A Brutal and Costly Lesson to Learn

All eyes have been on the Gulf Coast since Hurricane Katrina left that region in a state of total crisis. The destruction and devastation are appalling, to say the least, and the toll on human life has been enormous. What has been particularly shocking, however, has been the way that people have turned on one another during the crisis, transforming New Orleans into a combat zone, an area in which no person is safe from violence, even when disease, starvation, and exposure to the elements pose threats to human life. The world watches in horror as scenes that once Americans believed possible only in Third World nations now become realities at home. The number of homeless in the region is astronomical, and the question arises: what will be done for these displaced persons? Will they receive adequate help?

The tragedy is that many questions should have been asked long before Hurricane Katrina set ground on the Gulf Coast. The potential dangers to the region were not unknown; they had been well documented in articles that not only had provoked serious discussion but that had won major journalistic awards for their excellence. Regretfully, journalistic awards do not solve the problems that were the focus of the articles, nor does discussion alone create concrete solutions. The fact remains that New Orleans courted a severe risk for a storm of serious magnitude and that it was a matter of time before that storm finally hit the city below sea level. When that storm inevitably did hit the city, then the chorus of wailing, blaming, and accusing started, and the question then was just how necessary or justified was it when the risk was well known beforehand. Instead of preventing the disaster by addressing the problem in advance, the disaster was allowed to happen with the exorbitant cost to human life and to property, as if such a plan were more expedient or morally acceptable than prevention.

The chat rooms, message boards, and other forums are all seeking a scapegoat to blame for what happened. Many try to claim that the people who remained behind were nothing but poor trash who got what they deserved as if such a theory were truly valid; newscasts have shown clearly that such beliefs are very flawed. The arguments that try to lay the blame based on socio-economic factors, however, are particularly odious and keep resounding as the scenes from the Gulf Coast keep getting beamed back over the media to remind the rest of the nation that the tragedy is very grim and very real indeed.

Insofar as the help that the people are given, while it is clear that the people are being moved in order to be helped, there is no real indication that there is any clear plan for their help. For example, one man who was moved with his family from the Superdome to the Astrodome, only to learn that the Astrodome was not taking in more people, revealed that as he said how, with the few dollars that he had left, he would try to find some place to stay and to get a job in the hopes that he could keep his family going, a sign that he hoped to weather the disappointment as best he could, although he was not sure how. It is the lack of a clear plan that can be the most frustrating – and frightening – for any person in crisis, as any person who has become homeless for any reason well knows. Add to this frustration the high level of trauma that most of these people have endured after having lost not only their homes but often their possessions and even other family members in a most brutal fashion and the result is a public that is extremely difficult to placate, even if the best and easiest of solutions are readily available.

I can only wish the best for all the displaced persons in the Gulf Coast region. As much as organizations and the government claim that they will pledge to assist them, I know too well how people fall through the cracks in such assistance. As time goes by, I await the revelation of the stories of persons who have the courage to come forward and tell of what they have experienced, because I have no doubt that there is much to tell that the media has not yet unearthed.