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Originally Posted by meglamaniac
I found this report particularly striking:
Of course, this makes perfect sense. It's just unusual to see someone, anyone - least of all a politician - come out and say that which everyone is thinking: New Orleans is gone, it's hopeless, it cannot be saved.
Days after the storm, not a single leeve, canal or dam has been repaired. People are dying in the water, drowning in sewage and oil. People are dying on the freeway, of thirst, of hungar, of the heat - needlessly, as many freeways are still accessable to rescue authorities.
The police and the few National Guard currently in place have lost control. 40,000 National Guard soldiers have been activated and are on their way to the state. 10,000 active combat troops are being deployed. More have been asked for, and I would expect more to arrive. People are dying in the so-called safety centres - the superdome, the convention centre. Yes, some die of exhaustion, of lack of food or water, of illness or frailty. Others die at the hands of their fellow citizens, murdered for water, for food, for standing in the way of looting, for defending their child, for being in the wrong place at the wrong time. On top of this, women are taken away and raped - possibly a fate more cruel than any other, given the trauma already suffered. In the safety centres, people die and are pushed to one side as no-one can take them away.
The streets are perilous - nearly all of the city is now flooded. Some areas are underwater in the truest sense of the word, completely submerged. Vast swathes of land are chest deep in water. There are gas leaks, fires - both accidental and arson, armed looters, hidden dangers under the water - hidden dangers IN the water. Corpses rot as they float, adding to sewage and oil. To go out in the day is foolhardy. To go out at night, and face armed gangs, is suicidal.
How can anyone, when faced with the reality of the situation, expect New Orleans to be saved? Decisions in government come down to a balance sheet. For the price of cleaning up and rebuilding, TWO New Orleans' could be built in a much safer place. Even the infrastructure is basicly gone. Miles of sewers fill with mud and worse. Miles of cables slowly rot. Water mains fill and clog with disease infested floodwater.
The outlook is bleak - and even now, the water continues to rise.
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