When The Levee's Broke...

[inkman]

The wife and I just finished watching Spike Lee's Hurricane Katrina documentary. Going in, I shared similar views with many Americans about the disaster on the victims and the area. Their are many different voices giving their stories. Some are scholars, some are people of little education. I think each is worthy of telling their accounts of the events, shedding light on certain things that not everyone is aware of.

 

Obviously, the devastation in the region is unfathomable. Blocks and blocks of houses just destroyed. It was hard for me to get an exact picture of the entire amount of devastation, but it was clearly evident that a large portion of the city is still unihabited and will be for some time.

 

The trauma and suffering that occured to thousands of people was frightening. Before watching the documentary, I felt the people were stupid for not leaving and they deserved whatever they got. Unfortunately, a lot of the people that did stay behind did not have the means to leave. They were either disabled, sick or just did not have funds or vehicle to leave. Their were the stubborn few that were going to wait out the storm but that did not seem like the majority.

 

The background about the Levee's themselves was astonishing. This was an impending disaster that just seemed to be avoided by sheer luck to this point, before Katrina. The Levees in fact were not actual Levees but cheaper versions that in no way were going to be able to withstand the kid of water levels that a category 1 hurricane would create let alone a category 5.

 

The response to the suffering was reprehensible. It took nearly two weeks to get life necessitating goods to the people who were holed up at the Superdome and Convention center. FEMA and Bush are not soley to blame, but they did not come out looking good. Their was an appreciation for the Coast Guard and the outstanding job that they did in the search and rescue efforts which was nice to see.

 

The individual account from survivors was what really stuck with us. People, who were shipped off hundreds of miles away, would return home more than 4 months later to find dead relatives still in their houses. Thousands of people have not returned and may never.

 

I did not do a very thourough job regurgitating what I saw, but it was a ton of shocking images that will stay with me for a while. I would recommend it for anyone to see unless it hits too close to home. They did end it with some uplifting bits about how the residents are rallying, using Mardi Gras as a lanuching point.