There are many people from Louisiana taking refuge here in Southeast Texas. Most plan to return, but a surprising number of them are looking to stay here or move on, rather than return to New Orleans. The region can be rebuilt, but the economic impact will be felt for many years, if not decades. Classic example: Galveston 1900. The city was the jewel of Texas until the hurricane hit. Over 6,000 people died, and the city never fully recovered. Once a major port and industrial center, the city's largest industry is now tourism. Most of the businesses moved to Houston and Beaumont, while Galveston today has dwindled in importance to both. Could the same thing happen to New Orleans?

What sickens me is how soon the blame game has kicked off. Unfortunately, the Democrats have no option but to attempt to portray the Bush Administration as ineffective in their disaster response. If they can do so successfully, the Democrats stand a strong chance of picking up seats in 2006. (It is extremely unlikely, in any event, that either House of Congress will change hands.) Republicans will respond by pinning the responsibility on Governor Kathleen Blanco, a Democrat, for disallowing federal aid in the crucial hours immediately after the storm. I was kind of hoping both sides could hold off on the bickering until the bodies could be recovered... call me naive, but it was a pleasant thought.

For what it's worth, I live in Beaumont, which is the last regional center in Texas before you hit the Louisiana border. There were countless people preparing to deploy from here the weekend of the storm. Electrical engineers, social workers, etc. were staging out of here and Houston. This sure didn't catch our area by surprise; we had a green light to go in behind the storm with the relief effort. Our state had prepared a response almost a full week in advance. I'd object to any statement claiming the response was not in place - it was, and I saw it first-hand. If the relief didn't get there efficiently or properly, that sure warrants an independent investigation, but let's get the job done first.

Edited by: jwlbigdog at: 9/11/05 2:03 am