Cold Comfort
Katrina refugees and survivors are back to square one. Hurricane season is once again upon these hapless victims of nature's fury. And speaking of fury, that's how they should be feeling about now. They survived one of the worst weather-related disasters to be visited upon the United States, when a hurricane of unprecedented proportions caused a fallout that wrought horrendous havoc in the Gulf Coast. Now they face the same potential again. As though their constant nightmares haven't caused them to re-live that nightmare night after night.The black former residents of the lower-middle class and poor sections of New Orleans don't know whether conditions will ever be right for their return. Once-secure homes, whether of sound construction or livable hovels remain uninhabitable, and even those returned residents who are in the process of attempting to restore habitability to their former homes remain in a quandary. The power grid has not yet been completely restored. There is still the question of potable water. There appears to be little-to-no federal funds made available to help people move back into their former homes and lives.
And the latest? the temporary shelters in lieu of homes that the Federal Emergency Management Agency provided for the wretched victims of Katrina are just that; temporary shelters unable to withstand the rigours of a light weather system, let alone the return of the violent hurricanes which the new season is certain to bring. These are lightweight units akin to travel trailers, not at all to be lcompared to the relative robustness of mobile homes. Which themselves have proven time and again to be particularly susceptible to withstanding the challenges of nature's excesses.
In high winds these trailers rock violently, reminding their temporary and worried inhabitants of the tenuous nature of their circumstances. These trailers are thin-sheathed aluminum, a step up from sturdy tents, hardly the type of accommodation to inspire confidence in their ability to withstand hurricane-force winds. The government has set standards for new coastal homes, that they must be able to withstand winds of up to 170 to 200 km/h, depending on their location. So why did government agencies improvidently make available these inadequate shelters to begin with?
The Army Corps of Engineers have worked diligently to achieve the standards considered adequate for the levees to withstand moderate-forced hurricane strength. It remains debatable whether or not another hurricane with the force of Katrina would again be successful in breaching the levees. Given the fact that the natural absorptive abilities of the bayous were severeley compromised after Katrina, that is another consideration.
If, if and if. If a portion of the funds set aside for interplanetary exploration were used instead to secure the Gulf Coast and other areas within the U.S. to provide security from a growing incidence of increasingly violent weather systems, might that not be a wise investment? Had the United States maintained its position in Afghanistan after the initial routing of the Taliban and the subsequent search for Al Qaeda, and remained there, instead of prosecuting a war in Iraq which subsequent intelligence has called into question, the result might have been vastly different in terms of success of mission and outlay of vast sums of money.
Which money might very well also have been used in part for such vital infrastructure goals as securing fragile protective systems such as those along the Gulf Coast.
posted by Pieface @ Friday, March 17, 2006
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