New Orleans: The good, the bad, and the ugly (by Wojciech Gryc)

Hurricane Katrina threatens to be the most expensive natural disaster that has ever hit the United States, with experts estimating insurance costs at over $26 billion. While hundreds of lives may have been lost, and with 80% of New Orleans under water, scientists and public officials knew such a disaster was brewing a year ago, and the damage done is not just natural, but a result of politics and rash funding cuts.

New Orleans and the surrounding area have risked becoming disaster areas in the past. With Hurricane Ivan coming close in 2004 and the city in a prime area for targeting by hurricanes, not to mention it being below sea level and battling erosion that threatens to eventually leave the city open to flooding, such a disaster should not strike many as a surprise.

One can already predict what will happen. Hundreds of thousands have already been evacuated. The Superdome, a massive sports stadium built to support just under 70,000 fans, is being used as a temporary shelter. In the near future, disaster recovery teams will enter the city to pump out water, but may be forced to don special breathing equipment, as the sewage and industrial chemicals from various buildings within the city could be harmful to their health. Pumping the water could take nine weeks, and possibly longer if the water is labelled as "hazardous waste" due to the chemicals within it.

A more detailed plan could be found on the Natural Hazards Center website at the University of Colorado. Their report, published almost a year before Hurricane Katrina, treating the disaster as a hypothetical – though inevitable - disaster, states, "Should this disaster become a reality, it would undoubtedly be one of the greatest disasters, if not the greatest, to hit the United States, with estimated costs exceeding 100 billion dollars." Sadly, the center may be right.

Yet the death toll is more than just the result of a natural disaster, with New Orleans falling victim to misguided funding and budget cuts. The New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which works within the city on projects relating to disaster relief, including hurricane safety, saw its 2006 budget cut by over $71 million, with one of the hardest projects hit being the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project. New Orleans has always been at risk of flooding and massive hurricanes, and yet the city was not prepared for the likes of Hurricane Katrina. This is even more dismal news when one considers that meteorologists, weather networks, and even governments knew that Hurricane Katrina was coming.

But even if such a disaster could be averted, should it? Lives have been lost and destroyed, but from a high-level political and economic point of view, some view such disasters as acceptable.

Even as the disaster unfolds, political opportunism may be spotted when browsing through reports, with the most significant being Venezuela's President, Hugo Chavez, offering aid in the form of food and oil to ravaged communities. A nice, though suspicious, gesture from a politician criticized and seen negatively by the Bush administration.

International politics aside, even American economists are discussing the long-term benefits of such a storm. The New York Times quoted Stephen P. A. Brown, director of energy economics at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, as saying, "Longer term, in the wake of a number of hurricanes there is actually an increase in measured output that even shows up at the national level, because there is a whole bunch of rebuilding activity." There may be a point to this. The mobilization of thousands of troops, emergency workers, and may have positive economic consequences, and the same is true for long term reconstruction.

A slight chance of better relations between Venezuela and the United States, along with increased economic output within the United States at a time when nations like China and India provide increased competition in the global economic arena may be a good thing, but to the average citizen, one cannot put a price on lost homes and family members.

Even if New Orleans and the surrounding areas are rebuilt, will they ever really be the same? Now that Hurricane Katrina is no more, the focus is on looting, banditry, and a lack of Rule of Law within the city. Stores can be rebuilt and shelves can be restocked, but can lost pride and dignity ever be earned back?

The same is true for the quality of life within areas not directly affected by the hurricane and floods. The price of oil is guaranteed to remain high as oil production was curbed during the storm. With continuous news coverage of the event, broadcasters like CNN have not failed to mention that the price of oil rose to over $70 per barrel, ensuring that gas prices in Canada and other countries will remain expensive.

Paying too much for gas? Maybe the money saved from cuts to the Southeast Louisiana Urban Flood Control Project could be used to promote the rebuilding of damaged oil refineries in the Gulf of Mexico.

Sources

Laska, Shirley. "What if Hurricane Ivan Had Not Missed New Orleans?" Natural Hazards Observer. 2 Nov. 2004. 1 Sep. 2005. <http://www.colorado.edu/hazards/o/nov04/nov04c.html>.

"Louisiana Superdome Seating Chart - New Orleans Superdome Tickets." TickCo Premium Seating. 1 Sep. 2005. <http://www.tickco.com/choose_seats/football/super_dome.htm>.

Porter, Eduardo. "Damage to Economy Is Deep and Wide." New York Times. 31 Aug. 2005. 1 Sep. 2005. <http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/31/business/31econ.html>.

Roberts, Deon. "New Orleans district of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers faces..." Find Articles. 6 Jun. 2005. 1 Sep. 2005. <http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4200/is_20050606/ai_n14657367>.

"Venezuela offers fuel, food to hurricane-hit US." Yahoo! News. 29 Aug. 2005. 1 Sep. 2005. <http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20050829/pl_afp/usweathervenezuelaoil>.

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