WASHINGTON, 3 September 2005 — Experts long predicted that New Orleans, which lies mainly below sea level and is surrounded by water, would face unimaginable devastation when “the Big One,” a hurricane on the level of Katrina, hit their region.
More than half a million people were affected by Katrina’s assault, which has resulted in the largest displacement of Americans since the Civil War of 1861, and ousted more than twice as many people as the San Francisco earthquake of 1906.
Additionally, data from a recent census revealed that more than 150,000 people in New Orleans lived below the poverty line even before they lost everything by the hurricane, and more than 50,000 of them are past retirement age.
Race has become a subtext to the unfolding dramas of the hurricane’s aftermath. Tens of thousands of desperate people remained stranded on the streets of New Orleans, as photos showed a high percentage of black Americans affected by the disaster.
One young black woman held out her dehydrated-looking child to TV reporters and pleaded for help. “This is not about rich people or poor people,” she said. “This is about people.”
As stranded victims awaited help and rescue operations to reach them, media reports confirmed that parts of the city were slipping into anarchy: Without food, water, or medical care, nor power, phones, or a way out — the city had descended into chaos, violence, looting and despair.
Reports of victims being raped, beaten and robbed stunned reporters and aid workers, who also confirmed that corpses were littering the streets, and police and rescue helicopters were being repeatedly fired on.
“We have individuals who are getting raped; we have individuals who are getting beaten,” a police official said. “Tourists are walking in that direction, and they are getting preyed upon.”
After days of harsh criticism by local government officials, disaster relief officials, members of both sides in Congress, and an increasingly bewildered public who accuse the president of a slow response to the disaster, President George W. Bush flew a second time over the affected areas and visited the devastated areas of Mississippi and — in a clear photo opportunity — hugged a black woman and told her: “Hang in there.”
On Thursday, Bush dispatched the former two presidents, his father George H.W. Bush, and Bill Clinton to revive their fund-raising efforts from the December tsunami in Asia.
Also Thursday, President Bush told the nation from Washington there would be “zero tolerance” for looters and price gougers, and advised motorists: “Don’t buy gas if you don’t need it.”
Hurricane Katrina hit the US economy just as hard as New Orleans and the Gulf of Mexico’s coast this week by wiping out large segments of the transportation, energy and communications infrastructure, and left tens of thousands of people hungry and homeless.
Eight US refineries that turn crude oil into gasoline were not running because of storm damage and two other refineries that produce petrochemicals were out of service.
With the Gulf of Mexico oil industry effectively shut down and gasoline prices rising to unprecedented heights, forecasters are now pondering the possibilities: A recession could result if the severe disruptions result in continued spike in oil and gasoline prices, or a long sluggish period over the fall and winter followed by a probable spring snapback as the devastated region starts to recover and rebuild.
“The reconstruction will be an enormous boost to our economy,” said Patrick Conway, a retired business executive familiar with the region.
Conway said the reclamation of New Orleans, once the floodwaters are removed, would require the demolition of neighborhoods and the full-scale reconstruction of infrastructure, a multibillion-dollar prospect for the US economy — and a recovery price tag estimated at tens of billions of dollars.
“Housing, lumber, concrete – all the rebuilding projects will benefit from Katrina’s disastrous aftermath. The petroleum industry will have temporary disruptions but will be corrected within a couple of months when the oil refineries in the region will be up and running again at the same capacity as before the hurricane.”
“Remember, less than one percent of the US population was directly affected by the hurricane,” said Conway, “and right now major oil companies, distributors and gas stations are gouging the nation. They’re taking advantage of the fear Americans are feeling, but all this will abate as oil supplies normalize.”
Several oil companies, including Chevron Corp., have begun rationing the amount of gas they sell to suppliers, and several gas stations in the Washington area ran dry yesterday as some local customers said rising gas prices prompted them to top off their tanks, contributing to the area’s diminishing gas supplies.
