Bluntly
The deputy police chief of New Orleans said at their press conference this afternoon that their message to the people still in the city is that there are no jobs, no services, no homes there. “There is nothing here,” he said. “The city is destroyed. Completely destroyed.”
September 5th, 2005 at 1:20 pm
PeopleFinderVolunteer
http://192.122.183.218/wiki/index.php/PeopleFinderVolunteer
September 5th, 2005 at 1:42 pm
Bush Photo-op:
There has been some mention that the Bush photo-op in Mississippi was staged. Apparently there was a German TV crew on site that captured a different view of events after the media swarm left. It would be instructive if someone could find the story and post a link.
Now that he is back polishing his image, the press needs to be kept on their toes. Showing only the official story is not sufficient.
September 5th, 2005 at 1:54 pm
We’ve rightly focused on people for the last week. It now seems like things are moving, finally, on that front - although we still don’t know a lot about the rural areas. And the media will now focus on the number of deaths. That’s necessary, too.
But I’ve started thinking more about the rebuilding, and the economic impact of this. We’ve lost the fourth largest port in the world - the largest in terms of export shipping in the United States. Various analysts have pointed out that imports will be less affected, as they can be redirected. Exports, however, rely on the Mississippi River, and the expense of redirecting those overland will be enormous in the short term, and pretty incomprehensible for the long term.
For hard-core economic reasons, including balance of trade, we need a major port near the mouth of the Mississippi. A port of that size requires a major city, and they become mutually supporting.
Aside from the low elevation, other factors now complicate reconstruction. It is likely that toxic chemicals and oil spills will have a major impact on the land and on the river and the gulf, for a period that may last a decade. Land will need remediation at some level before construction even starts - unless we relax environmental regs enough to create a toxic environment with additional major health hazards down the line. That would be a another disaster, and another mistake.
In short, New Orleans or something like it will need to be rebuilt. Major land work will need to be done first. (This is probably a good thing, since we’ve already got a crisis in concrete supplies.) Yes, New Orleans is gone. Yes, we need a port, and a city, where it was. It will take a long time. But at this point, what needs discussion most is how the land will be cleaned up, and what kind of rebuilt New Orleans will come out of this.