I’m sure everyone reading this remembers September 11th and the agony that it caused to our country. Both the personal, and the economic damage that resulted. Its considered to be the worst terrorist action ever in the history of the world. It was also considered to be one of the worst disasters in American history, out-distancing even some hurricanes and earthquakes.
Sadly, and I say this with all the strangeness that that phrase brings, we’ve seen worse this week. Hurricane Katrina ripped through the south in the past few days but the most amazing thing isn’t the damage it caused directly, but rather indirectly. So far, somewhere around 70+ deaths have been recorded to Katrina, about 20 billion dollars in damage and millions of people displaced. But really, thats just the beginning.
New Orleans now is facing total failure of two sets of pump stations, stations 17 and 19 if I remember correctly. Flood waters are approaching depths of 6 to 20ft in some areas. The Governor is absolutely requiring evacuation and is stating it was more damaging than the hurricane in 1989. The scary part is that the Coast Guard and National Guard has carried out over 1200 helicopter rescue operations but they don’t even have a clue how many people are still needing rescues or are dead. Right now, the death count sits at around 70. This hurricane effected millions. Thousands stayed in their homes. Thats not even counting the Superdome!
Yes, the Superdome is seriously messed up. Its roof is just about gone. It has no running water, no electricity, and surprisingly little food. MRE’s is about all it has thanks to the National Guard. But there’s an estimated 20-30,000 people stuck there. With no air, no food, no water, in conditions that would make anyone reach the end of their rope. Here’s the best part, there’s 200 national guardsmen managing the situation. 200! I’ve never heard of something as fucked up as that. I once talked to a police officer in L.A. who does crowd control and he said you need at least 1 officer for every 3 people. So yea, New Orleans is fucked, the superdome is fucked.
But thats not the worst, thats just taking in the personal calamities. Lets look at the economic situation.
Those states that were affected depend upon gambling. They lose over $500,000+ a day just on lost gaming revenue. Then there’s the fact that Oil workers in the gulf have been off work since Friday of last week. They do almost 1/3rd of our oil production. Oil prices have already begun to rise on the stock market with trading going up from previous days. Thats in the first moments of the disaster. Yet we’re looking at massive damage to the platforms in the gulf, very few have been checked over yet. Then we’re also looking at the fact that New Orleans is the major exporter of grain/corn in the United States. Actually, its pretty much the primary port.
Really, the economic damage here is far beyond the $20 billion they’re forecasting. The personal damage is far beyond the 70+ people who have been declared dead. This is the worst disaster in the history of America. Bar none. Its nice that president Bush decided to end his holiday early for this situation but really, we need more.
Where is the fucking world helping us out here?