Anwyl's cousin Scott, who we spent time with after Evan and Jenn's wedding, has been washed out of his apartment in New Orleans. He is safe with family in Baton Rouge and has other relatives in the area who can assist him. We are hoping for news of Anwyl's ex-co-worker Collin, who resettled there a couple of years ago. Molly Ivins had a great column on the lethal consequences of recent political maneuvering today (did you know that six months ago the Bush administration cut, I think it was, flood response funding for New Orleans by 44%? -- I tried to find the column online to link to it but no luck) It's hard to believe that with all the advance warning they're not getting National Guard troops there until this weekend. Except -- oops -- all the Louisiana National Guard people are...guess where... Okay I'll shut up with the bitter stuff now. I really have not been obsessing about this but just read the news and it is disturbing. One does wonder if the city is such a complete loss if maybe they couldn't build it back in more ecologically sustainable shape. But I suppose when the earthquake hits here I'll want to rebuild...
Anyway, apart from that I had my first class at SFAI today & am last minute subbing for another teacher this evening. I would be enjoying the start of the semester more if I hadn't stayed up till 3:00 am last night finishing an article that was due on deadline a couple of days ago. But it's great to see my favorite students again and Anwyl, Esther, Rowyn and I are going to Sea Ranch on the Mendocino Coast for Labor Day weekend. Wish me a good rest, you all!
Thursday, September 1, 2005
checking in
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4 comments:
If I was going to pile on Bush about stuff, it wouldn't be about cutting flood response funding for New Orleans ... I'd start with him cutting funding for NSF ... but anyway, I'm here to defend the civil engineering/coastal modelling people. The levee system was rated for category 3 hurricanes ... so anyone who complains about the breaks is off-base, the levees actually worked pretty well given the circumstance, there was only minor flooding until the day after. Engineering systems usually aren't designed for "worst-case" scenarios, partly because it's really hard to define such an event, but moreso because it isn't cost effective. Why wasn't the mayor raising a stink about getting money to make the levees even better?
The hurricane guy from LSU, Ivor, did a study a while back and only 30% of NO'ers said they'd evacuate if a large hurricane was headed their way. Casey actually wrote about the situation in the broader impacts part of his NSF fellowship application (which he didn't get ... apparently they don't think coastal modelling is worthwhile ... or maybe they don't have any money because Bush cut funding ... how did I get on that subject again?). I'm pretty sure Ivor didn't hide these results away ... why wasn't there a campaign to inform the citizens of NO about what would happen if a hurricane hit? And, the mayor should have been aware of the number of less affluent people in the community that wouldn't have a way out ... you'd think some kind of evacuation plan would have been available ... maybe using school buses and state vehicles and whatnot to transport everyone out of the city, given that the modellers were pretty certain that this type of storm would cause a lot of damage, especially if the eye hit west of the city (it turned out to be similar since the levees broke). We don't just blow smoke up our asses (and the asses of anyone who'll listen) all day! I guess that's the problem with having a bunch of non-technical imbeciles in charge of public policy/government. : - (
I'm not implying that all non-technical people are imbeciles, just fyi.
I'm bothered by the people shooting at the people trying to help. What good does that do? It seems a little odd to me ... maybe the people are that bored or that frustrated with the situation, but it really isn't helping, I don't think.
Uh oh, I may have again written more in a comment than was in the original post. Oops. Have a good weekend, we're just going to be hanging out here and trying to relax.
What does it mean to cut flood response funding? I didn't realize there was such a thing as that to be cut, I just figured it would be a special national disaster thing.
Here is the column. It was the New Orleans Corps of Engineers' funding.
I guess he should have cut all the funding, right?
Updating a previous item ... Lake Ponchartrain is not a lake ... but there is only a narrow opening between it and the gulf.
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