The lesson from Katrina

As hurricane season nears, what have Americans learned since Katrina hit on Aug. 29, 2005? Have people changed their ways, made preparations? Have Americans learned that personal responsibility is a MUST? Apparently not. What they have learned is a new form of public assistance, a new category for dead beats, a new way to live off someone else's hard work. A new house-to-house survey has some interesting results.

Nearly one-third of residents in U.S. coastal areas vulnerable to hurricanes say they won't obey orders to evacuate if a major storm threatens, according to a new survey.

Despite the nightmare experience of Hurricane Katrina, the poll also found that almost two-thirds of New Orleans residents don't know the location of an evacuation shelter.

More than half have not arranged with their family where to meet after a storm. (Chicago Sun Times)

The Pondering Penguin says:

In today's Houston Chronicle I read that the Katrina people will have HUD vouchers extended through June 2008, which entitle them to free or reduced rent here in Houston. It applies to the 3,500 families still on assistance in our area as well as to the 11,000 households across the country.

When do we just stop this charade and just call it as it is, permanent assistance?

Excellent question. HUD secretary Alphonso Jackson said, "We can't change what God does, but we can make the best of it." What else can he say? He can't ship the 'victims' back to the Gulf Coast, he apparently can't force them to provide for themselves. As one person said:

"This is my home now. There's nothing to go back to. I'm happy here," said Crosby, who is receiving HUD assistance that allows him to pay only $25 per month in rent.

About 11,400 families have been part of the Department of Housing and Urban Development's Disaster Voucher Program, which was scheduled to end Sept. 30. About 3,500 of the families are in the Houston area. (Chron.com)

To be fair, there are many elderly people who truly need this assistance. Also to be fair, many hard working people are still waiting on their insurance companies to 'settle' with them, or their insurance companies have found loopholes to avoid paying the benefits individuals should receive. I feel very sorry for these people and the hell they have found themselves in. They thought they were prepared.

People need to learn, you should depend on yourselves. Make preparations, make plans, be ready for any emergency.

Other reading:

Kos It’s the Right Thing to Do, Adam's Blog
GOP Front Runner? at Maggie's Notebook and Blog @ MoreWhat.com
Global Warming: Orson Scott Card exposes the science fraud behind the Hockey Stick, Learning Straight Up

Around the world:

Canadian Activist’s Remarks about Islam and Homosexuals investigated as Hate Speech, Conservative Thoughts
An article you must not miss from Omar Fadhil at Iraq the Model, "A Flight to Nowhere", full story at Pajamas Media
What Irans Real Leaders Think Of Saudi Arabians, Islamanazi
NY Times -- Disagreeing With Us Irresponsible, Rhymes with Right
Stop the Madrassa: -- Protecting our public schools from Islamists curricula. "Letter to Klein, Harries, Bloomberg, Spitzer et al"
The WitcheS of LondoN, Woman Honor Thyself
123Beta, Good Stuff Tuesday
_______________________________________________________________
Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Blog @ MoreWhat.com, DeMediacratic Nation, Big Dog's Weblog, Stuck On Stupid, Webloggin, The Amboy Times, The Bullwinkle Blog, Cao's Blog, Leaning Straight Up, Conservative Cat, Pursuing Holiness, Conservative Thoughts, third world county, Blue Star Chronicles, Planck's Constant, The Pink Flamingo, and Dumb Ox Daily News, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Comments

[Debbie]

The following was emailed to me today, from FH in Florida. His comments are very worth your time to read:

"Hello,

I happened across your blog while looking for an honest review of
the "Rocket Spanish" language program (which I didn't find btw),
hidden among the 65,000+ fake returns you get with a google search,
and read your comments on Katrina and the survey released yesterday
regarding coastal residents who will not leave in the event they
are ordered to this year. While I agree with your statements
regarding personal responsibility, you'll note that the survey
didn't specify where that 1/3 of coastal residents live, or why
they won't leave; though I was not surveyed, and likely wouldn't
have responded had I been selected, you may count me, and the 3
other members of my family, among them, along with most everyone
we know. We would not leave in response to an "order" (which is
meaningless, at best), just as we haven't attempted to do since
Hurricane Opal in 1995.

We live on a barrier island in the Florida panhandle, though we
don't live on the beach. Hurricane Opal (in 1995), Hurricane Ivan
(in 2004) and several other topical storms and hurricanes hit us,
more or less directly, leading up to Hurricane Katrina hitting the
Mississippi gulf coast. A quick glance at a map will immediately
reveal one very important fact, though it can't show the many others
- this county and the counties to both our east and west, each
have only one north/south route (ours, for 30 miles inland from the
coast) and the only east/west route (and you're only allowed to go
west) is directly on the coast. Once you've travelled 30 miles inland,
there is another east/west route, and our one 4-lane north/south
route becomes two 2-lane roads running north/south. Believe it or
not, those 2-lane roads are a relief until some 20 miles further
inland, when you reach an intersection with another 2-lane road,
filled with evacuation traffic from the larger city to our west.
The reason the 2-lane roads are a relief is because, unlike the
4-lane that runs from the coast, they aren't blocked by our law
enforcement and emergency management personnel.

