My friend Rob is looking back to when he and his wife rode out Katrina from their home about 50 miles north of New Orleans. He has a series of posts over at his blog, the last one from yesterday ending with the ominous(to me at least):
We expect services to be restored before we run out of anything. They always are.
I went to bed that Monday night five years ago thinking that New Orleans had managed to dodge the bullet. In reality, the city was flooding and a desperate effort was already underway to rescue people. It wasn't until Tuesday morning that that ugly truth became known to me.
Within a few days the word got out that Rob and family were all okay. The scenes from New Orleans proper were far less encouraging. The next week gave us enormous courage and effort to rescue people, and shameful displays of hysteria from much of the media and shameful political attacks as people were still being cut out of the attics and plucked off of rooftops.
The effects of those vile accusations linger today. To the extent that some people are indifferent to the fate of New Orleans, I think a significant amount of that is due to the accusations of racism and sabotage that were leveled in the immediate aftermath of Katrina. Some people on the receiving end of that demagoguery have now turned away from New Orleans out of disgust. I can't say I blame them. In fact, if I didn't know Rob I might be among them.
Here are two posts that may debunk a few myths for you:
Debunking the Myths of Hurricane Katrina: Special Report
Inside (and outside) the Superdome: What went right
An editorial from a couple of weeks ago over at Nola.com says that a majority of people in New Orleans are upbeat about the recovery after five years. I hope that's true. I also hope that the politics didn't completely obscure the lessons to be learned from one of the largest natural disasters in US history. I'm less sure about that last one.
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