[Peakoil] Chaos and misery in New Orleans

[Trent Smith]

Given that cc will probably see sea levels rising between 1-6m by 2050 (ref 
incl Flannery) - it would be worth doing the cost anlaysis to see if it 
would cheaper now to shift large sections of New Orleans rather than 
rebuild. In Australia, Melbourne, Perth and Brisbane look like under 
increased threat over the medium-long term.  Sanddunes do amazing things 
with a increased sea levels - they shift/collapse some 6 metres for every 1m 
rise on average, flood and disrupt fresh water systems (sewerage systems), 
destroy foundations, and act as a multiplier on effect of storms.

I would not be surprised if Insurance Companies would be thinking the same 
thoughts - costs to be distributed throughout the global economy of course. 
Our premiums are about to rise.

Trent Smith




>From: "Alex P" <alex-po at trevbus.org>
>To: peakoil at act-peakoil.org
>Subject: [Peakoil] Chaos and misery in New Orleans
>Date: 2 Sep 2005 03:23:40 -0000
>
>Hurricane Katrina is a glimpse of the chaos attributable to climate change,
>and the problems of a society that has got so used to things being normal
>it makes little preparation for the worst. As a result, there is no margin
>for error, and our complex and highly interdependent society can fall 
>apart.
>
>The ripple effects of Katrina include even higher oil prices, which will
>have many unforseen impacts. Like the USA, we continue to depend on cheap
>oil at our peril.
>
>If Governments do not prepare us for climate change and Peak Oil, and all
>the crises they will bring, our society will gradually come to resemble the
>chaos and misery in New Orleans.
>
>Alex
>O4O4873828
>
>ACT Peak Oil discussion list
>http://act-peakoil.org
>
>________________________________________
>http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-
>bin/article.cgif=/n/a/2005/09/01/national/a155306D82.DTL
>
>
>New Orleans in Anarchy With Fights, Rapes
>By ALLEN G. BREED, Associated Press Writer
>
>Thursday, September 1, 2005
>
>
>
>(09-01) 18:50 PDT NEW ORLEANS, (AP) --
>
>
>New Orleans descended into anarchy Thursday, as corpses lay abandoned in
>street medians, fights and fires broke out and storm survivors battled for
>seats on the buses that would carry them away from the chaos. The tired and
>hungry seethed, saying they had been forsaken.
>
>
>"I'm not sure I'm going to get out of here alive," said Canadian tourist
>Larry Mitzel, who handed a reporter his business card in case he goes
>missing. "I'm scared of riots. I'm scared of the locals. We might get
>caught in the crossfire."
>
>
>Four days after Hurricane Katrina roared in with a devastating blow that
>inflicted potentially thousands of deaths, the frustration, fear and anger
>mounted, despite the promise of 1,400 National Guardsmen a day to stop the
>looting, plans for a $10 billion recovery bill in Congress and a government
>relief effort President Bush called the biggest in U.S. history.
>
>
>New Orleans' top emergency management official called that effort
>a "national disgrace" and questioned when reinforcements would actually
>reach the increasingly lawless city.
>
>
>About 15,000 to 20,000 people who had taken shelter at New Orleans
>convention center grew increasingly hostile after waiting for buses for
>days amid the filth and the dead. Police Chief Eddie Compass said there was
>such a crush around a squad of 88 officers that they retreated when they
>went in to check out reports of assaults.
>
>
>"We have individuals who are getting raped, we have individuals who are
>getting beaten," Compass said. "Tourists are walking in that direction and
>they are getting preyed upon."
>
>
>A military helicopter tried to land at the convention center several times
>to drop off food and water. But the rushing crowd forced the choppers to
>back off. Troopers then tossed the supplies to the crowd from 10 feet off
>the ground and flew away.
>
>
>In hopes of defusing the situation at the convention center, Mayor Ray
>Nagin gave the refugees permission to march across a bridge to the city's
>unflooded west bank for whatever relief they could find. But the bedlam
>made that difficult.
>
>
>"This is a desperate SOS," Nagin said in a statement. "Right now we are out
>of resources at the convention center and don't anticipate enough buses."
>
>
>At least seven bodies were scattered outside the convention center, a
>makeshift staging area for those rescued from rooftops, attics and
>highways. The sidewalks were packed with people without food, water or
>medical care, and with no sign of law enforcement.
>
>
>An old man in a chaise lounge lay dead in a grassy median as hungry babies
>wailed around him. Around the corner, an elderly woman lay dead in her
>wheelchair, covered up by a blanket, and another body lay beside her
>wrapped in a sheet.
>
>
>"I don't treat my dog like that," 47-year-old Daniel Edwards said as he
>pointed at the woman in the wheelchair.
>
>
>"You can do everything for other countries, but you can't do nothing for
>your own people," he added. "You can go overseas with the military, but you
>can't get them down here."
>
>
>The street outside the center, above the floodwaters, smelled of urine and
>feces, and was choked with dirty diapers, old bottles and garbage.
>
>
>"They've been teasing us with buses for four days," Edwards said. "They're
>telling us they're going to come get us one day, and then they don't show
>up."
>
>
>Every so often, an armored state police vehicle cruised in front of the
>convention center with four or five officers in riot gear with automatic
>weapons. But there was no sign of help from the National Guard.
>
>
>At one point the crowd began to chant "We want help! We want help!" Later,
>a woman, screaming, went on the front steps of the convention center and
>led the crowd in reciting the 23rd Psalm, "The Lord is my shepherd ..."
>
>
>"We are out here like pure animals," the Issac Clark said.
>
>
>"We've got people dying out here — two babies have died, a woman died, a
>man died," said Helen Cheek. "We haven't had no food, we haven't had no
>water, we haven't had nothing. They just brought us here and dropped us."
>
>
>Tourist Debbie Durso of Washington, Mich., said she asked a police officer
