Pretty quiet, they’re saying, all along the coast tonight. Nearly 2 million people evacuated (incredible!). And now it’s the big wait…
I can’t help thinking, though, that this looks a lot different from three years ago. I sure hope so.
This entire exercise — another hurricane roaring into Louisiana… me watching from my safe perch in Katy… people emailing and contacting from Algiers… preparations… fear… it’s brought back a whole host of memories.
I don’t know which memory is worst: Businesses from outside the region contacting me for ideas on how to get some generators into the city? The calls and emails from terrified parents whose children were in the city then? The 4 am phone call about explosions outside? Panicked, breathless reports of gunshots fired in the streets?
The terror?
Because that’s really what happened 3 years ago in New Orleans, you know. Mindless, utter terror. And it happened because of the sheer, screaming ineptitude — at every level — of the people in charge.
As everyone hunkers down to wait for Gustav’s force to manifest, I can’t help turning all these terrible vignettes over in my mind. Surely, it’s not going to go that way again.
Surely, the lessons were learned.
Right?
The waiting…
Leave a Reply
Read Next
The SciGuy has updated his New Orleans post to reflect the latest info. I’m definitely starting to feel a bit better about the city’s outlook. Of course, the westerly turn Gustav’s taking means other areas are coming back into the …
Bucky, 2007: Bucky, 2008: Officers arrested Gregory, 23, late Friday on accusations that he was responsible for decapitating Mr. Buck, a tame deer that visitors could pet at Bear Creek Pioneers Park’s wildlife sanctuary. The only thing I can say …
Every now and again, I have to go poking around online to read what people were saying about Algiers out there in the world when the Katrina chaos was going on. Depending upon which combination of search terms I use, …
Every now and again, the Houston Chronicle blogs surface interesting discussions… and the comments that came in on a recent post by James Campbell is a great example. Mr. Campbell was addressing an email from a reader who wondered why …
I think someone learned something.
When I left the Point this morning, there were police and National Guardsmen driving around. In fact, I noticed the Guard was everywhere driving out of the ghost town that was the West Bank this morning.
Yes, the lessons were learned. No one wants a Katrina on their resumé.