What if hurricane Katrina had destroyed Miami instead of Louisiana, would things have been handled differently? What would it look like today?

The people of Miami are self reliant. They prepare for hurricanes and evacuate when needed. On the other hand the people of New Orleans were depending on the government to do everything for them, they did not even do the basic things like stock up on food and water. They created this disaster and won't take any responsibility for their own inaction.






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Moral poverty cost blacks
in New Orleans

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Posted: September 21, 2005
1:00 am Eastern
By Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson
© 2008 WorldNetDaily.com

Say a hurricane is about to destroy the city you live in. Two questions:
1. What would you do?
2. What would you do if you were black?
Sadly, the two questions don't have the same answer.
To the first: Most of us would take our families out of that city quickly to protect them from danger. Then, able-bodied men would return to help others in need, as wives and others cared for children, elderly, infirm and the like.
For better or worse, Hurricane Katrina has told us the answer to the second question. If you're black and a hurricane is about to destroy your city, then you'll probably wait for the government to save you.
This was not always the case. Prior to 40 years ago, such a pathetic performance by the black community in a time of crisis would have been inconceivable. The first response would have come from black men. They would take care of their families, bring them to safety, and then help the rest of the community. Then local government would come in.
No longer. When 75 percent of New Orleans residents had left the city, it was primarily immoral, welfare-pampered blacks that stayed behind and waited for the government to bail them out. This, as we know, did not turn out good results.
Enter Jesse Jackson and Louis Farrakhan. Jackson and Farrakhan laid blame on "racist" President Bush. Farrakhan actually proposed the idea that the government blew up a levee so as to kill blacks and save whites. The two demanded massive governmental spending to rebuild New Orleans, above and beyond the federal government's proposed $60 billion. Not only that, these two were positioning themselves as the gatekeepers to supervise the dispersion of funds. Perfect: Two of the most dishonest elite blacks in America, "overseeing" billions of dollars. I wonder where that money will end up.
Of course, if these two were really serious about laying blame on government, they should blame the local one. Responsibility to perform – legally and practically – fell first on the mayor of New Orleans. We are now all familiar with Mayor Ray Nagin – the black Democrat who likes to yell at President Bush for failing to do Nagin's job. The facts, unfortunately, do not support Nagin's wailing. As the Washington Times puts it, "recent reports show [Nagin] failed to follow through on his own city's emergency-response plan, which acknowledged that thousands of the city's poorest residents would have no way to evacuate the city."
One wonders how there was "no way" for these people to evacuate the city. We have photographic evidence telling us otherwise. You've probably seen it by now – the photo showing 200 parked school buses, unused and underwater. How much planning does it require to put people on a bus and leave town, Mayor Nagin?
Instead of doing the obvious, Mayor Nagin (with no positive contribution from Democratic Gov. Kathleen Blanco, the other major leader vested with responsibility to address the hurricane disaster) loaded remaining New Orleans residents into the Superdome and the city's convention center. We know how that plan turned out.
About five years ago, in a debate before the National Association of Black Journalists, I stated that if whites were to just leave the United States and let blacks run the country, they would turn America into a ghetto within 10 years. The audience, shall we say, disagreed with me strongly. Now I have to disagree with me. I gave blacks too much credit. It took a mere three days for blacks to turn the Superdome and the convention center into ghettos, rampant with theft, rape and murder.
President Bush is not to blame for the rampant immorality of blacks. Had New Orleans' black community taken action, most would have been out of harm's way. But most were too lazy, immoral and trifling to do anything productive for themselves.
All Americans must tell blacks this truth. It was blacks' moral poverty – not their material poverty – that cost them dearly in New Orleans. Farrakhan, Jackson, and other race hustlers are to be repudiated – they will only perpetuate this problem by stirring up hatred and applauding moral corruption. New Orleans, to the extent it is to be rebuilt, should be remade into a dependency-free, morally strong city where corruption is opposed and success is applauded. Blacks are obligated to help themselves and not depend on the government to care for them. We are all obligated to tell them so.

