City on the Brink

Woman with Infant at the Evacuation Staging Area

As New Orleans swelters in 20 feet of water and near chaos, I have to say it is one of my favorite American cities. Not by chance did our Southwest Airlines team choose the Big Easy as our daytrip destination. Even in off seasons, the French Quarter, casino, Audubon Zoo, aquarium and many other sights offer a tantalizing array of activities for every taste. The city is truly an inspiration.

Before talking about the recovery fiasco, I'd like to address a comment by our Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, questioning whether New Orleans should even be rebuilt below sea level. With all due respect, several great American cities are in areas of natural vulnerability -- San Francisco, LA and Miami for example. We would not consider letting these slip away. San Francisco was leveled in 1906 and was completely rebuilt. Man is a resilient and engineering creature -- he will master his environment. Much of New Orleans is intact; the French Quarter was barely flooded, Harrah's Casino has minor roof damage and the Audubon Zoo was almost untouched. There is far too much invested emotionally and economically to let it go. Perish the thought, and shame on Mr. Hastert.

There are some things that could have been done prior to the hurricane that would have helped. If the Army Corp of Engineers had received its full funding request for the levee redesign, it would have possibly avoided the flood. That budget was sliced in half by the current administration -- hindsight as they say. Much can be said of the efforts since -- which seem anemic and inadequate to say the least. Let's look at what we have on day 4 of the ongoing tragedy:

STATE/LOCAL - It was probably an overraction to evacuate all these people to other states. The evacuees are mostly poor and without transportation; it's entirely likely that they'll become permanent transplants in their new cities of Houston, Dallas, or Baton Rouge. This will put tremendous job/housing/social service stresses on the acquiring cities. It will also impede the recovery of New Orleans. It would have been better to evacuate the people to adjacent dry ground, in temporary housing and encampments. They could travel to work places as they come back online, and maintain better communication with friends and relatives.

NATIONAL GUARD - We hear that thousands have been dispatched to New Orleans. The city is in anarchy, and nary a guardsman is anywhere to be seen on a TV camera. Where are they -- on the perimeter of the city? Don't they wear uniforms? It seems that an armed, trained militia could bring unruly hurricane victims into line quickly.

FEMA - Here is the saddest spectacle of all. After three full days of thirst, starvation, unsanitary conditions and no medical care, the Superdome inhabitants were seeing nothing -- NOT A THING. A trickling of busses and a couple of hasty, tentative air lifts that brought not nearly enough water. There should be a cornucopia of water, sack lunches, porta-potties, clean clothes, toiletries, nurse care, cots, bedding etc brought to these people. If shots are being fired, those missing Guardsmen mentioned above should be instituting a rigorous order to make sure aide workers are unimpeded.

The entire world is watching the Superdome. It will stand as an everlasting embarrassment to this nation and the Bush administration if this agony is left to drag out longer. Over enough time, the water will evaporate by itself. Over enough time, even an old woman with gout can probably walk across the remaining I-10 bridge, from the Superdome to Baton Rouge. But there won't be enough time ever to dissipate the outrage, anger and social after-effects of such an ill-managed recovery. New Orleans will come back bigger and stronger than before, but not without injury to its working class, and not without a sustained injury to our national sense of well-being.