T.V. Time

I got a chance to check out When the Levees Broke, over the last two nights. It was a very well done documentary. It brought back some of the memories I had as I watched the events unfold before me, at that time I felt powerless, unable to do anything of substance to help the people I saw on my TV screen. There are so many victims, not only the dead, but those who survived. Here is what stands out most for me.

The mother of the five year old girl who drowned and whose body was found in April. I remember watching the news back then when the child's body was discovered. That young mother had to deal with months of wondering, hoping that her child might still be alive. Back when the news broke, I wondered where the child's family was. So to see that child's mother and the visible pain she was stung, very sad.

The older man whose mother died while at the Convention Center. First, he had to roll her into a storage room when he discovered she had died. Then when the building was being evacuated, he was unable to go back to the room to pay his last respects to his mother or to at least make sure her body was as he had left her.

The young man who went to search his family home for his mother. He was advised the home had been searched and no body was inside, so he concluded that perhaps his mom left in time and made it out. He decided to search the home, but water was still present in the home and he did not find anything. He decided to have the home searched one more time, and at that time, his mother's body was found under the refrigerator. She had drowned to death. To watch him search for words to describe the experience was tough.

Bodies are still being found, and no official body count has been produced. In fact a great deal of bodies are still being stored in trailers for identification. A quote that hung with me was "Where is my government?" I really do not think race played a part per say, in the response of the government, but, it is perplexing, extremely perplexing about the response of FEMA, and the federal government as a whole. I speak of at the time of Katrina and to date. We are spending billions, no I misspeak, we are blowing the bank in Iraq, but our own people here are treated like, if I may.......refugees.....Haitian refugees....I know you know our policy on Haitian refugees...but.....(LOSS OF WORDS) yo, these are Americans. Your average American knows more about the JonBenet suspect than the continued suffering in Louisiana.

I'd like to know who knew whether the levees were capable of withstanding such a storm, what they did to address it, why wasn't anything done to improve them, did anyone ever talk about improving them? It seems like everyone, local and federal remained silent. One can't say the technology does not exist to make viable levees, just look to the Netherlands and their levee system. We've got the money, oops had the money, its being spent you know where.

Insurance Companies - Whew...they have been screwing people for years, none more so than Katrina victims. Well uh, is your damage hurricane related or water related? Oh, water related.....we aint paying. But I have Hurricane insurance? Yea, we gonna pay for your wind damage, but since the water level topped your house, its apparently water damage, if you don't have a separate flood insurance policy, you assed out. There was a 80 year old man who had both flood insurance and home owners insurance for 50 years or more. The insurance company after determining what damage after doing what they do deducting things, cut the man a check for a little over $1000.00. Whole house destroyed...........Insurance Companies, can't live with them, can't comfortably without them.

I wish the documentary was not aired on cable. It was a very well put together film. A lot of people really need to see the struggle and the pain. I am sure someone will make a bootleg though. I know I complain and moan about my day to day life, but there is always someone whose struggle is worse than my own. I mean I know that, but still need reality to smack me from time to time. It could have been me or you in their shoes. All things unfold by the will of God, period, sometimes you want to ask why, why must people suffer like this? Why does a five year old have to die like that? Can't question God though. Maybe it is a test, a test for those of us who survived, how we learn from such a tragedy and what it is we do, to help others and to help prevent such tragedies from occurring again. Glancing over at the weather channel, I see a storm brewing in the Atlantic. Will history repeat itself?