The most powerful storm ever to reach the Gulf Coast of North America arrived Monday, August 29, 2005. Previous to that in recorded time every storm respected the limits of the levees in New Orleans. The Levee system was never meant to stand forces of Global Warming. The ONLY way to insure human safety was to be prepared for strong and devastating winds and rain in preparedness.
Preparing a city such as New Orleans for a catastrophic event is intricate in it's planning but certainly not so complicated that it could never be achieved.
New Orleans in many respects was at the heart of the oil industry with it's ports and the fact the only oil fields off shore USA were concentrated in this area. For that reason alone it is very surprising the oil industry left so much to chance. It is astounding the national security of the USA was left hanging by a thread. Or was it?
In order to prepare for catastrophe one has to see it happening. This administration has placed as it's first priority economic exploitation of every oil and gas resource available in the mainland USA, Alaska as well as any available offshore locations. This administration has deregulated the oil industry to the point where anything goes. They literally can drill in any location regardless of environmental demise and currently, post Katrina, the product being sold is not only extremely expensive but is now laced with every additive the industry wants to throw in it for extenders. The Air Quality in the USA will deteriorate causing cancers and death in years to come for the sake of profits to companies like Cheney's Halliburton.
In order to prepare for a catastrophic event there has to be priorities. Those priorities can take whatever form one cares to including industry and economy at the top of the list. Currently, in New Orleans there is nothing left from the devastation six days out due to negligence of emergency planning and priorities. People were lucky to get away with their lives.
Ironically, or maybe not so, the poorest states of this nation live along an oil and gas coastline. New Orleans has to be one of the poorest cities in this nation. Now with it's infrastructure destroyed by wind, water and fire there is little hope the impoverished status of it's people will every change.
Priorities:
Without an economy a city cannot exist. Without a work force an economy cannot exist. Without a heart and soul a work force could not exist.
This is about what it takes to protect the people of catastrophe. People need economies. There is absolutely nothing disposable in this situation. Prevention is worth a million times more than a 'clean up' if one is possible. Currently, I don't think a 'clean up' is possible for New Orleans. The devastation is absolute and the land is valueless as well as it's potential to return to function. As the Army Corp of Engineers are at work to replace the broken levees, who indeed will be returning to the city that currently is under water? What industry will come back to New Orleans and rebuild? Every structure within a reasonable radius of that city has been damaged to where it has to be demolished. There is virtually nothing to come back to. What is the goal of replacing the levees? Where is the up front commitment of the industry that existed there before to return?
The $10.5 billion the Senate approved for efforts to provide relief to the victim/survivors of the most hideously executed emergency management does not even begin to address what FEMA must provide in financial relief to home owners and in no way addresses the trillions of dollars needed to restore New Orleans.
Yet to be addressed is the issue what will returning New Orleans and the Gulf Coast to function achieve if first the issue of Global Warming and Climate Change remains a source of ignorance by the legislators that have few resources to understand it and prioritize it's prominence as not only the Number One National Priority but the Number One Priority of all nations of Earth.
Preparedness. It is a lot more than sounding an alarm to retreat from an out of control climate system.
