Monday, January 7, 2013

Oh....my Nola



On Friday, the House approved 9.7 billion in relief for Hurricane Sandy victims, nearly 2 months after the storm.  The governors of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut originally requested 83 billion in relief and the senate approved 60 billion. 

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid claimed on Friday, that

Hurricane Katrina was nothing in comparison to what happened to the people of New York and New Jersey.”

While I can appreciate a politician making a plea for his case, this was way off, even by a politician’s standard.  Getting approval for only a small portion of what was requested will be devastating and is certainly not the precedent that we want our government to set with regards to helping our own in times of crisis.  We will not, however, make a compelling case for helping current victims but stomping all over the tragedy and governmental failings of previous victims.

Here are just a few of Harry Reid’s quotes from Friday:

When we had that devastation from Katrina, we were there within days taking care of Mississippi, Alabama, and especially Louisiana -- within days. We are now past two months with the people of New York and New Jersey."

That’s just bullshit, no way to sugar coat that. It’s a straight up lie. “Being there” and “doing something” are 2 different things. Bush showing up a few days later, bringing power to illuminate Jackson Square for his press conference, and then taking the power with him when he left, isn’t “taking care” of people.  Flying over it in your fucking plane and making your sad face, isn’t “taking care” of it.

The people of New Orleans and that area, they were hurt but nothing in comparison to what happened to the people in New York and New Jersey. Almost 1 million people have lost their homes; 1 million people lost their homes. That is homes, that is not people in those homes. So I think it is just unfortunate that we do not have the relief for New York and New Jersey and the rest already. It has to be done. We have to meet the needs of the American people when an act of God occurs.

There are a couple of things in the second quote that I’m really excited to touch on.  And by excited, I of course mean that Harry Reid can kiss my ass because I’m about to tear him a new one. Before I do, here are a few quick stats that I grabbed so that we can all look at the big picture:

Hurricane Katrina left 1,836 people dead, 705 people are still missing.
Hurricane Sandy caused 120 deaths.
Katrina caused 145 Billion dollars in damage, making it the costliest hurricane ever in US history.
Sandy caused 80 Billion in damage
Katrina had a high wind of 174mph and was a category 5 hurricane.
Sandy had a high wind of 110mph and was a category 2 hurricane.
Katrina was the second strongest storm ever recorded in the US.

Now, back to Mr Reid and his misguided and factually inaccurate statements.

"The people of New Orleans and that area, they were hurt but nothing in comparison to what happened to the people in New York and New Jersey"

I honestly don’t even know where to go with this remark.  It literally makes me want to cry.  Hundreds of thousands of people all along the coast are still rebuilding, 7 years later.  Bodies were left in the road and piled up in ditches and it took weeks to get them out.  People came home to find their loved ones dead inside after they’d been cleared by government agencies, weeks before.  I’m not saying that Sandy victims aren’t suffering but, there’s no way you can fairly compare the two, nor should you.

 Almost 1 million people have lost their homes

While this is true, it’s also to be taken with a grain of salt.  Many of these homes were vacation or summer homes that were not occupied at the time.  This does not represent 1 million families that are now homeless, which he does more or less say later on in the quote.
               
              We have to meet the needs of the American people when an act of God occurs.

By now, you’ve realized where I stand on this whole “act of God” business.  On the one hand, I realize that it’s just what you say but personally, I’d go with “natural disaster”.  Why in the world would anyone who glorifies God, want his name or his “acts” associated with this kind of destruction? Beyond that bout of semantics, I finally agree with something that he said. 

Hurricane Sandy victims deserve whatever relief their local governments are asking for, at least within reason. 9.7 billion of a requested 83 billion is a slap in the face to every person in the region trying to recover and move on.  While I’m not surprised, I am disappointed.  The cogs in the wheel of government seem to move particularly slow in times of crisis.  These people are our own and they do deserve help.  I could not agree more with the spirit that the Democrats are trying to convey here but rather, the completely asinine execution of their objective.

House Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer (D-MD) even weighed in with a verbal gem:

"But as we did in Katrina, we should have acted almost immediately to meet the pain and suffering and loss of the citizens -- our fellow citizens, our fellow Americans --who were the victims of Sandy, but should not have been the victims of our delay"

I’m a pretty liberal gal.  I’m an atheist, feminist, freethinker, pro choice, do-what-you-want-and-have-a-damn-good-time-doing-it , let’s take care of each other, kind of person. However, don't patronize me and act like we can't remember what actually happened 7 years ago. There was no "acting immediately" in response to Katrina, from our government. Even waiting 10 days to vote on a relief package was ridiculous. These idiots, quite frankly, have me wanting to pack up my liberal hat and find a new camp to hang out in.  I completely agree that Sandy victims need support because I’d hate nothing more than to see what happened on the gulf, happen in New York. 

This is not about Katrina Vs Sandy.  Both storms claimed human lives and the government failed victims of each.  The problem is, why it's seen as acceptable to trivialize and compare the suffering of people for your own advancement.  What he should have said if he wanted to draw a parallel, was:
 Let's avoid another Katrina. Let's make sure that we're doing everything we can for everyone so that our citizens aren't freezing and starving to death waiting for help to come.  Let's not repeat that bleak time in our history.  Let's treat our citizen's like people, instead of political pawns.   
That's what I would have said, anyway.

We did learn things from Katrina.  FEMA's eager attitude to avoid another PR nightmare like the one they so rightfully earned after Katrina, weighed heavily in the favor of Sandy victims.  Pitfalls that the gulf saw with regards to evacuation were avoided during Sandy, thanks in large part to things we learned from the evacuation failures of Katrina.

I get that Reid's points were about money but, it’s not all about money.  You can’t say things about a smaller storm with less devastation being “worse” than a storm that killed 10 times as many people without incurring some wrath. 

Reid is talking about money, I’m talking about lives.  We can’t bring back the people we failed during Katrina.  But we can honor them by not trivializing any death or loss for our own political gain.  We shouldn’t be playing childish games with people’s lives or the tragedies they’ve experienced to make a point. The sooner Reid is gone, the better. Victims of natural disasters whether they lose one thing or everything, deserve respect.  We failed them yet again, with these remarks from our government.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Sandy