we have yet another hurricane coming. and we have lots of time to prepare for this one as well. people seem to be taking it seriously, and evacuating. at least, that’s what the media is telling us.
there are a few problems with that angle, though.
maybe i’m being too skeptical, but i clearly remember the media saying the same things before hurricane katrina. they were all about interviewing local people in charge about their plans, and everyone was explaining how the evacuation was going well, and how people were mostly leaving, and how new orleans was going to avoid a direct hit, and all that.
and now, with hurricane rita bearing down on us, after all those lessons, i saw the mayor of galveston or someone similar in charge of things in galveston on tv this morning. and she was asked what percentage of people were evacuating.
and at least she answered honestly–she said she didn’t know.
when pressed, she guessed 80%. and then she mentioned that no one from fema or the federal government had been in touch with her.
now first, after the train wreck of advance preparation that was katrina, if you are the mayor of someplace as vulnerable as galveston, which is basically new orleans moved a few miles to the west and a couple of feet above sea level, don’t you think you’d figure out a way to a) get everyone, and i mean everyone, the hell out, and, failing that, at the very least b) figure out a way to figure out how many people had left and how many complete and utter idiots had stayed?
and if you are joe fema, might you not want to check in with the most obviously vulnerable city and see if they need any bottled water or something?
and if you are a media person interviewing the mayor or whoever of galveston, and she tells you she doesn’t know how many people have evacuated, shouldn’t you at least show a little outrage before moving on to the next question you won’t follow up with?
good lord. we are all doomed.
the terrorists have won, in case no one noticed. we have spent umpteen billion dollars, mostly off the budget, whatever that means, on the war and the homeland security department and michael brown and michael chertoff’s salaries and the upgrade of the defense of highly vulnerable states like wyoming and new helmets for firemen and god knows what useless else, and on top of that we had katrina come and kindly point out to us that in spite of all that so-called preparation for the defense of the homeland by the republicans who were the self-appointed adults in charge and who were not john kerry, whose election would kill us all, we still are not prepared for yet another disaster for which we have a week’s warning, let alone one that the terrorists don’t considerately announce in advance.
good lord.
we are all doomed.
thank you, mayor or whoever of galveston, for reminding us of that yet again.