Entre Nous / Musings of a former Belgian

Mother Russia is dying

Mark Steyn, of all people: Be afraid. Be very afraid. (Again: hat tip to an Ozzie named Tex.)

Simon Wiesenthal, z"l

A crusader for justice, not vengeance, left us at the age of 96. His name and legacy live on.

Jackals after the storm

Orson Scott Card has some choice words to say to those cynically exploiting Hurrican Katrina for political gain.

When the levee breaks (10)

Latest word: death toll may not be as high as feared.

Meanwhile, Investor's Business Daily looks at the Landrieu family's role in Louisiana politics. Boy, none too pretty.

And Victor Davis Hanson offers his two cents' worth, always worth >much more.

When the levee breaks (9)

Hannity and Colmes had British popular history author Simon Winchester on, whose book on the 1906 Great Earthquake is slated to come out next month. He unfavorably compared the New Orleans leadership with that of San Francisco in 1906. (Ironically, he hinted that the lack of instant communication gear may have been an advantage, since it forced people on the scene to make independent decisions rather than wait for the 'chain of command' to approve each and every move.) Looting lasted for about an hour on the first-day --- the mayor, an erstwhile professional violinist, issued a 'shoot to kill' order that made short work of the looting. (Of course, they didn't have the ACLU looking over their shoulders back then ;-))

One of the more damning things that came up was New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin hesitating to call for a general evacuation, for fear of getting sued by hotel owners. Also, FEMA administrator Michael Brown --- who apparently has just been 'relieved from his duties on-scene' --- learning about the evacuation from a TV interview.

In terms of administrative cluelessness, this takes the cake, however:

Not long after some 1,000 firefighters sat down for eight hours of training, the whispering began: "What are we doing here?"
As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for firefighters - his own are exhausted after working around the clock for a week - a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle [last] Sunday in a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta. . . .
The firefighters, several of whom are from Utah, were told to bring backpacks, sleeping bags, first-aid kits and Meals Ready to Eat. They were told to prepare for "austere conditions." Many of them came with awkward fire gear and expected to wade in floodwaters, sift through rubble and save lives.

"They've got people here who are search-and-rescue certified, paramedics, haz-mat certified," said a Texas firefighter. "We're sitting in here having a sexual-harassment class while there are still [victims] in Louisiana who haven't been contacted yet."

When the levee breaks (8)

Comprehensive timeline of Hurricane Katrina and response thereto.

A hurricane of blame

Ralph Peters in the New York Post:

MOTHER Nature showed once again that she's the ultimate terrorist. And the hurricane that struck our Deep South has been trailed by a blizzard of excuses, accusations and lies.
Let's all stop playing politics with this. Despite expert warnings, nobody in either party was psychologically or practically prepared for devastation of this magnitude. The scale of such destruction could be described in scholarly papers, but not really imagined. And there was no way to fix things instantly when disaster struck.
That said, there were infuriating weaknesses in our response. The worst failures were local. The mayor of New Orleans, who utterly failed his city in disaster planning and preparedness, continues to whine and accuse others. The Louisiana state government responded to the hurricane's approach with near-indolence. But there were undeniable delays and errors at the federal level which must be faced.
Dishonest or naive voices insist — wrongly — that everything would have been fine if the National Guard hadn't been in Iraq. Just not true. Yet, there were some haunting similarities between our arrival in Baghdad and Katrina's arrival in New Orleans.
The Bush administration seems to have a problem with serious planning outside of a campaign. Our troops were sent into Iraq without an occupation plan and now we find that, four years after 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security, which swallowed the Federal Emergency Management Agency, appears to have done no serious planning for a national disaster.
What on earth has DHS been doing?
As my friends in the military reminded me this week, our responses to previous hurricanes, such as Andrew, were far more efficient and effective. While Katrina was a super-storm, the principles don't change.

