Katrina at Three
by C. L. Cook
 Hard to believe three years are passed since the biggest natural disaster in living memory struck Louisiana and the Gulf Coast. Harder yet to believe is the Bush administration's complete evasion of responsibility for the criminal abrogation of its sworn duty to protect the citizenry both before and after Hurricane Katrina made landfall August 29th, 2005.
I recall spending a week's vacation time watching slack-jawed the calamity that was allowed to happen. I wrote feverishly, in real-time, as one incredible "failure" followed another, and the people, primarily poor and black, were abandoned to the rising waters. That is, when they were not being hunted and shot down like dangerous zoo escapees.
Katrina: A Two-Week
Timeline
PEJ News - C. L. Cook - Today,
ominous developments in the aftermath of the disaster wreaked on the Mississipi
delta region continue. Press lockdowns, military occupation, and disturbing
stories about the fate of those evacuated the city are being widely reported, on
the net. Below, a timeline of Katrina from first landfall in Florida to the
present produced by PEJ News.
PEJ
News - C. L. Cook - In a record year of tropical storm warnings, many
in southern Florida took the approaching tropical storm Katrina casually. But,
what came ashore, killing several people and wreaking havoc with the state's
power grid, was no mild blow.
PEJ News - C. L. Cook - The
storm Floridians discounted as minor last week has spent the weekend gathering
strength over the warm waters of the Gulf of Mexico. Hurricane Katrina has now
ballooned to an unprecedentedly large and powerful Catagory 5, with sustained wind
speeds nearing 280 kph, and gusts topping 300kph.
SuperDome
Lockdown: Katrina's Prisoners
August 30,
2005
PEJ News - C. L. Cook - New Orleans' least
fortunate, those too poor or infirm to flee Monday's killer hurricane, taking
refuge in the city's Superdome football stadium today find themselves prisoners
in a fast deteriorating situation.
[ breaking 2:06pm pdt- Louisiana Governor
announces an evacuation of one of New Orleans' emergency shelters due to rising
water caused by the failure of a second levee protecting the city. Water too is
accumulating in the biggest area of refuge, the SuperDome: Says situation
"untenable" and the entire city must be evacuated as levee waters rise. And the
rains have begun again.]
New
Orleans Funeral March a Funeral for America?
August 30, 2005
PEJ News - C. L. Cook - It is a total disaster. The
slow death of New Orleans, though defying worst case scenarios that have
furrowed the brows of experts for years, is nevertheless a fait accompli. The
failure of two vital levee guardians of the sub-sea level city means one of
America's cultural icons, and arguably most important commerce ports is, as
Louisiana Governor, Kathleen Babineaux Blanco says, "untenable." As analogue,
the demise of the Big Easy mirrors the disaster that is George W. Bush's
America.
Orleans
Down the Drain, But Who's to Blame?
August 31,
2005
Media Channel - Danny Schechter - "You didn't hafta
have been there in the past two days to be stung by what happened. Anyone who
walked the streets or partied in NO, or watched Angel Heart (the movie), or
walked the dusty roads along the Gulf saw an America that won't ever be
again..." - Da'ud X Mohammad, New Orleans refugee
www.mediachannel.org
From
Baghdad to Biloxi: Bringing Home the Guard
August 31,
2005
WarMadeEasy - Norman Solomon - The catastrophic
hurricane was an act of God. But the U.S. war effort in Iraq is a continuing act
of the president. And now, that effort is hampering the capacity of the National
Guard to save lives at home.
www.warmadeeasy.com
Pointing
Fingers in the Wake of the Flood
August 31,
2005
PEJ News - C. L. Cook - While the waters still rise
in New Orleans and the monumental task of evacuating the entire city and
environs begins, already accusing fingers are pointing directly to the White
House and George W. Bush.
The
"Disaster" President
August 31,
2005
thiscantbehappening - Dave Lindorff - The
destruction of New Orleans--a catastrophe far worse than anything Osama Bin
Laden could hope to wreak, considering the number of deaths, the closing down of
a major U.S. port city for months, the destruction of an urban environment that
will take years to repair, and the devastating disruption of one-fourth of the
nation's oil production, which is likely to initiate a national recession--gives
final proof of the stupidity and criminality of the Bush Administration's
invasion of Iraq and of the bankruptcy of the Democratic so-called oppositon.
www.thiscantbehappening.net
Fallujah,
Louisiana
September 1, 2005
PEJ News
- C. L. Cook - Night is falling again in New Orleans, and reports aired
by CNN paint a desperate picture. Without water, power, and hope for immediate
rescue, the people stranded in the city face another night of thirst, hunger,
deprivation, and now, reportedly, marauding armed gangs, and at least one insane
sniper.
