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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
 Posted - 08/29/2005 : 08:25:47 [Permalink]
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It looks like New Orleans was hit by the western side of the eye wall which means the worst did not happen. Of course, a lot of bad happened and is still happening. The dreaded storm surge seems to have not been as bad as predicted due mostly to a slight change of direction of the storm. Many structures are holding. A good thing. And while there is a lot of water to deal with, New Orleans is not under as much water as expected.
Still the damage in and around the surrounding areas is really bad. I have not heard about any deaths so far.
The storm is still taking is still causing much damage all along the northern gulf coast and the Mississippi delta region.
But it now looks like, after a lot of clean up, including repairs to extensive infrastructure damage and such, New Orleans will survive.
More on this.
Edited: Seems I was wrong about the deaths. Three have been reported. But they were not directly storm related. They happend durring the evacuation.
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Tim
SFN Regular
USA
775 Posts |
Posted - 08/29/2005 : 21:12:27 [Permalink]
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The storm's moved north to harass some more good folk.
Down here, the clean up begins.
Many people from Houma, Louisiana to Mobile, Alabama have lost their homes, or their places of work. Their lives have been turned upside down. The sugar cane is fallen over. Fish kills from oxygen depletion in the lakes and bayous will follow. Refineries and offshore oil platforms are still down. Most people from the affected areas still can't go home, and could wait quite a while longer before they know for sure if their home is still habitable.
The roads north and west have been clogged with refugees in minivans, pick-ups, sedans, SUV's and campers for the past three days. Some people found hotel rooms. Others found camp grounds. Others stayed in shelters. Thousands slept in their cars. The highways were full of scared people that found ways to share a smile and a story over a cup of bad coffee. Some of the stories were funny, and some were intriguing, but must were sad, told through uneasy smiles and sincere nods of understanding.
For a short time, there were no Republicans or Democrats, no black or white, no rich or poor. We were all just people filled with uncertainty--People who weren't sure if they had anything to go home for. All we had was the ability to give our neighbors a smile, a handshake and well-meaning wishes for the future. What else could we hope for?
As for me and my wife, we live at the extreme west of the hurricane watch area. Because of our proximity to the river and the strength of the storm, we evacuated early. We drove the back roads, avoiding the bumper to bumper traffic of the main highways. We went north, then west ending up in a small town hotel in east Texas.
Back home, we left all of our critters with a family member that had decided to stay, despite mandatory evacuation orders in his Parish. He's like that, sort of nuts, but also very able to fend for himself. Luckily, we received only tropical storm strength winds and only a couple of inches of rain. We were on the extreme west side, or good side of the storm. So, we were able to go home early and found only small, fallen tree limbs. We get worse thunderstorms.
We cleaned up our yard, unpacked our bags, and tomorrow we go back to our everyday lives. I only wish the hundreds of thousands of other residents of Southeast Louisiana and the Mississippi and Alabama coasts could do the same.
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"We got an issue in America. Too many good docs are gettin' out of business. Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their -- their love with women all across this country." Dubya in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, 9/6/2004
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 08/29/2005 : 21:26:59 [Permalink]
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Hey Tim, thanks for that great post. Good to hear that you, your wife and animals are all okay.
Now if only pleco would check in…
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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the_ignored
SFN Addict
2562 Posts |
Posted - 08/29/2005 : 21:37:46 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Kil
Hey Tim, thanks for that great post. Good to hear that you, your wife and animals are all okay.
Yeah!
quote:
Now if only pleco would check in
Oh, shit! Yeah.  |
>From: enuffenuff@fastmail.fm
(excerpt follows):
> I'm looking to teach these two bastards a lesson they'll never forget.
> Personal visit by mates of mine. No violence, just a wee little chat.
>
> **** has also committed more crimes than you can count with his
> incitement of hatred against a religion. That law came in about 2007
> much to ****'s ignorance. That is fact and his writing will become well
> know as well as him becoming a publicly known icon of hatred.
>
> Good luck with that fuckwit. And Reynold, fucking run, and don't stop.
> Disappear would be best as it was you who dared to attack me on my
> illness knowing nothing of the cause. You disgust me and you are top of
> the list boy. Again, no violence. Just regular reminders of who's there
> and visits to see you are behaving. Nothing scary in reality. But I'd
> still disappear if I was you.
What brought that on? this. Original posting here.