The "great plan" of prohibiting any traffic, other than emergency
vehicles from going south, which they didn't do for Katrina, and
which was touted as the reason for the great success in this area,
was first used here, for Hurricane Opal, and has to be one of the
biggest boondoggles in evacuation history. Because they made all
(three) lanes of the one route out go north only (reserving the
4th lane for emergency traffic, until it was taken over by people
stuck on that road), before the traffic reached any other route,
emergency management blocked the road in order to merge all lanes
back to two, and brought the evacuation traffic to a standstill
for the entire 30 miles back to the coast; beginning just past
the roadblock, the roads were relatively clear and traffic was
moving at a rapid clip. Literally hundreds of thousands of people
were stranded in their vehicles, in an area where there is no shelter
of any kind, when the hurricane came ashore. It's only by luck that
thousands weren't killed there. After 8 hours in our vehicle, we
were just south of the emergency management roadblock when Hurricane
Opal hit, and we said "never again".

However, because they were lucky, and because there was no news
coverage of that horrific failure, and because, as everyone who's
lived on the coast for any time knows, it takes FEMA, the media,
and all the dignitaries several days to arrive, only the local
residents knew what really happened, and they weren't in any
position to dispute the subsequent glowing reports in the media
as local officials patted themselves on the back and talked about
their great success. As we had "sneaked back home" while the
emergency management people were "hunkering down", and had no
electricity or cable until long after the media had left, we
didn't even know it had been misreported as a success, rather
than an abject failure, until they subsequently repeated the
procedure for Hurricane Ivan (during which everyone I know who
tried to evacuate was still sitting in their cars on those same
few roads when the storm hit).

Other salient facts, not shown on any map, are that there is only
one approved hurricane shelter in this county, approximately 40
miles from the coast (which is filled with the hospitalized that
they can't send home) and that is the closest the Red Cross will
ever come; not that it matters, as neither the Red Cross, FEMA,
or any other organization will get to us until after bridges and
utilities are restored, and we've all gone back to work. It isn't
safe for them to come, likely due to the fact that they could get
shot by the National Guard or law enforcement pointing automatic
weapons at the residents who stay. Which introduces another salient
fact - if you leave, you won't be allowed to return until what's
left of your property has been destroyed, sitting damaged, open
to the weather, with no utilities, and possibly looted; they'll
arrest or shoot you if you try.

However, as local emergency management knows that there aren't any
hurricane shelters, and the real results of their "management",
they actually quietly tell the residents "not" to leave when they
give an evacuation order, that it's really only for those in mobile
homes or directly on the water, and they're advised to seek shelter
with friends or family in the area, as there is no place for them
to go and no transportation routes on which to leave.

The problems in New Orleans weren't really caused by the hurricane;
Mississippi took the worst of the storm. They were directly caused
by flooding (almost all insurance claims have been settled for some
time btw), but many living in houses that cost $5,000. didn't have
flood insurance (and more expensive houses weren't fully covered),
though they elected the corrupt politicians who were an indirect
cause, and they choose to live below sea level, while ignoring what
those politicians actually did with the money that "might" have
prevented the flood. But the biggest problem of all is the former
population, many of whom lived in government housing, and still do
today.

Here, when we have a disaster, most roll up their sleeves, when
allowed to, which is one major reason we don't leave, but in a city
with approximately 25% of the population "officially" unemployed,
while the rest of the country has the lowest unemployment ever, and
this coast has an unemployment rate of under 2.5% and hires every
warm body who walks thru the door, it should be clear to any honest
or even marginally impartial observer why the disaster relief that
had previously been reported to be such a success, was such an
abject failure, and why so many are still in need of assistance."

[Angel]

Have Americans learned that personal responsibility is a MUST? Apparently not....spot on girl! :) blame blame blame!

[Yankee Doodle]

"People need to learn, you should depend on yourselves. Make preparations, make plans, be ready for any emergency."

Nah. Just vote for Hillary. She'll take care of us.

Great post!

[Karen]

Thanks for the mention today, Debbie.

Great post. Our city has really been affected by the whole mess. New Orleans at one time was my favorite city in the world and now it'll never come back. Sad.

[Butch]

Debbie,

As you point out, a large majority of the residents of New Orleans are 'deadbeats'. And probably always have been.

That's why I firmly believe no federal money should go to that city at all. None.

If you don't have enough sense to get out before a major hurricane hits then you don't have enough sense. Period.

New Orleans=Atlantis2

[Debbie]

Good question, Freedom Now. I don't hold my breath, ha.

[Freedom Now]

I dont imagine that Jesse Jackson is going to investigate those HUD vouchers to see if whites are getting enough assistance.

[Debbie]

Thanks guys. I do feel personal responsibility would have changed events surrounding Katrina. It's very sad that people have not learned any lessons. Over 75% would still sit on their butts on rooftops and wait... Rather than leave town when advised; rather than have a 'plan' of their own; rather than have a generator, food supplies, medical supplies, protection.

Very sad and the rest of us end up paying for their laziness.

[michael]

Debbie:
If America manages to lose a war to Islamic terrorists, I think this post highlights why...

[Donald Douglas]

Great posting! And you're very fair - that's commendable, and I like it.

Have a great day!