I am livid about this whole mess. As I said in my original post about this the economical impact could be catastrophic! Lives have been lost, livelihoods passed down from generation to generation are on the brink of disaster. Living down here I may have a totally different take and reaction to this, though. And, I am aware of how much the nation depends on the Port of New Orleans even though the average American has no clue how important it is to our economy - it's amazing the percentage of what Americans buy at the store without a second thought and it arrives via the Gulf of Mexico and the Port of New Orleans and Baton Rouge - not to mention natural gas and gasoline.
Earlier this week it had already begun moving a east. The port of Mobile was being affected. Their ships have to go through it to get to port - their shipping channel runs through it. From what I understand they had already begun washing down the ships before bringing them into port - this takes time and could cause a back up which could cause shipping companies to send their ships to other ports of call leaving the Gulf Coast Ports with a huge loss in revenue which means a trickle effect of a loss of jobs. I could go on and on about the maritime impact.
But what upsets me the most is the toll it is going to take on our already fragile wetlands. We lose so much of our wetlands every day and since Katrina there has been a good effort to stop this loss and create new wetlands. This is going to put us back for I don't know how long. The price of seafood is going to go sky high. If the tankers coming up the MS to the refineries have to slow down to be washed before entering the river, then that cost will be passed along to the consumers - higher gasoline, higher heating oil, higher grain, the list could go on and on.
And, the federal government's response??? A little late.
Makes me think that Brownie's in there somewhere still doing a "heck of a job."
Of course, I have to applaud the Coast Guard - once again they were the first to respond!!!!!
Okay, I'm off my soap box! Sorry.
Linda
