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It took us 19 hours to get to Dallas, where we have relatives. Normally it's an eight or nine hour drive. There were about a half-dozen bottlenecks - places where it took half an hour or more to go one or two miles. But even when they ended the contra-flow (using inbound lanes for outbound traffic), people were extremely polite. Only a handful of people decided to take the road unto themselves. I heard one estimate that almost 3 million people evacuated. At the gas stations and rest stops, despite the lines for gas, snacks and bathrooms, again I saw courteous behavior from 99% of the people.
New Orleans was very lucky. The eye hit about 25 miles to the east - at Slidel and the La-MS border. Had it passed over the center of the city, one estimate was it would take 6 months to pump out the water. There would have been no city. As it is, it will take months, years to recover. I saw some pictures of downtown buildings - windows blown out, debris all over the place. The only good news is that because of Cindy, many of the dead and dying trees had already been cut down. The branches that delayed restoration of power were removed, so once the water recedes and restoration efforts begin, electricity may - may - be restored more quickly.
We must observe with awe how the fortitude and endurance of the individual human spirit coalesced into a collective spiritual force that, in a real and ultimate sense, triumphed over the fury, the dissipating force of nature. For the evil here is that the storm would divide us, separate the individual from the community. Instead, we remained individuals who collectively chose to create a community.
Considering the number of people involved, it's amazing how well things went - over 80% evacuated. This demonstrates, if we need demonstration, that given a common goal, we can cooperate to achieve it, and respect each other regardless of cultural, religious or other differences. We saw this in WWII and we saw it with the space program. And we say it in the aftermath of September 11.
We don't have a disaster to find unity. But if we don't unify to achieve and celebrate, we will be forced to unify to survive and rebuild.
And this brings me to my "political" reflection - a lesson from the storm, if you will. The residents of New Orleans and the surrounding areas understood what was required and "bought into the program" - evacuation, preparedness, communication, cooperation,etc. They, rather we, (except for a few jerks - there will always be those - and it was made known to them who they were) supported the goal, made sure we achieved it, for one simple reason: our leaders told us the truth, the media engaged in two way communication. In short, they trusted us and we trusted them.
Imagine that. All it takes to unite people is a common goal, the vision to see it, the leadership to communicate it and the moral courage to trust.
The implications are obvious.
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