Disaster Engineering: New Orleans, Katrina's awful smash

beatriz

Disaster Engineering
by Kevin Matthews

From ArchitectureWeek, Page N1.1 . 31 August 2005

New Orleans and much of the Gulf Coast areas of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama lie devastated in the days-old wake of Hurricane Katrina. As water floods through New Orleans and desperate rescues continue, our hearts go out to the hundreds of thousands whose lives have been devastated and to the untold thousands whose loved ones have been lost.
(....)
An individual hurricane is an act of nature. How tragically ironic that just as the United States is reeling from Katrina's awful smash, the newly appointed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations is working to strike the words "respect for nature," among others, from a harmless listing of the world's basic values (Economist.com - http://www.economist.com/agenda/displayStory.cfm?Story_ID=%204335571).

At the same time, much of the death and destruction from Hurricane Katrina is human induced, or at least enhanced, rather than strictly natural. Societal decisions of where and how to build, where to barge and drill, where to channel, dam, straighten, and pump can have disastrous local and regional impacts. For instance, the latest scientific research (Nature 436, 1071, 25 August 2005), suggests that coral theft offshore was a significant contributor to the severity of local damage from the December 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. (....)

continue reading or participate in the forum: http://www.architectureweek.com/2005/0831/news_1-1.html

Among the disaster and chaos, just when you expect that people will display solidarity and concern for each other, we are confronted with almost most horrific images of disasterous human behaviour, looting, rape and shootings. This level of insanity, which have not been a main feature in other countries where natural disaster has hit, makes you wonder as to what is making people behave like this?

Astrodome filled, turns away refugees
Violence disrupts New Orleans rescues, evacuation

Friday, September 2, 2005; Posted: 12:46 a.m. EDT (04:46 GMT)

(....) Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Michael Brown said his agency was attempting to work "under conditions of urban warfare." Police snipers were stationed on the roof of their precinct, trying to protect it from armed miscreants roaming seemingly at will. Officers warned a CNN crew to stay off the streets because of escalating danger, and cautioned others about attempted shootings and rapes by groups of young men. (....) Residents expressed growing frustration with the disorder evident on the streets, raising questions about the coordination and timeliness of relief efforts. "Why is no one in charge?" asked one frustrated evacuee at the convention center. "I find it hard to believe." (....) "Please don't send the National Guard," Raymond Cooper told CNN by telephone. "Send someone with a bullhorn outside the place that can talk to these people first." He described scenes of lawlessness and desperation, with people simply dragging corpses into corners. "They have quite a few people running around here with guns," he said. "You got these young teenage boys running around up here raping these girls." Elsewhere, groups of armed men wandered the streets, buildings smoldered and people picked through stores for what they could find. (....)

'Unsanitary and unsafe'
Blanco said Thursday she has requested the mobilization of 40,000 National Guard troops to restore order and assist in relief efforts.

A humanitarian catastrophe unfolded at the convention center, where thousands of increasingly frustrated people waited for help amid dead bodies, feces and garbage.

Numerous bodies could be seen, both inside and outside the facility, and one man died of a seizure while a CNN crew was at the scene. (....)

Continue reading: CNN, http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/02/katrina.impact/index.html