I’m really disgusted by two of the quotes coming from New Orleans. Firstly, let me say that my heart goes out to all those people who have lost family, friends, and priceless posessions. It is a tragedy, and I am very concerned for the safety of those down south. I hope that Jen’s (of shamus&jen) family is not from New Orleans, and if so, that they are safe. BUT! I’ve heard two quotes said by government officials that seem to be a bit over the top. The first, “This is our tsunami” and the second “I can imagine this is what hiroshima looked like after the bomb.”
WHAT?
The tsunami killed over 212,000 people. The atomic bomb at hiroshima killed over 200,000.
While my only exposure to Katrina are the pictures from the news, and thusly I am not qualified to outright debunk the quotes, I would imagine that the residents of New Orleans would rather endure another Katrina than an atomic bomb or a tsunami of the likes of last December. To even compare Katrina to either of these events is insulting. This does not mean that Katrina wasn’t horrible, simply that in a world where nature and war have wreaked mindnumbing devestation on humanity, it seems wrong to compare levels of suffering. Especially when the death toll and area affected are so vastly different.
That said, Here’s how to help.
I’m not qualified on this either, and comparing this to Hiroshima is stupid, but naturally, comparing this to the tsunami might not be far off. The tsunami killed a LOT more people, but those places didn’t have any warning, so the people were sitting ducks.
In New Orleans, the city was evacuated, so the high number of deaths was prevented. Physically-speaking, New Orleans might have received the destructive power of that tsunami. Though, I’m not sure.
Maybe they should have said “This is our flood of ’93”
It also has to do with what we’re used to. In terms of getting our butts handed to us by destruction and nature (aside from 9/11, of course) we have gotten off relatively easy in that dept. I mean, honestly, just yesterday, 600+ people we TRAMPLED AND CRUSHED to death in a mob in Baghdad. I’m curious how many people even read that in the news and cared…
Baghdad: “stampede for cheap laptops USA? ha! We’ll show you how you stampede!”
I’ve heard these quotes too and I think its a matter of scale… We’re seeing this from the air and occassionally from little spots of ground level stuff. Comparing kill counts is one thing but to actually be in such a place where all you see is destruction for miles and miles… I can excuse the hyperbole.
Plus “This is just like the Mississippi flood of 1927 all over again” just isn’t very catchy.
A quote that made me angry was that Eva Longoria coming out in a skimpy bathing suit while hundreds of people are dying in Louisiana all like “oh a silly little hurricane isn’t gonna stop me from wearing my bathing suit heehee!” She looked good though.
In all fairness, she made that comment before the hurricane struck Louisiana.
Those disaster-comparison comments are ridiculus and insulting! A catagory 5 hurricane, although tragic, is nothing at all like an atomic bomb or the tsunami last december. I’m sure if hiroshima or the tsunami stricken areas had 4+ days of warning, the casulty numbers would have been greatly reduced. Point is, they had no warning whatsoever, and thousands we killed. Not to mention an atomic bomb has nothing to do with natural weather occurances.
I agree that the comments are not called for and the comparisons are grossly inappropriate. On top of all the differences already pointed out, our government is well equipped to handle the aftermath and help rebuild the physical things that were lost.