Tempest-tost

I remember sitting on the beach in Maui the day after Christmas in 2004, hearing the news of the Great Sumatra-Andaman earthquake and the resultant Asian Tsunami which triggered a series of devastating tidal waves along the coasts of most landmasses bordering the Indian Ocean, killing more than 225,000 people in eleven countries. I remember it vividly, not for the catastrophic damage and loss of life, but because of the look on my daughters face as she suspiciously eyed the ocean in front of her with a look of fear and disbelief. She had never heard of a tsunami before and you could see her trying to work out the logistics of how much water had to be moved as we described it. Followed almost immediately by the inevitable question, “will there be a tsunami here?”

It is almost unimaginable, from the forces necessary to create a tsunami, to the incalculable damage that one creates. These powerful forces are as destructive as they are unpredictable. That is what makes them so tragic. That and the callous way in which we promised relief of some 35 million dollars, quickly revamped our offer to $350 million and then by mid-March listened as the Asian Development Bank reported that over US$4 billion in aid promised by governments was behind schedule. Incredible.

I started to write this blog post because the cyclone in Myanmar reminded me of the Asian Tsunami, and ultimately of Hurricane Katrina. I have sat down several times attempting to put my thoughts together, and have very little to show for it. Try as I might, I find myself unable to write anything thoughtful or meaningful because of the powerful emotions the memory of these disasters raises overwhelms my ability to talk about them rationally. How do you write about disasters over which we have so little control? We cannot prevent a tsunami, and while we have more warning of a cyclone or a hurricane, forecasts are can never positively predict direction, speed, and strength.

Sadly there is Video showing President George W Bush being warned on the eve of Hurricane Katrina that New Orleans' flood defenses could be overcome. That is what is so infuriating. Katrina could have been prevented. The most severe loss of life and property damage occurred in New Orleans, Louisiana, which flooded as the levee system catastrophically failed, in many cases hours after the storm had moved inland. People have been arguing the safety of these levees for some time. The 76-mile shipping channel was built about 40 years ago as a shortcut to New Orleans. For years, environmentalists and emergency planners have blasted the channel as a destructive force because it has eroded enormous tracts of wetlands and increased the threat of flooding. Not to mention the fact that it is a hurricane “super highway.”


Then of course there is the fact that some three years later our citizens are still homeless, living in “temporary” FEMA trailers. We are one of the most powerful countries in the world and frankly, compared to the Asian Tsunami and the cyclone of Myanmar, the hurricane had nowhere near the same cost of human life. 1850 died in Katrina compared to the hundreds of thousands lost after the tsunami, and yet we still cannot find homes for these people? It is outrageous! A democracy, a country whose very voice is its people, ignoring those same people, whether of ignorance or for socio-economic status, these people have been ignored and abused by the country prides itself on feeding the weak and sheltering the poor. What ever happened to: “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore. Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!" Theses very words, “tempest-tost,” are inscribed at the base of the Statue of Liberty. Somewhere along the way we have gone terribly astray.