Bring back the Big Easy

All three catastrophes have disrupted port operations and with it, trade. Busan got back on its feet pretty quickly and whilst the Tsuname wrought by far the most death and destruction, ports escaped relatively unscathed. Which makes Katrina, in terms of damage and disruption to ports, the most devastating of the lot. Bevis Marks is guessing at US$100mworth of losses to Gulf Coast port facilities alone.

Whilst we were left wondering what could really have been done to protect against Maemi and the tsunami, we’re left thinking why wasn’t more done to protect life and property in and around New Orleans and the rest of the Gulf Coast? A city in the front line of the hurricane belt, built on land lying below sea level with a seemingly inadequate system of levies to protect it. And all this in the US of A! Of course there’s been an awful lot of criticism hurled around in recent weeks but finger pointing is easy. Dealing with a crisis of such magnitude is not.

The ports will no doubt all be repaired and refurbished. At New Orleans, steel coils represented the first commercial cargo to get moving – shipped by barge to an Alabama auto manufacturer.

This was followed by the port’s first container ship.

Americans have a ‘can-do’ approach to things. It might have taken them a bit of time to get off their marks this time but now they’ve started they’ll get the job done.

Still, you have to wonder whether New Orleans will ever be quite its old self again. And you also have to wonder whether the ‘can-do’ Americans will ever get round to revising their ludicrous gun laws and make their cities safe to walk around in.

Meanwhile here in good old Blighty the Katrina jokes have been doing the rounds. When there’s been such human misery it’s arguably in bad taste to trade jokes but then sometimes humour keeps us all from despair and this one’s pretty innocuous: The sixties group The Animals have issued an apology: There isn’t a house in New Orleans.