|
Ron Jackson's Perspective
The Sunday Journal -
Think
Kankakee, Illinois
October 28, 2007
Different site,
different response to disaster |
 |
|
It’s October,
typical fire season in California. This year’s Southern California
fire that ranged from Los Angeles to the Mexican border is one of
the worst, prompting the largest evacuation in the state’s history.
More than 600 square miles have burned and over 1,000 homes have
been destroyed. Over 900,000 residents were forced to flee their
homes and seek shelter.
Watching the television coverage of the fire took me back to
Hurricane Katrina. Hurricane Katrina took many more lives, but both
disasters displaced a comparable amount of residents. That is where
the similarities seem to end. From New Orleans, we saw images of
dying Americans. From Los Angeles, one news station lead story
named all the celebrities who were affected by the fires. When
almost 1 million Americans are suddenly forced to leave the only
home they have, providing us with details of a few filthy-rich
celebrities who may have additional homes in Montana, New York or
Hawaii shouldn’t make us feel any better.
The chaos we witnessed in New Orleans was absent. There was no
fighting and finger pointing amongst the various levels of
government. We didn’t see 500 unused school buses burning in a
parking lot. Qualcomm Stadium, home of professional football’s San
Diego Chargers was turned into an emergency shelter. Scenes from
inside the stadium looked nothing like the New Orleans Saints
Superdome when it became a shelter in 2005.
One other very noticeable difference in the two disasters was
the response by the president. Since the White House’s image
suffered almost irreparably from its handling of the Katrina
disaster, every new natural disaster puts the administration under a
microscope. We saw how the president responded to two other states
in crisis this year. In May, a tornado destroyed a small town in
Kansas and in August a bridge collapsed in Minnesota. Having leaned
from the New Orleans debacle, the White House received favorable
ratings for its responses.
Trying to look at the White House responses to Hurricane
Katrina-induced New Orleans flood versus Santa Ana-induced Southern
California fires objectively, it was hard to ignore that Louisiana
had a Democrat Governor and California has a Republican. With over
a half million Americans being displaced by each disaster, even I
don’t think Bush would play politics when determining his response.
The president is the only person other that the men and women
actually fighting the fires who may be feeling the extreme heat. He
is in the unenviable position of darned if he does, darned if he
doesn’t.
Reacting to the California fires, President Bush immediately
sent FEMA and Homeland Security officials to California to provide
prompt details. He also made his typical post-Katrina disaster
speech and promised to do whatever it takes to help California.
Unlike during New Orleans’ time of need when the president attended
a fundraiser, this time the president scratched his plans to attend
a Republican fundraiser in St. Louis and planned a trip to the
fire-damaged region as soon as soon as it was feasible.
It will be interesting to see what long-term help our federal
government provides the displaced Southern Californians. It’s
doubtful it will send trailers. The FEMA trailers are still being
used in Louisiana.
Having lived in California for almost 20 years, I don’t think
we will see many pictures of FEMA trailers perched on any Southern
California hillsides, sitting on oceanfront property or overlooking
the Pacific Coast Highway.
Besides, once the fires cease, in a couple of months the rains
will come, and Southern California will have mudslides. FEMA
trailers weren’t designed to survive those, either. |
|
|
Thanks for stopping by! |
|
|
Home
| About | What's New |
Books | Columns |
Archives |
Seminars | Search |
Contact |
|
|
|
|