Another example of this guy's lunacy here. |
| Edited by - the_ignored on 08/29/2005 21:38:37 |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2005 : 08:36:53 [Permalink]
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I am so infuriated that I can barely type!
I have just read that the steaming pile of dogshit currently in the Whitehouse had cut funds for New Orleans storm damage control and there are no troops nor National Guard, beyond some 3,500, to assist in rescue efforts. Every death in those states hit by this is no his smirking head. The vile son-of-a-bitch hasn't even the decency to take notice; he spends the last copule of days politicing.
Feverently wishing he'll ride his fucking bicycle over a cliff, and help rid the country of vermin.
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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Tim
SFN Regular
USA
775 Posts |
Posted - 08/30/2005 : 12:18:12 [Permalink]
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Hopefully, Pleco is unable to respond because of a simple power outtage, or he's busy with cleanup efforts. My brother-in-law was stranded in Mobile at a gamer's convention or something. He reports that downtown and many of the outlying areas have flooded. He was supposed to leave today and return to Baton Rouge, but we haven't heard anything from him since yesterday.
It seems that New Orlean's problems are continuing. A part of the Lake Ponchatrain levy along the Seventh Street Canal in Bucktown has broken. The Corps of Engineers are trying to shore it up, but the water continues to rise. Of course, like everyone else, I can only get news from CNN. I can't pick up any television or radio stations from New Orleans.
Most of the people that stayed behind in New Orleans were those that were unable to leave because they were too poor or too sick to leave. So far, it seems that the 8th Ward and New Orleans East are suffering the most. These are among the poorest neighborhoods in the city. Unfortunately, most of the rest of the city is at least partially under water. This storm is rapidly turning into the worst storm ever to hit the USA.
Where we live, we experienced the northeast eyewall of Hurricane Andrew back in '92. The winds and water we faced do not compare to that experienced by the residents of New Orleans and the Mississippi Coast. I can't imagine all of the hardships already faced by these people. Then, there's still months of hardships to come. Health and economic problems will soon start to come into the forefront, but for now, surviving the storm is still the main issue. |
"We got an issue in America. Too many good docs are gettin' out of business. Too many OB/GYNs aren't able to practice their -- their love with women all across this country." Dubya in Poplar Bluff, Missouri, 9/6/2004
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13476 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2005 : 09:31:25 [Permalink]
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quote:
Tim:
Where we live, we experienced the northeast eyewall of Hurricane Andrew back in '92. The winds and water we faced do not compare to that experienced by the residents of New Orleans and the Mississippi Coast. I can't imagine all of the hardships already faced by these people. Then, there's still months of hardships to come. Health and economic problems will soon start to come into the forefront, but for now, surviving the storm is still the main issue.
The news just keeps getting worse. With New Orleans filling up with water, it seems that the massive flooding they thought they had dodged is indeed happening. And, of course, New Orleans is just one of the places hit hard. There are now somewhere around a million people who are suddenly homeless, jobless and really have nowhere to go. They can't go home. This kind of refugee problem has not been seen since the great depression, at least, not here in America.
Add to that the loss of 25% of our oil production facilities, crops like sugar and the close down of the main destination of all sorts of imports, like coffee (important to me) and many other imported goods and a larger problem starts to immerge on the national level. The ripple effect from the shut down of commerce in the northern Gulf States will no doubt cause an increase in the cost of many products. The full impact is unknown. But it will not be pretty.
What we have here is the worst natural disaster to hit the continental United States, ever.
I really don't know how much of the destruction could have been avoided with a better infrastructure. As Filthy pointed out, those things that could have been done were largely ignored by our fearless leaders. A few dollars spent on the recommendations for storm damage control may have saved us the billions of dollars we will now have to spend cleaning up this mess. And then there is the loss of life. Having said that, I, for one, am once again in aw of the sheer destructive power that Mother Nature can deliver. And while we may be able to minimize damage with precautionary measures, nothing will ever stop the natural forces that pretty much dwarf our efforts to control nature. All in all, we are pretty puny. Our earth will never give a rats ass about us.
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2005 : 10:05:01 [Permalink]
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quote:
There are now somewhere around a million people who are suddenly homeless, jobless and really have nowhere to go. They can't go home. This kind of refugee problem has not been seen since the great depression, at least, not here in America.
You'd think that the president would be doing more than stumping for votes (for the midterm congressional elections) at the moment.
