Tuesday, August 30, 2005
Ga lee, displaced peoples in the US
That's a picture of a picture of me and a friend in New Orleans, 1993 or '94. New Orleans is the only vacation spot where I have no relatives I've returned to.
Our economy took a huge hit when several buildings were knocked down on 9/11. Now, we have an entire city - the financial center of the Deep South - put out of commission for several weeks, optimistically.
I've been trying to imagine things from the perspective of one of the 1,000,000+ people displaced because of the storm and levee breaches. The word now is that these people won't be able to return for a month. How many of them have the financial resources to support themselves for a month without a job in a foreign city? Few I'm imagining. And of those who can, how many need life-sustaining drugs the prescription of which can't be transfered to another pharmacy because the prescription is stored in a waterlogged computer?
People will have to be moved ... maybe it's a good thing that we're disbanding military bases - perhaps a couple will be the locations that can provide living space and services to those who cannot return home or have lost their homes.
PS. It's the Republican's fault,
It appears that the money has been moved in the president's budget to handle homeland security and the war in Iraq, and I suppose that's the price we pay. Nobody locally is happy that the levees can't be finished, and we are doing everything we can to make the case that this is a security issue for us.
-- Walter Maestri, emergency management chief for Jefferson Parish, Louisiana; New Orleans Times-Picayune, June 8, 2004.
PSS. I didn't leave when calls for evacuation were issued for the costal NC city I lived in 7 years. I went to or threw a hurricane party instead.
// posted by Erik @ 8/30/2005 11:01:00 PM
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