KATRINA – LESSONS IN HUMANISM AND ENVIRONMENTAL CARE
I.
V. Chalapati Rao
After KATRINA crashed ashore on August 29th, 2005, five days after the unprecedented damage, death and destruction caused by the hurricane with deadly water and wind, New Orleans which was once the tourist destination, has become a ghost, emptied of its population. Despite early warning signals Government failed to take required action. Thousands of its citizens, predominantly blacks, were either dead or uprooted. Thousands of refugees poured into the neighbouring States and Cities. More than 2,20,000 people sought shelter in Texas. Evacuees have also been moved by train, bus and air to Oklahoma, Florida, Tennessee, Colorado, Arizona, Georgia and South Carolina. Indeed it was the biggest influx of refugees in U.S. history. Still 10,000 residents are expected to be holed up in the devastated city. Orders have been passed to evacuate them by force. Administrative inefficiency, unimaginable neglect, misplaced policy priorities and market driven environmental destruction stood exposed. For want of proper maintenance the dykes and levees erected to keep the sea out, collapsed for lengths of hundreds of meters. The flood rendered the city uninhabitable for atleast two years. Minimal aid in the form of food and drinking water was not provided. Bodies decomposed quickly in temperatures of 35 degrees Celsius.
Three states on the gulf coast–Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama–were severely affected. Nearly 10 lakh people were rendered homeless. The ‘National Response Plan’, prepared by the Homeland Security Department running into 426 pages (explaining how the nation should deal with all kinds of national disasters) failed miserably.
What’s more horrible and scandalous is, the Superdome in which thousands of refugees were packed like sardines became a veritable hell with dirt and shame. Hooligans who had neither sentiment nor scruple raped the hapless women in the presence of people! Toilets were full and over-flowing. Dead bodies lay uncared for. One wonders whether cultured human beings could be so vile and inhuman as to indulge in arson and rape when their own fellow countrymen were grappling with a life and death situation. Perhaps looting became necessary for survival. Even then it is inexcusable.
Looting of shops and houses by armed gangs went on unchecked. Even helicopters which went to drop food were fired at and had to go back. All this took place in the world’s richest and most powerful country – U.S.! We take pride in recollecting the human kindness and fellow feeling witnessed during similar natural calamities in India – the Killer Cyclone which devastated Diviseema (in Andhra Pradesh), the Gujarat earth quake, the tsunami and the recent floods in Mumbai. Ordinary citizens behaved decently and performed heroic deeds of ‘good Samaritanship’. Even criminal gangs did not exploit the situation. This is the true Indian culture.
Hurricane Katrina has dispelled several myths about the U. S. The disaster was as much the result of racism and laisses-faire economics as of enraged nature itself. The American way of life appears to be designed to protect the haves and to leave the have-nots to fend for themselves. The predominantly black city of New Orleans has 40% illiteracy rate. We also have seen the super power plead for aid from Europe, Canada, the U.N. and the lesser-developed countries. The country which has been boasting about aiding other countries has miserably failed in providing succour and timely relief to its own people in times of need. People could not get away for lack of the price of a taxi out of town. The delayed response is unforgivable because they spent 250,000 dollars last year for FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency) to conduct an 8-day hurricane exercise for a mock killer storm hitting New Orleans. Inspite of all this preparation the administration could not provide not only food and water but also minimum security. It is interesting to note that the U. S. army took 48 hours to reach New Orleans whereas the Indian army and navy could reach Mumbai in 12 hours to do relief work. After 48 hours New Orleans was still waiting for relief whereas Mumbai was back on its feet and business was as usual after 48 hours. It was too late when the shoot-to-kill orders were passed to check looting. It has been noted by the world that the world’s militarily strongest country is no better than any underdeveloped country in disaster management. It was a severe blow to America’s self-image.
There is a new angle to the response to the calamity. Some of the survivors of the disaster are said to be attributing racial discrimination to the delayed response to the crisis. It is unfortunate if it is true in the land of Abraham Lincoln and Jefferson. An article in ‘The Hindu’ dated September 7, 2005, reports: “The President took two days to curtail his holiday to fly over the city in trouble and when he made the visit on ground, he did not go to the worst hit areas. The Vice-President was ‘still’ on a holiday in Wyoming and the Secretary of State was publicly seen shopping for shoes. Meanwhile worldwide television was showing dead bodies of victims in wheel chairs abandoned in sports stadium and convention centers.….” (Dr. Sivarama Krishnan, The Hindu dt.7.9.2005).
Critics say that relief work was crippled by the fact that 10,000 of the Louisiana State Guards were in Iraq for the so-called war against terror, and Texas has no public services worth the name. Tax breaks for the well to do have resulted in cuts in public services for the poor. The rich will not accept shared nationhood with the rest. It is deplorable that an overwhelming majority of the victims of hurricane Katrina are poor and black. “For centuries they have had next to no voice in the politics of the U.S. African Americans are hugely underrepresented on the States electoral rolls.”
Our sympathies are offered to the affected people. We know what it is to suffer as victims of national calamities. Katrina was followed by another hurricane called RITA which caused floods and considerable damage in Texas. RITA is followed by WILMA!
It is humankind’s sheer arrogance bordering on stupidity to presume conquest of nature and domination over environment. Urban civilisations arise on coastlines in the shadow of tsunamis and on the margins of fire-spitting volcanoes and seismic regions. Cities grow and prosper until nature shakes its deadly mane and asserts its supremacy. Then as nemeses, bridges are washed out, highways are converted into rivers, power and communication lines become inoperative buildings collapse and lakhs of people are rendered homeless. Man’s helplessness is exposed. OZ is only a myth and the wizard is a puny creature!
OBITUARY
We regret to
announce the sudden demise of Dr. Vidya Nivas Misra, Chief Editor of Nava
Bharat Times, New Delhi. He died in a car crash in Varanasi. He was one of our
valued members of the Advisory Council.
May his soul
rest in peace. We offer our condolences to the members of the bereaved family.
- Chief Editor, TRIVENI