Boggles my mind that we haven't mobilized military assets to maintain order and provide food and shelter for our US refugees. We can do better, we SHOULD be doing better... if our leadership was worth a fuck, we WOULD be doing better....
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2005 : 11:05:37 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dude
quote:
There are now somewhere around a million people who are suddenly homeless, jobless and really have nowhere to go. They can't go home. This kind of refugee problem has not been seen since the great depression, at least, not here in America.
You'd think that the president would be doing more than stumping for votes (for the midterm congressional elections) at the moment.
Boggles my mind that we haven't mobilized military assets to maintain order and provide food and shelter for our US refugees. We can do better, we SHOULD be doing better... if our leadership was worth a fuck, we WOULD be doing better....
You are under the impression that there are military left in country to respond to this. Commander In Cheif Dickhead has already sent them to Iraq and Afghanistan. |
Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2005 : 11:59:56 [Permalink]
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Well said, Guiys.
The lack of preparation for such a storm is utterly appaiiing, especally as it was and remains entirely predictable. I've read that the water temperature in the Gulf of Mexico, and elsewhere, is up a couple of degrees. Warmer water = more dangerous hurricanes; even an ignorant redneck such as I knows that. Katrina was a relative pussycat until it got into the gulf, and as much as I'd like to, I can't lay all of this at the rat-bastard Bush's door.
This one belongs to everyone in a position of authority that allowed the funding for strengthening the levees to be cut; for letting Iraq be invaded under false pretexts resulting in a lack of material and manpower for domestic aid and damage control efforts. Yes, this one belongs to the avaricious Republicans and the cowardly, snivling Democrats in Congress. They could not have prevented this disaster but they could have eased it's effects considerably by keeping that degenerate sociopath in the White House under control, as is in their fucking job description.
And it's on the rest of our doorsteps, too, mine and thine. We didn't fight hard enough to keep out government a representative democracy. We allowed the inmates to take over the asylum, as it were, and now, we pay. But the residents of the Gulf coast are having to pay a lot more than their share...
Any word of pleco yet?
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2005 : 12:36:22 [Permalink]
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quote:
You are under the impression that there are military left in country to respond to this. Commander In Cheif Dickhead has already sent them to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Actually, we still have significant military resources at home.
In Lousiana one of the guard generals was on CNN saying that they still have 60% of the national guard remaining in the state.
I just want to know why, after seeing the damage, after looking at the people STILL stranded in N.O. in buildings, after being told that there are 20k refugees in the damn superdome, after seeing the poorest area of Bilouxi smashed flat and being told that many (if not most) of the residents there lacked the financial means to evacuate (couldn't afford a tank of gas, or just simply didn't own a vehicle)...
Why hasn't Bush ordered in more than one military field hospital? Why hasn't he ordered in the air cav to scout for survivors and some heavy helicoptors for resue and evac?
There should be 10 military hospitals (of the 500 bed variety) set up in strategic locations. The corp of engineers should be erecting temp housing on federal land in large staging areas. The guard units from other states should be deployed in to help. And so on and so on.
Real leadership is required in situations like this. Watching the news now, and it looks like some initial steps are finally being considered.
If this shit had been in place, units activated, FEMA doing their thing, homeland security doing their thing... Military hospitals, guard units, engineers, Mississippi river coast guard units redeployed to rescue efforts, etc, should have been activated and SET to deploy LAST WEEK when this fucker was a cat5 in the gulf and steaming for a collision with the Big Easy dead center.
This is the first time we have seen an urban center flooded like this. The water, electric, and sewer functions are destroyed. Its August, New Orleans is now a stagnant pond filled with sewage contaminated water. The temp will be 90+degrees. There are hundreds, probably thousands, of people trapped in the city. More people will die than would have been the case with a little more preparedness. Yet more will needlessly die without the leadership this situation needs.
The mayor of N.O. today says he thinks hundreds have died just in N.O. alone, maybe thousands. And we haven't even seen the onset of the loose shitting diseases that will surely come as a result of the city sewer system mixing with the flood waters in the tropical heat.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2005 : 12:52:23 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dude
quote:
You are under the impression that there are military left in country to respond to this. Commander In Cheif Dickhead has already sent them to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Actually, we still have significant military resources at home.
In Lousiana one of the guard generals was on CNN saying that they still have 60% of the national guard remaining in the state.
