It's not an official news report...but it sounds legit for the moment.
Prayers to the fallen.
EDIT: AP Report. It has info to back up the report on the thread.
Forgive me, but what the hell were people still doing in New Orleans? I was under the impression that they had turned all the highways into one-way exit routes, and that people were taking their stuff and getting the hell out as fast as possible. I mean, seriously, you've got the friggin media going "HOLY SH-T THERE'S A HUGE GODDAM HURRICANE COMING" for well over a week -- when it's a big enough story that the networks are creating brand-new logos and even theme music for the thing, it's a pretty good sign that you should get in your car and drive away as fast as you can.
This is Katrina.
This guy is mooning Katrina.
That should be a sufficient answer for you Cycle.
If not, let's also take into account that some people simply don't want to leave their homes. If they don't, that's their decision, however poor it may be.
And they regret it afterwards. The who think they can stay home with 150 mph winds and catastrophic (but PREDICTED) flood, must be TOTALLY out of their minds. Thank the Coast Guards.
And New Orleans is GONE. Jesus, when was the last time a major city was obliterated by Mother Nature?
I think so far figures are hovering around the hundreds, not the thousands. It's the looters that are giving the major problems at the moment.
If it doesn't reach 1,000 I'll be surprised. As Castor said, New Orleans was pretty much obliterated though not by Katrina directly. It's the levee break that's killing the city. Considering New Orleans is a major city and that they were talking about how many thousands of people were resuced from roof tops, you can be sure there are at least close to a thousand that they didn't get to and are floating dead in New Orleans alone.
As for "getting out," it's not always possible (not counting the usual diehards that refuse to abandon their homes). We could have a few days up here on Long Island and NYC to get out, and it wouldn't be possible able to move ALL the people off of the islands that make up NYC and Long Island due to the massive concentration of people here. As my dad joked, we'd get off faster walking around here. ;p
Though the story of Harvey Jackson was the first thing I heard in terms of Katrina and that broke my heart yesterday. It'd be a miracle if he found his wife so I hope he eventually takes solace in the fact that I think his kids seemingly made it out alright along with him.
It's all about the geography of the land though. New Orleans is just like a bowl, so where did all the extra water go? In the bowl. My dad and I were listinging to NPR yesteday, and this one lady who lives in New Orleans was like, "I didn't leave my house because it's a strong developement. It's made out of heavy bricks, and no wind is gonna knock it down." After she said that, I was like, "ARE YOU A FRIGGIN' IDIOT?!? Oh no, a category five hurricane isn't going to do anything to my nice brick house." Hope the family and the friends of the deceased have an easy time coping with it.
Oh man. Some places have water 20 feet deep.
*sighs*
Well, goodbye New Orleans. It's been nice knowing you. 🙁
I have alot of family and friends in Louisiana. Dallas and Austin hotels are full of refugees from the storms. Even traffic in Texas metro areas has been affected.
I want to hear from my friends in N.O. Soon.
Okay this is quite funny and pretty accurate.
WARNING! ADULT LANGUAGE AHEAD!
Foamy sprinkles the 'f' word around like candy, so don't let your parents know you're listening to it.
New Orleans knew this was coming, they just didn't know when, and the good news is that the body count is actually quite small when you compare it to the amount of damage done by Katrina.
Anyways, I doubt that the Big Easy is totally done for, there are plans to turn the pumps back on and rebuild the levees. Either that or turn it into "Venice on the Mississippi"....
Jimro
A professional wrestler's home was destroyed in the hurricane. o.o
but yeah... see ya, New Orleans. I'm sorry I was never around to see you... <3
This is pretty bad news. I was hoping to go there someday >>
I'm with Jimro on this one. Due to the announcement of a plan to get all the water out, New Orleans is most likely going to be restored. It's too famous a city to die. That's like saying Gattlingburg in Tenessee is dead because of a rockslide. Not gonna happen.
