| New Orleans survived the Category 4.5 hurricane quite well.
New Orleans did NOT survive the Republican Party!
The inherent Bigotry, Classism and Greed of Compassionate Conservatism KILLED New Orleans !
Katrina's 145 MPH winds caused some wind damage, the most obvious to the plastic roof coating of the Superdome. Some windows were blown out. Some houses lost shingles. Some trees were uprooted and signs blown down. There was very little structural damage to New Orleans from the winds of Katrina. It is possible that there would have been NO DEATHS in New Orleans from wind damage alone. (It is a little early to state that with absolute certainty, but so far, there has been very little structural wind damage visible in ANY of the pictures. The ROOF Structure of the Superdome is intact.
Katrina's 8-12" of tropical rain was within the capacity of the City's 100 year old pumps and canal system. There was some local flooding of low areas which is common during heavy rains, and was not dangerous. This was verified by the reports from New Orleans immediately after Katrina passed. ALL reports from within New Orleans verified that most of the city WAS NOT FLOODED, and the water level in the flooded areas WAS DROPPING!
There was a serious problem in New Orleans EAST where a levee (scheduled for strengthening but DEFUNDED by Republicans) was breeched and water poured into an area causing people to take refuge in their attics. This was equivalent to the flooding of the SAME area in Hurricane Betsy in 1965. This was serious, but NOT a Death Blow. This local area could have been dealt with immediately after the storm subsided. Rescues would have been staged from the New Orleans side immediately after the storm subsided. Property damage was HIGH for this local area, but few if any deaths would have occurred by this flooding alone. It WAS manageable!
The DEATH BLOW to New Orleans did NOT happen until many hours after Hurricane Katrina had done her worst, and had left the area. The Death Blow to New Orleans was caused by the failure of portion of the 17th St Levee (actually a steel coffer dam wall, not a traditional earth levee) that was INSIDE the Perimeter Levee Protection System that surrounds New Orleans . The Permanent Earth Levee System surrounding New Orleans successfully held the full fury of Katrina!
The portion of the internal levee system on 17thSt that failed was scheduled for upgrading, but WAS DEFUNDED BY THE REPUBLICAN PARTY who believe that a handful of the VERY RICH Republican donors deserve MILLIONS of Dollars, and the millions of common working folk and POOR in New Orleans deserve nothing!
Hurricane Katrina DID NOT KILL New Orleans .
REPUBLICAN GREED, CLASSISM, and BIGOTRY KILLED New Orleans !!! |