Unmitigated Disaster

I know I'm not the only one to point out these discrepancies, but I don't think they can be emphasized enough.

The Superdome, post-Katrina:

Tens of thousands filled the Superdome and were living in subhuman conditions. Food and water quickly ran out. The toilets stopped working. Corpses lay unattended.“We were treated like this was a concentration camp,” Audrey Jordan told Agence France Presse.

Outside, corpses were floating in the floodwater and lying on the city streets. And the images were being broadcast around the world.

On CNN, Anderson Cooper reported he had seen a body being eaten by rats. On NBC, photojournalist Tony Zumbada reported from the Convention Center: “There’s nothing offered to them, no water, no ice, no C-rations. Nothing for the last four days.” In the corridors of power, the focus shifted from saving the victims to targeting them. On the state level, Governor Blanco issued an order to “shoot to kill” looters, even though many of the so-called looters were starving residents seeking food and water.

In Washington, the New York Times reported that President Bush’s chief advisor Karl Rove began plotting a PR campaign to shift blame to local and state officials. Soon “the blame game” became the GOP catchword of choice.

Meanwhile, the people kept dying.

(More here, if you need to be reminded.)

Key words: poor, black.

Qualcomm Stadium, post-wildfires:

At Qualcomm Stadium, where the San Diego Chargers play, thousands of evacuees were camped in the parking lot in their cars and RVs, and in tents and on cots. Tables were piled high with food. There were pallets of apples and bananas, and semitrailers filled with ice. You could make your own sandwich -- or a volunteer would make one for you. There were stacks of cookies. Coolers brimming with icy-cold sodas. Volunteers offered coloring books and crayons to the kids.

In the land of plenty, there was plenty to offer.

[. . . ]

At the stadium, there were mountains of clothing and bedding. One man was trying on a pair of leather pants. A local pizza maker told a radio reporter that his pies were turned away because there was too much food. A cellphone provider was offering free calls to anywhere in the United States. An air-conditioned medical tent was erected. Doctors and nurses circulated. A sign advertised crisis counseling for "grief, loss, group or individual."

(Full story here.)

Key words: wealthy, white.

Sure, there is a vast discrepancy in the scale of these disasters. But how long do you think it will take for those hilltop homes in San Diego to be rebuilt? Meanwhile, years after the fact, most of the affected areas of New Orleans are still vacant.