Katrina’s victims

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Last updated on July 27th, 2017 at 06:24 am

For rapper Kanye West, Hurricane Katrina was all about race:

George Bush doesn’t care about black people.

Gullible James Wolcott, who fell for wild media exaggerations like the bodycount cheerleader that he is, preferred to focus (in Vanity Fair; no link) on class:

Race is never off the table as a touchy topic in this country … The true eye-opener from Katrina was the flap lifted on the specter of lower-depths poverty in this country.

But an overlooked element turns out to be age:

At least 60 percent of the dead identified so far were 61 or older, according to state data.

“You had a combination of devastating flood waters and elderly and infirm populations with fewer resources. That equals fatalities,” said Dr. Jullette Saussy, director of Emergency Medical Services for the city of New Orleans and one of those who fielded desperate cell phone calls from New Orleanians trapped by water.

Oldster site As Time Goes By predicted this back on September 13, noting that 70% of threatened nursing homes weren’t evacuated despite state laws requiring Louisiana nursing homes to have comprehensive evacuation plans:

Without dismissing the suffering of other victims of Hurricane Katrina, nor comparing one to another, it may be the elderly and infirm who have been disproportionately affected and in need of ongoing special attention.

At the same site: a very useful blogging guide for the older, crabbier citizen.

Posted by Tim B. on 10/24/2005 at 11:21 AM
    1. Tim, I am crabby, grouchy, and old, but I want to stay here. Please. Don’t move me into an old people’s blog. Please? They’re mean there, and the food is awful. I won’t be a burden, I promise…

      Posted by ekw on 10/24 at 12:30 PM • permalink

 

    1. I’m only a few years away from entering a nursing home myself, ekw! Of course, in my case it’ll mainly be to steal things, but still …

      Posted by Tim B. on 10/24 at 12:44 PM • permalink

 

    1. Well, since the main responsibility for failing to evacuate in time lies with the idiot mayor of New Orleans and the stupid and indecisive Governor of Louisiana, it is more accurate to say that they are the ones who hate black people.  What, you say hizzoner the Mayor is black?  So what, look at his inactions and judge from them.  Not to mention hating poor people, but then they are both Democrats, and the contempt of Dems for the poor is well established (the coming collapse of Social Security due to Dem stonewalling and incompetence is but one example of it).

      It wasn’t Bush who left hundreds of busses unused in NO to be flooded while there were people not being evacuated, it was hizzoner the Mayor.  It wasn’t Bush who failed to declare an emergency and order evacuation in time, it was Guvnor Dithering.

      Posted by Michael Lonie on 10/24 at 01:16 PM • permalink

 

    1. Tim, I recently found one of those secret old person things (other than lower movie ticket prices) that was a benefit to me: the old people’s ghetto. I just moved into a rental house that cost about 2/3 what it would have had it been anywhere but a senior development. Bottom age is 55 which I surpassed with rather greater ease than I should like to admit.

      I am now the youngest person in my neighborhood, but I can’t bring a fortysomething girl home lest she either 1. realize the true state of my antiquity or, 2. be run off the property by a gang of oxygen-masked walker-supported nonagenarian Neighborhood Association goons menacing us with rolled-up copies of their AARP newsletters and accusing me of attempting to consort with an underage female.

      Maybe I could get them to hold off until I finished the consorting part…

      Posted by ekw on 10/24 at 01:35 PM • permalink

 

    1. I’m with ekw, and, um, you I guess, Tim.  Although I will only be going into a nursing home to molest the men… except they probably won’t notice.  Just my luck.  Thanks for the link, though.

      Kanye West is a cynical opportunist, and James Wolcott should have been put away long ago like the crazy maiden aunt he is.

      Posted by RebeccaH on 10/24 at 04:25 PM • permalink

 

    1. The two picket signs I’ve used to best effect in the last two weeks have been “Vote Democrat and Die” and “Vote Racist, Vote Democrat!”

      Nothing like watching an entire Mercedes shake with the tantrum inside…

      Posted by richard mcenroe on 10/24 at 07:37 PM • permalink

 

    1. Oh man, Richard, PLEASE tell me there are pictures.

      Posted by Sortelli on 10/24 at 07:38 PM • permalink

 

    1. I’m with Sortelli, Richard. You did get pix of that, right?

      Posted by ekw on 10/24 at 08:19 PM • permalink

 

    1. Don’t be silly.  They only take pictures of the wholesome ANTIBush protesters across the street.  But I’ll see what I can do.

      Posted by richard mcenroe on 10/24 at 08:37 PM • permalink

 

    1. C’mon guys, everybody knows Republicans dont float.

      Posted by Aspiring”Redneck” on 10/24 at 09:51 PM • permalink

 

    1. So what was the ultimate death toll in New Orleans? Still, a fraction of the 15,000 oldies killed in the Paris heatwave when their kids left town for their holidays.

      Posted by Oafish and Infantile on 10/25 at 07:06 AM • permalink

 

    1. For years, I’ve had this unexplainable desire to move to Florida. It’s sort of like Queensland without the Queenslanders, and while I wasn’t overly enamoured of my one night stay in Miami, I really liked the other bits of it I saw.

      Of course, if rogue hurricanes are now targetting oldies as opposed to poor black people, I might have to consider somewhere else.

      Okay, I’ve got a score of years or so before I hit 60, and I’m not black. I am a bit on the strapped side, so I could still be in danger.

      I guess I’ll have to migrate somewhere safer for my demographic.

      Hmmm. Moe’s looking good.

      (And for those furriners out there, it’s pronounced Mo Ee, not Mo)

      Posted by Nilknarf Arbed on 10/25 at 07:36 PM • permalink

 

    1. Aspiring “Redneck”—they don’t have to.  They cross deep water on the backs of the oppressed poor and minorities…

      Posted by richard mcenroe on 10/25 at 09:04 PM • permalink

 

  1. Would you believe old black people?

    Posted by Inurbanus on 10/26 at 01:04 AM • permalink