Just this past week, the storm that some are calling the biggest natural disaster our country has ever seen, came tearing across Louisiana, wiping New Orleans and other southern cities practically off the map. While Richmonders complain about gas prices, some areas of Louisiana are out of gas entirely. Destruction seems to be migrating and infecting the whole state.
Some of the holier are blaming God. But what of humans taking a bit of the guilt? Is it wrong to say that we should have seen this coming?
Having lived in Virginia all my life, I know just what kind of damage large-scale storms can do. I have watched families lose everything they own to the destructive force of hurricanes, tropical storms and tornadoes. This type of thing is old hat. My family and adjacent friends and their families have gotten used to the idea of three to four hurricanes per season – and this is in temperate, “normal” Virginia. Everyone has faced the fact that these are the risks you take when you live in a coastal state like this one. What makes what is happening in New Orleans any different?
Yes, the destruction is much more massive. Yes, the resulting loss and devastation is beyond severe. Yes, the families need all the help and support they can get right now as they spread to all corners of the United States to the arms of their friends and families, trying to get their lives together. It is an unfortunate and terrible thing, but should the country not have seen it coming?
The Bush administration itself said they could not believe that the levies broke outside the city, causing the major amount of flooding that laid New Orleans to waste. What was there not to believe? Is this the result of common human optimism and naivet