Wind, Rain and Fire

September 1st, 2008 – Hurricane Gustav has just made landfall in Louisiana. Funny enough, after the last 100 hours of constant coverage, we realize that we know very little of this hurricane, its trajectory or why people keep building homes in New Orleans.

Firstly, to address televised media, especially the Cable News Network (CNN), we only had to tune in during the past four days for an immediate and crucial update. An update of what you may ask? Of absolutely nothing I would say. We begin by visually sifting information from the two news tickers at the bottom and the blue storm watch bulletins on either side of the screen to be told that a hurricane hit New Orleans a while back and that this recent one will also contain winds and is going really fast. We proceed to see Anderson Cooper holding onto a telephone poll about 4 meters away from the hurricane screaming “This hurricane is windy and it’s raining sideways!”. Then, for the twelfth time in one day, the camera abruptly cuts out and the newsroom at CNN tells us not to worry; Anderson cooper may have been impaled by a Chevrolet but at least the population knows that a hurricane-prone region of the world currently has a hurricane and that it is a windy and rainy one. Lather, rinse and repeat. Lather, rinse repeat. Blah, blah, blah… You may think I am dramatically reducing their expert journalism to a minimum of cynical critique yet I promise you that in the last 4 days, CNN has not told us anything about Hurricane Gustav that a 10-year old couldn’t have guessed. It is important to know that there currently is a hurricane, several thousand citizens have been evacuated and there is a possibility of raising gas prices (exactly how and why, no one knows). But to pound out images, specialists and reports every hour, simply to promote fear should be below CNN and below basic journalistic integrity (obviously if we do not take into consideration the six months of non-stop fear mongering following September 11th, 2001).

Secondly, just as the inhabitants of southern Japan, Hawaii’s Western Islands, most of Florida and the Swiss Alps, the denizens of New Orleans inhabit a natural hazard zone…on purpose. Safe for the Third World deserts and flooding deltas of Southern Asia, the regions including frequent earthquakes, cyclones, avalanches, typhoons and volcanic eruptions are inhabited by people who have the means to move; especially if it means avoiding a violent death at any given time. I understand nationalism and regionalism. I understand a sense of belonging and community. I even understand a sense of tradition or a fear of change. What I will NEVER understand is someone believing that any one of the former justifications is enough to risk their life and their family’s life every day.

Taking into account modern transportation, internationalisms and globalization, uprooting your family and moving around is as easy as 123. Take these things away and you are left with the early modern cities of XVIIth and XVIIIth century Europe. Moving required braving the elements, disease, days or weeks of walking to the next towns and ultimately being shunned for being an outsider. Instead, generation after generation of very poor people littered the streets and overcrowded the few urban centers of the Old World. Ghettos sprouted like mushrooms and thus the great epidemics and deadly fires (being the greatest “natural” disasters of the time) of the last 700 years took place.

As an example, ironically not fitting my own profile, is the great fire of London in 1666. Burning down 90% of all houses, the fire spread rapidly throughout the poor districts of the city. It destroyed millennia of historical heritage from the Roman walls to the medieval infrastructure for 3 days, sparing the aristocratic domains. This was certainly not the first nor the last fire of London yet they rebuilt on top of the rubble for lack of options. This example does not fit my rant simply because of the adjective “deadly”. Somehow, this epic conflagration killed 8 of the city’s 80,000 inhabitants.

To New Orleans I say be strong, be careful and MOVE!

To CNN I say: If the people are watching you give the same 5 facts about rain and wind for four straight days, you must be geniuses.

End

(P.S.: Another more intangible reason for which people didn’t move after natural disasters during the Modern Ages was that they believed God did it. They obviously deserved it and God would do it again no matter where they would be.)

(P.P.S.: I always found it suspicious that the Great Fire of London happened in 1666. It is very possible that it never actually happened and was invented by the King to scare people out of smoking in bed.)

(Pictured: The Great Fire of London - Hurricane Gustav, CNN caption reads "Hurricane knows where you live and is coming to get you!")