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[hiromichi]

What does the subject sentence mean?


"The flooding was so bad in Washington that New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called the president and said, 'You're on your own pal.'"
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Hiromichi

[CP]

It should have a comma: "You're on your own, pal."

"You're on your own" means that you will have to do it without any help from me. Calling someone "pal," particularly when it is someone in a high posiition -- and here it is a city mayor speaking to the president of the U.S. -- is treating him very familiarly, even contemptuously.

Now, the mayor probably didn't actually use those words to the president, but the author wants to convey that, however he said it, the mayor was leaving the president "high and dry."

By the way, since last winter's flooding of New Orleans, caused by Hurricane Katrina, was terribly mishandled by the federal government, and the president at first left it up to the mayor to handle the overwhelming problem (the equivalent of, "You're on your own, pal"), I suspect that the quoted passage is meant as a joke, with the mayor turning the tables on the president when the city of Washington got its share of flooding.
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You live a new life for every new language you speak. -Czech proverb

[hiromichi]

CP, Thank you. A comma was missing in the original text. I should have noticrd it.
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Hiromichi