What really is hard to grasp is that the evacuation and takiing people to shelters is overwhelming but only the beginning. These people have lost lives, jobs, homes, etc. They have to build new ones in new places. And many seem barely able to make it as it is.
Who is going to absorb this population? And am I crazy to think that rebuilding that city is hopeless and not feasible. Why not try to save the Quarter and the Garden district, and let the rest go. Fixing the levee is not fixing the problem. This will happen again.
This "can do" attitude ought to be directed at how do you help people build new lives in new places and what to do with those who for a myriad of reasons cannot do so.
I know those who are engineers and architects and land use people, etc, will be dying to rebuild. But is it worth it?
How did your day go?
But I watched with the TV sound down, as this exhausted Red Cross worker was handing out these food packs, lightning fast one after another. With the exception of ONE young girl who smiled sincerely and I could see her lips mouth the two simple words "THANK YOU" and look her helper straight in the eye with appreciation, but for the most part, nearly evey person rushed up, grabbed his or her bag, with averted or cast-down vision, walked away, with not even so much as a word of 'thanks' to those humanitarian workers. It all reeked of an atmosphere of perverted sense of entitlement and social welfare. I guess that is the subculture that has taken root there. Sad.
Texas appears to be absorbing much of the population. There is a shelter here in Austin, one in San Antonio (future home of the Saints too). People are discounting apartments and hotels too. I think we will find that if people are forced outside of NO for 3+ months and have no job or home to go back too they will collect their FEMA assist and homeowners insurance and make a home in their refuge city where I hope they look for and find jobs.
If they come to Texas, they have to be good to their neighbors helping them. Looters need not apply.
I am with you on your post. And so very glad to see your name here.
I'm now convinced that this is going to be fully equivalent to 9/11. I'm hoping that the death toll isn't as high as some are warning, but it is clear to me that the we have on the order of a million Americans, and associated workplaces, who are going to require our attention. I'm more and more speechless contemplating the magnitude of this seminal event in our history.