Hurricane Katrina

Am I alone in this, or was that not the most horrible reaction time possibly in history? I was watching this piece on PBS, I think the reason for the conversation was the new debate about health care but it had on there a doctor who had worked at one of the hospitals. They were running around with flahshlights to take vital signs the old fashioned ways, food was basically running out and you had a hospital full of people who were in varying states of illness. They went at least five days without any help, any possible way to evacuate. This doctor was talking about how since they were the hospital that took the majority of the poorest people it took the doctor a long time to accept that the reason that they had not received help yet had a lot to do with the economic status of their patient base.

Now I wasn't there to know the whole picture of this particular story but it brought the subject back up for me. I watched as the news poured it on day after day. I mean, it was hard to watch. It did look like Haiti or some third world country, not the USA. The whole subject was so intense for me that I bought a book that was really well done. I think it is called The Great Deluge. The writer was a native of the gulf coast and it remains one of the most well written books I have read in a long time. The writer goes into detail about lets say a dozen or more random people; all of which have their own individual story within the disaster. He divides these up and along with a detailed account of what and when by the government, federal and state, as well as a famous New Orleans DJ who kind of holed up and didn't leave his post for most of the time...that local station was the only information for a whole lot of people during all of this. The DJ would take phone calls, give out survival advice, all kinds of things. I made the mistake of lending this book to someone who then moved away!! Hate it when that happens.

I guess what is shocking is that afterwards considering how big and bad that whole thing was, except for a few books and a documentary, the press as a whole pretty much dropped the thing. You just don't hear about it all that much in contrast to what happened. Of course this is just my opinion, I may be not watching the correct channels and it may be done equal to the insanity of those days. Well, comments are appreciated. I must run. Thanks, Paul