The Astrodome? Prt 1 of Hurricanes, Floods and Man's Inhumanity to Man

Its difficult to imagine the disaster that has befallen New Orleans. And although some very hard and legitmate questions may need to be asked down the road, this is not the time and place for these questions. That being said, some of the things that are going on need comment.

Part I.. Superdome to the Astrodome?

Who in the heck is the moron behind this decision. It is crystal clear that people need to be gotten out of the Superdome as quickly as possible. From all reports, it is sheer hell. But why in the world would you want to bus them a long distance in order to put them into another stadium. The Astrodome has water and bathrooms. It has some temperature control It has the limited ability to serve food due to the closed concession stands (but what is left since it was mothballed). It has seats. It doesn't have recreation facilities, it doesn't have showers, and it has, at best, improvised beds. No one is thinking very well.

Consider:

There are still numerous summer camps and retreat centers all around the United States. Most of them closed for the year last week. Are they long term solutions? No. But they are superb short term solutions. They have beds, showers, bathrooms, recreation facilities, mess halls, electricity and water. They can hold in comfort until the cold weather some of the victims... and to the extent that they are in the South and/or are winterized, they can hold people for a much longer period of time. And many of these are run by churches or charitible or community organizations that would welcome a chance to serve. Up near me, for example, is George Williams College in Williams Bay Wisconsin. A very large facility run by the YMCA. It has a large number of "winterized" rooms and a even more non-winterized cabins. It has large and well equipped dining halls. It claims to hold 600 people and, no doubt, in an emergency, could hold more. But it shouldn't need to. There are numerous other retreat centers and camps all across the country that could hold thousands of people.

And once those are exhausted:

There are closed military bases all around the US that have not yet been placed into alternate uses and there are empty buildings at other bases and barracks. Send some of the overflow there.

And once those are exhausted:

There are various parts of the country that have "part time" or "seasonal" hotels. Many of these facilities have closed, or are closing in the next few days. They can be put into service.

In sum, there are lots of ways to solve the problem.