Left High and Wet

Today marks the five year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina.  In some ways, it seems like yesterday and sometimes is seems forever ago.  I recently made it halfway through Spike Lee's "When The Levees Broke".  Not that it was a bad documentary, but I just couldn't continue to watch the "replays" that brought back too many bad memories.  I also recently watched CNN's segment "New Orleans Rising" which profiled the story on the police shooting of the men on Danziger Bridge.

The most popular Katrina news item continues to be the failed levees and the belated response by the local and federal authorities.  No doubt, these were key points to be made in post-analysis.  I reflect back on the event and continue to be amazed at another aspect that doesn't get that much discussion.  I'm amazed how quickly "order" transpired into "chaos".  The assumption that the authorities (police, fire, medical) were there to assist you was a bad assumption.  Most interesting was the fact that so many police fled the city and left the people and their police teammates "high and wet".  The replay of the police station that hung the banner "Fort Apache" on their station in response to the "direct fire" that they were taking was interesting.  How does a police station all of a sudden become the target of snipers?  New Orleans became Iraq over a 24 hour period.

So my question is, how can a civil community become so uncivil so quickly?  How does order so quickly turn into chaos?  I once again become fascinated with the mass psychology of it.  The herd can change directions quickly.  What makes a police officer become a looter over a 24 hour period?  What turns a routine "beat" police officer into a "thug sniper" over a 24 hour period?  On another front, I've always been amazed at how riots break out.  Not the "justified" riots, but the Superbowl celebration type riots.  How does a group of young boys/men all of a sudden feel that looting and destroying public property becomes acceptable?  Better yet, why do it as a way to celebrate your team winning the Superbowl?  How did a group of young men decide to terrorize the city of New Orleans while it was defenseless?

I don't have any of the answers, but I do have concern for how the masses will handle the changing world ahead.

On a positive note, New Orleans appears to be on the mend.  A new honest motivated mayor, consistent tourism, 1111 restaurants, and a Super Bowl trophy makes for a good place.  Stay tuned.

The Scale of Disaster

I'm just exiting a week in the "geo-cave". Wow, what a disaster in Haiti. Prayers go out to the Haitian people. It's amazing how fragile 3rd world countries are on all fronts....financially, infrastructure, health, security, and socio-economically. A shaking of the ground brings all of their buildings crumbling down.

There's many interesting observations to be made. The most impacting on me is the scale of which disasters occur outside of the United States. The table below illustrates how much smaller on a death toll basis our most recent monumental events have been. The 2004 tsunami, in seconds, took 229,866 lives. Think of the impact that Hurricane Katrina had on our country and the death toll was 1836. Image 229,866 people losing their lives in a matter of seconds. It's hard to fathom. I find watching these foreign disasters on tv somehow does not have the same impact because it seems so foreign and far away. Katrina hit close to home for me (no pun intended). September 11 was not only "on our soil", but it had significant visual impact. In addition, it had major geopolitical and religious impact. I can recall the news coverage for the earthquake in China, but 69,197 people lost their lives. Think of the comparison to the Katrina death toll. Who knew that 146,000 people lost their lives in the 2008 Myanmar cyclone?? Not me. 146,000 people...wow. How about the Pakistan/Kashmir quake...86,000. I don't think that I even remember that. The easy takeaway is that we are blessed to live in the United States. Our natural disasters don't have near the devastating impact. We also are a very generous people.


Who knew that a 6.5 scale earthquake occurred in Eureka, CA last week? Haiti was 7.0. The "0.5" wasn't the difference. It's two different worlds. Twenty two millions dollars of damage in Eureka. I don't even know where Eureka is.

The positives are that many countries are aggressively providing aid. On a "cool" note, I thought that the fundraising of $10 million dollars for Haiti via text messaging was a great use of modern technology. Finally, text messaging does something significant!!

The days ahead for Haiti will be the most challenging. Infection and violence will be the hurdles to overcome. Where do you start on a project like that?