Aug 31 2008
New Orleans Evacuates But Will Bush Bail out on Convention!
This time it’s mandatory and Mayor Ray Nagin is telling the people of New Orleans that if they choose to stay behind then they’re on their own. He’s recently issued a sunset-dawn curfew to remaining citizens. Coming close to the 3rd year anniversary for Katrina, and promising to create even more damage, Hurricane Gustav is working its way up to a Grade 4 hurricane with the possibility of a Grade 5. Considering the violence of Katrina’s Grade 3 fury, opting to stay put and ride out the storm this time doesn’t bear thinking about.
There have been those over the past few days who have said that New Orleans officials were premature to starting talking about evacuation plans, but as the storm comes ever closer to the Gulf shores, they should be commended for having learned the lessons that Katrina taught. One has to hope that FEMA also learned its lessons, it lost a lot of credibility in the Katrina aftermath and has a lot at stake should disaster once more hit the Gulf States.
Latest news seems to be that Pres G.W. Bush may not give his scheduled speech at the Republican Convention – this of course would be to John McCain’s benefit as being tagged as Bush’s 3rd term is helping his campaign as much as ex Pres Clinton’s presence helped Hillary ….which is to say not at all – but I’m at a loss to know why he’s making the situation in New Orleans his polite excuse for non-attendance. Is he thinking about donning waterproofs and taking some sandbags down there to help rebuild the levees? Is he going to fly a helicopter in to help bring out anyone who for one reason or another was unable to get out of the city? Does he intend taking down a big truck and rounding up the stray animals? Personally I don’t see him doing anything remotely useful and as AirForce 1 is supposedly equipped to become a command center from which the Commander in Chief could run the country if need be, why isn’t he able to be kept up-to-date and manage whatever he needs to manage from the Republican venue?
As the day goes on and Hurricane Gustav continues towards New Orleans, I think about the people who live there and hope that somehow the weather does one of its quirky things that leave weather experts scratching their heads, and loses power rather than gains it. As for the Republican Convention, it has to be said that sometimes good things happen from bad – and McCain getting through the convention without President Bush saying something for the media to grab onto and throw back at the Republicans later has to be the silver lining in Gustav’s cloud!
