Katrina: Shameless Silence

by Andrew Bast

It never looked good.

A year ago, as the storm picked up speed again in the Gulf, we watched with short, quick breaths as the satellite images swelled into circles of billowing white clouds on our television screens. Then the storm hit, the levees broke, and mayhem ensued. It was painful to watch, if not downright disturbing. Dead bodies in the streets. Floating in the rivers. That mystical ray of yellow light that stabbed through the torn roof of the Superdome.

Even HD television sets don't affect your sense of smell, but footage day after day of those decrepit conditions on the football field almost singed your nostrils with a wretched stench of thousands, trapped.

To mark the one-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's devastating sweep across the Gulf Coast, discussion this week at The New York Inquirer will focus on the seemingly incessant failures that have surrounded the tragedy. From the Hip Hop community's maddening silence to FEMA's disastrous twelve months of "fraud, corruption, and waste," (according to multiple GAO reports), we're going to revert to that tried and true method of journalism: holding the accountable to task.

Yet I ought not sound all doom and gloom. We've also got a report on Tulane's revived basketball team as well as a personal essay about a woman so moved by those television images that she left her husband behind to volunteer with the Red Cross.

Luckily, this anniversary will not be forgotten, and in addition to our features, we'll host a meaningful and informative discussion all week, so do stop by. Bring comments about what you've seen elsewhere. We publish everyday.

Last but not least, this previous week was amazingly successful -- 2025: Human Beings 2.0 inspired incredible discussion, and perhaps more importantly, pushed one of our writers to admit that his cell phone makes for better company than his actual friends. If you didn't catch it before, do check it out now.

Comments

[CellphoneSavant]

Thanks for the post. I will be looking forward to the anniversary post.