Top 5 Stories of 2005 - #1 - Katrina

#1 - Katrina

Katrina and the Waves (Boy, their faces must be RED)

Kent Brockman: “…and if you think naming a destructive storm after a woman is sexist, you obviously have never seen the gals grabbing for items at a clearance sale.”
Marge: “That’s true…but he shouldn’t say it.”

- The Simpsons, “Hurricane Neddy”

2005 was a record year for meteorologists, weather buffs, major news organizations, and ministers preaching their fire and brimstone apocalypse. There were records made that took our breaths away:
- The busiest hurricane season in history, with 27 named storms, 14 hurricanes, and 7 major storms, (including 3 category fives), 4 of which hit the US. All five of these things are records.
- A hurricane that reached the pressure of 882mb (Wilma), marking the lowest ever (topping 1988’s Hurricane Gilbert). On top of that, Rita and Katrina are also in the top 6.
- Latest Tropical Storm ever (Zeta – December 31-January 6, 2006).
- Costliest single hurricane (Katrina - $80 billion+ beating Andrew’s $26.5 billion) and costliest hurricane season ($107 billion+ beating last year’s $45 billion).
- Deadliest Hurricane since 1928 (Katrina – 1200 so far..)

But, honestly, who cares about records.

For those people in its path, the record was one of devastation, misinformation, failures to act, and glaring inadequacies. There is very little funny about Katrina. I generally prefer to make jokes about all of this, but, still, the only funny thing about the situation is this guy:

Almost 1,500 dead is no joking matter. A flooded parking lot filled with school buses capable of getting people to safety isn’t funny. A woefully unqualified joke of a governor, mayor, and ex-Arabian-horse-watching FEMA head just leaves us with a sad heart, a disconcerted feeling, and a little rage.

But, as we all know, hindsight is 20/20. It is easy to know, after living through the results, decisions that should have been. It’s even simpler to point fingers and forget the tragedy in front of us. What we should be doing is looking at the school districts around the country that took students from Louisiana’s parishes, providing displaced kids and their families housing and a chance to keep their lives going. We should look at the millions of dollars raised by humanitarian aid organizations, donated by people like you and me who just wanted to do something to help.

For me, someone who is without cable TV and can’t watch the results live, I received my information from the internet, and got the minute by minute updates (as well as that previous picture) from the non-news website Fark.com. One thing that touched me in particular is the countless number of Samaritan Farkers that offered their homes to complete strangers who just happened to be in the way of the storm. They didn’t ask for anything in return, they just wanted to help a fellow human in trouble, and they gave what they could.

That, I think, is the story of Katrina. It would be hilariously easy for me to make FEMA jokes, or chastise both the local and national governments for their outstanding and inexplicably awful failure. But we can’t forget that, often times, the best of human behavior is brought out by the worst of situations. If we focus on the thousands of wrongs while ignoring the billions of little rights, we are missing out on our true nature, which, regardless of what anyone tells us, is noble, industrious, and compassionate.

And that, I think, is the main lesson to get from 2005. A lot of things went wrong. But we can’t let that make us forget about the million times more things that went right and the lessons we all learned. A wiser man than me once said, “Situations aren’t made good or bad by their outcome, but by whether or not we learn by them.” Who am I kidding? I made that up too.

Happy 2006. Let’s make it a good one.