SAD

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina the United States declared disasters in Alabama, Florida, Louisiana, and Mississippi. Taken together, the 90,000-square-mile disaster area would be the twelfth largest state. Emergencies were declared in Colorado, Georgia, North Carolina, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Utah, and West Virginia.[U.S. Department of Defense] Eighty percent of New Orleans was flooded after levees were breached by rising water. [LA Times] “I don't think,” said President George W. Bush, “anyone anticipated the breach of the levees.” Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the disaster “exceeded the foresight of the planners, and maybe anybody's foresight.” The flooding had been anticipated by National Geographic magazine, Scientific American magazine, the Times-Picayune newspaper, FEMA, and Mr. Bill.[The New York Times][CNN.com][The Times-Picayune][The Independent][National Geographic][Scientific American][Mr. Bill] Condoleezza Rice attended a musical in New York City, where she was booed. She also went shoe shopping. A fellow shopper was thrown out of the store after yelling “How dare you shop for shoes while thousands are dying or homeless?”[New York Daily News] Dick Cheney canceled a trip to the oil sands of Alberta, Canada,[Fort McMurray Today] and Senator Bill Frist called for a permanent repeal to the estate tax.[Think Progress] President Bush decided to end his month-long vacation two days early and return to Washington, D.C. During his trip, Air Force One flew low over New Orleans. “This was a natural disaster,” said Bush.[The Washington Post][The Village Voice]
The situation in New Orleans quickly worsened, but little help appeared. Shelters set up at the Superdome and at the New Orleans Convention Center became squalid, hot, and dangerous.[LA Times] The Louisiana National Guard patrolled the Superdome with machine guns as flood victims, locked behind metal barricades, shouted “we need more water.” Cigarettes in the Superdome sold for $10 a pack, and a brisk market in anti-diuretics, which allowed people to avoid the overflowing bathrooms, developed. “We are like animals,” said a woman.[The Los Angeles Times] Shootings, carjackings, and looting were reported across New Orleans. Thousands of people, most of them poor, were stranded for several days; many died waiting for rescue.[BBC News] “Nobody's coming to get us,” said Aaron Broussard, president of Jefferson parish, weeping. “For God sakes, shut up and send us somebody.”[The Australian] The effectiveness of FEMA head Mike Brown, who was fired from his previous job supervising the International Arabian Horse Association, was called into question after he repeatedly claimed not to have known the severity of the storm or the location of several thousand refugees.[Boston Herald] “There is way too many fricking . . . cooks in the kitchen,” said New Orleans Mayor C. Ray Nagin.[CNN.com] “George Bush,” said rapper Kanye West, “doesn't care about black people.”[The Mercury News] About 57,000 troops, many assigned to combat operations, entered the New Orleans area. “This place is going to look like Little Somalia,” said a brigadier general.[Army Times] The Superdome and Convention Center were finally evacuated, but evacuees were not allowed to take their pets with them. “Snowball!” cried a little boy after police took away his dog. “Snowball!”[MSNBC][The Charlotte Observer] It was announced that it could take up to six months for New Orleans to be pumped out, and another three months for it to dry. Officials estimated that 10,000 people had been killed in the flood; about the same number of people remained in the city.[The Independent][Times Online] Fifty-five countries offered aid to the United States. Cuba offered 1,100 doctors, Iran offered humanitarian aid, China offered $5 million, and Venezuela offered fuel at a reduced cost. The United States was performing a “needs assessment” to decide whose help to accept.[News.com.au] Some Christian extremists declared that the hurricane was punishment by God.[World Net Daily] “New Orleans now is free of Southern Decadence,” said the pastor of the New Covenant Fellowship of New Orleans, “and the sodomites, the witchcraft workers, false religion—it's free of all of those things now.”[Agape Press] Many other Christians simply prayed.[The Mercury News]