Lifting from the comments on my Gustav Again post so more people will see it. My Curmudgeon’s Corner cohost Ivan is currently in Jamaica as Gustav approaches.
He makes this report:
Live reporting here from Jamaica. It’s gotten quite windy but nothing really serious yet as I am on the western side of Jamaica. The airport here in Montego Bay is closing in about 30 minutes and the hotel has hunkered down for the storm. I am not concerned about the storm where I am staying, this hotel was built in 2000 and unlike most other resorts this one Hurricane glass all around and is built out of reinforced concrete. The main building is at least 25 feet above sea level, at least, so storm surge is also not a concern. All the furniture has been collected outside and everything has been secured and battened down. We actually went on a plantation tour all day and just got back into the hotel to be greeted by the General Manager who told us to not be concerned. In Jamaica the locals expect wind and rain but at tropical storm strength no devastation.
Speaking of New Orleans the truth is that this just highlights (and I guess it really needed it because everyone forgot) just how badly or nonexistent in some areas the recovery process has gone in New Orleans. It’s a fucking joke. The Levees are not fixed, a large percentage of housing is still uninhabitable, etc.. etc… In Florida we got hit by multiple storms over the same time that New Orleans got hit by ONE, JUST ONE and we are not in a fucking panic. The crime this administration perpetrated on New Orleans is outrageous, and maybe this is what’s necessary to highlight the fucking joke the recovery has been.
Editing a few minutes later to add: As of the 18 UTC NHC update, looks like for Western Jamaica where Ivan is, 70% to 80% chance of tropical storm force winds, about 7% chance of hurricane force winds. In New Orleans, 40% chance of tropical storm force winds, 7% chance of hurricane force winds.
Bah. The crime? The crime is wasting tax dollars to rebuild a city that is below sea level and sinking.
Who is to judge that Greg? So if it hits Baltimore? Too poor too much crime fuck them? Savannah is ok to rebuild? I think that if it’s a US city it deserves the same attention as any other, period.
Current report. Lot of wind and drain, but the worst has not yet come. Everything is normal here at our hotel. I am looking at the local news and despite the heavy wind and rains nothing catastrophic yet to report. TV internet everything working. Our hotel had a wonderful free dinner for us at the main ballroom and they had the weather channel on one big screen and the Obama speech on another so we have been well informed.
The center of the storm according to the news is in the middle of the island at this moment. They are showing sme overturned vehicles and some power lines down, some minor damage, in Kingston at the moment. Very few people went to shelters most people they preferred to ride it out in their homes. Since it’s the low season the hotl was only at 30% occupancy those employees are going to stay here in rooms in order to take care of us. The Jamaican’s are very warm people in general and I have to compliment everyone here for their preparations which were top notch. They currently report that 15% Jamaica is without power. I will keep reporting as long as we have internet.
First, apparently you consider yourself suitable to judge, but I’m not supposed to.
Second, neither Savannah nor Baltimore qualify under the parameters I used to judge.
Regardless, what part of this “crime” are you most frustrated by? The lack of levees, which are required because of the city’s otherwise uninhabitable surroundings? Or the lack of habitable housing, which hardly seems the responsibility of the federal government to provide?
I’ll just let you two fight this one out. :-)
You missed my point widely. My point is that anyone can have any arbitrary way of deciding which city to rebuild or not after a hurricane and yours was just as arbitrary as mine.
New Orleans is not the only area in the US which is protected by a series of Levees the army corp. of engineers maintains levees throught the United States at the moment for flood control and that makes areas habitable. There are many reasons that those levees exist. I understand your questioning of wether levees should exist or not, however, deciding now that New Orleans should not have them would be arbitrary.
Regarding habitable housing the federal government provided unfettered aid to every gulf coast state from Texas to Florida for rebuilding except to Louisiana to which they added restrictions that the other states did not have. The main restriction was regarding % local contribution to rebuilding. Every other state was granted a waiver so no local money had to be used except Louisiana.
Savanna and Baltimore do have federal waterways and flood control that if removed would make parts uninhabitable. They are not the same as the system in New Orleans but yet they exist. The number of cities that depend on some kind of levee or flood control in the nation is huge. If the US government wants to re-flood those ares and move people they could repurchase the land and flood it but they have not done so in New Orleans.