New Orleans as Baghdad–and they’re blaming Bush
That’s the comparison this AP report on looting in the French Quarter makes.
The lede:
With much of the city flooded by Hurricane Katrina, looters floated garbage cans filled with clothing and jewelry down the street in a dash to grab what they could. In some cases, looting on Tuesday took place in full view of police and National Guard troops.
At a Walgreen’s drug store in the French Quarter, people were running out with grocery baskets and coolers full of soft drinks, chips and diapers.
When police finally showed up, a young boy stood in the door screaming, “86! 86!” _ the radio code for police _ and the crowd scattered.
Denise Bollinger, a tourist from Philadelphia, stood outside and snapped pictures in amazement.
“It’s downtown Baghdad,” the housewife said. “It’s insane. I’ve wanted to come here for 10 years. I thought this was a sophisticated city. I guess not.”
Around the corner on Canal Street, the main thoroughfare in the central business district, people sloshed headlong through hip-deep water as looters ripped open the steel gates on the front of several clothing and jewelry stores.
It’s not downtown Baghdad, but it is a lesson in common criminality.
This Reuters report describes the damage:
We probably have 80 percent of our city under water; with some sections of our city the water is as deep as 20 feet. Both airports are underwater,” Mayor Ray Nagin told a radio interviewer.
New Orleans, a city that usually throbs with the life of its carnivals and the sound of jazz and blues, was in a “state of devastation,” Nagin said.
In many residential areas TV pictures showed the water was up to roof level after the surge caused by Katrina breached a section of the levee along a canal leading from Lake Ponchartrain, which looms to the north of the city.
Much of New Orleans, a city of some 500,000, lies in a bowl below sea level, bounded by the lake and the Mississippi River, North America’s biggest river, which curves along the south of the city before discharging in the Gulf of Mexico.
Here’s the inevitable “anti-Bush” take, even on the hurricane. Via Der Speigel:
The toughest commentary of the day comes from Germany’s Environmental Minister, Jürgen Trittin, a Green Party member, who takes space in the Frankfurter Rundschau, a paper owned by the Social Democrats, to bash US President George W. Bush’s environmental laxity. He begins by likening the photos and videos of the hurricane stricken areas to scenes from a Roland Emmerich sci-fi film and insists that global warming and climate change are making it ever more likely that storms and floods will plague America and Europe. “There is only one possible route of action,” he writes. “Greenhouse gases have to be radically reduced and it has to happen worldwide. Until now, the US has kept its eyes shut to this emergency. (Americans) make up a mere 4 percent of the population, but are responsible for close to a quarter of emissions.” He adds that the average American is responsible for double as much carbon dioxide as the average European. “The Bush government rejects international climate protection goals by insisting that imposing them would negatively impact the American economy. The American president is closing his eyes to the economic and human costs his land and the world economy are suffering under natural catastrophes like Katrina and because of neglected environmental policies.” As such, Trittin also calls for a reworking of the Kyoto Protocol — dubbing it the uncreative title of “Kyoto 2″ — and insisting that the US be included.
The left-leaning Die Tageszeitung also delivers a punchy plea for more attention to global warming, saying politicians should pay more attention to Katrina’s alarming images than to election polls and economic forecasts. “Hurricane Katrina has delivered terrible photos. Experts are already calling it the worst hurricane of all time. But this year’s hurricane season has only just begun. Flooded villages, mud slides, sandbags….Scientists are quite calmly saying that we will see this kind of thing more often. After all, this is what they have been forecasting for years — climate change, human-caused and irreversible. But a change of policy is not in the cards. Politics is trapped between voters and industry lobbyists. And of course, there is the killer argument: Protecting the environment impedes economic growth.” This is not how it should be, the paper opines. Indeed, more “pictures from New Orleans should encourage us to follow science’s advice on climate protection.”
Read the whole thing. Die Welt’s take makes sense.
GERMANY GREEN PARTY: WITH ALL DUE RESPECT “EAT S*** AND DIE” NOTE FROM EDITOR: Check the site rules. No cursing.
Comment by don bentley — 8/30/2005 @ 9:34 pm
Der Wingnut!
