All About Trey

Katrina

I have a friend who was in New Orleans when Katrina hit. I got a couple of emails from him via his crackberry to let me know that he was alright. I got another email today letting me know that they are bussing him to Houston so he can catch a flight back to DC.

Like most people, I'm just kind of stunned at the level of devestation. I've never been to NO and I've always wanted to. And I will one day. If there is a city to go back to. I hope we don't abandon the city and I don't think we will. But I think the long term impacts of this are still only beginning to take shape.

I was hoping that in the aftermass of this diasaster, that the country would get together and put politics behind it like we did for 9/11. But it doesn't look like that's going to happen.

Some religous nutjob is blaming "Girls Gone Wild" and "Southern Decadence" as the reasons for God's fury against the Big Easy. The left is screaming about how the national guard is in Iraq, not in the US, and the impact that's having. The President just loosened polution standards so more gas can be made available.

I just don't know. Is it too much to hope that we can focus first on saving the lives of the people in that hard hit area. Then try to rebuild. And then try to figure out why our response was so crappy. Lessons Learned are done AFTER you've solved the problem. To figure out how you can solve the next problem better, faster, cheaper.

Someone did make a sad point. With the bankruptcy bill that was passed earlier this year, we just added another obstacle to the already suffering people who have lost so much already. Their ability to rebuild their lives has been significantly hampered.

posted by Trey @ 9:01 PM