Wednesday, October 12, 2005

New Orleans vs Mumba (Bombay, India)

Several nights ago Nancy and I were visiting with our friends Al and Dolly. (Both are from India) We got to talking about Katrina. Al mentioned that Bombay had a record rainfall on July 27, 2005. He said there were about a 100 deaths. And he said that there was no looting. "Really", was my response. Al continued to point out that the Indian army and navy were on the scene within 12 hours.

The next day Al sent me the following information:

New Orleans vs. Mumbai (Bombay, India)

  • inches of rain in new orleans due to hurricane katrina... 18
  • inches of rain in mumbai (July 27th).... 37.1
  • population of new orleans... 484,674
  • population of mumbai... 12,622,500
  • deaths in new orleans within 48 hours of katrina...100
  • deaths in mumbai within 48hours of rain.. 37.
  • number of people to be evacuated in new orleans... entire city..
  • humber of people evacuated in mumbai...10,000
  • Cases of shooting and violence in new orleans...Countless
  • Cases of shooting and violence in mumbai.. NONE
  • Time taken for US army to reach new orleans... 48hours
  • Time taken for Indian army and navy to reach mumbai...12hours
  • status 48hours later...new Orleans is still waiting for relief, army and electricity
  • status 48hours later. Mumbai is back on its feet and is business is as usua
  • lUSA...world's most developed nation India...third world country..

One could say that the two storms are different, the elevation is different and the city scape is not the same etc. But we are a fully developed country with huge resources. We just spent billions on a new Federal Department. Emergency Planning was paramont and yet rescue efforts failed.

2 comments:

Nancy said...

It's a surprise to me.

Bob said...

The BBC reported yesterday that the death toll for the Bombay storm was 400.