Comment by The Liberal Avenger — 8/30/2005 @ 9:58 pm
Typical German “know it alls ” with their heads up their shnitzels. Hope Iran sends them their first born nuke!!!! Pissed off Canadian….wishing he was American
Comment by Stan — 8/30/2005 @ 10:24 pm
Only 2 days before the self-righteous lefties start saying it’s the fault of the US. Soon they will start saying that we deserve it. I must say that only the left has a special way of asaulting the victims of tradgedy.
Comment by mac — 8/30/2005 @ 10:38 pm
No Stranger to adversity Hurricane Katrina was a monumental disaster, one for the record books I am sure. It will be a long time before we can put a dollar amount on how much damage was caused or determine how many lives have been…
Trackback by HARD-TALK — 8/30/2005 @ 11:55 pm
Katrina: The Callousness of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. Plenty of people are discussing the cheap shots being taken at the US by German Kyoto-worshippers in the wake of Katrina. One of the more egregious examples of the bogus global-warming-caused-the-hurricane meme came from an American, however: Robe…
Trackback by The Noonz Wire — 8/31/2005 @ 1:18 am
New Orleans is covered by 20 feet of water and you focus on this petty nonsense? Who cares if people are risking their lives to steal merchandise that will be ruined by floodwater anyway? Who cares what some lefty German magazine says? I’m sure some folks are out there blaming the flooding on the Big Easy’s moral turpitude. Who cares? Or would you rather distract from the question of why most of the Louisiana Nat’l guard is absent from the scene of their REAL job. And why the Corps of Engineers budget was slashed by $70 million in the district to pay for something… something… what could it be…
Comment by Louis — 8/31/2005 @ 2:20 am
Dr. Robertson would have a different take on this. N.O. is sin city and the gulf coast is a gambling den. This isn’t global warming - it is the wrath of God!
Comment by Binky — 8/31/2005 @ 8:59 am
Two Thirds of the Louisiana Nat’l Guard is there and more are being recalled. What is their REAL job Louis? Its whatever the governor says it is. Why don’t you just go renew your subscription to Der Spiegel.
Comment by KnightOwl77 — 8/31/2005 @ 9:18 am
Most National Guardsman Lewis? That’s not what LA’s Dem governor said this morning. The Navy and Coast Guard also have plenty of resources to send. Multiple vessels including the Bataan and other helo capable craft. 130k combat troops in Iraq aren’t all the armed forces.
Comment by Drake — 8/31/2005 @ 9:44 am
Louis, And yet, by all accounts, the NG has more than enough boots on the ground. Odd. By all accounts, the biggest problem they face is nowhere lock up the looters, so they are practicing catch and release on all but the violent offenders (like the SOB who shot a cop at a gas station minimart)
Comment by SCSIwuzzy — 8/31/2005 @ 10:01 am
[…] noonzwire.blogspot.com”> Alex Nunez on August 31, 2005 at 11:04 am Plenty of people are discussing the cheap shots being taken at the US by German Kyoto-worshippers in the wake of […]
Pingback by Say Anything » Katrina: The Callousness of Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — 8/31/2005 @ 11:07 am
Der Speigel offers up another round of the typical drivel from what is now normal mainstream thought in Germany – it is the fault of Bush. I guess that an offer of help is just too much to ask from the recipients of the Marshall Plan and the Berlin airlift.
Comment by Don Miguel — 8/31/2005 @ 2:22 pm
And of course, all of those countries who criticized US relief efforts after the Tsunami are already mobilizing their navies to send relief, right? Right?
Comment by Brian B — 8/31/2005 @ 2:36 pm
The Other Foot I can’t help but wondering. Countries like Germany, whose Green Party leader blames this on Bush, and who was among the countries critical of US relief efforts after the Tsunami, they’re already scrambling their navies and air forces to send relief, …
Trackback by Memento Moron: Remember, Thou Art Stupid — 8/31/2005 @ 2:53 pm
Seriously - the US was blamed for large tsunami casualties, why not blame Bush for a hurricane? Its all part of the BusHitlerChimpyAntiChrist left wing mantra.
