New Orleans myths

Richard Baehr wrote in The American Thinker Reality #1: A very high percentage of the population of New Orleans and surrounding low lying areas were successfully evacuated before the hurricane hit.

And the mayor is the one primarilly responsible for not evacuating the others, using the 600 buses at his disposal

Reality #2: The basic major media premise all week has been that the 20% who were left behind were all black, and poor and the rich got out of town. This is simply put, nonsense – and racist.... At least 70% of black residents of New Orleans got out of the city before the storm

And I saw a lot of white faces on TV

Reality #3: The destruction from the storm affected far more whites than blacks.... the three Mississippi counties that were hardest hit - Hancock (home to Pass Christian), Harrison (home to Biloxi and Gulfport), and Jackson (home to Pascagoula and Ocean Springs) are among the whitest counties in Mississippi.... Four of the five parishes worst hit in the New Orleans area flooding, Jefferson, Plaquemines, St. Bernard and St. Tammany, are majority white (ranging from 67% to 88%). Only Orleans Parish (New Orleans) is majority black (67%).

Reality #4: There were many victims of the storm this week that the media largely ignored.

Reality #5: The lawlessness in New Orleans was more of the same for a city that has always had a very high crime rate.

Reality #6: There were enough National Guard forces in the region and nation when the hurricane and flood hit, and our commitment in Iraq did not prevent an adequate response by the Guard.... Louisiana had twice as many Guard forces in the state than were committed overseas. The same is true for Mississippi. Louisiana Governor Blanco fumbled the ball by not quickly securing National Guard reinforcements from other states (which were offered), given a governor's role in administering the paperwork required to get other National Guard units from other states to her state’s rescue. The New York Times reported on Monday that Governor Blanco has still not signed the paperwork to give federal authorities administrative control of the recovery effort, despite their large presence in the state since Saturday. It will not and should not only be FEMA’s head Michael Brown who needs to answer tough questions about what may have gone wrong this week in the first few days after the flooding occurred.

Reality #7: While the news media have focused on a few modest appropriation cuts for New Orleans levees and water control, they have largely ignored the fact that the major reconstruction project that would provide more than a temporary fix to the city’s sinking condition, has been stalled for years. The big problem, as even the New York Times admits, is that the Louisiana coast is disappearing . Almost 2 million acres have disappeared in 75 years (the size of Delaware and Rhode Island combined). And this has not been caused by global warming, or greenhouse gases, just as the number and severity of hurricanes are not related to these two twin towers of evil either. Each year, an area the size of Manhattan disappears.

This is true. Levees like the one that failed and caused the New Orleans flooding, and the city's demand for water, is responsible for the loss of wetlands and the sinking of the city (and the rising of the Mississippi river as silt deposits cause it to rise, but the levee's prevent the silt from being deposited in New Orleans.