>for assistance and his response was, "'Go to hell — it's every man for
>himself.'"
>
>
>"This is just insanity," she said. "We have no food, no water ... all these
>trucks and buses go by and they do nothing but wave."
>
>
>FEMA director Michael Brown said the agency just learned about the
>situation at the convention center Thursday and quickly scrambled to
>provide food, water and medical care and remove the corpses.
>
>
>At the hot and stinking Superdome, where 30,000 were being evacuated by bus
>to the Houston Astrodome, fistfights and fires erupted amid a seething sea
>of tense, suffering people who waited in a lines that stretched a half-mile
>to board yellow school buses.
>
>
>After a traffic jam kept buses from arriving for nearly four hours, a near-
>riot broke out in the scramble to get on the buses that finally did show
>up, with a group of refugees breaking through a line of heavily armed
>National Guardsmen.
>
>
>One military policeman was shot in the leg as he and a man scuffled for the
>MP's rifle, police Capt. Ernie Demmo said. The man was arrested.
>
>
>Some of those among the mostly poor crowd had been in the dome for four
>days without air conditioning, working toilets or a place to bathe. An
>ambulance service airlifting the sick and injured out of the Superdome
>suspended flights as too dangerous after it was reported that a bullet was
>fired at a military helicopter.
>
>
>"If they're just taking us anywhere, just anywhere, I say praise God," said
>refugee John Phillip. "Nothing could be worse than what we've been 
>through."
>
>
>By Thursday evening, 11 hours after the military began evacuating the
>Superdome, the arena held 10,000 more people than it did at dawn. National
>Guard Capt. John Pollard said evacuees from around the city poured into the
>Superdome and swelled the crowd to about 30,000 because they believed the
>arena was the best place to get a ride out of town.
>
>
>As he watched a line snaking for blocks through ankle-deep waters, New
>Orleans' emergency operations chief Terry Ebbert blamed the inadequate
>response on the Federal Emergency Management Agency.
>
>
>"This is not a FEMA operation. I haven't seen a single FEMA guy," he said.
>He added: "We can send massive amounts of aid to tsunami victims, but we
>can't bail out the city of New Orleans."
>
>
>FEMA officials said some operations had to be suspended in areas where
>gunfire has broken out, but are working overtime to feed people and restore
>order.
>
>
>Displaced residents also expressed anger at government officials.
>
>
>"All I want to say to Mayor Ray Nagin is thank you for helping us," Yolanda
>McZeal, 43, said calmly, sarcastically and bitterly. "Governor Blanco,
>thank you for helping us. President Bush, thank you for helping us."
>
>
>A day after Nagin took 1,500 police officers off search-and-rescue duty to
>try to restore order in the streets, there were continued reports of
>looting, shootings, gunfire and carjackings — and not all the crimes were
>driven by greed.
>
>
>When some hospitals try to airlift patients, Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Cheri
>Ben-Iesan said, "there are people just taking potshots at police and at
>helicopters, telling them, `You better come get my family.'"
>
>
>Outside a looted Rite-Aid drugstore, some people were anxious to show they
>needed what they were taking. A gray-haired man who would not give his name
>pulled up his T-shirt to show a surgery scar and explained that he needs
>pads for incontinence.
>
>
>"I'm a Christian. I feel bad going in there," he said.
>
>
>Earl Baker carried toothpaste, toothbrushes and deodorant. "Look, I'm only
>getting necessities," he said. "All of this is personal hygiene. I ain't
>getting nothing to get drunk or high with."
>
>
>Several thousand storm victims had arrived in Houston by Thursday night,
>and they quickly got hot meals, showers and some much-needed rest.
>
>
>Audree Lee, 37, was thrilled after getting a shower and hearing her teenage
>daughter's voice on the telephone for the first time since the storm. Lee
>had relatives take her daughter to Alabama so she would be safe.
>
>
>"I just cried. She cried. We cried together," Lee said. "She asked me about
>her dog. They wouldn't let me take her dog with me. ... I know the dog is
>gone now."
>
>
>While floodwaters in the city appeared to stabilize, efforts continued to
>plug three breaches that had opened up in the levee system that protects
>this below-sea-level city.
>
>
>Helicopters dropped sandbags into the breach and pilings were being pounded
>into the mouth of the canal Thursday to close its connection to Lake
>Pontchartrain, state Transportation Secretary Johnny Bradberry said. He
>said contractors had completed building a rock road to let heavy equipment
>roll to the area by midnight.
>
>
>The next step called for using about 250 concrete road barriers to seal the
>gap.
>
>
>In Washington, the White House said Bush will tour the devastated Gulf
>Coast region on Friday and has asked his father, former President George
>H.W. Bush, and former President Clinton to lead a private fund-raising
>campaign for victims.
>
>
>The president urged a crackdown on the lawlessness.
>
>
>"I think there ought to be zero tolerance of people breaking the law during
>an emergency such as this — whether it be looting, or price gouging at the
>gasoline pump, or taking advantage of charitable giving or insurance
>fraud," Bush said. "And I've made that clear to our attorney general. The
>citizens ought to be working together."
>
>
>Donald Dudley, a 55-year-old New Orleans seafood merchant, complained that
>when he and other hungry refugees broke into the kitchen of the convention
>center and tried to prepare food, the National Guard chased them away.
>
>
>"They pulled guns and told us we had to leave that kitchen or they would
>blow our damn brains out," he said. "We don't want their help. Give us some
>vehicles and we'll get ourselves out of here!"
>
>
>____
>
>
>Associated Press reporters Adam Nossiter, Brett Martel, Robert Tanner and
>Mary Foster contributed to this report.
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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