For those wanting to help the victims of Hurricane Ida, click here.
Today, it’s five days after Hurricane Ida, and I am compelled to offer up some stark differences between the outcome of this storm and the storm exactly sixteen years ago.
Five days after Hurricane Katrina exposed design flaws in the New Orleans levees, these were the conditions:
- Between 12,000 and 15,000 survivors were at the Superdome and the Convention Center.
- The astrodome in Houston was filled to bursting with evacuees.
- Untold numbers of people were still waiting on their rooftops.
- Families were torn apart and remain so for months, even years.
- News anchor Garland Robinette raged at the indignities.
- Mayor Ray Nagin went on WWLAM radio and said “Don’t tell me 40,000 people are coming here. They’re not here!”
- Flabbergasting horrible rumors were swirling in a city completely cut off from the rest of the world due to FEMA’s errors.
- 40,000 – 50,000 families needed to find a place for their kids to go to school.
- 1,000 troops finally arrived under the direction of Lt. Gen Russel Honore
These were the conditions five days after H. Katrina’s surge triggered failures in poorly designed levees.
In contrast, a top story today, five days after H. Ida on WWLTV is that “historic oak trees at the Oak Alley Plantation in St. James parish are damaged.” I love Louisiana live oaks as much as the next person. But this very well illustrates the stark difference between the two August 29th events sixteen years apart.