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The Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson is founder and president of BOND, the Brotherhood Organization of A New Destiny, and author of "The Seven Guaranteed Steps To Spiritual, Family, and Financial Success" guide. He's also host of "The Jesse Lee Peterson Radio Show." For more information, visit www.bondinfo.org.

I'm sure this answer will be unpopular, but I agree with what Kanye West and some others said, the reason the Feds were so slow to move was because the majority of the people affected were black. The whole New Orleans thing was completely mismanaged. Their Governor was an idiot, their Mayor wasn't much better. It was totally stupid. One thing they should have done early on was turn all the highways into North bound traffic only (or East/West, whatever would get people out of the area the fastest). The evacs should have been MANDATORY, and by that I mean, people have to leave, whether they want to or not, and that's what you have the cops, First Responders, etc. doing, making people get out. They knew that the hurricane was going to hit there, they knew that those levies weren't going to hold, so they had plenty of time to get more people out of town. And if people don't want to go, you arrest them, throw them in a paddy wagon (truck) and get them out of town. That was part of the problem. People didn't try to leave. They were all, "oh, there have been other hurricanes, and they've never been really bad, I'm not leaving my stuff, someone might steal my stuf." For god's sake people, you can replace your freaking stuff, if you die, you ain't going to need your stuff. It's just plain stupid to stay there to "protect" your damned stuff. That happened here in So Cal with the fires. There were a few idiots who stayed to protect their houses, and there were a few, a small number thankfully, who didn't survive...I think it was a total of 17 dead here in San Diego...but I saw one family who had at least two young daughters who stayed and kept watering their house and the trees near the house. And yeah, they did save the house, and no one got hurt, but those idiots risked the lives of two little girls who were about 8 and 10. I felt like they should be investigated for child abuse or child neglect or maybe stupidity. If you want to stay and protect your property, ok, be a fool, but send your kids to safety with a neighbor, relative, friend. If the Hurricane had hit Miami the whole thing would have been handled differently because there are tons of rich old white folks who live there, so oh, yeah, FEMA would have been there immediately. Here in San Diego FEMA was here before the fires were even partly contained, and why? Well, a lot of the property that was burned belonged to rich people. Mostly rich white people. Yeah, some of it was middle classed people, and maybe some were poor, but not too many. In this area, if you are poor, you usually aren't a home-owner. The median price for a home here is a bit over a quarter of a million dollars. So, you tell me...was FEMA here to show that the Agency has improved under new leadership, or because much of the parts of San Diego County that burned was owned by rich people????

Some of you are talking like things would not be different, that the present Administration in the White House would behave the same if Miami was hit with a hurricane like New Orleans was. As I said above, just look at the way they behaved with the fires in Southern California. And no, the State did not contact Bush first, he called the Governator and asked what we needed, as did our Senators and Congressmen/women. There was no delay in getting help. FEMA was here by the 3rd or 4th day of the fires, promising to help people who had no insurance, or who were under insured, and there were government workers just to help people jump through the right hoops in the correct order. Bush was out here by the 4th or 5th day to personally view the destruction of the fires.

And in case you don't understand the scope of this...the death toll of Katrina was way higher than the deaths related to the fires here in San Diego. The destruction of Katrina was much more devasting than the fires here. Approximately 10% or less of San Diego County burned, mostly forest, young growth, brush (because people here still can't get it through their heads that clearing the brush out of canyons will help cut down on fires reaching inhabited areas) and some homes, but nowhere near the destruction that was caused by Hurricane Katrina. Before, during and after Hurrican Katrina, the Federal Government completely mismanaged the assistance they should have been lending. Bush should have been in touch with the Governor of LA and offered whatever Federal Assistance they needed, like he did for California. We were offered National Guard from California, Nevada and other states. Nothing was done for New Orleans until it was too late. And no one will convince me that the Feds would not have behaved differently if a Hurricane of the magnitude of Katrina had hit Miami. First, it is his brother's state. Second, as I said, it is a bunch of rich old white folks who are invariably Republican. Oh, yeah, BTW, San Diego County is also Republican. Go figure.....