Government failed to save countless lives

When Hurricane Katrina flung the Gulf Coast region into the stone age, I assumed that within hours the victims would be provided with sufficient supplies for basic survival quickly. Instead, the federal government of the wealthiest nation in the world turned its back on hundreds of thousands of Americans. The televised coverage left no doubt that countless died unnecessarily. The whole world saw that many victims went almost a week without water, food, shelter and basic sanitation.

While victims were being neglected, experts predicted many more deaths as a consequence. Even the monopoly media were puzzled why the plight of many victims was not dealt with more humanely. What does this say about the morals of the Bush administration? One thing is for sure, we residents of Hawaii know what to expect when we are hit by a cataclysmic hurricane, earthquake or tsunami.

President didn't cause Gulf devastation

Wow! The most amazing thing happened. A Category 4 hurricane named Katrina waltzed into Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana and left all the Gulf states unscathed. Not satisfied with the lack of devastation and worried for their jobs, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, in conspiracy with city and state governments, moved in and tore down the levees of New Orleans, flooded that city and blew down all the houses and businesses in the Gulf states, leaving hundreds of thousands of Americans without food and water for days.

The misery caused by the unconscionable acts of the president, the governors of the devastated states and of all high-ranking government officials will not go unpunished. Hooray for our fourth branch of government, the media. Nothing salves overwhelming personal suffering like filling empty air time with finger pointing. We're feeling better already.

Isle agencies working to be better prepared

As the scale of devastation caused by Hurricane Katrina becomes evident, we should appreciate that the loss of life would have been tremendously higher if ample warnings had not been provided. The accurate forecasts of the storm track and strength allowed most people to evacuate and gave communities a chance to prepare for the onslaught. These warnings were made possible by a network of agencies that monitor potential natural disasters and work to predict their timing and intensity.

Citizens in Hawaii should know that agencies here are working together to provide information on natural disasters that may threaten our state and respond to disasters when they occur. We cannot control the environment, and population growth and our changing climate will only increase our vulnerability to disasters in the future. However, solid planning based on scientific information will go a long way toward saving lives and reducing the economic and environmental consequences of natural disasters when they happen.

Hire survivors to help clean up and rebuild

Please, please get this message to all the "experts." Here's a way to manage thousands of people standing and sitting in the hot sun with little food and water and even less hope: Give them something to do! Hire them to do things that no one seems to be able to do. Hire them as janitors; hire them as nurses; hire them to catalogue information on the refugee population; hire them to collect dead bodies and transport them to a place of privacy and dignity; hire them to read to children; hire them as security guards; hire them as fact finders. Allow them to participate in their own survival.

I am so ashamed of our leaders; I am so ashamed of our collective ineptness, our inability to respond spontaneously to a calamity such as this. How much money and resources have we expended post-9/11 to prepare for another terrorist attack? Now comes something akin to such an attack and all we get is press conferences and plans.

Meanwhile, old people are allowed to die where they sit and all we can do is cover them with a sheet and leave them there for the rats to eat. I am so ashamed of my country and my leaders. Surely we can do better than this. We must do better than this.

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