BBC: New Orleans crisis shames Americans

And nothing about this is natural. War isn’t natural; and neither is poverty. That’s what people are dying of, not a hurricane. They are dying of war and poverty. They are consumed with rage because of war and poverty. They are paralyzed with helplessness because of war and poverty. They are twisted and driven crazy by war and poverty.

I can’t help but ponder not just the obvious about the Gulf Coast’s National Guards that are currently off in Iraq, whose members have to sit by helplessly wondering about their own families, neighbors, friends, but about how much relief could be provided, and how effective an evacuation might have been mounted if the total assets of the US military had been available and put to use.

Cuba evacuated 660,000 people in advance of Hurricane Dennis, a Cat 4 that hit them in July, and suffered ten fatalities. That’s because Cuba not only invests in disaster preparation and strong civil defense, but because there is a social committment to medical infrastructure, high literacy levels, and government support of community organizers, to mention a few of the reasons.

We did the free-market evacuation, an unenforceable order for people to leave under their own power after it was too late. Cuba is resource poor. The United States is resource rich. Figure it out.

"It is possible to protect New Orleans from a Category 5 hurricane. But we've got to start. To do nothing is tantamount to negligence."
Al Naomi, senior project manager for the Corps of Engineers, quoted in the Philadelphia Inquirer, October 8, 2004