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What
a bizarre, tragic week in America's South.
The
extent of the damage wreaked by Hurricane Katrina is still
only now, several days after the event, becoming truly apparent,
especially as tales of loss, desperation and survival gradually
make their way from the mouths of those who were witness
to the disaster on to the mainstream media.
 And
yet in a buzz perhaps louder than even the Hurricane itself
was capable of, we've now been faced with a veritable onslaught
of finger-pointing, post-mortems and analysis of exactly
where did things go wrong? Days ahead of Katrina reaching
landfall the warnings were out across the country. This
was potentially to be a storm for the ages, and one that
could well unleash complete devastation throughout the gulf
regions of Alabama, Louisiana and Mississippi. At peak,
the Hurricane was blowing winds of up to 280 kilometres
per hour. Post impact, the words 'total devastation' could
not explain adequately what kind of chaos now presented
itself to the survivors of these regions and, particularly,
the city of New Orleans which was now almost completely
under water. An area of the country almost as large as the
entire United Kingdom was declared a Federal disaster zone.
Initial
relief assistance was slow, confusion, lawlessness and looting
abounded, and without doubt, many who could have survived
with emergency assistance perished as they awaited aid.
Even at the time of writing, stranded residents are still
being rescued, while others are still awaiting supplies
of food and fresh water.
 In
a post'September 11 era was this a harsh exposure of the
Bush administration's hot air politics of assurance over
substantive progress, or was this in fact an incident of
such magnitude that no'one could have ever planned ahead
for the degree of support and resources that would be needed
to address the situation? Even as a mandatory evacuation
order was issued for New Orleans, as well as other satellite
townships, why were there little, if any reports of sandbagging
and reinforcement of the New Orleans levies taking place?
Where were the transport means available to evacuate those
who couldn't escape without support? Why would it take this
tragedy to finally convince to Federal Government, after
years of requests, that those New Orleans levies needed
to be reinforced? And why, especially as word of theft,
rape, dehydration, lack of police support and continued
casualties, did it take so long for the military to be called
in en masse to take control of the situation? Were the layers
of bureaucratic red tape and which had, again, been brought
to bear after September 11 still so thick and unwieldy?
Open to the editorial page of any American newspaper today,
listen to any radio talk'show host or television newscaster,
and these questions are being asked over and over again.
Perhaps
this is a natural, understandable result of any tragedy.
We inherently always want to know 'why?' It happened after
September 11, it happened after the cataclysmic tsunami
of late 2004, and it is again happening now. And these
questions do need to be answered. If there are people
to blame, then solutions must be found to ensure such
grave errors are never repeated.
 However
it is a mere seven days since Hurricane Katrina first
roared into the American South. So long as there are people
who are still missing, in need of rescue, displaced, and
at a loss, the focus should be upon action now rather
than analysis and news conferences. The only screaming
drowning out those who are suffering, should be the calls
of men and women demanding immediate action over talk,
forecasting, and bitter speculation. There will be more
than enough time to assess the situation in days to come.
The
question for now is 'What can we do to help at this exact
moment?'
Tomorrow
we can deal with 'Why?'
To
help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, make your donations
at www.redcross.org
Ezy
Reading is out every Monday.
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