Comment by Tony — 8/31/2005 @ 9:46 pm
I am citizen of Hamburg, Germany, and I am disgusted with the cynical view of the current minister for environmental affairs. My thought are with the victims of this disaster and with the american people. I write you this to let you know, that most of the Germans I know have a positive attitude towards the US, and personally, born in the sixties of the last century, will never forget, that especially you from the US freed us from Nazism and protected us during the Cold War from the Soviets. Thanks for all, I hope we stay friends, despite those ugly comments from some idiots in my country, may God bless the american people. Eckhard
Comment by Eckhard — 9/1/2005 @ 6:24 am
Living in Hannover, Germany, I must apologize for the weird behavior of our secretary of environmental affairs. Trittin is is known as a radical lobbyist for environmental causes, which isn’t bad per se, but sadly he has demonstrated a disturbing lack of empathy and sound judgement. He isn’t representive for the german people, most of whom are shocked by , the loss of lifes, the suffering of the victims and the apocalytic damage in the hurricane region. Pls note that it was a left wing weekly that brought this embarassing wankers to your attention. Personally, I regret that the article doesn’t mention the overwhelming majority of compassionate voices.
Comment by Gray — 9/1/2005 @ 8:42 am
Thanks Eckhard and Gray!!! It’s good to see there are people around the world with civility and common sense. Thanks for the support.
Comment by Derek S — 9/2/2005 @ 10:36 am
The fact is Bush cannot be blamed for the diaster however he is clearly at fault for the lack of response. Because of the administration scores have people have probably died that did not need to. A Berlin type airlift could have happened within 24 hours.
Comment by Angela — 9/3/2005 @ 9:54 am
he is right as far as Bush thinking that the economy is a priority over the enviroment. The US does need to take an agressive stance on envirmontal issues, which will never happen with Bush as all his big $$ contributors are also the nations worst polluters. Bush is correct that to place strict envirmontal regulations in place would hurt the economy, but if it is not done, then storms like this will be felt more often, with more catsrophic results, which we have seen does take a huge toll on the economy and human lives as well. Which is worse George?
Comment by Mick V — 9/7/2005 @ 4:13 pm
New Orleans: A Green Genocide By Michael Tremoglie FrontPageMagazine.com | September 8, 2005 As radical environmentalists continue to blame the ferocity of Hurricane Katrina’s devastation on President Bush’s ecological policies, a mainstream Louisiana media outlet inadvertently disclosed a shocking fact: Environmentalist activists were responsible for spiking a plan that may have saved New Orleans. Decades ago, the Green Left – pursuing its agenda of valuing wetlands and topographical “diversity†over human life – sued to prevent the Army Corps of Engineers from building floodgates that would have prevented significant flooding that resulted from Hurricane Katrina. In the 1970s, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers’ Lake Pontchartrain and Vicinity Hurricane Barrier Project planned to build fortifications at two strategic locations, which would keep massive storms on the Gulf of Mexico from causing Lake Pontchartrain to flood the city. An article in the May 28, 2005, New Orleans Times-Picayune stated, “Under the original plan, floodgate-type structures would have been built at the Rigolets and Chef Menteur passes to block storm surges from moving from the Gulf into Lake Pontchartrain.†“The floodgates would have blocked the flow of water from the Gulf of Mexico, through Lake Borgne, through the Rigolets [and Chef Mentuer] into Lake Pontchartrain,†declared Professor Gregory Stone, the James P. Morgan Distinguished Professor and Director of the Coastal Studies Institute of Louisiana State University. “This would likely have reduced storm surge coming from the Gulf and into the Lake Pontchartrain,†Professor Stone told Michael P. Tremoglie during an interview on September 6. The professor concluded, “[T]hese floodgates would have alleviated the flooding of New Orleans caused by Hurricane Katrina.†The New Orleans Army Corps of Engineers and Professor Stone were not the only people cognizant of the consequences that could and did result because of the environmental activists. While speaking with Sean Hannity on his radio show on Labor Day, former Louisiana Congressman and Speaker of the House Bob Livingston also referred to environmentalists whose litigation prevented hurricane prevention projects. In other words, unlike other programs – including the ones leftists like Sid Blumenthal excoriated the president for not funding – these constructions might have prevented the loss of life experienced in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. Why was this project aborted? As the Times-Picayune wrote, “Those plans were abandoned after environmental advocates successfully sued to stop the projects as too damaging to the wetlands and the lake’s eco-system.