How to fix a natural disaster

16 die in attack on U.S. Embassy in Yemen

I bet Bush wishes he had thought of that 3 years ago.

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Quick thought on Ike

More to come later, but I saw this on MSNBC today and just couldn't believe it.

Officials from Texas pressed for equal treatment from federal aid agencies. "I have asked the president and the administration to just treat us as fairly as they treated Louisiana back during Katrina," said Texas Gov. Rick Perry. "Texans will take care of the rest."

Mr Perry, you really might want to rethink that statement. I hope you haven't put it in writing. If you did, you just fucked the citizens of Galveston and Houston.

If you want help that is a day late and a dollar short, then ask to be treated like Louisiana. If you want an enormous, unreasonable bill from FEMA for a percentage of the money they wasted through ridiculous red tape and bureaucracy, ask to be treated like Louisiana. If you want your citizens to receive help that will endanger their health and welfare, brought to them through no-bid contracts with barely regulated out-of-state contractors, then ask to be treated like Louisiana.

If you want, "Heckuva job, Brownie!" then ask to be treated like Louisiana.

I could go on.

And on.

And on.

Mr. Perry, set your sights a bit higher, like maybe Mississippi. You have ruined casinos, right? Better build some, quick.

Oh, and FUCK YOU VERY MUCH for the insinuation that Texans are somehow able to help themselves better than Louisianians. We've already started to see the same bitching and carrying on from your superior, self sufficient and, may I add, incredibly wealthy citizenry. When you get Galveston up and running in less than a year, get back to me. When Houston is back to pre-storm population in less than two, give me a call. Hell, when you manage to host a home football game before the end of the season, we can talk about who's better in a crisis.

Until then:

Don't mess with Texas. You don't know where it's been.

*I don't need any irate Texans leaving nasty comments. I'm mad at your governor, not you. I hope someone in charge over there has been paying attention. It's not going to be easy.

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September 11th, 2001 was a gorgeous day...

It really was. It was one of those perfect NYC fall days. Warm enough for short sleeves, but with just a little bit of chill on the morning air that would disappear before noon. Small signals of deepening autumn but without the sense of the impending cold weather.

I was supposed to be at work for 9, but I never got there until 9:15 at the earliest. There was a simple, rational reason to it. It took me 15-20 minutes to make it from Queens to midtown. Since we lived at the last stop in Queens, if I boarded the subway between 8:30 and 9, I would have to wedge myself intothe entire borough of Queens trying to make it to work for 9. If I boarded at 9:01, the train was empty. I was a temp, so it really didn't matter.

I kept NY1, the local news station, on every morning while I was getting ready for work, mostly for weather. As I picked up the remote to turn off the TV, Pat_Kiernan reported that a plane might have hit the World Trade Center. He took a call from a motorist on a cell phone who told him debris was all over the road. Nobody seemed too concerned. I simply thought, "Well that's fucking weird," and went to work.

I just kind of subconsciously made up my mind that it must have been a small private plane with some kind of trouble that smacked the WTC and broke apart. Imagine flying a remote control plane full speed into the side of the house. That's the picture I had in my head. Apparently, I wasn't the only one.

The people on the subway were calm. When I got to midtown, there was no indication from anyone on the street that anything out of the ordinary had happened. The only thought I really had about the whole thing was how difficult it would be to pull all the airline commercials off the schedule and find something to replace them that wouldn't conflict with anything else.

I got off the elevator and the office was relatively quiet. No one was at their desks, which was a little strange, but it was just 9:15 so I figured they were off bullshitting like they did every morning. I sat down, pulled up the Schedule and started working. Turns out, I didn't even have that many airline spots that week. Then Nell comes in and says, "Did you see the Trade Center?" I said, "No. A plane hit it or something?" "Two planes. We're under attack." "What? That sounds like bullshit." "Turn on your TV." Oh yeah, there's a TV on my desk. So I turn it on (it's already on NY1) and see the Pentagon in flames.

This was no longer interesting or weird.

I didn't know what to do, so I just kept working. Honestly, I wasn't really scared until the first tower collapsed. I remember thinking at that point, "I need to call my mom and tell her I'm OK."

I don't remember anybody telling us to leave and go home. The trains and subways weren't running. The bridges and tunnels were closed. There was no place to go and nothing to be done.

When they finally opened the bridges that afternoon, I walked home with my girlfriend (now wife) across the Queensborough bridge.

If I had just looked out my window before I walked out the door that morning, I would have seen it all happen. I don't know if that would have made any difference.

I don't care who's fault it was. I don't care who has capitalized, or tried to, on it. I don't care about the wars that followed it. Not today.