The
Battle of New Orleans
September 1, 2005
Media
Channel - Danny Schechter - Goaded perhaps by looped television footage
of "looting" amongst the ruins of New Orleans, overwhelmingly displaying
non-white participation, police and military spokespersons say "law and order"
will take precedence to rescue missions as evacuation efforts continue in the
stricken city. {lex}
www.mediachannel.org
"The Name
of This Hurricane is Global Warming"
September 1,
2005
Democracy Now! - Shortly after he took office, the
President reneged on his campaign promise to cut emissions from power plants. He
then ordered the EPA to remove all references to the damages of global warming
from its website. Vice President Cheney came out with his energy plan calling
for 1,900 new power plants, most of them coal. This is the fast track to climate
hell. And, of course, the President withdrew us from the Kyoto Protocol, so he
is really going in the opposite direction from the rest of the world, and he
really is following the dictates of the fossil fuel lobby. There's no question
about it.
www.democracynow.org
The
Big "O": Abandoning New Orleans
September 2,
2005
Media Channel - Danny Schechter - DAY 5: No more
water; the fire this time. Explosions rock and illuminate the darkness of New
Orleans -- some from exploding gas lines and some from gunfire. Another night in
a wet and dangerous town that is quickly coming to resemble a war zone in the
Third World. It is a place filled with angry and hungry people, people who have
felt abandoned and been abandoned for a long time-- even as help is said to be
finally on the
way .
www.mediachannel.org
The
Hurricane and Bush?s Criminal Negligence
Sepetember 2,
2005
IAC - September 1, 2005--With every hour that
passes, we see and hear new stories of the horror and devastation in the wake of
Hurricane Katrina. What makes these images more shocking is the realization that
much of the death and destruction could have been prevented. Almost all of the
death and destruction arising from the hurricane is the direct result of
criminal neglect by the Bush Administration. This crisis was predicted in
numerous reports and news articles and little, if anything, was
done.
International Action Center
The
Golden 72 Hours
September 2, 2005
PEJ
News - C. L. Cook - It seems now to many, the "Plan" worked out by the
myriad minions working at the Department of Homeland Security for disaster
relief in America can most charitably be described as benign neglect. Much as
the Bush administration has starved the very agencies that could and would have
averted the current disaster in New Orleans, the reaction of the multi-billion
dollar entities created in the wake of 9/11 instructs all citizens: "In case of
disaster: You are on your own!"
www.pej.org
"Take
Your Rightful Share!"
September 2, 2005
Greg
Palast - As the waters rose, one politician finally said, roughly,
"Screw this! They're lying! The President's lying! The rich fat cats that are
drowning you will do it again and again and again. They lead you into
imperialist wars for profit, they take away your schools and your hope and when
you complain, they blame Blacks and Jews and immigrants. Then they push your
kids under. I say, Kick'm in the ass and take your rightful share!" - [roughly]
Huey Long, 1927
www.GregPalast.com
A
Perfectly Predictable Disaster
September 2,
2005
edgeofsport.com - Dave Zirin - There is nothing
?unnatural? about the disaster of New Orleans. When politicians smirk at global
warming, when developers look at our wetlands and dream of mini malls, when
billions are flushed in the name of war and tax-cuts, when issues of poverty and
racism don?t even register in Presidential debates, all it takes is wind, albeit
145 mph wind, to expose a sturdy super power as a house of cards.
www.edgeofsport.com
"They're
Washing Us Away"
September 3,
2005
The Moscow Times - Chris Floyd - The
destruction of New Orleans represents a confluence of many of the most
pernicious trends in American politics and culture: poverty, racism, militarism,
elitist greed, environmental abuse, public corruption and the decay of democracy
at every level. Much of this is embodied in the odd phrasing that even the most
circumspect mainstream media sources have been using to describe the hardest-hit
victims of the storm and its devastating aftermath: "those who chose to stay
behind."
www.themoscowtimes.com
"Them"
Coming Home: Third World Redux in America
September 3,
2005
The Jazzman Chronicles - Jack Random - It is
happening and my heart, like every ordinary American, has broken a thousand
times. It does not look like America, no less the soul of America, but it is.
