>> It's just a friggin' HURRICANE
Had it been "just a hurricane" there wouldn't have been a problem in the first place.
It was a flood, which is a totally, radically different type of casualty.
I recommend you read about the flood of '27 or the Johnstown flood of 1889. The problems of floods are radically different from those of hurricanes -- although there is a small amount of overlap.
Add to that the fact that NOLA is surrounded by water and swampland, with only a few major roads traversing these areas, and it is a notoriously difficult area to serve. In the Katrina incident, the I10 bridge to the East was destroyed, the Causeway was impassible, I55 and I59 to the North were both impassible, and while I10 to the West was passible in most places, it was underwater in parts of downtown.
With a total loss of communications around the city due to flooding of communications facilities, there wasn't much that could be done. The only satellite phone in the operations center were those carried by FEMA personnel. The mayor, who was supposed to be in charge of the first response, was hiding out in the Hyatt hotel, AND WOULDN'T EVEN GO TO THE OPERATIONS CENTER, and thus had no communications whatsoever.
I don't have a problem if people want to demand more of FEMA, but people must understand that a disaster of this scope requires first responders to respond, which is where the biggest failure was in NOLA. |
