Sanitation at its Worst – Forced Evacuation Begins in New Orleans

The police stated, “We’re still searching for holdouts and persuading them to evacuate, saying ‘if you don’t leave, we won’t be able to rescue you.’ Forced evacuation is our last resort.”

CNN cited a source in the mayor’s office and reported, “The food poisoning E. coli bacteria, which is fatal to the human body, was found in the city. This bacteria is found in human and animal feces and is usually detected in unfiltered sewage.”

New Orleans authorities used four small and medium-sized pumps out of the 40 it has to pump out water. This lowered the inundation rate of the city from 80 to 60 percent, but foreign press reports that it will take more than 80 days for the water to completely drain away.

With increasing public criticism on the belated response to the natural disaster, Republicans and Democrats both agreed to set out on a truth finding study at the Senate level. The Senate plans to hold a hearing sometime next week to decide whether the federal government failed to act early.

Senator Susan Collins (Republican) held a joint press conference with Joseph Lieberman (Democrat) and said, “This was not a case where terrorist groups were involved. How can the government prevent terrorist attacks when it is unable to properly respond to even a forewarned natural disaster? We will thoroughly look at the government’s response and hold it accountable.”

President George W. Bush told the two senators at the White House that, “The U.S. public calls for punishment on those responsible, but we have enough time to determine who erred. For now, I will do my best to help the rescuers.”

The criticism on the governmental failure to carry out an initial response is focused on the appointment of Michael Brown, who had no experience in managing disasters, as the chief of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

Meanwhile, the Government Accountability Office, the U.S. equivalent of Korea’s Board of Audit and Inspection, pointed out last July, “The administration’s personnel training and equipment for emergency response agencies that deal with emergency rescue and relief efforts are concentrated too much on preventing terrorism rather than on natural disasters,” the Associated Press reported.

Seung-Ryun Kim srkim@donga.com