All I know is that considering nearly every part of New Orleans is gone, I'm pretty freaked out and a bit scared. Granted, I live in near Philly where anything hurricane-wise would just be giant storms, but still...
~Neo
I never have lived in an area with the possibility of a hurricane but....wow. New Orleans, a large city is just....destroyed. That's quite a shock to see happen. Sadly this is all recent news to me, as I just started paying attention to the news, and re-watching it yesterday.
*sigh* I'm an idiot.
~T2K
For someone who went through Andrew in '92, I can half-way compensate, only for the fact that our home was completely freakin' destroyed. Also, walking outside to see your neighbor's 2 story home with a motorcycle jammed through his 2nd story bedroom window kinda makes you think...
Anyway, only thing I can't fathom is the flooding. Holy crapcicles, that is bad. Huge thoughts of hope going to all the people from NO. I am thankful I don't know anybody right now, for the fact that the stress kicking in my life wouldn't be able to cope I think with the worrying of a loved one over there. Not to sound like a @#%$, but it's the truth.
Last time I saw any flooding like that was like the mid 90's I think during the Mississippi river flood... or whatever it actually was. Can't say I remember too well.
No one is worrying about whether or not they'll "restore" the city eventually. For the most part, they'd have to anyway. The point is that it was ruined in an "unusual" (though not totally unexpected) way.
the only difference between the flooding in New Orleans and the Mississippi flood of the late 90's, or the Chehalis river flood in southwest washington in the early 90's, is that NO doesn't have gravity on it's side to dry out.
Hence the pumps. Disasters are always an engineering challenge, but NO has known this one was coming and continually prepped as best they could. Even this summer city planners debated on putting in extra levees to protect downtown and the French quarter. Not that having the plan in place really did any good, the flood came too soon.
Tsunami, Katrina, I don't know what is coming next, volcano or earthquake, but we'll get through that too.
Jimro
I finally heard from one friend, she'd evacuated to Baton Rouge. Her home is gone and neighbors who were recently rescued told her that their area is completely underwater with corpses floating along the top. I still haven't heard from a friend who is at Xavier University (which is currently closed indefinitely, according to their website). I hope she evacuated in time.
I'm worried about further rioting in Louisiana.
About of a 5th of the population of New Orleans didn't have cars, and certainly not everyone has enough money to drive out someplace and crash in a hotel for who knows how long.
Get some friends who have a car and go camping, then. I am sorry for being frank, but hanging around while you're about to be f--ked in the ass by a force twelve hurricane is inexcusable stupidity. "OHNOZ I DONT HAV A CAR AN I CANT AFFORD A HOTEL!!11!!11!1!" Bullsh-t! That never stopped me from going on a massive camping trip to the Queen Charlotte Bloody Islands a couple weeks ago! Don't have friends? Use a bicycle! Hitchhike! This is not rocket science!
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Don't have friends? Use a bicycle! Hitchhike! This is not rocket science!
Bicycle to where? The friggin storm covered both LA and MS. Yeah you'll get far being out in the open in the low land swamps that surround the area for miles with a massive storm baring down on you.
Granted no one should have been surprised by this. People have been saying for years that if a Cat 3 or higher storm were to hit that area it would be game over, so they have had years to prepare.
(I wonder how long before the religious folk start saying how this happened for all of the sins that happened in the city and whatnot.)
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Get some friends who have a car and go camping, then. I am sorry for being frank, but hanging around while you're about to be f--ked in the ass by a force twelve hurricane is inexcusable stupidity. "OHNOZ I DONT HAV A CAR AN I CANT AFFORD A HOTEL!!11!!11!1!" Bullsh-t! That never stopped me from going on a massive camping trip to the Queen Charlotte Bloody Islands a couple weeks ago! Don't have friends? Use a bicycle! Hitchhike! This is not rocket science!
