Listening to Larrys call

After a dip into the personal, its probably about time to focus back on the rest of the world for a bit.Australia’s North and Central Queensland has just been hit by a cyclone, a hurricane in northern parlance that has devastated the cost and a surprising distance inland. Cyclone Larry was a cat 5 storm, which puts it on a similar scale to hurricane Katrina, the storm that left New Orleans devastated late last year.

Now its important to note that the Innisvale region of central Queensland where Larry made landfall is nowhere near as populated as coastal Louisiana, nor is it as low lying and exposes as New Orleans, but none the less there has been no loss of life, the emergency services swung into action before the storm and within two days the Little J’Ho was announcing comprehensive support packages for the farmers whose entire crops were whipped out.

I am not blowing Australia’s trumpet overmuch on this, I think that the response to Larry is appropriate, well sized and timed. I think the US reaction to Katrina was and continues to be appallingly slow. It seems like the majority of the money being spent on Katrina was by the media outlets covering it. If the money it cost to get those reporter all over the gulf states, if the transport had been used for food and medical supplies, if the energy had been used helping rather than to feed the voyeuristic desires of the American people, perhaps things would not have gone so amazingly badly.