†(Emphasis added.) Specifically, in 1977, a state environmentalist group known as Save Our Wetlands (SOWL) sued to have it stopped. SOWL stated the proposed Rigolets and Chef Menteur floodgates of the Lake Pontchartrain Hurricane Prevention Project would have a negative effect on the area surrounding Lake Pontchartrain. Further, SOWL’s recollection of this case demonstrates they considered this move the first step in a perfidious design to drain Lake Pontchartrain entirely and open the area to dreaded capitalist investment. On December 30, 1977, U.S. District Judge Charles Schwartz Jr. issued an injunction against the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Lake Pontchartrain hurricane protection project, demanding the engineers draw up a second environmental impact statement, three years after the corps submitted the first one. In one of the most ironic pronouncements of all time, Judge Schwartz wrote, “it is the opinion of the Court that plaintiffs herein have demonstrated that they, and in fact all persons in this area, will be irreparably harmed if the barrier project based upon the August, 1974 FEIS [federal environmental impact statement] is allowed to continue.†If the Greens prevailed, it was not because the forces of common sense did not make a compelling case. SOWL’s account reveals that during the course of the trial the defense counsel, Gerald Gallinghouse – a Republican U.S. Attorney who acted as a special prosecutor during the Carter administration – felt so strongly that the project should continue that he told the judge he would “go before the United States Congress with [Democratic Louisiana Congressman] F. Edward Hebert to pass a resolution, exempting the Hurricane Barrier Project from the rules and regulations of the National Environmental Policy Act because, in his opinion, [this plan] is necessary to protect the citizens of New Orleans from a hurricane.†Despite this, the judge ruled in favor of the environmentalists. Ultimately, the project was aborted in favor of building up existing levees. However, the old plan lived on in the minds of those who put human beings first. The Army Corps of Engineers as recently as last year had publicly discussed resuming the practice. The September-October 2004 edition of Riverside (the magazine of the New Orleans District Army Corps of Engineers Public Affairs Office) referred to this lawsuit and project. Eric Lincoln’s article titled, “Old Plans Revived for Category 5 Hurricane Protection,†stated: In 1977, plans for hurricane protection structures at the Rigolets and Chef Menteur Pass were sunk when environmental groups sued the district. They believed that the environmental impact statement did not adequately address several potential problems, including impacts on Lake Pontchartrain’s ecosystem and damage to wetlands. Ultimately, an agreement between the parties resulted in a consent decree to forego the structures at the Rigolets and Chef Menteur Pass…The new initial feasibility study will look at protecting the area between the Pearl River and Mississippi River from a Category 5 storm…. (Emphasis added.) The article added, “[A]lternatives that would be studied in the initial feasibility report are: Construction of floodgate structures, with environmental modifications, at Rigolets and Chef Pass.†(Emphasis added.) The Times-Picayune recorded last May, “the corps wants to take another look [at building the floodgates] using more environmentally sensitive construction than was previously available.†This time the Army Corps of Engineers would modify the original plans because of the environmentalists. However, the project was already delayed more than two decades because of the environmentalists’ lawsuit. If begun immediately it would take another two decades to complete: a 40-year delay caused by the Green Left. Planning for a category five hurricane was, indeed, visionary thinking. Few people believed such a storm would take place more often than once every few centuries, and no one had the political will to fight for the funding such a project would necessitate. However, scientists had long warned about New Orleans’ vulnerability to the potential for massive loss of life caused by such things as the environmentalists’ lawsuit. A National Geographic article, written after a smaller hurricane last year, captured the sentiments of one such expert: “The killer for Louisiana is a Category Three storm at 72 hours before landfall that becomes a Category Four at 48 hours and a Category Five at 24 hours – coming from the worst direction,†says Joe Suhayda, a retired coastal engineer at Louisiana State University who has spent 30 years studying the coast…“I don’t think people realize how precarious we are.