The socioeconomics of calamity

Though all of my clan seems to be safe, the situation worsens in the hurricane-struck states. Via Boing Boing: an e-mail from a rescue worker in N'awlins, with commentary. First, the commentary:

The poorest 20% (you can argue with the number -- 10%? 18%? no one knows) of the city was left behind to drown. This was the plan. Forget the sanctimonious bullshit about the bullheaded people who wouldn't leave. The evacuation plan was strictly laissez-faire. It depended on privately owned vehicles, and on having ready cash to fund an evacuation. The planners knew full well that the poor, who in new orleans are overwhelmingly black, wouldn't be able to get out. The resources -- meaning, the political will -- weren't there to get them out.

White per capita income in Orleans parish, 2000 census: $31,971. Black per capita: $11,332. Median *household* income in B.W. Cooper (Calliope) Housing Projects, 2000: $13,263.

And snips of the e-mail:

There are dead animals floating in the water, pets left behind. Surely people thought they would be back to collect the pets. Not so. The rescuers smell like gas when they come back in; there's gas in all of the water that consumes the area. Fires are burning all over the place. Our teams are tired and they are thirsty and they are hungry. And they have a place to sleep and water to drink and food to eat. I can only imagine how the people without these "luxuries" are feeling right now....

Maybe it's not our worst nightmare scenario, but it still a nightmare.

Glad I'm not commuting....

Consumers can expect retail gas prices to rise to $4 a gallon soon but whether they stay there depends on the long-term damage to oil facilities from Hurricane Katrina, oil and gas analysts said Wednesday.

"There's no question gas will hit $4 a gallon," Ben Brockwell, director of pricing at the Oil Price Information Service, said. "The question is how high will it go and how long will it last?"

In other news, there are chainsaws and a tree-limb-shredding-machine in full-bore operation just outside the bedroom window. I think it's time to start drinking.

Also worth nothing: the Tulane University website is in emergency-blog mode.

Me, bad_customer

McDonald's? Takes credit cards. Burger King? Takes credit cards. Taco Bell? Doesn't, as it turns out. But I figured this out only after pulling in and ordering $9.59 in food and not only not being unable to pay for it but being impossible to get to an ATM without sitting through 15-20 minutes of rush-hour traffic and construction. So me, I'm the asshole today, who ordered a ton of food and then couldn't pay. I guess I've been pampered by other fast-food joints and it just never occured to me that I'd need cash. Somedays I'm just not too smart. I'd apologize if I ever felt brave enough to show my face there again....