Thoughts on the Unfolding Hurricane Difficulties

This morning I heard the world "squalor" used to describe the Superdome. Ouch.

The good one in the past few days was some dumbass elected official who declared sternly, "This is our tsunami."

No, dipshit, no. Apples and oranges. That's a pathetic attempt to gain attention and sympathy. You deserve both, but not even remotely on the scale of last December's catastrophe. The only similarity is that both were natural disasters.

The hurricane was recognized and known; we all saw it coming. It can be argued that the loss of life--not property, though--is due to a lack of preparation, a failure to heed the warnings and evacuation orders, and a plain lack of common sense. The tsunami victims never had a chance. No one gave them a warning.

Physical destruction? Yeah, sure, and unlike the tsunami, which was primarily a coastal event, the hurricane damage extends inland considerably.

But let's compare somewhere on the order of 160,000 people dead in a half-dozen Asian countries to, according to current wild estimates, maybe 1000 dead in this case. That's only about 159,000 victims short, just a few orders of magnitude. Property destruction? Yeah, we've got them Asians beat, but that's because the USofA is the greatest consumer society in the history of the world, and we define ourselves according to our belongings. We acquire more, so we've got that much more to lose. More beachfront vacation homes destroyed. More pleasure craft destroyed, more valuable stuff blown into the fields and trees, that kind of thing. With them there Asians, it was just a massive loss of human life, that's all. And their ridiculous mud and tin shacks all got washed out, but that's no big deal because they can always just slap up another one, right?

So, to compare this to the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami is ridiculous, and quite honestly trivializes the deaths of so many thousands in Indonesia, Thailand, Sri Lanka, etc. It smacks of a whiny "The Asians got hit bad, sure, but look at poor us here in Mi'thippi" attitude. It reeks of over-the-top attention-seeking and crisis-driven neediness. It's a naked "look at me!" call, and highly inappropriate, even insulting to the tsunami victims. This preening politician (is there any other kind?) is probably the same kind of person who'd compare a local murder to the Nazi holocaust.

And then we have the "leadership" of our Idiot-in-Chief, Dubya Bush. Again, the press is missing the boat on how he "cut short" is month-long vacation--when was the last time any one of us had a month-long vacation?!--to return to DC to take charge of the situation. When is the press going to ask him why it took him two full days AFTER the hurricane to make this bold leadership decision? When is the press going to ask him why he didn't move two days BEFORE the hurricane? His actions don't speak of leadership; they highlight the lack of attention to the welfare of the US public by a president who told us all as he left DC for his multi-hundred-acre ranch there in Crawford, "Hey I've got a life I have to live." Yeah, I guess, and that whole bit about an oath of office as the highest elected leader in the country doesn't carry much weight, I guess. His actions this week show his flip, reactionary approach to any situation, waiting to see what comes next and then muddling through a disorganized, poorly thought-out approach to a crisis that should have had management before it became a crisis. Kind of reminds me of the national strategy with regards to Iraq.

A leader thinks ahead, and I'm not seeing any of this out of Bush or his brain trust in the White House.

Oh, but he directed the Air Force One to swoop low over the Gulf Coast so he could see for himself! Wow! NPR reported this morning that AF1 flew "as low as 1700 feet" over New Orleans, and he saw the Superdome for himself, at the port side windows for all of 35 minutes. Wow! And this is supposed to impress me how? How much domestic air traffic disruption did this publicity stunt cause? And why isn't the press reporting on this? What did he really see from AF1 that he couldn't see from watching the news? What sort of change did he effect by doing this? None. What sort of impact did it have on the folks down there in the shit-laden flood waters? None.

And now he's going to visit the area later this week. No, that won't disrupt things at all. Me, I've been involved in the excruciating preparations for a Presidential visit, and the disruption to normal activities is off the scale. It's clear enough to me from watching coverage of this catastrophe that the search, rescue, and relief efforts are only now, a good four days after the event, beginning to come togther in terms of overarching command and control, solid coordination across all manner of local, state, and regional jurisdictions, and the simple realization of who exactly is doing what and where, and who is in charge. Things are just starting to coalesce into a coherent, effective effort, and The Idiot-in-Chief is going to waltz in for a massive photo op, and just make it that much harder to get the job done. If gun battles are breaking out between looters in New Orleans, and if the mayor has ordered 1800 police off search and rescue operations to restore order, take a guess how many of those 1800 are going to be pulling security for the President's visit. How does that demonstrate the President's concern for the public safety and welfare of the affected citizenry. A noble and selfless leader would tell the LA governor and the New Orlenas mayor, "You've got problems enough without me getting in there and making it harder for you and your heroes to do get things done, so I'll stay out of your way. Here's my number. You come to me with your requirements, and I'll make sure they get taken care of. Let me know how I can help you, and I'm all over it." But strangely enough I haven't seen any kind of leadership like that from this White House. Go figure.

If Bush had any respect for the folks in the disaster area, and their relief leadership, he'd stay away. He'd visit the affected state capitals to confer with the regional/local leaders, ask them how he could help, then he'd go away and get to helping, swinging that Presidential Hammer in the seat of power, making things happen in his own unique way. Bringing the White House circus right down into the disaster zone isn't going to help anyone, except for the White House media machine. How many homeowners are going to drown, or die of dehydration, or be killed by armed looters while he enjoys his crucial visit? Take that, national press, and run with it.