(no subject)

[bubosquared]

I've not said anything about the Katrina situation, because everyone else has already been saying it better than I could, but I think you should all read this and this, because this specific aspect of the whole thing is making me more sick than anything. It's not even just the fact that tens of thousands of people were left behind to die in the flood because they have no cars or other means to leave, and that "mandatory evacuation" apparently does not mean actually providing buses and trains for people to actually, you know, evactuate. No, let's add insult to injury and pretend that the people who stayed behind did so because they're stupid and stubborn and chose to, for whatever reason, and then when they go and take food from the stores, food that will go bad by the time the waters subside, let's call it looting and threaten to arrest them for it!

I really hate people sometimes.

(Secret message to the Belgians on my friendslist: am I the only one who keeps flashing back to Oosterschelde, Windkracht 10?)

Comments

[bondage-and-tea.livejournal.com]

Dying to know what Oosterschelde, Windkracht 10 is... Is that an address?

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

Heh, no.

Oosterschelde = a river/mouth (... I THINK that's the correct term, where a river joins the sea?) in the Netherlands, "windkracht 10" = "gale force 10" (... I think?). Oosterschelde, Windkracht 10 is the title of a well-known/almost classic Dutch YA book about the big storm tide that flooded a large part of the Netherlands in the Fifties, the one that prompted the development of the Delta Plan.

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

No, let's add insult to injury and pretend that the people who stayed behind did so because they're stupid and stubborn and chose to, for whatever reason, and then when they go and take food from the stores, food that will go bad by the time the waters subside, let's call it looting and threaten to arrest them for it!

It's a defense mechanism. Well, for some people it is. They don't want to admit that so many people were left behind to drown, so they're telling themselves that these were hardy Americans into self-reliance. Either that, or disgusting criminals who stayed behind to loot.

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

Oh, yes. And it's understandable, in a way, but also maddening and infuriating--especially the fact that the media is keeping mum about this as well, that no one in the press seems to be calling the authorities on this spectacular fuck-up.

[yonmei.livejournal.com]

That was me, by the way. I just forgot to log in...

[eljuno.livejournal.com]

You know, speaking as someone who, due to neurological disabilities can't drive, due to a connective tissue disorder can't always move that fast or that far and is incredibly prone to serious joint injuries at the drop of a hat, due to bizarre food allergies needs to be very careful of what they eat or Face the Consequences, and due to PTSD and Agoraphobia can't be in an enclosed, crowded, chaotic space (like, say, an overworked emergency shelter) for too long without the near-certainty of at least one major panic attack...

Well. Let's just say my personal worries aren't helping me with the fact that one of my favourite cities in the world is currently a massive disaster zone and I'm wondering if the world's fixin' to get rid of our species, in general.

What really gets me, though, is that we've known this kind of thing happens for at least a century, and if you don't believe me, visit Galveston Texas (which, weirdly enough, is listed as an example of an economic twin city with New Orleans in some of my mother's planning books) and...well, first off, they managed to rework Galveston after their disaster to be MUCH less suseptable to this kind of thing, but, as well, no one even sat down to say 'Well, we've read history, so we know what a hurricane off the Gulf can do, let's at least try to figure out how to evacuate this place'?

I dunno. I'm still very weird about a lot of this, natch.

[bubosquared.livejournal.com]

Yeah, the lack of any preparation, or of even buses and trains and trucks to help with the evacuation, are scary. I'm also not a driver, and I seriously don't know how far out of town I could get if a disaster hit. I could get to the hills, probably, if it was a flood, but an earthquake or fire or whatnot would probably leave me stranded if the gov't didn't have a proper evacuation plan.