Hurricane Katrina

[Acebot44]

Hmm

I like the post, I think it's awful, but it's also time to derape the H scroll, sorry


Resize it and repost it


- SC

[DeathsHand]

Of course, I thought that was common knowledge...

[manasecret]

My little story.

Tulane University won't open until I've heard 9/27, but that sounds optimistic. So instead Tulane students are scrambling to register for any university in their area where they can at least take some classes. Rice University is just one of many universities helping Tulane students out, and since I'm in Houston that helps me. They're taking applications until 9/8 and they'll let us know that very Monday 9/12 if we're accepted.

I think it's super generous of them, and I'm applying. I'm guessing humanities are the classes that most people will take, because they would be easy to transfer. Unfortunately for me I'm in my fourth year of engineering, which includes the final project, and I need only one more non-engineering class. So this won't help me get closer to graduating. But at least I can keep my mind sharp. I'm sitting here at home doing nothing. You know that useless feeling you get when you're not doing anything at all? What do you do when you feel selfish doing anything besides help, but there's so little you can do to help?

However, I am in a good position to help here in Houston. Since practically all of the Superdome evacuees are coming to the Astrodome, they're asking for volunteers (my brother-in-law is already helping).

It's just that I'm not worried about the ones already in Houston, they have food and water and air conditioning and everything they need. The ones dying are still stuck in Nola. Babies and old folks are dying in that New Orleans heat, and they have very little potable water and any food. And those are the ones that we can do nothing to help. We can only hope that the military and government agencies can get them out as quick as possible.

I know I have the least of the problems. I was only renting in Nola, and I hadn't even moved in yet. Plus I'm safe. But university students like me are still a small part of the story that I thought you'd like to hear about.

[Professor S]

I'm sorry, but the Presient should have stepped in days ago and federalized the relief efforts. I understand that running the nation means you need to let local governments such as mayors and governors take the first crack, but when their "first crack" ends with rapes, murders, mass hysteria and people starving to death on the streets, IT'S TIME TO REPLACE THOSE WHO SCREWED IT UP. It's like Somalia down there with gangs and "warlords" running the show.

Where are our nations resources? Where are the M.A.S.H. units to treat injury and disease? Where are the trucks, busses and supplies that we have stockpiled ( and yes they are still here and not in Iraq)?

What the Hell is going on?

[Jonbo298]

I was gonna crack a "joke" and say They are all in iraq but you kinda did it already

[Acebot44]

Originally Posted by Professor S

Where are our nations resources? Where are the M.A.S.H. units to treat injury and disease? Where are the trucks, busses and supplies that we have stockpiled ( and yes they are still here and not in Iraq)?

What the Hell is going on?

Maybe our government would rather let us or our fellow Americans weed themselves out of existence rather than having to do it using fedeal forces a few years from now. I'm not paranoid, nope.

[manasecret]

Mayor Ray Nagin is pissed. He feels the same way as you Strangler, here's what he said:

Nagin:

But we authorized $8 billion to go to Iraq lickety-quick. After 9/11, we gave the president unprecedented powers lickety-quick to take care of New York and other places.

Now, you mean to tell me that a place where most of your oil is coming through, a place that is so unique when you mention New Orleans anywhere around the world, everybody's eyes light up -- you mean to tell me that a place where you probably have thousands of people that have died and thousands more that are dying every day, that we can't figure out a way to authorize the resources that we need? Come on, man.

You know, I'm not one of those drug addicts. I am thinking very clearly.

And I don't know whose problem it is. I don't know whether it's the governor's problem. I don't know whether it's the president's problem, but somebody needs to get their ass on a plane and sit down, the two of them, and figure this out right now.

The rest of the interview is here.

He's angry, and I think he has every right to be. I can understand the frustation, and can only guess how horribly dire it must be to be waiting in the bleeding heat waiting for rescue.

But I think it's the hurricane's fault, and we need to remember that. Things could certainly have been done better, but it's a disaster situation that people didn't know how to deal with. The hurricane is what killed and is killing people, not people who made mistakes.

[Professor S]

It's Nagin's problem too.

I don't think Nagin has any leg to stand on when it comes to criticizing others. He has been a complete failure as a leader to his constituency, and in fact he's one of the reasons why I think that Bush should have responded sooner. The only right thing he did was to order the evacuation. As for leadership ability, he is a complete idiot and has more in common with Chicken Little than Mayor Rudy Guliani.

Was there much he could have done in the grand scheme of things to fix the problems? No, but he could have attempted to maintain the civility and sense of community in his city instead of basically proclaiming the hurricaine `the end of days'. If he had chosen to lead, I don't believe the rioting and social de-evolution would have been as bad.

Watching the news today, it looks like Bush is finally going to but more federal resources behind the rescue and survival efforts, but unfortunately he is several days and probably a few thousand lives too late.

[manasecret]

I think you're right about Nagin, too. This was all terribly handled, and everyone in the government I think will have to answer for it at the least when their reelection comes up. People dying in the streets is unacceptable, considering the resources this great country has.

At the same time, good things are happening. The people are getting moved out, whether late or not. And once they're out, I can tell you since most are in Houston they're getting all the basic resources they need. But I think we need to look at what's next now.

