"Spiking" the Katrina Myth
This article in the Federal Times outlines what has been common knowledge since early this year: Far from the Federal Government under responding to the Katrina tragedy in New Orleans and the Gulf Coast, the response was so overwhelming that ONE BILLION dollars (at least) went to fraudulent and duplicated payments.
Spike Lee said the Hurricane Katrina response made him think he was in a third world country after he breezed into New Orleans to film his one sided agenda driven documentary. Jeff Crouere of New Orleans wrote an excellent piece regarding Lee's slanted documentary.
But since I heard Lee's third world country comment on the Monday Night Football Pregame show earlier this year (sitting beside Marshal Faulk, who grew up in one of New Orleans' poorest districts and who was not buying it, it appeared to me) I have been bothered by such obvious hyperbole.
New Orleans official population when Katrina struck was 454,000; there was likely well in excess of 100,000 in the city when Katrina struck and the levees broke, yet the wildest estimates place the dead at around 3,200 and this is likely an overstated number with the most accurate counts around 1,800-2,000. That's for every area hit, not just New Orleans.
3,000 + were murdered on September 11, 2001.
Katrina is around number 28 on the list of deadliest Atlantic hurricanes--let me say that again: number 28. The great hurricane of 1780 is estimated to have killed at least 22,000. In fact, the 1780 hurricane season is the deadliest on record (I wonder how the global warming crowd explains that?). The 1900 Galveston Hurricane killed 8,000-12,000 and so on (click chart link above).
Before, during and after Katrina countless thousands were relocated, provided with food shelter, homes and jobs; communities opened their arms while the federal government provided untold billions in relief funding, so much that a billion was wasted. Just for some perspective:
In order for a Spike Lee movie to gross one billion at $7.00 a ticket, 142,857,142 people would have to go see it. That's about half the total population of the country. Yet we threw that much away on fraud and duplication. People want someone or something to blame when really bad things happen and mistakes get amplified in today's 24 hour news world when Geraldo Revera stands on camera and blubbers for the victims instead of lifting a finger to actually help, as did the U.S. Coast Guard, citizens and, yes, the federal government.
Third world country? I think not.
2 comments:
I am a white conservative New Orleanian that has lived Katrina for 16 months. Your lies disgust me. Spike Lee's documentary WAS the true story. It makes this country look bad, but it was the TOTAL truth of what we lived through. The government FAILED us. I use to think that a conservative was one that saw the truth and, where wrong occurred, righted it. Now I know, you just try and spin the facts, corrupting the truth into lies. American citizens don't matter to you, only the party. This conservative sees you for what you are. I am now older, wiser and sadder.
DrJ: you’re long on vitriol and short on facts; what lies did I tell? How much has the federal government spent (i.e.: tax dollars) on New Orleans alone? If the government failed Katrina victims, why did all of the other areas recover so much faster?
The problems after a disaster of the proportions of Katrina are not subject to overnight fixes. If you have some specific facts, I’ll read and publish them, just as I published your last comment, which was long on name calling and short on content.
Bob
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