Shut up. You've never been poor or dealt with being homeless a day in your life. I have. I can fully understand not being able to "ride a bike" several HUNDRED miles out of the way of the hurricane in 90 or 100 degree plus weather through parts of the country that have high crime rates. I guess alot of the homeless should just abandon their children and elderly too, it'd only slow them down on their leisurely bikeride across Louisiana. Hope they get a few weeks head start next time.
Shut up. You've never been poor or dealt with being homeless a day in your life. I have.
When it looked as though half of Kelowna was going to be wiped out by forest fires, rescue crews came and picked up anyone who didn't have a ride. I can only assume the same thing happened in New Orleans, and besides, people drowning in their homes because they decided to stay and enjoy the show don't have homelessness as an excuse.
I'd just like to point out, SX lived out where the storm hit, he evacuated apparently, but He'll be out for awhile until either: a., his house is intact and he still has his compy, or b. He moves and gets internet.
...gah, this Hurricane is just plain depressing...
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When it looked as though half of Kelowna was going to be wiped out by forest fires, rescue crews came and picked up anyone who didn't have a ride.
N.O. and the surrounding areas (and states) affected have have populations of a few million people. Kelowna has a population of around 100,000 people. Louisiana (as well as Alabama and Miss.) are poor states. Vancouver is not a considerably poor area.
I'm thinking maybe a few more people needed rides away from the gulf than your friends in Kelowna.
Well it's day three of the aftermath, and I honestly expected a much stronger federal presence than what is being shown on the news, so far it has only been National Guardsmen and Air Force reserve that I know have been mobilized, but I'm sure that representatives of all the services are present.
If you are not familiar with the National Incident Management System, or NIMS as it's described, you really should go here: www.dhs.gov/dhspublic/int...e_0363.xml
The short and sweet of NIMS is that the Feds step in when local and state resources are maxed beyond capacity, but they have a response time. In theory, response time is 48-72 hours, so if the call went from the LA governor on day one, now is the time for Federal aid to be arriving on scene.
That means if a hospital was going to arrive today, it needed to be notified two days ago. Somebody dropped the ball.
Jimro
I don't believe New Orleans is totally gone. Yes a good portion of the city was destroyed but it'll recover...just not for a loooooooooooong time. I'm more concerned about if New Orleans gets the Florida treatment of last year, now that would pretty much kill that city for a couple of decades...
If Robertson says something about this disaster, so help me...
N.O. and the surrounding areas (and states) affected have have populations of a few million people. Kelowna has a population of around 100,000 people. Louisiana (as well as Alabama and Miss.) are poor states. Vancouver is not a considerably poor area. I'm thinking maybe a few more people needed rides away from the gulf than your friends in Kelowna.
I'm thinking the United States government controls a few thousand times more money than the province of British Columbia, which pretty much handled the Kelowna situation on its own. Oh, and Kelowna, an old mining town full of working-class types, is in the southern interior, about 250 miles away from Vancouver.
Jesus, this all seems like something out of a George Romero zombie movie, only without the walking dead as the catalyst. Mob rule, humanity regressing to it's most animalistic state, extreme social Darwinism, dead bodies littering the streets and being stepped over by a government that was far too goddamned shortsighted to see this thing coming...
You wonder how far we've come as a race when something like this happens and shows us that underneath all of our civilisation and moral codes and ethics, we're animals pure and simple.
PS: The FEMA and Homeland Security director are absolute turds. At minimum, I'd advocate them being fired. At maximum, they should be dropped off in the worst areas of the ruined New Orleans with big sandwich boards on them with one side saying "I'm why your levees broke" and the other saying "And I'm why you haven't eaten real food since Tuesday."
Even though my area didn't get the brunt of Katrina, the edge of it went over us. We got winds around sixty-miles an hour, but oddly not much rain, which usually happens when a hurricane comes through. Our power went out on Monday and we didn't get it back until yesterday afternoon. Heck, there was a statewide blackout in Mississippi after Katrina went through.