Ultimately, it occurred to me that the sorrow of New Orleans bore a striking
resemblance to an entry in recent history, one that should still be fresh in
every mind and heart: It looked like Port au Prince, Haiti.
http://jazzmanchronicles.blogspot.com
No
News is Bad News: CNN's Evacuation of New Orleans
September
3, 2005
PEJ News - C. L. Cook ? The message has trickled
from the Atlanta corporate head office of CNN: In the Age of Rage, the flagship
of American television journalism is to desert its post; as have hundreds of
police and fire-fighters in New Orleans. If you have, as have I, been monitoring
the coverage of the unprecedented disaster unfolding in the American south these
last days, you may have noticed: CNN?s coverage consists today of almost
entirely re-cycled footage and heart-tearing stories, while ignoring the real
situation on the ground in that God-damned city.
Halliburton
to Orleans' Rescue
September 4,
2005
ADE - Kurt Nimmo - It is mighty suspicious the New
Orleans "refugees" (as the corporate media call the Americans removed from the
disease-ridden swamp left in the wake of Hurricane Katrina) are being relocated
far and wide. Most of them will probably never return and will end up in
ghettoes in Baton Rouge, Houston, and elsewhere (it appears Baton Rouge is being
groomed as an expansive slum, since the rebuilt New Orleans will be a casino and
tourist destination with time-share condos and luxury housing).
www.kurtnimmo.com
Whose
Desire Would Burn the World
Sept. 4, 2005
PEJ
News - C. L. Cook - Speechless. The television remains off, I can't
take it today. In print, the rolling misery of America, its veneer scraped as
effectively as the Superdome's roof, revealing all many have known all along;
but, seeing it is something else again. And behind this ghastly production,
George W. Bush and his now infamous coterie stand in the wings, authors of this
through their insatiable cravenous appetite, poised to profit the
calamity.
www.pej.org
Dear
PEJ News: Full of Bewildered Anger
September 4,
2005
From: Cameron McLaughlin - To: "lex at pej" info@pej.ca - Date: Sun, 04 Sep 2005 21:20:41
-0500 - I can't watch or hear news of New Orleans without breaking down right
now. The best I can hope for is that the extremist right-wing radio stations
here on the Gulf Coast are full of bewildered anger. So are many of the
journalists who have seen the carnage and devastation for themselves.The
sleeping giant may be waking, and the helpless ones may be beginning to realize
that they and their cities may be the next to be sacrificed. Big Daddy not only
can't and won't protect them, he will mock them by pretending to be their savior
while privately affirming his indifference to them. Big Daddy is a reptilian
psychopath who will let New Orleans drown while he strums the guitar and plays
golf and his cabinet members attend Broadway shows and shop for shoes. He will
reward gross incompetence and literally give the despairing victims of New
Orleans the finger.
Black
Nightmare
September 4, 2005
PEJ - The
Red Cross spends 40% on administration according to their website. The number
two organization that FEMA supports is "Operation Blessing" founded by Pat
Robertson who 2 weeks ago said "Lets go and assassinate Hugo Chavez".
"Thanks,
But No Thanks!" U.S. Rejects International Aid
Offers
September 5, 2005
PEJ News - C. L. Cook - The gross incompetence
displayed by the Bush administration and it's budget-heavy Homeland Security, in
these days, a week past the disastrous landfall of Hurricane Katrina, a week of inexplicable inaction on the part of
the federal government, is now compounded as Bush thumbs his nose
at international offers of
aid.
www.pej.org
Reverse
Triage: An Inhumane Policy
September 5,
2005
PEJ News - F.H. Knelman, Ph.D. - The Katrina
disaster is a classical case of reverse triage of class and colour. Triage is a
French word referring to the priority with which a mixed group of wounded are
divided into three groups and which group is the first to receive medical
services. These three groups are (1) the severely wounded or ill; (2) those less
seriously wounded and (3) those who have not been wounded or hurt. According to
the principle of triage it is the first group that is initially evacuated for
medical treatment. Reverse triage simply reverses this order. Under certain
fairly unique conditions, reverse triage is practiced in war conditions, i.e.
the non-wounded soldiers are evacuated first and the severely wounded are
abandoned. In summary triage is a natural humane order of emergency needs,
whereby the most vulnerable are treated first. In the case of New Orleans, we
faced the need for mass triage. Instead it was a case of reverse triage as well
as an exercise in bureaucracy.