I don't care about the prayers or the moments of silence or God Bless America.

Today I care about one thing and one thing only. It's a statement I heard or read in the days after the attacks. I have no idea if it's entirely accurate, but it's so poetic that it must be partly true.

A fully loaded fireman climbs stairs at the rate of about one minute per flight.

The men from the FDNY that entered the North Tower to fight the fire and evacuate survivors were headed to the 93rd floor. They were blind and deaf as soon as they entered the stairwells. The tower collapsed after an hour.

They never had a chance.

And they did it anyway.

When I get home this evening, I'll be playing Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and having a drink in honor of the men who looked Death square in the face, said "Fuck you," and kept climbing.

Join me.

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Wouldn't it be great if Al Qaeda blew up a major American city this week?

That would absolutely ruin the Democratic Convention, wouldn't it? I mean, I'm not wishing that anybody get hurt, but wouldn't the timing be incredible?

What
a
Bunch
of
ASSHOLES!

From Will Bunch of the Philadelphia Daily News (second link):

I hope for the sake of the beleaguered Gulf Coast that this doesn't come to pass -- but from a realpolitik point of view, there is a potential nightmare for the Republican Party swirling around the warm Caribbean waters right now.

His name is Gustav.

You are so right, Will. And I really hope a terrorist attack on Philadelphia doesn't come to pass -- but from a realpolitik point of view, that would absolutely kill the Democrats.

The person who earns my "Jackass of the Year" award is Alex With an E at Daily Kos. He is one particularly giant, gaping, goatse of an asshole (third link):

Let me put it this way...

...I understand all about the "I hope this doesn't happen to New Orleans."

But, it's got to hit somewhere, and I hope it does hit New Orleans.
--------
And just like surgeons always cut a little more than they have to when removing a tumor, then yes, God, please, let a hurricane hit New Orleans. Let there be a moment of such absolute, perfect irony that the Republicans simply cannot, ever, live it down.

Pissed off, yet? Then just wait, there's more from this cocksucker.

If it hits New Orleans -- and it doesn't have to be a Cat 5, I'm not sitting here working the worry beads hoping for total destruction [gee, thanks shithead - b] -- it puts the Republicans in the position of having to have a fucking party in the middle of a grotesque recreation of one of the country's worst natural disasters.
-------
I'm sorry people are upset about the notion of New Orleans, a city on the Gulf Coast being hit by a hurricane, but the Democratic Party has to stop being so Holier Than Thou. Progressive does not mean that someone can't be tough or ruthless. And the touchy-feely indignations are NOT going to win the election. A water-logged Waco will NOT be of any use in the election. And yes, this is a crucial election.

Fuck you.

Fuck you.

Fuck you.

If anyone knows how to get a hold of Alex With an E, please direct him here and to Loki at Humid City. There are a lot of us who would like to have a word with him.

Personally, I'd rather beat him unconscious with a baseball bat. But that's just me.

Oh, and GernBlantzen: Fuck you, too.

props to Loki and Gutterboy

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Wednesday, August 24, 2005 Vacation's End

This post is the second part in a series. To start at the beginning, please click here.

My wife and I have been in South Florida for about a week visiting my father-in-law. He's a few blocks away from the beach and the weather's been nice (but hot) so we've been out and about the whole time. Since we're leaving tomorrow, I needed to check the weather to see what we'll be driving through. It's the first time we've turned on the TV since we've been here. :)

So I turn on the television and there's a damn hurricane about to hit Florida! Just showed up out of nowhere! Really freaked me out. They've got it tracking across Miami and then up into the panhandle by the end of the week. My mother-in-law is right in the path of it and her house is surrounded by giant oak trees. There's absolutely no way to evacuate her and my wife is nervous about that, but it's looking like a Category 1 all the way. I'm not really concerned about it. I didn't want to tell her, but there's absolutely NO WAY I'm driving all the way home and then six hours back this weekend. It's nowhere near us, but it's pushing out a lot of rain. That will make for a fun drive.

I should probably sign off and go to bed. I have to drive for 10 hours tomorrow. In the rain. Ugh.

I hate the going home part of vacation.

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Katrina Anniversary Number Three - An Exercisorcism

I didn't have a blog in August 2005. For the next several days I'm going to pretend I did. Aside from a few emails and comments around the web, I haven't really written much about the Thing. The Storm. That Bitch. The Flood. Hurricane Katrina.

