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Late Night Rambling
Posted by Stephen Green · 28 August 2005
I'm doing the same thing tonight most everyone else is watching the news, waiting for disaster to strike.
It amazes me, every time, how calm Americans remain when, ah, stuff hits the fan. Mostly, the folks in Katrina's way have packed the things they just can't leave behind, and headed north. They'll stay in motels or with friends or with families, and there they'll do what the rest of us are doing: Watch it all unfold on TV.
Sure, there will be a few idiots. Some people wouldn't leave their homes if they were made out of those really yummy Pepperidge Farm cookies with the chocolate chunks and Macadamia nuts, and CNN had video of a 100-foot Cookie Monster bearing right down on them. Well, that's their problem. There will be a few looters, and more that a few profiteers although the latter, believe it or not, will be performing a valuable public service as they rake in the bucks.
There will be idiots outside Katrina's wake, too mostly on TV. The Robertsons and the Falwells and the Middle Eastern fatwa-issuing fuckers who'll claim the storm came because we let gays live together and don't all grow beards down to our collarbones. Well, screw them.
Mostly though, we'll keep our good heads on our square shoulders, and get through this with the same grit that got us through other hurricanes, 9/11, the Civil War, etc.
Think about 9/11 for a moment, and how similar our reaction was then to today. For Katrina, we had warning. 9/11 came as a complete surprise. But in each awful event, most people went on living. You saw Palestinians dancing on the streets four years ago, but you didn't see massive protests in our country, demanding that the President push The Button and annihilate some Arab city in retaliation.
We watched the horror on TV. We gave blood. We donated money and time. Our noble rescue workers did their rescue work, long after it had become obvious there was no one to rescue. And then we thought about our families and our jobs and how quickly we could get back to them.
The everyday business of life here is our normal; disasters are the unexpected. In too much of the world, things run the other way around.
We're privileged here, and our attitudes reflect that. But our privileges are also due in part because of our attitudes. People who expect disaster usually find it. People who consider disasters as something out of the ordinary generally have ordinary lives and that's an extraordinary thing.
Let me explain. Something like half the tornadoes in the world happen here in the US. Of those, something like half of them hit Oklahoma. And yet, Oklahoma remains a decent place to live, filled mostly with decent people. They haven't erected any tornado shrines. They haven't started any new cults. The tornadoes come, the tornadoes go, and life goes on much the same way it does in the other 49 states.
We expect life to be decent, and mostly it is.
But which is cause and which is effect?
Watching how most Americans respond to disaster should be proof enough which is which.
HURRICANE KATRINA: RELIEF EFFORTS
By Michelle Malkin · August 28, 2005 11:10 PM
The American Red Cross is stepping up the plate. Volunteers from across the country are already on their way down to help:
- New Mexico has sent disaster teams.
- Indiana's Task Force One has been activated.
- Connecticut Red Cross chapters are sending crews and trucks.
- Texas Gov. Rick Perry has sent Texas' 90-member urban search and rescue team to Louisiana.
- Utahns and Kansans on the way.
Although it is not (yet) possible to earmark funds to victims of Katrina, donations can be made to the ARC's National Disaster Relief Fund over the web, by phone at 800-435-7669, and through the mail at ARC, P.O. Box 37243, Washington, D.C. 20013.
Another private relief group, Katrina Relief Effort, is accepting donations sent to 3511 Highway 31W White House, Tennessee 37188.
Send tips and trackbacks and I will update the post with info on other worthwhile charities and relief drives.
***
Kudos to the corporations who are providing assistance:
- At the request of the Red Cross and Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, Anheuser-Busch is shipping 12,500 cases of drinking water (300,000 cans) to relief agencies in Louisiana and Mississippi.
- Office Depot has pledged to contribute $1 million to the American Red
Cross for the relief of persons affected by Hurricane Katrina.
- Entergy Texas is sending 170 linemen, support staff and contractors to help with power outages.
***
Contrary to the usual Bush-deranged kvetching, the president is on the job:
With forecasters warning of a category five storm, the president made sure the federal response would not be delayed by already declaring emergencies in Mississippi, Florida and Alabama just hours after a similar declaration for Louisiana. Such declarations make federal aid available to assist with disaster relief, but they are rarely made before a storm even hits.
Working from his Texas ranch, Bush participated via videoconference in a large meeting of federal, state and local disaster management officials preparing for the storm's onslaught. Separately, he spoke by phone with the governors of Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama and Florida.
"We will do everything in our power to help the people and the communities affected by this storm," the president said.
Winds reaching 175 mph and a potentially devastating storm surge were feared when Hurricane Katrina reached land early Monday. The 485,000 residents of New Orleans were ordered to evacuate the city.
In Washington, the Federal Emergency Management Agency was coordinating relief efforts sending water, food and other supplies to staging centers in the Southeast. FEMA was moving supplies from logistics centers in Atlanta and Denton, Texas, to areas closer to where authorities believe the storm will create a need, spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said.
"It's a very dangerous situation at this point," FEMA spokeswoman Nicol Andrews said. "We're ready and awaiting landfall."
Update:
Catholic Charities is pitching in. (Hat tip: Citizen Journal)
Ham radio is ready.
Blogger Bill Hennessy has an offer:
Perhaps we fortunate souls in the rest of the country should begin a ring of volunteers willing to put up a displaced person or family until they can get back on their feet. Im sure the government will help relocate folks. While St. Louis isnt exactly Louisiannas backyard, our door is open to such a family in need.
If anyone else in reasonable proximity to New Orleans would like to extend such an offer, please e-mail me at [email protected]. I can fire up a website to coordinate these private shelters in 24 hours, but only if theres interest.
CSM said:And of course the UN and the rest of the world are gathering medical, economic, and other forms of aid to help the victims....right???
Well aren't they?
