BellaOnline Forums Travel and Culture Polish Culture These people in New Orleans

The one question I have in all of this is.... They've had minor flooding since their last major hurricane (40 yrs. ago). Why in this time have they a) not reinforced the soil levy and b) not tried using a system similar to that of the dutch?? (They had 40 years to do this and I don't believe money was an issue)

Hussar, The Dutch apparently have offered for a long time to help with the levee system, but were politely (?) turned down (read that somewhere...) They are offering again (near the end of the following article.)

This article came from
http://www.khaleejtimes.com/displayArtic...September68.xml


World pledges hurricane aid to US
(AFP)

2 September 2005

PARIS - The world held out a hand to a superpower in crisis on Friday, offering hurricane disaster aid to the United States from a French offer of ships and aircraft to a 25,000-dollar donation by tsunami-pounded Sri Lanka.


Offers streamed in after the United States, the world�s biggest single aid donor, said it would be open to assistance though it was not making an appeal for foreign aid.

Scenes of chaos -- explosions and fires erupting in New Orleans, looters on the rampage, bodies in the streets, and refugees crammed into a stinking squalor in the city�s Superdome -- prompted an outpouring of shock and sympathy.

�Whatever they ask for, it will be given, from reserves of oil... to any other thing that they may need,� European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana said in Newport, Wales, during a meeting of the 25-nation bloc.

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization chief, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, said NATO stood ready to contribute.

�Whenever and wherever our NATO partner and important friend -- the United States of America -- asks (for) assistance, NATO stands ready to answer those calls,� Scheffer told a press conference during a visit to Sofia.

Among the major allies:

-- The French foreign ministry offered eight aircraft and two ships, with 600 tents and 1,000 camp beds also available at the United States� request.

-- Prime Minister Tony Blair said he had spoken to President George W. Bush, and Britain was ready to help �in any way that we can.�

�The whole of this country feels for the people of the Gulf Coast of America who have been afflicted by what is a terrible, terrible natural tragedy,� he said in a speech in Watford, southeast England.

�We want to express our sympathy and our solidarity and give our prayers and thoughts to the people who were affected by what has happened out there on the Gulf Coast,� he said.

-- German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder was personally working out the details of a relief package, a government spokesman said. Berlin could provide assistance on water treatment or shelter for people left homeless, a government spokesman said.

-- Japan offered 200,000 dollars for the American Red Cross and up to 300,000 dollars worth of tents, blankets, power generators and water tanks. Toyota offered five million dollars, Nissan 500,000 dollars.

-- Australia promised 10 million Australian dollars (7.5 million US) through the American Red Cross.

�Given the extraordinary generosity of the United States when other countries are in need, and given the very close relationship between Australia and the United States, and given also the scale of the disaster, we believe it is a very valuable gesture and a mark of our concern for the scale of the human misery that has come from this disaster,� said Prime Minister John Howard.

-- Canadian Defence Minister Bill Graham said his country was preparing a package, including an offer of military assets.

-- Among others, the Netherlands, a low-lying country that depends on its system of levees, or dams, has offered to send a team of experts to help plan the reconstruction of New Orleans. Italy said it was ready to help but had not been contacted. Sweden offered medical and technical aid. Lithuania�s Red Cross started taking donations.

More poignant were offers from the needy.

Sri Lanka -- still recovering from the December 26 tsunami which devastated the island�s coastlines and killed 31,000 people -- said it had donated 25,000 dollars and asked doctors to help the relief effort.

Somalis offered sympathy.

�New Orleans looks like Mogadishu when the war started,� said bus driver Aden Mohamud in Somalia�s war-shattered capital.

He said he was troubled by television images that showed most of the some 300,000 desperate people still trapped in New Orleans were black.

�Maybe some whites are also starving but the African Americans are who I have seen,� Mohamud said. �I am sorry they are poor like us.�

It does take a certain amount of bravery to volunteer to come and help America. We are known internationally as a violent nation and the shootings at the hospital and at a helicopter have gotten a lot of coverage.

Anyone coming to aid this country must picture it almost like going to a wild west shoot out, two levels above going to aid Africa during a civil war.

Kai

Not enought money. Kai in Alaska <img src="/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> has more powerful senators than Paul in New Orleans. 100 mln dollars would possibly reinforce the levy in Alaska - instead they spend over 200 mln for some Alaska's bridge where nobody ever goes:
++++
Republicans and Democrats in Washington recently agreed to cut federal funding to New Orleans� flood defences; this at the same time as they were passing a $268 billion (�146 billion) transport Bill that was loaded with pet projects for the districts of members of Congress, such as a $250 million bridge to nowhere in Alaska. There will be broader political consequences. The race question will be thrust centre stage, as Americans ponder the desperate poverty of mostly black New Orleanians that condemned so many to die in the deluge. They were simply too poor to leave.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,11069-1762879,00.html

Nancy. It would have helped if Louisana and New Orleans had taken the help offered by the Dutch. I think Holland has been in the business of building levees longer than we have been a nation. The pity is that a disaster brings out the good and bad in people but it is usually the bad things that get the most press.

Bob-

Very true. Biased politicians, biased rescue efforts, biased relief aid.

At least - I know first-hand - that there are a number of grass-roots efforts under way to help the people that have had to be evacuated from NO.

I think that it is hard - with bitter consequences- for people to have vision - they are almost always short sighted (what can I get today!!) I have worked for businesses that thought this way. (My boss used to say I was "negative" but I always said I was "practical.")

http://forums.bellaonline.com/images/graemlins/wall.gif

Right you are Jaga, about the powerful senators. Now the bridge to no where does go somewhere, but they have to build it first to find out where it goes! See, we are at the forefront of exploration.

On a more serious note, the Army Corps of Engineers handles the Mississippi flood levees and those for New Orleans, as well as other coastal erosion and such. They had the levee improvements and pump improvements schedueld years ago but teh funding was pulled and sent to Iraq. This is part of the price we pay.

Kai

here are some of the numbers:
"Ron Fournier of The Associated Press reported that the Army Corps of Engineers asked for $105 million for hurricane and flood programs in New Orleans last year. The White House carved it to about $40 million. But President Bush and Congress agreed to a $286.4 billion pork-filled highway bill with 6,000 pet projects, including a $231 million bridge for a small, uninhabited Alaskan island."

Kai,

It would be much cheaper to reinforce levees aome time ago than... recostruct the area, support so many homeless people etc etc

There are many issues which arose with this situation. It is rarely that America sees so many poor people together, there are issues of race etc. Not easy, everything complicated but finally something need to be done about it.

How long American society would divide more and more into the rich and poor? I mean rich are richer and poor are poorer.

My husband told me that it seems that the money would go mainly to petroleum industry to restore the facilities, the army went first to secure banks and institutions (again rich people). The poor human has less value than businesses and money

glad to hear your son is ok, that must have been scary for you.
The news doesnt begin to tell us what is really happening there. Thank God for the web, we woldnt know the real deal.