US
Troops in New Orleans Are Treating Hurricane Victims as Members of Al
Qaeda
Urgent International
Appeal
September 5, 2005
Wayne
Madsen - U.S. troops in New Orleans are treating hurricane
victims as members of "Al Qaeda." Reports coming to WMR report that the greater
New Orleans area has been turned into a virtual military zone where troops
threaten bewildered and hungry survivors who approach them for help. One
resident of the unflooded Algiers section of New Orleans on the west bank of the
Mississippi River reports that the 65,000 population of the neighborhood has
been reduced by forced evacuations to 2000 even though there are relatively
undamaged schools, parks, and churches available to house the homeless. The
remaining population of Algiers is in urgent need of medical supplies. The same
situation exists in Jefferson Parish and other areas in the greater New Orleans
area. U.S. troops are treating the remaining people in New Orleans nd its
suburbs as "suicide bombers," according to the Algiers
resident.
www.waynemadsenreport.com
"We're
Angry, Mr. President"
An Open Letter to George W. Bush from New
Orleans
Sept. 5, 2005
Times-Picayune - We're angry, Mr. President, and we'll be angry
long after our beloved city and surrounding parishes have been pumped dry. Our
people deserved rescuing. Many who could have been were not. That's to the
government's shame.
[Note: The Times-Picayune also authored an award-winning series of
articles over the last two years questioning, and criticizing, the federal
governments budget cuts and failures in providing New Orleans with the much
needed funds for levee reconstruction, citing precisely the disaster New Orleans
now face. - lex]
"Have
You No Blame, Sir?"
September 7, 2005
The
Nation - Katrina vanden Heuvel - As Republicans desperately cry out of
one corner of their mouths to stop the blame game, they have been blaming
everyone but themselves since this catastrophe.
www.thenation.com
No
Cameras Please: Journalism Under Attack in New
Orleans
September 7, 2005
Reporters Without
Borders - In the days following the devastation of New Orleans, running
battles between police and what they described as "looters" were strictly
off-camera; a situation today extended to a ban on images of the bodies being
recovered there. That there have been conflicting reports about who these
"looters" were, most based on fleshtones, the real issue not yet at issue here
is, "When is it O.K. to shoot a starving citizen in search of food?" -
{lex}
www.rsf.org
Surviving
the Flood
September 7,
2005
CounterPunch - This is a transcription of an
interview Charmaine Neville, of New Orleans' legendary Neville family, gave to local media
outlets on Mon., September
5.
www.counterpunch.org
Trapped
in New Orleans: First By Floods, Then Martial Law
September
7, 2005
Counterpunch - LARRY BRADSHAW and LORRIE BETH
SLONSKY - The owners and managers of Walgreen's in New Orleans had locked up the
food, water, pampers and prescriptions, and fled the city. Outside Walgreens'
windows, residents and tourists grew increasingly thirsty and hungry. The
much-promised federal, state and local aid never materialized, and the windows
at Walgreens gave way to the
looters.
www.counterpunch.org
Destroying
the City to Save It: Hurricane Cassandra
September 7,
2005
PEJ News - C. L. Cook - News descending at this
hour, fuelled by the relentless wind of CNN, and the rest of the elements
comprising the agit-prop pretending to journalism (and serving the public weal)
in that Untied State of America, currently relating the grim realities of the
"graveyard that is New Orleans," exemplified best by five-star reporter and
favoured hand-maiden to orchestrated calamity everywhere, Christiane
Amanpour, would have the world believe, there is little option left for the
beleagured government forces massed ready to pounce on the funereal remains
inconveniently still assembled in New Orleans, but to massacre the
remnants, witnesses of the Great Flood and its aftermath. The long awaited
saviours must now 'Destroy the City in Order to Save It.'
Katrina
Evacuees: FEMA Internees
September 8,
2005
ADE- Kurt Nimmo - Asked by Senator
Nancy Pelosi if he'd call for FEMA head, Michael Brown's resignation, George
Bush asked, "Why would I do that?" When prompted, it may be appropriate in light
of the agency's disastrous performance during the crisis in New Orleans and all
that went wrong, all that didn't go right, the President asked, "What didn't go right?"
-
{lex}
www.kurtnimmo.com
Katrina's
Patsy: Who Are You, Mr. Brown?
September 8,
2005
PEJ News - C. L. Cook - The guillotine blade is
risen and heads will roll. Though the melons most suited to fill those baskets
will be spared, it may provide solice that those that do, vile co-conspirators
of the authors of Katrina, the crime that dwarfed 9/11, and eclipsing for now
the toxic legacy of that other criminal quagmire, Iraq. Michael Brown, current
head of FEMA and odds on favourite for first tete in the bucket, is
tonight revealed by TIME On-line as having "discrepancies" in his
resume.
