City - Houston State - TEXAS Country - United States
About
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Photo: One of the 11,375 refugees at their first hours of displacement to Astrodome in Houston. Another day without school. Another day without her own roof. Another day with empty glance toward nowhere.
As the death toll rises, on 9-3-2005, US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff in defending US government has argued that they did not expect both a powerful hurricane and a breach of levees that would flood the city of New Orleans. However eloquently he said, in fact, government officials, scientists and journalists have warned of such a scenario for years. Engineers say the levees preventing this below-sea-level city from being turned into a swamp were built to withstand only Category 3 hurricanes. And officials have warned for years that a Category 4 could cause the levees to fail.
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In the wake of Katrina, on 8-31-2005, head of the FEMA, Michael Brown, declared his agency had recently planned for a Category 5 hurricane hitting New Orleans. As a matter of fact, Katrina with wind greater than 155 mph has reached Category 5 of The Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale. Same day, Mark Tillman, the pilot, brought Air Force One in over New Orleans for President Bush to evaluate the hurricane damage from the sky.
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On June 23, 24, 25, 26, 27-2002, the Times-Picayune published in 5 consecutive days their special report of potential danger of New Orleans City may be washed away at the hit of a hurricane of category 4. Here are the 5 articles:
*Part 1: In Harm?s Way [ http://www.nola.com/hurricane/?/washingaway/part1.html ] *Part 2: The Big One [ http://www.nola.com/hurricane/?/washingaway/part2.html ] *Part 3: Exposure?s Cost [ http://www.nola.com/hurricane/?/washingaway/part3.html ] *Part 4: Tempting Fate [ http://www.nola.com/hurricane/?/washingaway/part4.html ] *Part 5: Cost of Survival [ http://www.nola.com/hurricane/?/washingaway/part5.html ]
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Back home from Astrodome after 4 hours with the refugee who survived from the flood, I received 3 messages in the answer-machine from my son in Memphis. I didn?t return the calls to him to avoid family conflict: his 3 calls have the same content, ?Dad, I am sorry that I failed to convince you to not vote the second term for candidate George Bush. The death toll today is part of my fault! You and Mom and I are guilty because your president reacted too late?
2 days after my son's messages, the president admitted, "The result is that many of our citizens simply are not getting the help they need, especially in New Orleans. And that is unacceptable."
hi, excellent photojournalism photo and i nominated it for frontpage recognition so that many here could at least click and read your about and see this poignant image...thanks for posting this,Ngythanh!........peace,gayle 7+
Nice journalistic capture, hard for most of us to imagine being in this girl's situation. It is good to hear today that as many as 20,000 refugees have deen processed and relocated from the Astrodome and other surrounding shelters. These people will need our help for some time to come. I would urge donations to any of many great relief organizations. The American Red Cross is a fantastic first response group, others do great work at extended assistance; Feed the Children, Salvation Army, Second Harvest, Cert International or others. What is not needed at this time is political finger pointing. Mistakes were made at all levels of government, begining at local level. A parking lot full of school busses less than 1 mile from Superdome sat unused, left to be submerged under water, the Red Cross and trucks filled with emergency water were ordered not to enter area by the governer. The order to evacuate the city could have and should have been issued 24 hours sooner, and wasn't issued until a second call urging that action was made from the White House. Existing evacuation plans called for use of city and school busses to be used for those citizens who didn't have means to get out on their own, but these plans were not followed. The Superdome was already designated as emergency huricane shelter before Katrina, but even though there was time, it was not stocked with provisions, portable toilets, or security. There should be and will be an investigation of breakdowns in the entire response to this disaster, but the political finger pointing going on, starting just 2 days after Katrina struck, is disgusting at best, and certainly not benifiting response to victims at this time.
excellent image.. dramatic and very poignant.. great work..
as to the about, well, it will be also evident that besides the federal gov, the City and State (Louisiana) were totally unprepared to protect their city and state... they should look at their neighbors in Mississippi to see how it is done.
This little girl you whose image you so effectively captured is ALIVE. As bad as the previous week was, she survived. Bad things happen to good people. It's not nice, but it does. It is so sad to know that an untold number didn't make it. I often wonder if they had made a serious effort to help themselves... and if not, why not. When you feel the urge to start pointing your finger, stifle it and go do something productive. I encourage you to do three things: keep up the good work, take charge of your own survival, and know deep in your heart that the government, regardless of who is in charge at the moment, IS NOT YOUR FRIEND!!!
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