Oil analysts predict an increase of imports from Europe within the next two weeks would help bring down prices and ease supply disruptions.
Dealing with dead bodies is low on the priority list. Most victims drowned or suffered severe injuries when buildings collapsed around them and their bodies are already starting to decompose. Identification and clothes were swept away from the bodies, many of which drifted miles from home.
“We are looking for any scars, tattoos, dental work. I’m doing DNA, fingerprinting and photos,” said county coroner Vicki Broadus who had a forensic pathologist working with her. Coroners were conducting autopsies in parking lots because the only available light in the city remains sunshine. The official death toll is at 130 and rising.
Terry Ebbert, head of the city’s emergency operations, said help is little and late. He warned that the slow evacuation had become an “incredibly explosive situation.”
“The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) has been here three days, yet there is no command and control. We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we can’t bail out the city of New Orleans.”
“It looks like a war zone in a developing nation, not the United States,” Claire Mains, a British citizen visiting Washington, told Arab News.
The city’s besieged and beleaguered mayor, C. Ray Nagin, told CNN: “This is a desperate SOS. Right now, we are out of resources at the convention center and don’t anticipate enough buses. We need buses. Currently, the convention center is unsanitary and unsafe, and we’re running out of supplies.”
The mayor, whose leadership skills have been put to the ultimate test this week, was criticized for not being a New Orleans version of New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, who was universally praised for his disaster response in New York.
The US Congress, meanwhile, met in a special session yesterday and passed a $10.5 billion emergency aid package to keep FEMA from running out of money while aiding victims of Hurricane Katrina.
Joshua Bolten, director the Office of Management and Budget, said it was a “stopgap measure” and that full request would come in a few weeks. He said it was too early to guess how much would be requested.
Meanwhile, the Red Cross has already announced that its hurricane shelters were full, with an estimated 76,000 refugees at facilities in Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Texas and Arkansas. The Energy Department said about 1.8 million customers remained without power due to Katrina.
Rumbles of discontent regarding a slow response by President Bush came from surprising quarters, including conservative commentators and even one of Bush’s closest political associates, Joseph Allbaugh, the president’s first FEMA director and a longtime friend.
He said FEMA workers had a difficult time getting in. “A lot of decisions are being made that aren’t’ being coordinated very well,” he told Fox News.
Bush’s decision to cut spending on fortifying levees around New Orleans has received tough criticism in recent days. Experts say Bush repeatedly ignored appeals by the Army Corps of Engineers for funding to improve the levees holding back Lake Pontchartrain. Three of these levees broke this week in New Orleans.
As recently as July, the White House unsuccessfully lobbied against plans to spend $1 billion over four years to rebuild coastlines and wetlands, which serve as buffers against hurricanes.
Michael Park, who was forced by Bush to resign as assistant secretary of the Army for civil works after accusing the White House of shortchanging the Corps of Engineers, said the culprit is not the president but governmentwide resentment to investing in long-term projects such as flood control.
Martha Madden, former secretary of the Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality, said she believes a critical systemic breakdown occurred the moment the levee broke. She said contingency plans have been in place for decades but were either ignored or improperly executed.
Madden, now a national security and environmental consultant, said the lack of immediate federal help, specifically in the form of military assistance, was “incomprehensible.”
“They can go into Iraq and do this and do that, but they can’t drop some food on Canal Street in New Orleans, Louisiana, right now? It’s absolutely mind-boggling.”
Even America’s allies used the Katrina disaster to condemn the president’s lackluster environmental regulations, Germany’s Environment Minister Juergen Trittin said the United States should expect more natural catastrophes if it did not get serious about global warming.
American Muslims have also joined in the Katrina relief efforts.
The Muslim and Arab-American organizations are working to mobilize the American Muslim community to work with national relief organizations, religious charities government officials, and the private sector to assist Katrina’s victims, and open their mosques and homes to victims as well as offering displaced families to stay as guests in their homes or in hotels.
