Yet more thoughts about New Orleans formed by reading stuff in the news and blogs. Ppl are still harping on about ppl who refused to leave during and after the disaster and that they “deserved” it. I’ve said this in countless comments here and there: the poor neither had the choice nor the means to leave.

“Well they could’ve walked.” Even if you were abled bodied, if you were not old or sickly, if you were not a kid – you try walking outside when the rain hits you in the face sideways and the wind is blowing at more than 200km/h. Yeah you just try that.

The closest I’ve come to experience that was when a cyclone hit Perth back in 1994 and that was nothing compared to Katrina – the wind was “only” 100km/h. Still the lights were out, the roads were wet and treacherous, tree branches were falling onto the roads, windows were breaking and *steel* garage doors were bending out of shape. If you dared to drive, your windshield wipers couldn’t wipe away the rain fast enough, visibility was less than 5 metres in front of your car, and the traffic lights were out. Yeah good idea to be in a steel-can on slippery roads being shoved around by gale-force winds, in pitch darkness.

And don’t forget, most of the roads and bridges in New Orleans were either under water or have collapsed.

“Well they should’ve left before the hurricane hit.” Imagine if the place you live in right now is where you’ve ever been your entire life. All your family are there and had been there for many generations. Your entire identity is tied to that place. And then think of losing all that – you’d be lying if you say you wouldn’t hesistate.

Now imagine if you hesistated, by then it’d be too late to get out – the hurricane has landed and you are stuck. Risk everything by going out on the roads? Read what I wrote in the above section.

“Why are they still refusing to leave?” See above.

“Explain the looting.” The media focused on the criminal few and the career criminals. These ppl were held in check by law enforcement previously which had now totally collapsed. Hell on earth? It was paradise for them. These were not decent ppl to begin with. Most other ppl looted for essentials: food and clothing. Imagine if you were hungry, cold and desperate. Imagine if you thought that no one was coming and you are in the worst place you can possibly imagine – minds that were already fragile or at breaking point would just become psychotic and no logic or reason would apply anymore.

Meanwhile, there were countless stories of ppl helping each other that the big media never focussed on (for more accurate reporting, visit the Times-Picayune – New Orleans’ main newspaper). And partly due to the media the question that I’m sure the eventual govt. inquiry would focus on would be this: if Harry Connick Jr, and countless TV crew and journalists can get into New Orleans, why the f**k couldn’t the government?

Talk is cheap. Don’t mouth off if you’ve never experienced anything close to what happened over there. Unless you lived through the tsunami or the massive floods in China and Bangladesh, you are in no position to theorize what those left behind should have done.