These people are poor and most likely have no insurance. No insurance means these people can't afford to rebuild. So what do they do? Where do they go when New Orleans is drained but they have no money to get back to New Orleans, let alone rebuild their homes? Sounds like the poor just getting poorer.

So what's the solution: build them new homes in the city that will be likely flooded again when the next hurricane hits? Pay off their debts so they can afford to go back into debt to rebuild? Will the $10.5 billion that congress passed go into helping these poor people, or will it go to help the people who have insurance and therefore don't need it nearly as much?

I think the evacuated New Orleanians will end up staying in Houston or in other cities in Texas, and I think they should. New Orleans is a forsaken city for the poor, and while no city is perfect I think they have a far better chance at good jobs outside of New Orleans. Now I have no statistics on that, that's just my opinion after seeing life in Houston compared to life in New Orleans firsthand. Either way, no matter where they end up, I hope that the federal aide goes largely to these people.

This all just opinion and I'm just trying to offer solutions. Any thoughts for solutions? My other solution is to bring them hundreds of Shipley donuts in the morning. I think a bit of normal life would help, but I heard on the news that a group of people who brought a large batch of cooked hotdogs to give out were turned away because they weren't approved by the gov't health organizations. Flippin' ridiculous...

[Vampyr]

Yeah, there has been a lot of talk that New Orleans isn't even worth rebuilding. They are half right.

I mean, they were stupid to build a city in a mud hole anyway, and any attempt to keep a city in a mud hole is like trying to hold water in your hands.

Then again, it has one of the most vibrant and interesting cultures in the USA.+

[Jonbo298]

I think Bush and others should have seen and known ahead of time that when the talk is of "utter destruction" or "Pumps are very likely to fail and New Orleans will go underwater very easily" that you prepare troops and tell everyone the US Gov't is here and ready to help once the worst has passed.

Instead, it seems like "hmm, a hurricane...ok" *1 day after it hits* hmm, there seems to be alot of damage and flooding. Well...lets wait until the media points the finger at us to do anything.

I seriously predict that once the media lessens the coverage of the desturction/people looting, they will find out why New Orleans became a hell hole of water. The blame will be placed on the government and other people for not suppying enough funding to ensure pumps won't fail as badly as they did. Granted, Katrina is "almost one of a kind" so it was had to prepare for something you don't know if it will occur but expect alot of finger pointing for the failure of levee's and pumps with funding to improve them

[Professor S]

Originally Posted by Jonbo298

I seriously predict that once the media lessens the coverage of the desturction/people looting, they will find out why New Orleans became a hell hole of water. The blame will be placed on the government and other people for not suppying enough funding to ensure pumps won't fail as badly as they did. Granted, Katrina is "almost one of a kind" so it was had to prepare for something you don't know if it will occur but expect alot of finger pointing for the failure of levee's and pumps with funding to improve them

I don't think the pumps or the levee's are an issue. The pumps were only intended to handle flood waters from rain runnoff or a minor levee break. The pumps were never inetended to handle three enormous breaks. As for the levee's themselves, well, I don't think the walls of Troy could have kept Katrina at bay. We're talking nearly 200 mph winds, a 30 foot storm swell topped with 25 to 30 foot waves. Goodnight nurse.

Katrina was just another reminder from Mother Nature that we are forever at her mercy. The main issue is why more wasn't done sooner, and it's a question that we need to have asked by a congressional hearing. When the head of Homeland Security is trying to get information to the suffering people in a destroyed city through a friggin' website that no one can access... heads need to roll and FEMA needs to be reorganized.

[Jonbo298]

I know that all blame can't be placed on the pumps, I was just referring to the fact that years before they had predictions for if "the big one" hit and it didnt even really get much attention. Granted, pumps may have had a harder time but I'd imagine if the pumps were upgraded, the water wouldn't be still as high in New Orleans. There may still be water but it still won't be as high as rooftops still by today

[Xantar]

My dad works at the National Archives, and I went on a tour of the place some four or five years ago. One of the things they showed me was a sort of disaster map of New Orleans. It had plans for what to do in case of a gas attack, where to place the police when a riot erupts for some reason, how to deal with an earthquake etc. The person who showed me the map pointed out that the city is in a basin without all that much protection from the ocean. His words were something like, "The government's worst nightmare is that a hurricane hits New Orleans. The engineers have worked out that in that case, the city would literally disappear."

You would think that when Katrina was identified and marked two days before it hit the coast, the government would have woken up and thought, "Oh no! This is the big one! It's unacceptable to have any human beings in the city when it arrives."

I prefer not to cast blame because there will be plenty of time for that later. But I also wanted to alert you all to something:

If you receive an e-mail urgently asking for money to be sent to a relief fund for Katrina, DO NOT REPLY. Do not click any of their links or send any money to any addresses they give you. Those e-mails are spammers trying to cash in on the disaster and steal your money or credit card number. Real charities do not spam your inbox. Ever.

You know, as much as I hate murder and terrorism, there are times when I really think somebody should blow up a spam king's house...

[Krypton]

I feel depressed when I see this stuff on the news, seeing what all those people had to go through, I especially feel bad for the elderly and the ill ones, being there is no power, and its hard to get supplies. I would like to see what New Orleans looks like after this is all over.