I know that nearly everyone has heard of the damage done to New Orleans but, has anyone heard of the damage done to the Mississippi and Louisiana Gulf coast? Cities that were there before Katrina hit literally disappeared. They weren't destroyed, they just weren't there anymore. The death toll may not be high now, but rescue teams haven't even gotten into the Gulf coast areas yet, and there's no telling how many are dead down there. It's even suspected that some may not even be found, because their bodies floated away.
Speaking of floating away, the flooding was so bad in Biloxi and other cities on the coast that casinos on the water were actually picked up and moved.
Camille may have been bad, but Katrina makes her look like a newborn kitten. Katrina knocked Camille right off the records. I'm just glad my area didn't get hit as hard as the Gulf was and my prayers go out to everyone on the coast and in New Orleans.
I was with my family vacationing in New Mexico as the storm was coming toward New Orleans. It was all over the news in the motel. In New Mexico it was raining and unusually humid, which they said was really weird. I didn't put two and two together at the time but it was the distant effects of the hurricane.
I can't believe this happened; it seems like something that would only happen in the movies. My prayers go to those who have lost homes and those wondering if their loved ones are alive.
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I'm thinking the United States government controls a few thousand times more money than the province of British Columbia,
That may be true but it has to be used and authorized to be used--and THAT is where the ball has been dropped considerably. Considering I have "family" experience in terms of the ineptitude of the U.S. federal gov to provide adequate relief for hurricanes (and I don't think some people in my family have ever forgiven the elder Bush for that one), this is not a total surprise.
Many thanks to all the foreign countries--the last count I heard was 20--offering aid to U.S. since it's blatantly obvious that we need it. Nice to hear that Rice said none of that aid will be turned down either.
Edit: Oh, and Cooki, Fats Domino's daughter said that he was rescued yesterday. At least, that's what I saw scrolling on the bottom of the screen on CNN. I've been living on CNN, Fox News, & MSNBC the past few days and barely know anything else that has happened in the world save the honoring of the Russian massacre and the Iraqi stampede. ;p
The governent has donated $10.5 million. Unofficial donations already amount to $90 million. It is expected that about $100 billion dollars is needed.
And now Bush is admitting that not enough warning got through to the people. I dread to think what would happen in the event of a tsunami, like the one that hit India and co. It's a damn HURRICAINE. They could see it was coming. Did they think, "Hey, if we pray hard enough it will bugger off and hit someone else instead, so why worry"?
FYI, the mayor of New Orleans didn't order a mandatory evacuation until Sunday (two days later than it should've been)...and that wasn't until after George Bush called him and said, "Why haven't you ordered the evacuation yet? Get those people out of there."
But on to more current news...man, there's a lot of fires popping up in NO.
EDIT: By the way Castor, FEMA DID move their emergency units forward closer to NO in preparation for Katrina's devastation (which is a rare move, believe it or not)...but as it turned out, they were caught in the devastation as well. Just another little chink in the whole mess that is now the Southeastern US shores.
That may be true but it has to be used and authorized to be used
It certainly doesn't take them very long to authorize themselves to spend five billion dollars a month on Iraq.
The Red Cross and the Salvation Army have websites where monetary donations can be made for the victims. It's not advised to send material goods or to "volunteer to help" because the police have to spend so much time turning away civilian volunteers that it takes time away from the actual rescue effort.
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The governent has donated $10.5 million
That number is $10.5 billion, Harley.
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FYI, the mayor of New Orleans didn't order a mandatory evacuation until Sunday (two days later than it should've been)...and that wasn't until after George Bush called him and said, "Why haven't you ordered the evacuation yet? Get those people out of there."
While we still haven't a real clue how many people died (which if it turns out to be really horrendous can change this), but with a city that has a population of half a million people and it seems less than 100,000 were left, that's called the large majority of people left. These people were told to leave and they did. The only people who were left in New Orleans were those that either couldn't get out (some have even said that they were trying to leave but the highways and airport were shut down on them which caused them to be trapped within the city) OR they decided that they weren't leaving no matter what and you can't totally force people to leave. So, unless you're advocating that the government be allowed to mobolize to force people to leave an area, I don't think that really would've made a difference. As some officials have said a couple of times in the past few days, everyone in all of these cities/towns/etc. on the Gulf coast were told repeatedly to leave by their officials. That's not where the blame in this scenario belongs at all.
