Waiting for Gustav

It seems that Hurricane Gustave may be even more powerful than Katrina, and it’s following more or less the same path toward New Orleans. New Orleans has been doing a much better job this time of evacuating the population, though it is still always sobering to see the disproportionate number of African-Americans among those who require publicly provided buses and trains to get out.
Gustav has already delivered battering punches to Jamaica, Haiti, Cuba, and some other Caribbean nations. It killed more than 80 people in Jamaica, DR, and Haiti. No deaths reported from Cuba, despite the heft of the storm as itn hit the western end of the island. Cuba’s well-prepared emergency services evacuated 250,000 residents of vulnerable areas.
In New Orleans, Mayor Ray Nagin is reported to have a much stronger National Guard contingent this year than he did back in 2005, to try to keep order in the deserted streets after residents finish evacuating this afternoon. During any humanitarian emergency, whether ‘natural’ or arising from conflict and war, the maintenance or restoration of public security is an essential public good.
During Katrina, public security broke down in much of New Orleans; the evacuation plans and other preparations were completely inadequate; and there weren’t nearly enough National Guard troops to do what was required.
I hope that as the people of our country’s Gulf Coast area deal with this storm, Americans can become more aware that all our neighbors in the Gulf of Mexico and the Caribbean– including Cuba’s people– are also being hard hit by it, and that we share strong bonds of common interest and common humanity with them. Over the years ahead it is likely that anthropogenic climate change is going to make these damaging kinds of weather events more intense, and more frequent. We could all do so much better as Caribbean/ Gulf coast nations if we could pull together to share equipment and best practices in our responses to these emergencies… And also, of course, if we pulled together to rein in and eventually reverse the known drivers of worldwide climate change.
CO-2 emissions from the use of hydrocarbon fuels are a major culprit in that… Bloomberg is now reporting that the many oil-drilling platforms in the Gulf may be hit even harder by Gustav than they were by Katrina.
Katrina’s shock effects on the US oil supply sent gas prices spiking nationwide for several weeks thereafter. Gustav might have the same effect.
Here’s hoping that as Gustav progresses the worst of the possible calamities– major oil installation destruction, levees around New Orleans giving way again, etc.– can all be avoided.
This post is dedicated to the memory of all those who have lost their lives from Gustav so far, and to everyone working in all the affected countries to save lives threatened by the storm.

5 thoughts on “Waiting for Gustav”

  1. For all the Cuba-bashing that goes on in certain circles of the United States, there is one thing (among others) they unquestionably do better:
    The storms 150 mph (240 kph) winds scattered trees and telephone poles like toothpicks. The 800,000 residents of Pinar del Rio and the Isle of Youth remained without power on Sunday, as did many of the more than three million residents of adjoining Havana province and the capital.
    Where Gustav’s eye hit nothing stood. Up to 100 miles (160 km) to the east in Matanza, wind gusts downed trees and damaged buildings, telephone and electricity lines. […]
    The government reported some minor injuries. But hurricane deaths are rare in Cuba, where evacuations are well-organized and begin early.
    By the way, the article notes:
    The Cuban weather service said one of its stations measured a gust of 204 mph (340 kph), the highest ever recorded.

  2. Actually, there a number of worthwhile things the Cubans do better. One is to provide a very decent healthcare system at a realistic and globally reproducible per capita cost. Nationmaster tells us here that the life expectancy for US citizens comes in #44 on the global scale at 81.0 years. Cuba is #63 at 79.4 years. But look at the cost differentials between the two systems!
    The world leader among sizeable nations is Japan, #3 at 85.6 years. Also beating the US are such “third world” states as Guam and Jordan.

  4. Not to put the Cuban medical system down, but it’s not entirely the fault of the US medical system that Americans have a relatively short life span. What is a doctor supposed to do when a patient can hardly walk because he or she is too fat and has no muscular strength? Prescribe more pills?
    The people who live around me have got it “right.” It’s un-American to walk. If you walk, you’re insane. It’s only those heathen foreigners who walk all the time because they’re too stupid to have a golf cart or a car to take them places. Stand for awhile outside a Walmart and see what I mean.
    Reminds me: I was down in the Baja a couple of years ago, walking around, when I came upon a German parked ‘way out there. I mean out there. He looked at me and said: “You’re walking — and you’re American!! He couldn’t believe his eyes. We got to talking, and he said he’s been out there awhile, and his wife was back in Deutschland. I asked: Why didn’t you bring her? He said: I wouldn’t be able to think if she were here. I liked that.
    Pass the chips, please.

  5. Don,
    Like your post–I could not help laughing. But I have to defend a wife, at least in relation to health. It is not too inaccurate to say I would likely be a slob if it wasn’t for my wife’s insistence on vegetables, fruit, lean meat, all organic if possible. So I don’t agree with your acquaintence from Germany, if it’s health we are talking about. Rather, thank goodness for wives.
    RichardR

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