Images of the Beotch

(As I try and overcome writer's block, I've decided to include a few pictures from the time of the Beotch.)

The Buck Stops Here

This photo was taken approximately 4 miles from our home on the shoulder of I-10 between Slidell and the Mississippi line. As the storm surge pushed water into the Pearl River and flooded the area south of the Interstate, a deer sought temporary refuge on the higher ground of the roadway.

When Amy and I returned to our home, we were dismayed to see that a number of burial vaults had floated from an old cemetery about a mile from our home. Despite Amy's urgings and to my eventual regret, I refused to photograph the scene. Amy thought that we should document the horrors of the time whereas I felt that it was violating something sacred to record the images. The pictures below were taken by a neighbor. The burial vaults remained exactly as they appeared in these pictures for several months after the storm.

About four miles from our home, destruction of the area near Lake Ponchartrain was overwhelming. I lack words to describe the emotions that Amy and I felt when we were driving about Slidell. The devastation in New Orleans has been described as man-made (referring to the levee failures). Only a few miles east, it was nature's power and fury that caused my hometown to appear as if it had suffered a nuclear holocaust.

Many things we saw were unexplainable: an undamaged refrigerator standing beside the road; a boat in a treetop.

An uncanny silence was felt and heard. There were no birds. There were even no insects.

What Was He Thinking?

We've all seen this photograph of President Bush flying 2500 ft over New Orleans a couple days after the storm. Some find it to be revolting and symbolic of an aloof and disconnected government. The word I would use is mindless. I voted for George Bush and I think he is a man that had honorable intentions. However, consider the words of Lt. Gen. Russel Honore who was sent to restore military order to the storm ravaged area: A plan is basically good intentions. Can you take the plan and adapt it to the situation on the ground?

At the time that President Bush sat snug and comfy in Air Force 1, little aid had been forthcoming to thousands without food and water in New Orleans. Those folks needed far more than good intentions.

If only President Bush had said "I don't care what you have to do...get help to those people and get it done now." I believe that strategy would have resulted in positive and immediate action. History might have reflected favorably on his leadership during katrina. Instead, he delegated control to inept, incapable subordinates such as FEMA chief Michael Brown. ("Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job")

Brownie's intentions might also have been good, but he was a boy attempting a man's job.

Two days after Katrina hit, Marty Bahamonde, one of the only FEMA employees in New Orleans, wrote to Brown that "the situation is past critical" and listed problems including many people near death and food and water running out at the Superdome.

Brown's entire response was: "Thanks for the update. Anything specific I need to do or tweak?"

Anything specific I need to do or tweak? You've got to be kidding. It was this criminal ineptitude that inspired Ashley Morris' wrath (a Tulane professor of English who was later portrayed by John Goodman in HBO's series Treme). Ashley's words (caution...link contains very strong language) were not the ones I would have chosen, but I agree with his assessment of Michael Brown as a "clueless ... scalawag".