wwp@yahoogroups.com:
Re: Panos from Katrina
benigno t toda III 2005-Sep-07 00:24:00
dear donald it is nice to read a sobering account of what happened
not the sensational account we are getting in this country by the the
major news org. bengy toda
On 09 7, 05, at 2:37 AM, G. Donald Bain wrote:
> I lived in new Orleans for two years, working at Tulane University. So
> this has been occupying a lot of my attention over the last few days.
>
> I am trying to establish contact with a few close friends still living
> there, but so far without success. I assume they are safe somewhere,
> but perhaps without electricity and telephone. The disruption of
> normal
> life for a million people is incredible.
>
> My interest centers on the Uptown areas, where Tulane University is
> located and where I lived, plus Jefferson Parish (the first suburban
> county west of the city), where some close friends live. The media are
> obsessed with dramatic shots of rescuing people from rooftops in the
> deeply flooded area, and not giving much attention to the rest of the
> city, and the broader disaster area. My best information has been from
> blogs. There were several first hand accounts of trips through various
> parts of the city with medical crews.
>
> The claims that 90% of the city was flooded seem a bit exaggerated to
> me. The Uptown area, the Garden District, and the French Quarter were
> all on the edge of the water, and mostly escaped major damage. These
> are the areas that tourists mostly see, so the famous look and feel of
> New Orleans will be back, eventually. My guess is perhaps 80% flooded
> at the peak (within city of New Orleans proper), with maybe 60%
> flooded
> up into the living spaces. Many houses in New Orleans have an above
> ground basement story, so they have two meters or so safety from
> floods. But the worst areas were submerged up to their rooftops.
>
> Everyone in New Orleans knows about the dangers of flooding, so the
> media comments about being caught unprepared are kind of silly. I
> remember looking down Napoleon Avenue and seeing oil tankers
> sailing up
> the Mississippi River, their water-lines above the rooftops. Every
> drop
> of rain that falls in the city needs to pumped out, and it is the
> rainiest major city in the U.S. Three times in recent years (once when
> I was there) the pumps failed during a heavy thunderstorm and the city
> flooded, within hours. I remember kids paddling canoes down my street,
> with only the roofs of the cars visible. Those floods were blamed on
> poor maintenance of the pumps, linked to corruption and neglect.
> But it
> seems that this time the pumps have not been a problem.
>
> I lived on Prytania Street near Napoleon Avenue, a block south of
> Saint
> Charles (with the famous streetcar line). The post-hurricane
> floodwaters reached within a block of there, so it was made a major
> center for rescue and relief. On television I saw the actor Sean Penn
> loading up his boat there - I may even have seen my old house in the
> background.
>
> A lot of people seem to think the Mississippi River flooded the city.
> Actually the river is very low right now, due to drought further
> north.
> The storm surge raised the river and pushed boats up the banks, where
> they now sit high and dry. The flooding came from Lake Ponchartrain,
> north of the city, and the canals connecting to it that run through
> the
> city. This is usually where the water is pumped out, since
> Ponchartrain
> is almost at sea level, much lower than the river level. Ironic that
> the flooding was via this reverse route. The lakeshore and canals have
> broad earthen levees to above the normal level of the lake. A few
> years
> ago concrete walls were built along the tops to provide an extra
> margin
> of safety, calculated for a major hurricane. Unfortunately, this
> hurricane was just a bit bigger than the walls were built for. The
> water overtopped them, then rapidly eroded into major breaks. It was
> apparently very close, maybe a matter of inches.
>
> I am getting all kinds of contradictory information about criminal
> activity. It is certainly to be expected, New Orleans has always had a
> very high crime rate. Nobody was surprised to see looting break out.
> But people firing at rescue helicopters and bridge repair crews?
> Amazing. I knew a lot of law enforcement people when I was down there
> (I administered a criminal justice program, among other things), and I
> will be interested to hear what they have to say.
>
> Two of the blog reports had completely different views on the crime
> situation, both first-hand accounts on the same day in the same areas.
> One reported groups of dangerous looking armed men, which they
> avoided,
> another said there were lots of armed men but they all seemed to be
> "good guys". Both of these reports were within unflooded or shallowly
> flooded areas. There are lots of other accounts of serious crime - the
> hotel the mayor was staying in was broken into by armed men, and he
> and
> his staff had to run up 28 floors to safety.
>
> I think the racial angle is being exaggerated also. The city is 67%
> black, and some of the worst flooded areas are more like 90%. Class
> aligns largely with race, and the poorest people, the ones without
> means to get themselves out of the city, are also mostly black.
> This is
> the deepest of the Deep South, and I am sure there is some racism
> involved, but it wrongs the people working so bravely to deal with
> this
> catastrophe to accuse them of racial bias. Bureaucratic ineptitude
> is a
> more telling accusation.
>
> Amazingly, there was a full-scale rehearsal for this disaster just two
> years ago. Government agencies modeled a category three hurricane
> (Hurricane Pam) and postulated levee failures and the evacuation of a
> million people. Eerily close to what actually happened. Yet the
> response when it did happen was uncoordinated and slow. I would
> personally like to see every political appointee in FEMA and maybe
> other key agencies summarily fired.
>
> So for now I am reading the blogs and the survivor databases and
> sending out e-mails that keep bouncing back. There is still a chance I
> might drive down to Louisiana (a mere 4600 miles/7400 km round
> trip) to
> help out a friend or two, maybe even move them west. Out here where
> all
> we have to worry about is wildfires, landslides, and earthquakes.
>
> Thought some of you might be interested.
> Don
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Sep 3, 2005, at 9:44 AM, Robert C. Fisher wrote:
>
>
>>
>> On Sep 3, 2005, at 4:45 AM, Bostjan Burger wrote:
>>
>>
>>> Thanks Elizabeth for the notice,
>>>
>>> there are realy only panoramas but no VR panoramas...however... very
>>> brave from John Poole as the significant part of victims were
>>> murdered
>>> by gangs (or only rumours...? I can't belive it...)
>>>
>>
>> I don't think so, the rumor mills are flying high I see. The biggest
>> problem here is the news is so severely tainted by big business
>> and big
>> media that you can't trust news but having said that the only place
>> that seems to have problems with civil unrest is in New Orleans which
>> is in dire straits. There seem to be people who are shooting at the
>> rescuers but that to me seems so counter productive. The problem
>> seems
>> to be an extremely poor response by the government which has known of
>> the flooding issues in New Orleans for years and even this year cut
>> budgets of the agencies that are trying to fix the problems.
>> Enough of
>> the political ramblings, I liked the panos it's a shame that the
>> Washington Post doesn't offer QTVR playback in addition to Flash.
>> Awesome images of the destruction, without being there it's hard o
>> imagine but this helps.
>>
>>
>>>
>>> Bostjan
>>>
>>> liz_golf <#removed#> wrote:
>>> Just found these posted at the Washington Post - taken by John
>>> Poole:
>>>
>>> <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/flash/photo/
>>> nation/2005-08-30_pano/
>>> index_frames.htm?startat=1&indexFile=test_2005-08-30_pano>
>>>
>>> Elizabeth
>>>
>>>
>>>
>> Cheers
>> Robert C. Fisher
>> QTVR Photography/Cinematography
>> www.rcfisher.com
>>
>>
>>
>>
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