Some “obsession”

In yesterday’s New York Times, in a story about the endless conferences, scenarios, drills, that have been held by local, state, and federal government over the years to prepare for a major weather disaster in New Orleans (most recently in July 2004 when a full scale “war game” was played), one of the participants was quoted as saying that the officials were “obsessed” with the likelihood of just such a disaster occurring.

Yet none of this “obsession” led local and state government to set up the actual steps to take care of the 100,000 New Orleans residents who, as was known to the planners, would be unable to leave town on their own.

To paraphrase T.S. Eliot’s “The Hollow Men,” which I also quoted yesterday:

Between the obsession
And the act
Falls the Shadow.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at September 03, 2005 10:53 AM | Send