How the Poor Got Trapped (Even ultra-left AlterNet gets it !!)

06 September 2005 | Will Bunch

[eeriegeno]

I knew that NO had a large population of poor people but I had no idea that the city was populated by so many dumb ones. What part of 'mandatory evacuation' did they not understand? Many stayed because of their own choosing (including Fats Domino who also had to have his sorry ass rescued at the expense of the taxpayer) which caused chaotic and dangerous rescue operations!

IMHO, anyone who stayed because of their own choosing got exactly what they asked for. There are still people who are refusing to leave even though their homes are half filled with sewage water? I always thought that it would be fun to attend a Mardi Gras in NO but after this I think that I will spend my time watching the grass grow in the back yard.......

[ghost of quidam]

I couldn't agree more with you regarding what the ramifications of an un-needed evacuation would have been.
Everyone speaks as if the folks in N.O. KNEW that the storm would hit them. They didn't know, and it didn't actually hit N.O. directly. Even with the disastrous flooding, it was gradual and the result of the levee failure. Imagine the repercussions if there had been a direct hit, a 25 foot storm surge directly onto the bowl of N.O.! It would make what actually did happen, as bad as it is, look like a cakewalk.

The bottom line to me is N.O. was a disaster waiting to happen. Pompeii on the bayou.

The odds have finally played out but it could have been much worse. The only solution would have been a real public awareness by the people of how vulnerable they were, and mandatory total evacuation any time a category 3 or higher seriously threatened the city. If this would have been one of many evacuations, it could have worked. But how many false alarms does it take for people to stop participating? Not many. How many collosal deluges will it take New Orleans to finally face reality? Hopefully only one.