You know, I was living in NYC on September 11, 2001. I was a temp at the time, so I could have been working anywhere that day. As it turns out, I was in mid-town and had been for a week or so doing an on-again off-again thing for Cablevision. Before that, though, I was in some fly-by-night "communications" company that sold over-priced international phone cards to immigrants. I don't remember the name of the place. I remember it was just two blocks from the WTC. And I had lunch and went to the bookstore at the WTC all week.

I was terrified that day. And everyday after that for a long time. The first day I woke up, looked out the window and saw that the fire was finally out, I instantly felt better. Still scared, but better.

It took a long time for me to shake that off. Went through all the stages. I didn't go anywhere NEAR Lower Manhattan for over a year. Then, one day, it was gone. I felt fine.

I guess it's different when your it's your home.

Some notes, caveats and liberties:

I promise this isn't just emotional masturbation.

Obviously I won't remember everything exactly. This is especially true of the days preceding the storm. My memory, like most others around here, is now in two separate pieces: Pre-Katrina memory and Post-Katrina memory. Pre-Katrina memory is mixed up to a ridiculous degree. I haven't said it in a while, but I've said quite often in the past that if it happened before August 29, 2005, then I do not remember. It's more important to me to express how crazy and mixed up everything was. If I get some things out of sequence, I'm not going to be too worried about it.

I'm not sure how the timing is going to work, either, so posts may be erratic as I haven't decided yet when and how to actually publish them. Just bear with me.

Comments will be turned off for some entries so I won't be influenced by them while I'm trying to recount all of this.

*Sigh* Three years. I have to get out from under this thing. I have no idea if I'm ready to do this, but I feel like I have to try.

Happy fucking anniversary. A few days early.

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Midwest v. New Orleans Surprise!

It was bound to start eventually.

Here's a good piece on the current hard-working, small-town whites > shiftless, urban blacks crap.

I'm Callin' Bullshit
There's been a recent spate of right-wing blogs all saying the same thing:

"Now, I'm not racist, but how come all those small-town Iowans are so much more supportive and self-reliant than those big city New Orleans folks were during their disaster?”

---

...it takes a special sort of blinded gall to ignore Iowans getting reimbursed almost entirely for their damages and then complain that Katrina victims are sucking on the government teat...

---

Of course, Iowans are a lot more likely to receive giant agricultural subsidies, but I understand that accepting such money does not in any way make you less self-reliant or salt-of-the-earth.

Interesting stuff in the comments, too, such as:

I’m not sure why the right-wing pundits are crowing about Iowa. We have a Democrat governor and a Democrat majority in our state congress, plus the majority of our national congressmen are Democrats.

This would be funny if it wasn't so fucking infuriating. Check out the actual blogs he links in the post.

Thanks to the Mighty God King.

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More on the Midwest Floods

The guys over at Humid City have been doing this a lot longer than I have and say it better than I could:

stop me if you’ve heard this one before

Yes, please do stop me if you’ve heard this one before. Because the punch line stinks.

For those who lined up to laugh at and mock the people of New Orleans for their “stupidity”... – can you really look at what happened in Iowa and still believe all or any of that heartless bullshit you threw at us? Wouldn’t it be more productive to simply take a massive crap in your own hat?

The common thread here isn’t in the unpredictability of Mother Nature. The common thread is the bad, incomplete, poorly designed, poorly implemented, and badly kept structures brought to you by our own Army Corps of Engineers. And the jackasses in Congress, in the Senate, and in the White House who refuse again and again to give money back to taxpayers in the form they need it most; towards the basic protection of American citizens in their own homes.

Be sure to check this one out, as well:

YOU’RE F**KING KIDDING ME, RIGHT?

Read all about President George W. Bush, going to Iowa after the devastating floods, saying he’s headed there “with the lessons I learned from Katrina.”

I would have used a lot more "fuck". So if you feel fucked out of your usual fucks, here you go: Fucking fuckity fuck.

Again thanks to Louis Maistros and Lord David over at Humid City.

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On the Midwest Floods "They all told us, `The levees are good...' "

From the AP on AOL: Midwest Flood Victims Feel Misled.

Same story, different headline in Idaho:
Flooded-out homeowners in the Midwest say FEMA gave them a false sense of security

Juli Parks didn't worry when water began creeping up the levee that shields this town of about 750 from the Mississippi River - not even when volunteers began piling on sandbags.

After all, local officials had assured townspeople in 1999 that the levee was sturdy enough to withstand a historic flood, and FEMA had agreed. In fact, some relieved homeowners dropped their flood insurance, and others applied for permits to build new houses and businesses.

<-snip->

"They all told us, `The levees are good. You can go ahead and build,"' said Parks, who did not buy flood coverage because her bank no longer required it. "We had so much confidence in those levees."