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It certainly doesn't take them very long to authorize themselves to spend five billion dollars a month on Iraq.
Actually, it did since it took them awhile haggling over money details and what not. The difference is the money for Iraq was decided on long ago and was designed to last for a year with regular annual installments decided upon during the budget discussions. This is an emergency and things don't start moving in terms of the military moving (which was what was needed) until the order comes from the Executive branch (re: President) and additional money won't come until the Legislative branch (re: Congress--though it needs to be signed by the President) allow for it. The situation is called bureaucracy at it's worse. That's one of the many reasons the ball was dropped. ;p
The United States was quick to make donations and aide India in the Tsunami.
Just out of curiousity, how many other foreign countries would have, or will do that for the United States? My grandmother told me over the phone that NO ONE has offered to help us out with the disaster of Katrina, though of course, the RedCross and such will help out...but that's not my point. How true is this? I must know...because if we go ahead and help out other countries, what the heck are they doing for us? 
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Just out of curiousity, how many other foreign countries would have, or will do that for the United States? My grandmother told me over the phone that NO ONE has offered to help us out with the disaster of Katrina, though of course,
Your grandmother so horribly mistaken that I don't know where to begin. I already posted in this topic earlier this morning how at least 20 countries had offered us aid within the first couple of days. Countries such as Canada, UK, France, Germany, Russia, Australia, Japan, China, Venezuela, El Salvador, Greece, Sri Lanka, Austria, and so many others as the total is over 60 now offering us aid.
Don't you DARE start blasting other countries for not helping the U.S. when they most definitely are trying to do so, Mau. 😛
Edit: Oh yeah, Condoleeza Rice had a news conference this afternoon thanking the international community for their efforts to help starting with the U.N. and Nato and even countries that are still dealing with the tsunami were donating money to the U.S. Pay more attention to the news. It's scrolling on the bottom of the screen all the time details about aid being offered to this country on CNN and Fox News in particular.
Edit 2: Short article on mostly European aid offers though other parts of the world are mentioned
The problem with accepting some of the offers for aid have to do with interoperability, basically it would be easy to use British pilots and helicopters, but very difficult to use Russian pilots and helicopters. The Brits speak the same (mostly the same anyways) language and are up to NATO specs on communications equipment, the Russians are not.
So even tho the Russians offered search crews and helicopters, it would not be easy for us to use them in this situation. I think it is more important that they offered them than anything else, and the same goes for every other nation, especially nations that are pissed at Bush for Iraq.
Jimro
Edit: Oh, and Cooki, Fats Domino's daughter said that he was rescued yesterday. At least, that's what I saw scrolling on the bottom of the screen on CNN. I've been living on CNN, Fox News, & MSNBC the past few days and barely know anything else that has happened in the world save the honoring of the Russian massacre and the Iraqi stampede. ;p
Ah, yes, got word of that. At least one good thing came out of this. Sort of. Maybe. >>
And TR, I think I know what you speak of, since there's only one hurricane that was bad enough in that particular 4 year span, but I will say no more of it since that's, in some ways, a different discussion entirely. ^^;
Actually there's a woman from New Orleans just up the street from me between where an old Dairy Queen and KFC used to be now it's just empty. Luckily she escaped in time. Anyway has anyone heard from SX...you know he lives in Biloxi and they got some Uber Severe weather?
The United States was quick to make donations and aide India in the Tsunami.
