I read a story on Strange Horizons not too far back called “Two Dreams On Trains” by Elizabeth Bear, set in drowned New Orleans. I didn’t like the story that much but the idea of a drowned New Orleans seemed kinda cool. Not any more.

Another observation. Anybody see any dramatic footage of daring rescues of white folks stranded on top of buildings? Me neither.

In the tsunami, I heard a lot about tourists and other celebrities who were in danger, but not so much about the people who did the majority of the dying — the poor folks (i.e. the financially not well-off) who, for whatever reason, didn’t get the evacuation message or didn’t comprehend it.

It’s going to be the same thing in Louisiana. A disaster of this proportion hits everyone, but it hits some harder than others. This isn’t to suggest that emergency warnings deliberately don’t reach poverty-stricken people, but there’s clearly a socio-economic component to those people losing property and those people losing loved ones.

I also stumbled across this from Teresa Nielsen Hayden’s blog*:
* White people find things
* Black people loot things

Compare the pictures. Compare the captions. Spot the difference?

Of course, there’s no racial element about this photo from the NY Times: shirtless black guy with shotgun rides bike through Wal-Mart. This, under the banner “Life-or-Death Words of the Day in a Battered City: ‘I Had to Get Out’” and quotes like:

“We have a major looting problem,” said Col. Terry Ebbert, the chief of homeland security for the city. “These are not individuals looting; these are large groups of armed individuals.”

Scary, huh?

Why’s the white dude in the photo apparently so calm, then? Oh, because it’s a toy gun. And in case you missed it above, the white guy is “finding” merchandise and probably looking for an open check-out lane. That gun-toting gang-banger? He’s looting. Who says the news isn’t educational?

Louisiana is not a rich state, and if you walk three blocks from the French Quarter in any direction and you’ll see the “other” side (aka “the majority”) of New Orleans; there’s a lot of poverty a stone’s throw away from tourists drinking themselves silly and flashing their boobies. Shacks — literally, shacks — surround the city. And quick, name another city in Louisiana after New Orleans, Shreveport, and Baton Rouge (or maybe you didn’t get Shreveport.) Point being, there are a lot of places you’ve never heard of that are gone; and while the destruction of New Orleans is a tragedy by itself, the heart sinks further to imagine the people and places I never knew existed that have been wiped off the map.

* - I mistakenly called it Patrick Nielsen Hayden’s website, when in fact it was Teresa’s site first. Oops!