San Diego and New Orleans

Quote of the day:
"Manners are a sensitive awareness of the feelings of others. If you have that awareness, you have good manners, no matter what fork you use."
--Emily Post

News reports have been awash with comparisons between the responses to Hurricane Katrina and the San Diego wildfires.

Much has been made about how positive San Diego’s response was, compared to New Orleans. Most writers postulate one or both of the following reasons for this: 1) different racial or class composition and 2) different levels of governmental competence.

While I think both of these things made a difference (especially the second), there is an obvious factor that I think is more important.

The Katrina floods affected huge areas in New Orleans, including near the Superdome. Highways to and from the stadium were often closed or impassable.

Those who might have volunteered to help were instead deterred by not knowing if they’d be able to get safely to the Superdome.

In San Diego the situation was very different. Qualcomm Stadium was never threatened by fire, and the areas for miles around it were never threatened by fire. The roads leading to it were not closed or jammed with cars.

People wanting to help knew they could safely and easily drive to the stadium to donate or volunteer. When people started doing this, others were watching on TV. They were inspired to volunteer, also.

So many people wanted to donate that supplies began piling up. So many people wanted to volunteer that people became very creative about how they helped. That’s why people were doing message, leading yoga, and making balloon animals.

They didn’t do that because our local and state governments were effective. And they didn’t do it because of their race or income level. They did it because they wanted to help, and because the help was fairly easy to give.