Thoughts In The Aftermath of Hurricane Katrina

Undoubtedly you’ve been paying attention to the disasterous hurricane aftermath in Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama in the past few days. Today’s chatter in the news and on the internet has been most disturbing. No, I’m not talking about all the delusional people blaming the whole thing on George W. Bush, or the delusional people who honestly believe that Bush and the Government have handled this situation perfectly and heroically. I guess I’m ignoring the politics, what’s baffling me is the chaos. The AP photos of young kids looting stores, not for food and drink, but for designer clothing and televisions, that just disgusts me. And then there are the people shooting at the rescue boats and helicopters. I’m sure I’m not alone when I sit around thinking long and hard about why in the hell that sort of thing is happening.

It’s possible they’re shooting at help because they want the boats, they want the boats because they know the boats aren’t there to rescue them right now. Those boats are pulling out sick people, women, and children only at this point. While this is going on the desperate, able bodied people are taking irrational actions that they probably think will get them out more quickly.

As sad as it is, it is difficult to understand just how desperate some of these able bodied people are getting, especially now that many of them are near day 4 without food or water. People get stupid when they panic, things like morals and order seem rather irrelevant to people who really believe they are fighting for their lives. Hopefully the National Guard troops will arrive soon, hopefully that will help bring things back to order. I worry that more and more innocent people will either drown or starve to death while rescue operations are suspended, because people are getting desperate.

Well, my ultimate theory is: there’s no way for anyone to know for certain. It’s hard to consider the state of mind you would be in had you just spent four days either being shredded by a powerful hurricane or baking under a 90+ degree sun, without shelter, without any idea where your friends and family are, without drinkable water, without edible food, at risk of being attacked by roving criminals, quite possibly physically ill from the conditions around you, and fearing that this hell on earth would be the last thing your eyes saw before you die. Times like this, it’s understandable how logical thought can go completely out the window. I suppose that’s just all part of the human condition.

Also part of the human condition is a lack of ability to understand the conditions that would drive people to this level of desperation. It’s a lot easier to weather a disaster like this when comfortably seated hundreds of miles away in front of a computer in an air-conditioned room.

I hate to discount the efforts by people who are down there being truly heroic. I know there are probably thousands of people there saving lives and risking their own, and it’s too bad that this is being overshadowed by a media only interested in the politics. Yeah, there’s a lot of hard questions to ask, and a lot of fingers to point, but before you spend too much time on those questions, do the easy stuff. Give and organize as you would hope folks would give and organize if your family, home, and community had been so devastated.

But I guess this is the world we live in. In my short lifetime a federal office building was blown up in Oklahoma City, a group of kids shot up their school in Colorado, terrorists flew planes into buildings in New York and Washington D.C. and into the ground in Pennsylvania, and a war on terror has affected millions of lives, even sending members of my own family off to fight. Tsnunamis, tornados, and now a devastating hurricane have reminded us that natural disasters aren’t to be left off the list.

Each of these tragedies gets embedded into our memories with a name, such as “9/11″ or “Columbine.” I’m not sure what the point of naming hurricanes is. You know, names like “Katrina” or “Andrew.” But those names get embedded in us as well. As a young person, I wonder how many of those names stay with you and if they stay as strong as the day the tragedy happened. I wonder if my parents can remember the exact heartbreak of the day Kennedy was assassinated, or if my grandparents can remember exactly how they felt when Pearl Harbor was bombed.

I’m sure that for my parents and grandparents it was a real wake up call seeing and hearing those tragedies from a distance. That’s how I feel, it’s a real wake up call. Today I feel more fortunate than usual to be sitting here in the comfort of my home. But as far as those people who were actually victimized by tragedies like those that I’ve mentioned are concerned, and certainly as for the victims who are struggling to survive as I write this, I can’t even begin to imagine what it’s like.

My thoughts go out to everyone effected, and good luck to all those who are needing it.