[update: Sept. 10, 12:00 p.m. - Mr. Brown is now in the eye of
the sh*t storm. He's been relieved of responsibilities overseeing the next phase of the Bush administration's
management of the disaster.- lex]
Guns
Not Butter for Louisiana
September 9,
2005
PEJ News - C. L. Cook - Befitting the conduct of
this emergency promising disaster, the Bush administration has only now, nearly
a fortnight following the unleashing of chaos, decided to accept foreign aid for
the victims of Katrina and the consequent New Orleans Flood. But, it's not the
doctors and medicines promised by Castro, or the subsidized fuel offered by
Chavez, or even the Urban Search and Rescue team unceremoniously sent packing
back to Canada from the epicentre of the catastrophe they want; the intrepids at
Camp Bush have put out a mayday to NATO, in the form of a deployment of its
freshly minted military strike force.
"Go
F**K Yourself, Mr. Cheney!"
September 9,
2005
Jackson Thoreau - Dr. Ben Marble, a young emergency
room physician who plays in alternative rock bands and does art on the side,
needs our help. Since he was the one who told Dick Cheney to "go fuck yourself"
on Thursday, that's the least we can do.
The
Nauseating Mrs. Bush
September 10,
2005
WMR - Wayne Madsen - Famous already for the
nauseating response to a reporter's question concerning Iraqi civilian
casualties that would result her little boy George's campaign there at the start
of the carnage that is America's gift to the world, Barbara Bush, doyen of the
Bush dynasty replied, "Why would I want to waste my beautiful mind thinking
about that?" Responding to the plight of the displaced casualties of the great
New Orleans flood "Babs" said, as she stood amongst the human chattel filling
Houston's Astro Dome: ""What I?m hearing is they all want to stay in Texas.
Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality . . .And so many of the people in
the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this --this is working
very well for them." Compassionate Conservatism in full Texas Rose bloom.
{lex}
www.waynemadsenreport.com
Martial
Law America
September 10, 2005
ADE -
Kurt Nimmo - New Orleans is no longer part of America. It is a brave new world
devised by FEMA and the Ministry of Homeland Security. In the new New Orleans,
there are no constitutional rights. Not only are soldiers allowed to break down
doors (as they do in Iraq) in violation of the Fourth Amendment and even ?shoot
to kill? if they believe they are threatened (as soldiers in Iraq ?shoot to
kill? grandmothers and kids at Israeli-styled checkpoints), now the Second
Amendment no longer exists. www.kurtnimmo.com
Of
Alligators and Crocodile Tears: Bush Katrina Aid
Plan
September 10,
2005
thiscantbehappening.net - Dave Lindorff - The
Republican Congress (and their conservative Democratic quislings) have decided
to show a little compassion for the victims of Bush Administration incompetence
and nature's revenge by including a waiver in the bankruptcy bill to exempt them
from losing their shirts along with their houses. They've also decided to
postpone cuts in Medicaid, so as not to gut what little public healthcare
remains in Louisiana during this crisis.
www.thiscantbehappening.net
Katrina:
Next Phase
September 10, 2005
PEJ
News - C. L. Cook - Michael Brown, lately chief of FEMA's hurricane
response efforts, has been 'redeployed." Perhaps in like-manner to tend the
animals, as was the Navy pilot punished for the temerity of defying orders and
actually rescuing people. Sadly, Michael Brown is no hero. But, neither is he
the true goat. - {lex}
New
Orleans Unmasks "Apartheid, American Style"
September 11,
2005
PEJ News - Jason Miller - What is the recipe for a
toxic sludge potent enough to destroy a heavily populated city and inflict
infection with a mere splash? Start with a force of nature powerful beyond
belief. Mix in an ample supply of sewage, garbage, brackish water from Lake
Ponchatrain, floating corpses of humans and animals, and various and sundry
noxious chemicals. Blend well with a system of seriously inadequate levees
resulting from cuts in federal funding. Of course this concoction would not be
complete without heaping portions of racism, spiritual emptiness, and avarice
fueling slow and inadequate federal relief efforts.
Orleans
Doctors "Put Down" Terminal Patients at Height of
Flood
September 11, 2005
PEJ News - C.
L. Cook - George W. Bush arrives in Louisiana today as relevations of further
horrors during the flood that followed hurricane Katrina's August 30
landfall. Doctors, caught between the rising waters and drug seeking hospital
looters, were forced to make "unbearable" decisions during the
evacuation.
A
Martial Plan for Orleans
September 12, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts - Lawlessness, the eruption of which was guaranteed by
delayed relief, provides cover both for martial law, which suspends
constitutional protections, and for the confiscation of legally owned private
firearms in violation of the Second Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Everyone
has by now seen the images of troops and police breaking into New Orleans homes
and pointing weapons in the faces of residents. U.S. military even described
survivors as "insurgents." (At time of writing news reports are confused whether
martial law exists in New Orleans.
http://antiwar.com/roberts/ |
