Katrina and the Seiches

Katrina and the Seiches

K Marsala

It certainly was not long before the blame game over response time to hurricane Katrina began to flow. Not surprising, the allegations given have amounted to nothing but divisive accusations. All created to further the agenda seekers who continually want to divide Americans.

As the over filled bowl, called New Orleans, seiched back and forth many hoped the levees would withstand the sloshing, but alas the waters broke forth and flooding devastated a beautiful area of America. Now, what we have is nothing but toxic waters swirling around- bringing death, stench, and destruction. Our hearts are heavy and we grieve with those who have lost so much.

However, when the levee of the extreme left sprang forth its toxicity of thought most people did not feel drawn to their cacophonous calls, rather most found any mode of transportation to get away from the likes of those who espouse divisive things to segregate our country. Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Kayne West will not be the only ones to widen their cracks of squirting leaks before they spring into full-fledged idiocy of racism being the proponent behind a lack of immediate response to an historical catastrophe.

When Sean Penn and his leaky boat visited New Orleans he cried, “There are people dying and (the U.S. government is) not putting the boats in the water. I think that's criminal negligence. I don't think anybody ever anticipated the criminal negligence of the Bush administration in this situation." Pearce Bronson spilled his liquid of disdain about our government to the French at the Deauville Film Festival, “This man called President Bush has a lot to answer for. I don't know if this man is really taking care of America. This government has been shameful." Bill Maher and Michael Moore continue their overflow of seepage that it is all due to global warming. Moore goes so far to claim that Bush is to blame for the hurricane because he failed to submit Kyoto to another losing vote. (The Senate disposed of the treaty 1995 to nothing in the 1999 vote.) (www.newsmax.com)

Maybe Eliza Doolittle was right, “Hurricanes hardly happen…”

Mr. Penn, we appreciate your donation… but why do some of you find it necessary to speak when they should just remain silent and write a check? This is not the time for finger pointing and political bashing, it is time to refrain from spewing your opinions, and help the survivors survive.

In the ensuing days ahead, there will be more attention seeking gurgles of sewage flowing imbecilic rhetoric towards President Bush, the war on terror, global warming and in general, anything else that can be blamed. The catastrophe of the floodwaters and the questions of actions taken have nothing to do with skin color, global warming, or economics. Nevertheless, it always seems to make certain people feel better to accuse others of not caring about the poor, or of being racist, or of neglecting our environment.

Could this horrid atrocity been prevented? Would a modern levee system have stopped the flooding? The levee broke within a spot on a canal that had received more attention and shoring up than many other spots in the region. According to Shea Penland, director of the Pontchartain Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of New Orleans, said that was particularly surprising given the break was “along a section that was just upgraded. It did not have an earthen levee," Dr. Penland said. "It had a vertical concrete wall several feel thick." (http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/01/national/nationalspecial/01levee.html)

Was it just a matter of time before the coastal wetlands succumbed to what naturally has been taking place for decades? Since the1930s, when levee building was launched sincerely, Louisiana has lost a million acres of its coastal wetlands. As well, Louisiana faces the loss of another 640,000 additional acres -- an area the size of Rhode Island -- by 2050. A recent study based on satellite measurement released in May established that the wetlands area to be sinking at a half-inch to two-inches a year as of 1995.
(http://www.techcentralstation.com/090205F.html)

If certain far-left radicals would plug their gushing valves for a few minutes and put time into studying the facts they would find a different story. According to Lt. Gen Carl Strock, he did not see that the level of funding would have really made any difference in this case. Whether the following project of upgrading the levees to withstand a level 3 hurricane (Katrina was a 4 plus) had been fully completed, in his opinion based on the intensity of the storm the, “flooding of the business district and the French Quarter would have still taken place." (http://www.techcentralstation.com/090205F.html)


What we need to question is not who is to blame for the great loss of life, culture, and beauty- what this event demands is- if we are going to reside upon coastal wetlands that are sinking, we need to take certain measures to prevent future catastrophic events. We need solutions, not finger pointing, not more red tape, not more bureaucracy, and not more divisive political pontificating. We must place into action safety measures to keep future generations safe. Later, after we care for the displaced citizens, if Congress desires to still investigate who did or did not do what quickly enough- then deal with it. Meanwhile stop sowing racial discord amongst our nation.

Katrina was a hurricane, a powerful monster of nature. No one sent Katrina towards Mississippi and Louisiana that day and no one influenced the development of a storm to become a category four plus. The future investigations need to look at certain levels of government and the layers of complex economics and infrastructure; this is what must be examined. Then the American public needs to be educated as to how our response systems work and who is to be on the ground first in an emergency.

Will we understand eventually that certain local plans were lacking in their execution? Yes, we will. Local governments are first responders and as witnessed on national television, New Orleans and her citizens had and are suffering greatly due to the lack of proper implementation of emergency responses by local and state offices.

We will learn from this and we may come to understand why the last sixty years of political party rule and its influences over the south have contributed to a majority of complex problems from infrastructure lacking, to inexcusable economic poverty.

In fact, maybe that is where Congress needs to begin their investigation.