Katrina

I like to operate a news blackout policy while I’m on holiday, so you can imagine my surprise when I returned to the US on September 2 to find New Orleans under water. Below are a few articles, audio, and video clips which you may have missed but which are really worth attention.

It is way too early to tell whether this really will become “Katrinagate” for President Bush, but how he and his huge retinue of politically-appointed bureaucrats react in the weeks ahead will be decisive. Government has been thrown into disrepute, and many Americans have realised, for the first time, that the collapsed, rotten flood defences of New Orleans are a symbol of failed infrastructure across the nation.
(BBC reporter Matt Wells’ analysis)

Other links:
Video: New Orleans Police looting Walmart (via Blackfive)
Video: MSNBC’s Keith Olbermann’s finest five minutes (via BoingBoing)
Text: A first-hand account of the Ernest Memorial Convention Center chaos (via Daily Kos)
Text: Manager of the Superdome recounts how possible stampede of 20,000 people was narrowly avoided (New York Times)
Audio: BBC World Service had an excellent analysis piece this morning but it does not appear to have been uploaded yet. It should appear here soon.