Which brings me to the second problem the Bushies routinely have: The unwillingness to impose law and order, to promptly take on looters and criminals. We failed to do it in Baghdad and the results plague us to this day. By allowing a small minority of the people remaining in New Orleans to terrorize the storm's victims for days without interference, we betrayed our fellow Americans and shamed ourselves in the eyes of the world.
The War on Terror, too, begins at home.
While the federal response was not quite as tardy as the media would have you believe, we could have done much better. And we didn't need the military forces deployed in Iraq. We have plenty of troops and resources here at home.
Here's what the military — active duty or National Guard — can do in a disaster:
* Establish an immediate, visible presence that fosters order.
* Provide command, control and communications for relief officials. Military communications are designed to operate in combat — they can do wonders during a natural disaster.
* Raise civilian morale simply by showing up. Disaster victims need reassurance.
* Coordinate initial logistics efforts — getting emergency supplies where they're needed and, if necessary, moving people.
* Search and rescue. Our military —including the splendid Coast Guard — did move fast on this front. They've been unfairly criticized. In a catastrophe of such proportions, you just can't do it all at once.
What's striking is that the administration and the staffers at Homeland Security didn't seem to grasp all the resources available to them — or even what their responsibilities were. Anything but reassuring, the clumsy initial response to Katrina must have Islamist terrorists stroking their beards, smiling and thinking ahead.
As for the nonsense that the National Guard should never have been sent to Iraq but kept at home for emergencies like this one, well, the Guard doesn't have tanks, artillery and helicopter gun-ships for disaster relief. The Guard's primary mission is to help fight our nation's wars, and the Guard's state-by-state leadership has fought hard to retain that mission and the Guard's combat formations. Can't have it both ways.
The real problem is that we had plenty of resources, but failed to use them promptly.
Although our military has plenty on its plate, it appears that the Department of Homeland Security is in way over its head and needs help.
The Pentagon needs to be tasked to be prepared to provide swift and comprehensive disaster relief in the early days of a catastrophe. Existing plans are inadequate.
And this doesn't mean a "military takeover." It just means putting grown-ups in charge of saving American lives.
Yet, after all is said and done (and far more will be said than done), Katrina created a colossal tragedy without parallel in most of our lifetimes. Relief efforts have grown more impressive by the day and the speed of our recovery may surprise everyone. We're Americans. We don't sit around complaining. We roll up our sleeves and fix things.
As for our "friends" in Europe, they've been gloating over the tragedy that struck our country. If you follow the European media, the self-righteousness is disgraceful — and they're just plain mean.
When the last water recedes, we may find that a few thousand Americans died in a great natural catastrophe. But two years ago, during a heat-wave, 25,000 elderly Europeans died unnecessarily in France, Italy and Germany while their political leaders, medical personnel and even their children went on vacation — and stayed on vacation. Katrina wasn't preventable, but those elderly deaths were.
America has suffered terrible natural disasters. There'll be more in the future, and we need to be better prepared. But Europe's disasters — far worse than any of ours — have been made by human beings.
I'll take America. On our worst day.

When the levee breaks (7)

Hole in levee plugged --- pumping-out of New Orleans under way.

And guess who's trying to jump on the bandwagon of the relief fund drive --- yes, our "friend" Cindy Sheehan. And guess what essential relief goods her "Veterans for pisspeace[-of-the-slaves]" buddies need money for ;-)

#6 OFFICE & MEDIA EQUIPMENT: 

[...]
NEEDS:
(5) Apple iMac G5 Computer 20" Monitor = $3,000 each
(5) 500 Gigabyte Firewire Harddrive= $500 each
(5) Canon XL2Digital Video Camera = $4,500 each
(2) Digital Projector (3000 lumens) =$1,000 each
(5) Apple iPods with recording = $600 each

Monthly Satellite Access and Website Hosting Fee = $200 pr/mo

What a tool...

But as long as we're discussing information technology, here is an article on the American Red Cross' new communications infrastructure. The article was written before the levee broke, and I wonder whether their gear worked as well in the field as on paper....

Meanwhile, Brad DeLong --- no friend of Bush or the Republicans --- has a good laugh at what passed for the New Orleans evacuation "plan".

They were going to make a DVD. A DVD saying, "you all are on your own." They didn't even care enough to make the DVD before the hurricane season began.
No. New Orleans did not have a functioning government as of the summer of 2005. This is a catastrophic failure of local governance--much worse than FEMA's failures.
You would think that somebody--somewhere--would have called Washington and said, "You know, New Orleans doesn't have its act together enough to have a hurricane evacuation plan." And that somebody, somewhere--in Washington or in Baton Rouge--would have cared.

(Hat tip: Instapundit, who's clearly on a roll. See also this article , where he argues that 'disaster-hardening' major infrastructures such as the communications network would be a better use of the Department of Homeland Security's time than confiscating tweezers in security checks.)

When the levee breaks (6)

Things are finally under control in New Orleans. The large sites have all been evacuated; troops turned their attention to evacuating individual homes. the nola.com weblog actually points out individual cases that need rescue: there's new technology for you.

Why it took so long for the authorities to get their act together isn't quite clear.

Meanwhile, Fox News is full of footage on the passing of Chief Justic William Rehnquist (RIP). In a macabre way, this may be a good sign about New Orleans --- that things have gotten sufficiently stabilized there that they no longer generate top headlines....

And LGF points to a a remarkably prescient article from last year's National Geographic.

UPDATE: NOAA has storm statistics for the past 150 years. Sure nothing new under the sun ;-)
[Table of the 30 deadliest storms.]

And the Washington Post has some pretty damning stuff for local authorities. And let's not even mention the Ray Nagin Memorial Motor Pool...

When the levee breaks (5)

Get this: New Orleans DirectNIC is still up! For now, at least, until the backup generator for their UPSes runs out of fuel.

Their front page weblog is still being updated. Go have a look.

"corbusier" has a line-by-line refutation of the dreck being peddled by, of all people, the French. But hey, their elderly last year at least didn't drown ;-)

Hero of the day: a whole bunch of school buses were standing unused (making you wonder about the competence of the city 'government'). One Jabbar Gibson 'borrowed' one of them and drove about 100 people off to safety. Jabbar of course means 'hero' in Arabic (as does its Hebrew cognate 'gibor')...

The images I am seeing of refugee reception in Texas are rather heartwarming, I must say. Of course, preparation counts for a lot in massive relief operations like this, and the Gulf Coast of Texas has historically offered plenty of motivation for disaster preparedness...

The jury is still out on whether this will be the greatest natural disaster in US history, or merely among the top three. The other two contenders are the 1906 earthquake and ensuing fires that nearly leveled San Francisco, and a 1900 storm in Galveston Bay that killed about [UPDATED: 8,000] people.