I feel for these people. I really, really do. This is so much bigger than the New Orleans flood. New Orleans was (mostly) flooded by a lake - 15 feet and then done. Rivers never stop. I will help in the only way I can, if I can, by donating to the Red Cross. But I have to ask:

Where the hell have you people been? Did you not pay any attention 3 years ago? Since? Maybe you should have.

Blame this on FEMA and the Corps of Engineers and the Federal Government (not just Bush). It's justified. Their levees leave a lot to be desired. But levee or no, you should have had insurance. Flood insurance is the cheapest protection you'll ever buy. Unless you live on a mountain or in the desert, you should have it. After all that happened down here, putting your faith in the CoE is just stupid.

I wonder how many of you have said in the last three years anything to the effect of "Why can't those people in Louisiana get it together?" "Why are they taking my money to rebuild?" "It's just going to happen again." "People shouldn't live there." Wait till everyone starts saying it about you.

Wait till you have to deal with the tragic bureaucratic disaster that is FEMA. Hope you like formaldehyde. And I wonder how many people are going to defraud the government this time around. I'll be sure to be just as shocked and angry as you were. For those that did have insurance, wait till your insurance companies try to screw you over, falsify engineering reports, try to trick you into giving up your coverage. And in the end, watch as the money you were promised, the help you desperately need, just sits and sits and sits in Washington and then is frittered away in "overhead" by the people who are supposed to be helping you.

I guess then you'll understand. But "they" still won't.

Maybe people will pay attention this time. If the majority of the country had actually cared about New Orleans for more than a few news cycles, this might have been prevented or at least mitigated.

Like I said, I feel for these people. My heart breaks for them. We know exactly what they're feeling now and we know what they face on the horrible road ahead. If I sound bitter, though, it's because I am.

Everyone needs to pay attention. For a long time. Until it's fixed.

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On the California Inferno

The wildfires in CA have ceased to entertain/shock/horrify us at last, I guess. I couldn't find any news of them on any front pages today. *sigh* If we're the greatest country in the world, why is our collective attention span about 5 minutes? Is it because we can't focus on something longer than a day or two that we're so successful? Or has life really become that much of a grind that we need new information constantly to distract us from how miserable we are?

Regardless, I have become increasingly outraged with the comparisons between Katrina and the California wildfires. Rather than go into a long argument after everyone has apparently moved on, I'll just repost this little ditty I posted over at Lum's blog, Broken Toys.

Yeah, as a New Orleans resident and native I can quite honestly say that people really shouldn’t live anywhere anything bad can happen to them. Like Chicago (severe weather), San Francisco (earthquakes), L.A. (scientologists), New York City (terrorists), Boston (falling concrete), the entire state of Florida, the southeast and gulf coasts (hurricanes), the midwest (tornadoes, dust storms, giant hail), Texas (Texans), the northwest (blizzards, rock slides, avalanches, eaten by bears), the northeast (same but with cougars) or the southwest (drought, fire, immigrants).

As for the rest of it - this has turned out better in terms of evacuation and lives lost primarily because of the reverse 911 system that was implemented after and as a result of Katrina. More people care because these are rich white people (self-sufficient, campaign contributors) and not poor black people (welfare leeches). And an attitude of “they knew it would happen eventually” isn’t appropriate, either. Southern CA is on fire EVERY YEAR. Not to mention that a fire is an immediate danger. You can see it, smell it, feel it. A hurricane is and always has been a potential, eventual danger, subject to the mercurial nature of the tropical south Atlantic climate. You can fight a fire. You can’t fight a flood, only prepare for it and sometimes the best preparation (when you actually have it) isn’t enough. The comparisons between the two events are flawed in these and all other respects and are wholly media generated and driven in an attempt to pin the whole thing on a. global warming or b. the incompetent, uncaring republican administration.

I could go into more explanation, but I don't think it matters much, anymore.

UPDATE 10-31: Just learned that the fires essentially ceased to be on Monday, 10-29, and I had to look long and hard to find that info. James Gill of the Times Picayune has a great opinion piece here.

Katrina victims who camped out in the Superdome will have chilling stories to tell their grandchildren.

They will recall how there was not a masseur in sight to relieve their stress. The most dogged search for an acupuncturist yielded nothing. Why, there was not even a giant flat-screen TV to relieve the tedium. No musicians were there to serenade the crowds.

New Orleans just can't hold a candle to San Diego when it comes to organizing an evacuation experience.

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I heard there was a football game last night. I don't know because I fell asleep in front of the TV and had a bad dream. Yep, a really horrible, horrible dream.

That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

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