Katrina Aid
The New Orleans metro area had 1.3 million people in 2004, the Stat. Abstract says. Aid is about $120 billion. That comes to about $100,000 per person in aid. That’s per person, remember, so a welfare mother with 3 children would get $300,000 to buy new furniture. I’ve never seen a good explanation for why a few days of flooding would wreck a house, and sampling this map I don’t see any area with more than 11 feet of flooding, and many with less than a foot, so there wouldn’t be any flood damage to furnishings in a second floor. The mainstream media has heavily exaggerated the problem in an attempt to smear Bush, and Bush had incentive to respond by spending taxpayer money even if it was wasteful, so there is ample reason to suspect scandalous overspending. In fact, without a watchful press, the politicians love to take advantage of taxpayer sentimentality and pity to spend tax money on profits for contractors and gifts to particular voters. And for the press, the best story is the one with the most disaster damage. So I suppose we must resign ourselves to this kind of wasteful spending.
August 30th, 2006 at 6:31 pm
Do you really not know why flooding damages houses?
1) Damage to the foundation. 2) Waste contamination from the water. 3) Mold infestation and its subsequent diseases. 4) Flooring and wall damage from warped wood or rotting board. 5) Electrical damage because of silt deposits.
In many cases only a few hours of water damage is needed to make the entire structure unsafe. A few days is more than enough to make an entire house unlivable.
September 10th, 2006 at 8:45 pm
I really don’t. Wood takes years to rot, not days. River water isn’t that dangerous to human health. Mold will die when the house dries again. And remember, this is just the first floor of most buildings.