Hurricane Ida was marked by critical infrastructure failures
Hi Friend,
Last week, Hurricane Ida touched down on the southeastern part of Louisiana as a Category 4 hurricane. It just happened to also be the 16th anniversary of Hurricane Katrina… but Ida was no Katrina.
I know a thing or two about this. I was born and raised in New Orleans. My family was displaced for a year after Katrina. And I worked on recovery issues in the immediate aftermath of the storm… and for 6 years afterwards. Now, because of Ida, we had to evacuate for an extended period because we still don’t have power.
Ida was marked by critical infrastructure failure. It wiped out entire systems (most utilities cannot withstand Category 4-storm winds).
There was “catastrophic” damage to power sources (including the main transmission tower, which fell into the Mississippi River), major gas shortages, severe sewerage and water issues, cell tower collapses, roads blocked by fallen trees, interstates blocked by downed power lines, hospitals damaged by flood waters, etc.
Ida left cities and towns in complete darkness, elderly and young alike struggling to survive in 100+ degree heat without water or power, and families unable to return home for the foreseeable future.
Ida didn’t just affect Louisiana’s basic infrastructure. It made its way up the East Coast, bringing catastrophic flooding and tornadoes to Pennsylvania, Maryland, New York, and New Jersey.
One of the busiest airports in New Jersey (Newark) was inundated with flood waters, grounding flights. New York City’s famed subway system was completely overwhelmed by flood waters pouring in like a waterfall.
People were trapped in their cars or on buses in parts of New York, with many, tragically, not making it out alive. Tornadoes swept through Annapolis, Maryland and parts of Pennsylvania, destroying homes, streets, and power structures.
When seeing the devastation a storm like this could cause to so many—from the south to the north—it is sickening to think how reckless and senseless Washington politicians have been with America’s infrastructure.
Infrastructure is not a partisan or a political issue. Every person and every city and town relies on it to function.
When we think of infrastructure, we think of fundamental things like roads, bridges, airports, power, sewerage and water systems, etc.
When DC Democrats think of infrastructure, they think of free college, outlandish climate change initiatives, amnesty for illegal immigrants, expansion of Medicaid, a government takeover of pre-k and daycare, and so on.
No matter what you think about those issues separately, they do not belong in infrastructure bills… because they are, by definition, NOT infrastructure.
It is unconscionable to think Nancy Pelosi and House Democrats hijacked the debate about real infrastructure improvements to try to ram through their $3.5 trillion Bernie-Biden Budget Bill that had NOTHING to do with infrastructure.
They refused to take up the bipartisan Senate-passed $1 trillion infrastructure bill without FIRST getting their mega-budget blueprint approved for their liberal-wish-list spending spree.
DC Democrats used the process and abused their power to get their pet projects funded… at your expense. Washington should be building bridges and mending fences, literally and figuratively.
