2 Years Later, Native Southerners Show Bush Thanks for Katrina Aid.

As Hurricane Dean hit the gulf coast, I took it as a warning and looked up the FEMA Evac. plans should Dean head north. Here they are...

FEMA Evacuation Plans:

In the event of another Catagory 5 Hurricane on track to hit the Gulf Coast:

1. Run, Motherfucker, Run! (I mean, We ain't got no buses, no boats, no planes, and no levees.)

I hope you truely see the sarcasm in the above remark, since I am laying it on pretty fucking thick.

As a native Mississippian, I have long looked at the south as God's country. I may not be as southern as some would like, but I love the old deep down hospitality that only comes from being a southerner. There are still towns that leave the doors unlocked, neighbors that bring the yard-guy a glass of ice water, dinner is at 12:00 noon, and supper is what you eat in the evening. People still, for the most part, pull over on the side of the road and take their hats off when they see a funeral parade coming down the street. So, it pains me to see my native state, and neighbors still suffering TWO YEARS AFTER THAT BITCH KATRINA!

Pass Christian is still just a bunch of empty plots and concrete slabs. Waveland is still just a sign saying Waveland. New Orleans still is not rebuilt. Hell, it's still not even safe to go to. Coastal constuction for off-shore oil-drilling and pumping has destroyed the wetlands of Louisiana and left the city without any surge protection. And with the Army Corps of Engineers working to "repair the levees" to "pre-Katrina status," the Cresent City will never be safe again.

I love the status of pre-Katrina status. People think that New Orleans got hit by a Catergory 5 Hurricane. That's not correct. They got hit by the outwards of a Catergory 5 storm, rated at something close to a Catergory 2!!!!!!!!!!!! Yet, the levees failed. Why? To answer that, you must first ask yourself, what is a levee?

A levee is a earthern wall, generally man-made, four feet thick for every one foot of height. So what NOLA actually has is not a levee. It's more like a wall. supposed to driven 17 feet into the ground, made of steel, with a concrete barrier on the surface OVER THE ABOVE SECTION OF THE STEEL WALL, connected with steel support beams to hold them in place.

What we found out later, is that they were in fact only 10 feet in the ground, connected by plastic strips, and held in place by gravity. To qoute a resident of New Orleans, "I wouldn't build a fence for my dog like that."

Now, New Orleans may not have been the more typical southern town, but it was ours. Anyone would went to New Orleans just to visit felt some connection to it. The coast was ours. And two years later, they have not so much as been touched.

Am I looking for them to have been returned to their glory in two year following the diaster? NO, but a LITTLE progress would not have hurt! Yet, FEMA checks are "still pending," insurance claims are "not covered since the damage was caused by (insert whatever the hell you want to here)" and the people that could not have gotten out before the storm were given one-way tickets out of the city.

I guess the point of this ramble is I'm mad. I want to know were is the help that was promised. Where is the response that was promised? Where is the money that was promised? Where is the accountabilty that was promised by the Bush Admistration?

I'm sorry. I'll move on, cause this shit ain't working for me!