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Katrina and Disaster
Monday, September 12, 2005 By: Juan Paxety
A failure of government
Watching the Sunday chat shows, I was struck by one phrase I heard repeated over and over from the hosts and politicians such as Senator Mary Landreau (D-La), Mayor Ray Nagin (D-NO), and Senator Susan Collins (R-Maine) - Hurricane Katrina is the worst disaster since 9/11.
At first I thought they simply weren't right - that last year alone Florida was hit by four hurricanes and a tropical storm - all within a period of a couple of months. There was widespread damage from Boca to Ft. Myers to Jacksonville to Pensacola. But that's not considered a disaster? Why not.
It's simple. Both 9/11 and New Orleans were disasters because of failures of government. 9/11 because the feds didn't catch terrorist cells growing here in the U.S. New Orleans because state and local governments didn't follow their own disaster plans - and because the people of New Orleans didn't prepare. 2004 in Florida saw widespread damage, but the state and local governments kept things under control and efficiently got help to people - despite idiocy from FEMA.
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