Skipjack wrote:American culture has resulted in a society that, when met with catastrophe, tends to work together, rather than work apart.
Uhm, what happened in the wake of Katrina proved you wrong.
I tend to disagree. What happened in the wake of Katrina was emblematic of a dysfunctional system. You had a mayor that didn't implement city evacuation and disaster plans. You had a state governor that refused to implement disaster plans until the last possible moment, and had to almost be forced to request federal assistance.
You had a city population that, for the most part, wasn't well educated and was very dependent on the city infrastructure for transportation. It's noteworthy that there were a considerable number of busses that could have been used, but weren't.
http://www.snopes.com/katrina/photos/buses.asp
http://en.wikinews.org/wiki/Controversy ... icane_plan
One thing that certainly wasn't in short supply was the media. It kind of makes you wonder just how bad the civil problems (looting) actually WERE, versus what was reported. "If it bleeds, it leads" is the primary tenent, and you'll not get stories of things going RIGHT from folks who've spent a lot of money, time, and effort to get their correspondents into the middle of a 'disaster area'.
A large number of people were evacuated from the city and dispersed nationwide. Many, many localities opened their schools, their churches, park buildings, their homes as disaster relief shelters. The web of trust got them out of their area - safely.
And the city actually made it through the hurricane with minimal flooding. It was the levee breach that did the damage.
THERE the web of trust failed. The Army Corps of Engineers contracted with local companies to build and maintain and improve the levee system. That those companies didn't perform as promised is a matter of record.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2005_levee ... ew_OrleansThe original design for the steel sheet foundations for the flood walls showed a proposed depth of 10 feet (3 m), and design documents show that calculations were made with the wall base at 12.8 feet (3.9 m). According to a New Orleans engineer, the depth was apparently later increased to 17 feet (5.1 m), and this is what was built. However, a forensic engineering team from the Louisiana State University, using sonar, showed that at one point near the 17th Street Canal breach, the piling extends just 10 feet (3 m) below sea level, 7 feet (2.1 m) shallower than the Corps of Engineers had maintained. "The Corps keeps saying the piles were 17 feet (5 m), but their own drawings show them to be 10 feet, Ivor van Heerden said. "This is the first time anyone has been able to get a firm fix on what's really down there. And, so far, it's just 10 feet (3 m). Not nearly deep enough."[15] Other reports confirmed that construction on the London Avenue and Industrial Canal levees was similarly below the stated standard.[16] They also found that homeowners along the 17th Street Canal, near the site of the breach, had been reporting their yards flooding from persistent seepage from the canal for a year prior to Hurricane Katrina. Other studies showed the levee floodwalls on the 17th Street Canal were, "destined to fail,", from bad Corps of Engineers design, saying in part, "that miscalculation was so obvious and fundamental," investigators said, they, "could not fathom how the design team of engineers from the Corps, local firm Eustis Engineering, and the national firm Modjeski and Masters could have missed what is being termed the costliest engineering mistake in American history."[16]
Also - it didn't help much that much of New Orleans is below sea level. At that point, you have to trust that the engineers did their work right... and it WAS, pretty much... until it wasn't.
I'd say that for the most part, the web of trust held.
So no, Katrina really did not show the best side of the american people in no way. That does not mean that americans are generally like thatl, but it means that you cant make a broad and general statement like that.
Sorry - but the above doesn't make much sense to me. If the statement is that Americans are generally supportive and trustworthy, then one exception doesn't invalidate the statement. Neither does it make the exception the rule.
When opinion and reality conflict - guess which one is going to win in the long run.