Just out of curiousity, how many other foreign countries would have, or will do that for the United States? My grandmother told me over the phone that NO ONE has offered to help us out with the disaster of Katrina
First, it was Indonesia, Cambodia, Malaysia, Thailand and a couple other countries -- India barely felt the tsunami. Second, even if your grandmother wasn't a liar (which she is), I think most people could be forgiven for expecting the US government to be able to take care of a natural disaster -- a largely preventable one, I might add -- on its own soil. While the Katrina disaster is a terrible tragedy, if the lackadaisical, spare-no-expense attitude the Bush administration has taken on other endeavours is any indication of the size of the US government's coffers, I can think of much more dire causes to which to send my money come December.
Anyway has anyone heard from SX
He, and his house, are fine.
I don't think most rational thinking people would take offense that not everything being offered will (or can) be accepted. Rice was even saying during her conference that they were directing some offered stuff (usually the money aspect) to be given to the Red Cross and further quantified what "accepting" stuff meant. I don't have a single issue with any of that.
Bleh. I hear all these 'Bush is a racist!' and 'Bush caused the hurricane!' and 'Bush waited too long!' talking points. IT'S DRIVING ME NUTS.
Here are the truths of the Katrina tragedy.
1.) The hurricane that hit New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama was an astonishing tragedy. The suffering and loss of life and peace of mind of the residents of those areas is acutely horrifying.
2.) George Bush did not cause the hurricane. Hurricanes have been happening for eons. George Bush did not create them or unleash this one.
3.) George Bush did not make this one worse than others. There have been far worse hurricanes than this before George Bush was born.
4.) There is no overwhelming evidence that global warming exists as a man-made phenomenon. There is no clear-cut evidence that global warming even exists. There is no clear evidence that if it does exist it makes hurricanes more powerful or makes them aim at cities with large numbers of poor people. If global warming is a real phenomenon, which it may well be, it started long before George Bush was inaugurated, and would not have been affected at all by the Kyoto treaty, considering that Kyoto does not cover the world's worst polluters -- China, India, and Brazil. In a word, George Bush had zero to do with causing this hurricane. To speculate otherwise is belief in sorcery.
6.) George Bush had nothing to do with the hurricane contingency plans for New Orleans. Those are drawn up by New Orleans and Louisiana. In any event, the plans were perfectly good: mandatory evacuation. It is in no way at all George Bush's fault that about 20 percent of New Orleans neglected to follow the plan. It is not his fault that many persons in New Orleans were too confused to realize how dangerous the hurricane would be. They were certainly warned. It's not George Bush's fault that there were sick people and old people and people without cars in New Orleans. His job description does not include making sure every adult in America has a car, is in good health, has good sense, and is mobile.
7.) George Bush did not cause gangsters to shoot at rescue helicopters taking people from rooftops, did not make gang bangers rape young girls in the Superdome, did not make looters steal hundreds of weapons, in short make New Orleans into a living hell.
8.) George Bush is the least racist President in mind and soul there has ever been and this is shown in his appointments over and over. To say otherwise is scandalously untrue.
9.) George Bush is rushing every bit of help he can to New Orleans and Mississippi and Alabama as soon as he can. He is not a magician. It takes time to organize huge convoys of food and now they are starting to arrive. That they get in at all considering the lawlessness of the city is a miracle of bravery and organization.
10.) There is not the slightest evidence at all that the war in Iraq has diminished the response of the government to the emergency. To say otherwise is pure slander.
11.) If the energy the news media puts into blaming Bush for an act of nature worsened by stupendous incompetence by the New Orleans city authorities and the malevolence of the criminals of the city were directed to helping the morale of the nation, we would all be a lot better off.
12.) New Orleans is a great city with many great people. It will recover and be greater than ever. Sticking pins into an effigy of George Bush that does not resemble him in the slightest will not speed the process by one day.
13.) The entire episode is a dramatic lesson in the breathtaking callousness of government officials at the ground level.
Thank you for your time.
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8.) George Bush is the least racist President in mind and soul there has ever been and this is shown in his appointments over and over. To say otherwise is scandalously untrue.
Wow. That's pretty insulting to other presidents.
