I just finished reading through a moving three-page investigative report done by NY Times writers about the nature/causes of many of the deaths that took place as a result of Hurricane Katrina. It's "as a result" because according to the article,
"of more than 260 Louisianans who died during Hurricane Katrina or its aftermath found that almost all survived the height of the storm but died in the chaos and flooding that followed"
The NY Times conducted interviews which added a soul to the death toll figures that have been circulating since the New Orleans tragedy happened earlier this year. Images like
"Prosper Louis Flint, blind, diabetic and dehydrated, was one of at least 19 people who died in the hot sun on Interstate 10, according to the state health department, waiting for help to come... Todd Lopez, 42, pushed his girlfriend's family into an attic before the water overtook him"
... aren't going to leave me any time soon. I've been to New Orleans, J', my Aunt, cousin and I were there just last year, just at this time of year, this - one year ago - was our first time in Nawlins. Okay, I don't know what it's like to lose someone because of a hurricane, but I definitely know what it's like to lose someone you love because of the power of water's destructiveness.
"It's ironic that you can survive a storm," but still die, said Velda Smith, who lost her sister-in-law and three teenage nieces to the floodwaters. On the day they drowned, she said, "everything was fine. The sun was shining."
That last statement rang so true when I read it that my head started to pound.
Still, what happened in New Orleans and across the American Gulf is on such a large scale it's mind-boggling. I haven't even begun to wrap my brain around what happened during the Asian tsunami, and the only thing that has helped that was watching Weather Channel and Discovery Channel documentaries and exposés.
There are a couple things that I can wrap my brain around though:
1. The NY Times is right. Ethel Freeman "slumped in her wheelchair under a plaid blanket outside the convention center" has already become a sad poster image of the horror.
2. While the natural phenomena of hurricanes and tsunamis can be explained, it will be months and years before we find out what really happened in New Orleans - if we ever do learn the truth.
3. As someone I know on a web forum posted recently, "In this life were not promised 2 morrow so take de bitter with the sweet and maintain."
Louisiana's Deadly Storm Took Strong as Well as the Helpless (The New York Times)
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