Re: (rshsdepot) report from "6 minutes ago"

[Ivan Berger <oldmaven_@_comcast.net>]

It's not just Bush's fault.

The disaster happened on his watch, and nobody was in much of a rush to 
check it out, let alone send assistance; further, the National Guard was 
away on phony business. Money for aid has all been pre-refunded to the 
rich. We were less prepared for this than we were for 9/11, despite 
having days of pretty specific warnings.  (I know Bush doesn't read 
newspapers, but doesn't he at least watch The Weather Channel?)

BUT, Bush is just the latest, phoniest, and least responsive in a long 
long line of politicians underfunding infrastructure, from the federal 
down to local levels   E.g., not enough money was going to NO's levee 
system under Clinton, though Bush lowered it further. At least twice.  
Our railroads are no match for Europe's or Japan's (haven't been to 
other places)--not even in the Northeast corridor, where population 
density is similar to theirs.  Mass transit suffers all over the place.  
Every politician wants his name on a new bridge, but few want to spend 
our money maintaining the old ones. 

In the 1950s, The Netherlands (which is on a delta like NO, is mostly 
below sea level, and has been gradually reclaimed from the sea since the 
12th Cent.) had a massive flood.  They immediately set about a huge 
public works project, the Delta Project, to prevent it from recurring, 
even though the country's population at that time was only 7 or 8 
million people.

In 1955, I was flooded out of my home in Connecticut. Though that flood, 
caused by 17 days of heavy rain, covered areas from Vermont to 
Pennsylvania, it was nowhere near as disastrous as the NO one.  (Those 
areas are hilly, so most of those flooded had dry land a few miles 
away.)   It was also,  due to the primitive state of remote TV coverage, 
far less well publicized.  But we had rescue helicopters in the air that 
day, National Guardsmen on the street the next day, food and drinking 
water being trucked in . . . and seven new dams in Connecticut alone 
within the following few years.

And that was under a Republican, too -- Eisenhower.  But Ike was a 
middle-of-the-roader, smart, responsible, reasonably compassionate, a 
real leader, and a guy who cared about the infrastructure (much as some 
RSHS folks must curse him for the Interstate Highway System's effect on 
the railroads).

Ivan Berger

PS: Enough with the political vituperation--this, more than any list, 
should belong to people who know their stations.

=================================
The Railroad Station Historical Society maintains a database of existing
railroad structures at: http://www.rrshs.org

------------------------------