The True Ramifications of Katrina on New Orleans [View All]

I really do not think most people in the media or government are actually grasping what has happened in Louisiana.

According to the 2000 census, 484,674 people live in the city proper. Of that total, 30% are 19 or younger and 15% are 60 or older. The city represents about 10% of Louisiana's total population, 19% live below the poverty line.

The total population for New Orleans and the surrounding metro area is 1.3 million people.

Conservatively speaking, 50% of this population is now homeless (realistic estimates go in the 75%-80% range). Schools, police stations, fire stations, churches and government services have been severely damaged or wiped out all together.

School buses, utility trucks, garbage trucks, cranes, bulldozers, grading equipment, paving equipment, are disabled or wiped out entirely.

A high percentage of roads, bridges, tunnels, airports and rail lines are damaged or destroyed.

Power lines, power plants, oil/gas pipelines, water/sewer plants, telephone lines, cellular towers and cable connections (providing internet services) are severly damaged.

Gasoline, diesel fuel and jet fuel are now in critically short supply.

The death toll for the city may be in the thousands.

The port facilities are badly damaged and likely to be shut down for weeks if not months.

Hospitals are damaged or shut down due to lack of power, food and supplies.

Postal service will be non-existant for weeks.

Prisons, juvenile detention facilities, nursing homes, pharmacies, dialysis centers, and banks are damaged or destroyed.

Unemployment, running 5.6% before the hurricane, is now running about 80%-90%. Businesses, including critical ones like grocery stores and building supply companies are gone and unlikely to be operational again for weeks at best.

Massive amounts of sewage and dangerous chemicals are now contaminating the flood waters and will leave dangerous residues as the water recede.

The vast majority of people affected, by this disaster (many who have always been a paycheck away from poverty) now have no jobs, no transportation, no homes, no food, and no clothes.

Those people also are unlikely to have had insurance to replace the cost of their homes, cars or possessions.

Speaking of insurance, because this is going to cost the insurance industry a fortune, you can expect to see premiums in unaffected areas rise to make back the money they pay out. Also, these same companies will refuse to write new flood policies for the area. Unable to get flood insurance and facing a Federal government that refuses to spend the money to prevent future floods, many businesses will locate elsewhere.

In October, these newly minted legions of unempoyed citizens will face a new bankruptcy law designed to screw over people just like them. They will be dependent upon the mercy of government assistance at a time when funding for such assistance has dried up in the name of providing tax cuts for the rich.

In order to even begin to repair this damage, tens of thousands of skilled workers will have to start cleaning up, people who will need places to live while they work. Heavy equipment will have to be brought in to clear debris, equipment which will need diesel fuel which is rapidly skyrockecting in price as it also becomes harder to get. Thus, the very machinery and people needed to repair the damage are already in dire straits.

At a time when people will be least able to afford it, food, utility and housing costs will increase dramatically.

Despite the fact that experts predicted this storm would be far worse than it was, the Federal government (BushCo) utterly failed to mobilze resources in any meaningful fashion. No attempt was made to help with evacuation, to organize and deploy trucks, ships, aircraft, medical supplies, medical teams, construction crews, food, or power crews. Such actions are now being done on an ad hoc basis, despite 5-7 days advance warning.

And as I asked in an earlier post, what the hell will they do if another hurricane pops up? Florida was hit with FOUR in a row last year.

New Orleans has effectively been wiped off the map and our "leader" couldn't be bothered to leave his cushy digs to do his job.