NOLA And America Are Tested Again

Gustav has weakened a bit to a strong Category 3 storm at 125 MPH, but he's expected to pick up steam over the next 24-36 hours back into Category 4 or even 5 status. NOLA is almost certainly in the storm's path now. Three years ago the worst hurricane to hit that part of the country in a hundred years came ashore and changed America forever when Katrina hit.

Gustav is expected to be worse. Already we're seeing the same problems with Katrina's evacuation...there are those who cannot leave the city. Should they stay behind, they will have even fewer options for help than under Katrina's assault.

The storm called up uneasy memories of the deadly 2005 hurricane season, particularly of Katrina. When Katrina hit, more than 1,800 people died in five states, 1,577 of them in Louisiana.

Unlike the situation during Katrina, there will be no "shelter of last resort," the city said. In 2005, the city's Louisiana Superdome housed thousands of New Orleanians who couldn't, or didn't, heed the mandatory evacuation order.

Nagin warned that all but a "skeleton crew" of city workers would be leaving the city and said local authorities could not promise help for those who choose to stay behind.

"This is very, very serious, and we need you to heed this warning," he said. "We really don't have the resources to rescue you after this."

The FEMA trailer towns will certainly be annihilated. Should the worst happen and the levees fail a second time, I don't think New Orleans will survive. It was already on life support. A second, even worse hurricane could kill the city.

And just like last time, the poor are unable to leave.

"It's the storm of the century," he said.

But Kennedy can't and others just won't leave. They are the few residents who did not make the tortoise crawl down Interstate 10 on Saturday.

"If I left, I'll probably lose my job," said Jeremiah O'Farrell, another dishwasher who is staying put. "I really don't have anywhere to go if I could leave. I could go home, but that doesn't seem like the thing to try. Too far, I guess."

These are the folks you're going to see on rooftops again...or their bodies are not going to be found for weeks until the water recedes.

Across town in the 9th Ward, a neighborhood decimated by Katrina, Sidney William climbs slowly out of his truck. He's 49 but moves like he's 20 years older.

"My legs hurt; my feet hurt a lot," he said. "It's not easy."

William wants desperately to leave his native New Orleans to avoid Gustav. He didn't leave for Katrina because he didn't have the money. He won't talk about what happened to him during that storm.

"I wish I had the money to go." Rejected for disability subsidies, he depends on his 23-year-old daughter, Gloria, to support the family.

"Lot of folks around here are gonna make do with what they have, and you won't hear a terrible amount of complaining," he said. "You can't just come in here and expect to hear people fussing about how they don't have nothing. People just be used to not having much, and so you don't even think too hard about it until someone starts asking you questions."

A neighbor, Victoria, says she has two Rottweilers who she's not willing to leave behind.

"Now, what do you think that would look like, me and my little car sitting there in traffic with two big old Rottweilers," she said, laughing.

Money is tight for her, too.

"Guess I'm just gonna wait. I just don't know. It's all stressful."

The city's underclass will suffer the most, and after Katrina there's a lot more underclass, driven under by three years of post-Katrina, "compassionate conservative" neglect. It was their fault for letting the hurricanes kill them. The government was free of all responsibility to its people for this, we're told by Republicans. Then the same government provided millions to the weathiest developers and corporations and ignored the most vulnerable. Three years of dragging their feet has left the city open to another disaster like Gustav. It's too expensive to make the levees safe against another Katrina, what are the odds of another Category 3+ hurricane hitting NOLA again anytime soon?

Now in less than 48 hours we'll see if the bill for that comes due. What is happening to NOLA is what the GOP has planned for all of America: you're on your own...we're helping the top 1%. Saving the lives of people trapped by Gustav and Katrina isn't cost-effective, but a six-year war in the middle east is vital to America's very existence.

Remember Katrina and Gustav this November. We've already failed part of the test. Now we'll see just how much it's going to cost us all.

Also at the Frog Pond