justified, or glossed over.  What happened in the streets
of New Orleans demonstrates that the social programs of the past 40 years
have failed miserably.  America's liberal social engineering has created a
criminal under class of vast and violent proportions.

The fact remains that the areas worst hit.St. Bernard and Plaquemine's
Parishes, below New Orleans, did not experience anything like the horrors
visited upon New Orleans by its citizenry.  Food and clothing might have
been taken, but wholesale looting did not occur.  These people are
civilized.

Furthermore, these locals did not receive any immediate assistance.  In fact
they did not receive even late assistance.  The entire local government of
St. Bernard was marooned on the roof of the government complex without
communications, food, or water for days and NO ONE even bothered to look for
them.  How can you lose an entire government and not miss it?  Do we mean so
little to the media and other local authorities?  Or, is it because the
residents of St. Bernard and Plaquemines do not fall into the right racial
category to demand victim status. 

New Orleans is a wonderful city, but it has been in the throes of a struggle
for its moral core with street gangs and drug dealers for some time.  Thugs
have controlled the streets for years and frustrated the legal system by
threatening and killing witnesses.  They have brazenly thumbed their noses
at the law and corrupt judges and manipulative attorneys have conspired with
them.  

When the opportunity arose, this shadow rule of savagery rose to the
surface.  They shot at rescue workers and those attempting to close the
levee for a reason.  The city was finally totally in their hands and its
residents their captives to victimize as they pleased.Black and White alike.
They had no intention of giving it up peacefully.  This was a war for
control of territory in the most basic sense.

New Orleans became Rwanda for over a week and Jesse Jackson, Maxine Waters,
and Al Sharpton endorse the crimes.  How sad is that?  More
African/Americans were hurt, raped, and murdered than whites, but lets make
the perpetrators the victims in the twisted logic of their racial political
landscape.

What took place this past week was a war for the soul of New Orleans and too
many so-called Black leaders stood tall on the wrong side.  Somehow they
could fabricate justification for what happened in the name racial
solidarity.  

Not al,l mind you.  Mayor Nagin, Police Chief Eddie Compass, and some
outstanding police officers and fireman performed heroically.  They deserve
our undying gratitude for trying desperately to maintain some semblance
civilization in the most trying circumstances. For attempting to save lives
while they they were under attack by gunfire.  There were many heroes, but
those stories are buried by a mainstream media looking for what?
Controversy!  Truth was the first victim of Katrina!

There is a lot of blame to go around.  Too many missteps were taken and
opportunities lost.  The cost has been heavy.  Mostly this is because,
despite warnings of the impending danger of a strong storm, too many leaders
did not really believe it was possible and did not prepare for its
eventuality. 

The feds are indeed at fault for allowing the MRGO to remain an open
expressway to the Gulf of Mexico and not having an immediate emergency
response ready.  Local engineers are at fault for not learning from past
experiences and devising checks on the city's drainage canals. Local and
state authorities are to blame for a failure to devise some method of
evacuating those many poor citizens who lacked the resources to get out and
for taking an independent course of action at variance to the agreed upon
coordinated plan.   

I have faith in Mayor Nagin ability to put New Orleans back together again.
This city is a national treasure.  It will come back and it will be better.
It survived the fires of 1788 and 1794, the Battle of New Orleans, the chaos
of the Civil War, and the ravages of Hurricane Betsy.   New Orleans remains
one of the oldest and richest repositories of History in the nation, a
national historic site.   New Orleans also enjoys the talents of many
community leaders reflecting the ethnic and cultural gumbo that makes us who
we are.  But the city will only come back if we work together.  That cannot
be accomplished if self-serving hate mongers divide us for political
advantage.

Yes, we must know what went wrong. Not to assess blame, but to make the
necessary corrections so that this never happens again.  We must also accept
that the failures were not race driven nor were they the result of racial
politics.  The problem stems from an underlying prevailing sense of denial
at all levels that something like this could ever really happen.  

The "City that Care Forgot" forgot to care!