I just want to know why, after seeing the damage, after looking at the people STILL stranded in N.O. in buildings, after being told that there are 20k refugees in the damn superdome, after seeing the poorest area of Bilouxi smashed flat and being told that many (if not most) of the residents there lacked the financial means to evacuate (couldn't afford a tank of gas, or just simply didn't own a vehicle)...
Why hasn't Bush ordered in more than one military field hospital? Why hasn't he ordered in the air cav to scout for survivors and some heavy helicoptors for resue and evac?
There should be 10 military hospitals (of the 500 bed variety) set up in strategic locations. The corp of engineers should be erecting temp housing on federal land in large staging areas. The guard units from other states should be deployed in to help. And so on and so on.
Real leadership is required in situations like this. Watching the news now, and it looks like some initial steps are finally being considered.
If this shit had been in place, units activated, FEMA doing their thing, homeland security doing their thing... Military hospitals, guard units, engineers, Mississippi river coast guard units redeployed to rescue efforts, etc, should have been activated and SET to deploy LAST WEEK when this fucker was a cat5 in the gulf and steaming for a collision with the Big Easy dead center.
This is the first time we have seen an urban center flooded like this. The water, electric, and sewer functions are destroyed. Its August, New Orleans is now a stagnant pond filled with sewage contaminated water. The temp will be 90+degrees. There are hundreds, probably thousands, of people trapped in the city. More people will die than would have been the case with a little more preparedness. Yet more will needlessly die without the leadership this situation needs.
The mayor of N.O. today says he thinks hundreds have died just in N.O. alone, maybe thousands. And we haven't even seen the onset of the loose shitting diseases that will surely come as a result of the city sewer system mixing with the flood waters in the tropical heat.
Dude, they're gonna sicken and die like lice at a sheep-dip. I can almost smell the sewage, hear the mosquitos. And it will spread well away from NO, I think, unless some positive measures are taken right now. Those troops and the necessary material need to get there toot sweet!
But of course, some people have other priorities. I wonder why we haven't heard from Fred, yet.
Just a thought: leprosy is still endemic along the Gulf Coast.....
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist!
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Paulos23
Skeptic Friend
USA
446 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2005 : 13:42:12 [Permalink]
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Will New Orelnes ever recover from this? Will people be moving back in two months like the Mayor hopes, or should the city be left to the waters and a New New Orelnes built?
Personally I think the city should be abandoned. It is just to costly to save it and get it going again. I am sure by the time they get it dried out a large portion of the city will have moved away. There may not be that many people that will want to come back to N.O. after what has been done to it.
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You can go wrong by being too skeptical as readily as by being too trusting. -- Robert A. Heinlein
Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored. -- Aldous Huxley |
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Valiant Dancer
Forum Goalie
USA
4826 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2005 : 13:49:17 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Dude
quote:
You are under the impression that there are military left in country to respond to this. Commander In Cheif Dickhead has already sent them to Iraq and Afghanistan.
Actually, we still have significant military resources at home.
In Lousiana one of the guard generals was on CNN saying that they still have 60% of the national guard remaining in the state.
Of those, how many are required to guard the bases they currently occupy and how many have been mobilized to save people from the military bases hardest hit from Katrina. The help was going to have to come from other states who are in similar predicaments.
Most of the air bases that could help are trashed. |
Cthulhu/Asmodeus when you're tired of voting for the lesser of two evils
Brother Cutlass of Reasoned Discussion |
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Dude
SFN Die Hard
USA
6891 Posts |
Posted - 08/31/2005 : 14:27:39 [Permalink]
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quote:
Of those, how many are required to guard the bases they currently occupy
National guard units have minimal staff requirements to "guard their bases", since they don't really have bases. More like armories where they store their shit between weekends.
My point was, really, that we should be deploying units from other states to help.
As I watch the news today the effort is improving slowly, it is just to bad that there wasn't more pre-landfall preperation and FASTER response post storm.
Also, I should add, that those who can might want to consider giving a few dollars to the Red Cross.
http://www.redcross.org/
The website is pretty slammed at the moment.
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Ignorance is preferable to error; and he is less remote from the truth who believes nothing, than he who believes what is wrong.
-- Thomas Jefferson
"god :: the last refuge of a man with no answers and no argument." - G. Carlin
Hope, n.
The handmaiden of desperation; the opiate of despair; the illegible signpost on the road to perdition. ~~ da filth |
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