Hurricane Ida will become one of the strongest storms to land in the United States. On the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the city of New Orleans was hit by the storm and shattered again.
Sixteen years ago, I started my third year in high school (Holy @#$%) And witnessed the destruction of New Orleans in statewide media, national reports, and the accounts of people evacuated to my high school. That year, some of our new classmates came to us from the Catholic school in New Orleans, and they had stories to tell.
But we all watched New Orleans become a developing country. The streets were submerged by the flood, it seemed forever. Facts have proved that the government has failed to help them effectively. Someone was trapped on the roof for several days. Superdome becomes a long-term shelter for the displaced.
Governor Kathleen Blanco blamed the federal government. The Bush administration blamed Blanco. The City of New Orleans blames everyone else. This was a catastrophic failure at almost every level, and no one seemed to really realize that there were lessons to be learned.
Hurricane Katrina turned out to be Blanco’s downfall. Bobby Jindal came in, and to his credit, he seemed to be really working hard to get the dike system in New Orleans to work properly and made some improvements. But the city itself has not made many changes to prepare residents to move in the event of another disaster. Even after 16 years, it seems that the only thing that has changed is the dike system. Everything else fails again.
But the biggest failure seems to be the lack of an evacuation plan. On the best days, New Orleans is confusing and difficult to enter and traverse.
Twenty years ago, there was a solution, which was implemented by Jeb Bush.
There are many ways to get in and out of New Orleans, but given the state’s geographic location, evacuating the city during a crisis can be a hassle. By setting up something like a countercurrent system, the state will make it easier for people to evacuate in the event of major weather events such as Hurricane Ida.
Right now, the city has no electricity at all. Mobile phone service in and around New Orleans is sporadic at best. The transmission tower fell into the Mississippi River. Many people are trapped in places without electricity or cell phones. They are completely kept in the dark, not because they chose to stay. For the vast majority of people, many cannot leave at all.
To make matters worse, the city has to rely not only on the state government, but also on the assistance of the federal government to tide over the difficulties. But three hours west is Lake Charles. After Hurricane Laura, it still did not receive any federal assistance promised by the government. It is also still in dilapidated condition, and will try to recover after a year.
The federal government is managed by the Biden administration, and the Biden administration has proven in the past two weeks that it cannot even make plans, let alone implement them. Everything about the withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan is a disaster, and the leaks in the intelligence and military circles seriously imply that every problem is caused by itself, not the result of the Taliban’s sudden rise to power.
I have no doubt that New Orleans will recover. Some time passed after Hurricane Katrina, but this time the dam seemed to have been blocked, and there was no major flooding in the city. This is progress, but no government at any level-local, state or federal-can take any measures to mitigate damage or accelerate recovery, which still proves that we still have a long way to go in protecting our environment. Citizens are protected from these threats in the future.
