Success Story

Many comparisons have been made about the flooding occurring along the Mississippi River and Hurricane Katrina. Comparisons are now being made between how FEMA is responding to the flooding occurring now and its response during Hurricane Katrina. In a post at Instapundit, this caught my eye:

It's possible that Katrina was simply a harder-to-manage challenge because it was such a massive storm and because it hit an area (especially New Orleans and Louisiana) with weak social structures and poor government.

I wrote an email to Instapundit.

I think a lot of people still have no idea of the amount of destruction Hurricane Katrina did. FEMA made it to the Mississippi Coast a lot faster than I would have expected. The situation in New Orleans was different. To me, it wouldn't have made sense to try bring in truckloads of water and food to a city that was being evacuated, especially from the RealClear Poltics article you linked to which showed the National Guard had the necessary items on hand.

The damage from flooding and the number of homes destroyed by Hurricane Katrina in the New Orleans area and along the Mississippi can be likened to the destruction of two cities with populations of 100,000. These are cities which had a population of around 100,000 in 2005:

Arvada CO 103,966

Waterbury CT 107,902

Clearwater FL 108,687

Savannah GA 128,453

Springfield IL 115,668

Evansville IN 115,918

Olathe KS 111,334

Cambridge MA 100,135

Lansing MI 115,518

Manchester NH 109,691

Elizabeth NJ 125,809

Clarksville TN 112,878

How much effort would it take to rebuild any of the cities listed? Could it be done in 1 year, 2 years, 3 years? This is what we in Mississippi and the New Orleans area are facing. Hundreds of thousands of are doing so much like those in Iowa and other Mid-West states: With determination, hard work and by helping one another.*

Shira

Other comparisons have been made between the Mississippi River flooding and Hurricane Katrina. One of those is the seeming slowness of the rebuilding efforts. Some have suggested the slowness is due to a lack of character and many are just waiting for handouts. Some do have that mindset but it is a very, very small percentage. And it is that small percentage which gets the news coverage. The rest are busy working, rebuilding, and helping one another. It will take at a minimum of 10 years before some semblance of normalcy will be regained and all those homes rebuilt.

For every seen on the news complaining about demanding more help or saying it is too hot to look for work, there are tens of thousands of others who are quietly working and rebuilding.

Hurricane Katrina was a disaster of almost epic proportions. And the character of the people has shown we are equal to the daunting task of rebuilding and another American success story.

Deep Freeze

After criticism and due to financial reasons, FEMA will no longer bring in ice after a hurricane strikes. Instead, the job will now go to the Army Corps of Engineers.

Working with each state - MEMA for Mississippi - FEMA has charged the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with the job of delivering 3 million pounds of ice within 24 hours to any state hit, Hudak said, but only for medical emergencies and life-saving reasons.

"We want to make sure we're providing ice as a life-saving item and not a comfort item," she said. "We're not insensitive to comfort. That's why we're pushing people to get prepared and be able to help themselves."

Ice will be available for life saving and not as a comfort item. Some local authorities in Pascagoula have proposed making generators available to local ice houses after a hurricane. There are problems with this solution. Many of the ice houses in cities such as Biloxi were destroyed after Hurricane Katrina. Another problem I foresee: lack of gas or diesel fuel to run the generators.

Ice was a cool comfort after Hurricane Katrina. After hours of cleaning up debris in the yard, nothing was sweeter than ice-chilled water. It was and is a necessity for those who have infants. Many people already freeze water jugs, as another local authority suggested. This helps to keep refrigerated and frozen items cooler in the days after a hurricane. In the days after Hurricane Katrina, the temperatures were in the low 90's. My food in the freezer and refrigerator had to be thrown out three days after Hurricane Katrina. Ice would need to be replenished, at the minimum of every other day to keep food fresh.

To me, ice is more than a quality of life issue after a hurricane. Ice can also be a great help in slowing down the spoilage of food. One of the health hazards we faced after Hurricane Katrina was all the rotting foods people had to empty from freezers and refrigerators. This coupled with the delays in garbage pick-up can lead to major health issues, not to mention the attraction of rodents, insects, and other animals to all that waste.