Today is the 10 year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina. And the question is, what have we learned? (The media will be asking this question over and over again.)
The most honest answer: not much.
- Oh, we’ve been reminded again that the divide between the poor and the not so poor gets larger under most circumstances.
- We’ve been reminded that it takes longer to rebuild than we think.
- We’ve been reminded that the racial divide gets deeper when tragedies like this strike.
But what have we learned?
The city of New Orleans has reinforced it’s levy system so that it can now withstand a Level 3 hurricane coming ashore.
That’s not going to do much good if a Level 4 or Level 5 hurricane comes ashore.
Because of climate change, we can rest assured that hurricanes will become larger and more powerful and more frequent.
People have been waxing nostalgic about New Orleans and how strong it is and how many people stayed and rebuilt (although a lot of people left for places Houston and never came back).
That’s nice.
The human spirit is strong.
There are some nice stories that came out of New Orleans during the rebuilding process.
But what have we learned?
For example:
- Have we learned not to build in places that are prone to flooding?
- Have we learned to take care of the people who are most vulnerable in a disaster?
- Have we learned to accept climate change as a real thing which is going to affect us all?
I don’t even have to answer that question for all of you to know what the answer is.