†As it turned out, this is exactly how events played out during the next hurricane, one year later. USA Today noted, the levees the government had constructed were no match for the vortex of this force of nature. Soon Katrina pushed inland: Hurricane Katrina pushed Lake Pontchartrain over the flood walls…The spilling water then undermined the walls, and they toppled…Lake Pontchartrain, a body half the size of Rhode Island, was losing about a foot of water every 10 hours into New Orleans. The rushing lake soon overwhelmed the city’s pumps. The ever-rising water soon mixed with sewage, creating a toxic liquid mixture that burned the skin on contact. When the flood levels grounded the city buses Mayor Ray Nagin never deployed, it denied thousands of New Orleans’ poorest and feeblest an escape. Despite the mayor’s apparent incompetence, these floodgates environmental activists sued to prevent from being constructed may have kept a flood from consuming the city to the extent it did in the first place. The current programs aimed at reinforcing existing levees but would only prove effective against a level three hurricane; they were not adequate for a level five storm like Katrina. Moreover, they did not fortify the specific areas the government sought to protect, to keep Lake Pontchartrain from flooding the entire city, which everyone knew posed a danger to a city below sea level. In other words, this plan would have saved thousands of lives and kept one of the nation’s greatest cities from lying in ruins for a decade. At a minimum, such a plan would have staved off a significant portion of the disaster that’s unfolded before our eyes. Worse yet, the environmentalists’ ultimate decision to reinforce existing levees may have actually further harmed the Big Easy. There is at least one expert who claims the New Orleans levees made no difference – in fact, they contributed to the problem. Deputy Director of the LSU Hurricane Center and Director of the Center for the Study Public Health Impacts by Hurricanes Ivor van Heerden said, “The levees ‘have literally starved our wetlands to death’ by directing all of that precious silt out into the Gulf of Mexico.†Thirty years after its legal action, Save Our Wetlands boasts, “SOWL’s legacy lives on and on within the heart and spirit of every man, woman, child, bird, red fish, speckle trout, croakers, etc.†Despite its pious rhetoric, the environmental Left’s true legacy will be on display in New Orleans for years to come.
Comment by Andy — 9/8/2005 @ 3:35 pm
Investigations Into La. Levee Breaks Mount By BRETT MARTEL, Associated Press Writer Thu Nov 10, 9:27 PM ET NEW ORLEANS - A federal prosecutor said Thursday he’s pursuing tips about corruption relating to the building and maintenance of levees that broke during Hurricane Katrina. ADVERTISEMENT Meanwhile, new evidence has surfaced suggesting steel reinforcements driven into parts of the failed levee system were not nearly as deep as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had thought. U.S. Attorney Jim Letten said his office is focused on the political and business relationships of those involved in building the levees, not whether the levees were poorly designed or improperly built. “We’re not in the business of trying to second-guess if something could have been designed and built better,” Letten said. “Our investigation is looking into whether there was illegal conduct, whether it be diversion of funds … that would have contributed to poor execution of the work.” Letten refused to give names or discuss specifically what officials or others were alleged to have done. He said only that he had received “information that there were individuals in positions of responsibility that had conflicts of interest, and that’s something we’re always interested in.” Letten declined to say whether he’s investigating federal or local officials. However, local agencies handle most of the building and maintenance of levees. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is officially responsible for design and construction, but sometimes that means little more than reviewing plans and inspecting work. Design drawings show that steel pilings reinforcing the levees should have been driven to a depth of 17 feet below sea level. Preliminary findings by an investigative team, however, suggest that didn’t happen in the case of the 17th Street Canal levee, which sent floodwaters through hundreds of homes and into the center of the city when it broke. The team, led by Louisiana State University civil engineering professor Ivor van Heerden, found through sonar tests that sheet pilings at the canal went to only 10 feet below sea level. Steve Spencer, chief engineer for Orleans Parish levees, said his agency followed the plans under Corps guidelines. He said he could not explain without further investigation the discrepancy between the 17-foot depth in the designs and the 10-foot depth found by van Heerden’s team. Independent engineers have said the levees wouldn’t have been strong enough even at 17 feet, because they were built on loose, porous soil that is prone to having water seep through it. To compensate, they said, builders should have used stronger earthen material and driven steel pilings far below the 18.5-foot depth of the canal bottom. Corps engineer Fred Young declined to speculate about the implications of van Heerden’s findings. “To me, the design drawing shows it should have been at minus 17. I don’t know what (the LSU team) is doing and how they’re getting minus 10,” Young said. “We’re looking into it.” No one has been able to look at the sheet piling that was torn out of the levee when it breached. Van Heerden said he asked to see it but was told it was buried under dirt at the construction site where the levee is being repaired and could not be dug up right away. Several agencies are looking into possible wrongdoing in regard to levee building and maintenance. State Attorney General Charles Foti and Orleans Parish District Attorney Eddie Jordan have said they’re conducting their own investigations.
Comment by louisiana — 11/13/2005 @ 5:12 pm