Wet Bank Guide

While a flurry of lawsuits is inevitable as the one year anniversary of both Hurricane Katrina and the Federal Flood approaches, I felt obliged to call out this one for attention. The story of Ethel Freeman was an iconic one in the weeks that followed the collapse of the U.S. government's levees. It came to signify all of the failures that compounded to create the single largest tragedy in United State's history.


Ethel Freeman, dead of neglect outside the convention center


(Before you go all 9-11 on me, let me suggest the attack on the World Trade Center could only compare if the federal government had known all about it, had perhaps even given the conspirator's free flying lessons. The fact that government at every level so completely failed us is what makes this, in my mind, the nation's greatest tragedy.

In 9-11, no FEMA official stood in the road and told rescuers they could not go forward because it was too dangerous, or because they did not have their paperwork in order. National Guardsmen did not barricade themselves behind doors because they had not food to give to the survivors outside. The victims were not left dead in the streets of Manhattan to be collected like the bodies of dogs.)

For those who have forgotten, here is a story on the lawsuit her son has filed against the city and state. Another suit against the federal government is pending.

The elderly woman died sitting in her wheelchair outside the city's convention center, which was overwhelmed with desperate evacuees. Her body, pushed to one side and covered with a poncho, became a widely noted icon of the botched hurricane response.

Freeman's lawyer, John Paul Massicot, said the mother and son were instructed to go the fetid convention center -- even though there was no aid available and no way out. "Let's not forget, she survived the storm. The storm didn't get her. She didn't survive the rescue," Massicot said.

If you want to talk to me about Spike Lee and his increasingly famous half-a-dozen minutes out of four hours listening to people in the Ninth Ward argue the levees were sabotaged, scroll back up and take a good hard look at that picture.

Or this one.



Or this one.



I could go on and on and on...

When you are done looking at these images, really studying them, get back to me.

Then you can talk to me about Spike Lee.

Katrina NOLA New Orleans Hurricane Katrina Think New Orleans Louisiana FEMA levees flooding Corps of Engineers We Are Not OK Spike Lee When The Levees Broke New Orleans Convention Center