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Sep. 3rd, 2005 10:30 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lederhosenWoo, I got metaquoted :-)
Since the blame-the-victim mentality has already reared its ugly head, I'll repost something I said in a comment:
If you don't think it's viable to go on protecting New Orleans, fine, *make* that decision. Declare that federal funding for protection etc will cease. Make arrangements well in advance so the nation's economy isn't severely damaged by sudden loss of one of its biggest ports. Organise a relocation program for those who can't go elsewhere on their own resources, so you don't get the massive social disruption and death toll that inevitably occurs when thousands of refugees show up in the nearest town above water.
But don't treat it as a gamble where you can cut the programs below safe levels, do a half-arsed job, and hope that the next big one won't hit for a few year, when some other President will have to carry the can.
Additionally, for those with comprehension difficulties: unless you know something I and the Guinness Book of Records don't, the Chicago Fire of 1871 and the destruction of Washington in 1812 do not count as "in living memory". I'm surprised nobody thought to bring up the San Francisco Earthquake & subsequent fires of 1906, though... all you'd have to do from there is show some culpability on Teddy Roosevelt's part :-)
While I'm here, ganked from![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
mordwen, an interesting piece here on privatisation of New Orleans' hurricane response planning. (I tend to be sceptical about a site with a name like 'Leninology', but the key bits look to be confirmable elsewhere.)
Since the blame-the-victim mentality has already reared its ugly head, I'll repost something I said in a comment:
If you don't think it's viable to go on protecting New Orleans, fine, *make* that decision. Declare that federal funding for protection etc will cease. Make arrangements well in advance so the nation's economy isn't severely damaged by sudden loss of one of its biggest ports. Organise a relocation program for those who can't go elsewhere on their own resources, so you don't get the massive social disruption and death toll that inevitably occurs when thousands of refugees show up in the nearest town above water.
But don't treat it as a gamble where you can cut the programs below safe levels, do a half-arsed job, and hope that the next big one won't hit for a few year, when some other President will have to carry the can.
Additionally, for those with comprehension difficulties: unless you know something I and the Guinness Book of Records don't, the Chicago Fire of 1871 and the destruction of Washington in 1812 do not count as "in living memory". I'm surprised nobody thought to bring up the San Francisco Earthquake & subsequent fires of 1906, though... all you'd have to do from there is show some culpability on Teddy Roosevelt's part :-)
While I'm here, ganked from
mordwen, an interesting piece here on privatisation of New Orleans' hurricane response planning. (I tend to be sceptical about a site with a name like 'Leninology', but the key bits look to be confirmable elsewhere.)
