Hurricane Katrina

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David G. Smith said:
I was just wondering what the response from our government would have been if this was Marin County California (median household income: $71,306, 84.03% white, 2.89% African American) or Fairfield County Connecticut (median household income: $77,690, 79.31% white, 10.01% African American) instead of New Orleans (median household income, $27,133, 28.05% white, 67.25% African American)?
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Ditto to yours as well. This is beyond sad.
 
Marin County David?

That's easy. They'd probally withdrawl the troops from Iraq. When is the Tea Party meeting anyway?
 
John_Hudson said:
Marin County David?

That's easy. They'd probally withdrawl the troops from Iraq. When is the Tea Party meeting anyway?
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I pray to god that party gets started soon. It's LLLLLOOOOOONNNNGGGG overdue.
 
Thought I'd leave an update since I started this thread. Looks like I will not be going home anytime soon to help my parents. They found out today the house is gone so they plan on staying in Alexandria with other family members. They will not be returning until it's "safe".
At least everyone that I know, that I've been able to get in touch with, made it safely out of New Orleans before the hurricane hit.
The Red Cross could use cash & blood if you can help.
 
John_Hudson said:
Marin County David?

That's easy. They'd probally withdrawl the troops from Iraq. When is the Tea Party meeting anyway?
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****, they would have had champagne and cavier dropped from Air Force One!!!
 
Well the impression I have is that USA has always wanted to solve their internal problems with your own resources. Its almost a tradition. So the logistic to take foreign aid dont seem to really exist.

But you shouldnt hesitate to ask for help, you will notice you have more friends than you know.

The problem we have here is we dont know what to send over.
 
That's due to poor leadership, shame on Bush.

I said it before he got elected and I'll say it again now, with Bush in office our country will rot with an agressive cancer internally and externally. This natural disaster is a prime example. Where are our elected offcials in all of this?

If this hurricane hit The Carolinas relief would of been there the next day as it's a majority middle to upper class. But where the hurricane hit in N.O. it's almost 80% black and 80% poor americans.

The funding was pulled to "support the fight on terror" OVER SEAS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Fuk that! I predict that thousands of americans have died due to this event when it could of been much much less loss of life.

God bless the souls of those who lost their lives and god bless those who continue to struggle to survive.

I have a nice house in a great middle class neighborhood and if I could have it my way it would be FILLED with those trying to survive right now. I'd give mine and my childrens bed up for those helpless children and I'd empty my bank accounts to support a new beginning for them too.
 
well my view is that united states always have tried to solve problems internaly, no matter whos the president.

but I will not engage into a political discussion.
 
Man I have been reading some ugly stories.... apart from the natural disaster ...... there seems to be a human or should I say inhumane disaster going on. I heard read about a child being raped, stores being looted... food I can understand but jewellers? People being shot. I hope everyone there can get through unscathed. Best wishes to those trapped in the disaster zone.

Australian Govt. is handing over about 100,000,000 aussie dollars to help the relief effort. Im an aussie and I whacked $100 into the public aussie disaster fund today also.

Help where you can. $5 would make a difference to someone.
 
I still dont think money is the issue. When a disaster strikes a Industrial nation, it often strike much harder.

because the society is much more depended on stuff like electricity, refrigerators, highways telephonelines and even internet.

So when all of that brake down, it strikes real hard.

A big problem then when to send in rescue squads and medical personel is who to send and were. You cant just send in 10 000 medical personel and think thats going to be fine. You must have transportation, place for them to sleep, food etc. And you must have good communications with the people on the spot to find out what they need.

Stuff like this in a industrial nation is a logistic nightmare.
 
I've been to New Orleans once and was surprised how difficult it was to get through the city even under somewhat normal conditions.

We stumbled into an accident investigation from an earlier fatality wreck on Interstate 10 and were diverted into the very poorly designed and labeled grid that makes up most of New Orleans. We spent an hour and a half trying to get around the accident scene and back onto the freeway.

Seeing a large portion of the elevated Interstate 10 sitting in the bayou should have set off massive alarms at the federal level. It is no wonder initial rescue, evacuation and relief efforts were hampered in the moments after the storm.

The fact that we didn't have 25,000 US troops on the ground 72 hours after Katrina moved out of the region is a sickening embarrassment to our country. We all knew there was a major problem developing Tuesday.

Cities like Charlotte, Atlanta, Miami, Houston, Columbia and so on - when properly directed - have the capacity to mobilize hundreds of tons of relief supplies within hours of a situation developing - it seems that these communications only began on Wednesday. A company like Coca-Cola only needs to be gently solicited to get dozens of 53' trucks of Dasani quickly rolling into the hot zone. It all comes down to leadership.

For me, seeing images of the president worriedly looking out the window of his plane days after the deteriorating situation had a solid foothold takes me back to his handling of another very bad morning just four years ago. If we've reorganized the government since then, where is the DOD and DHS and FEMA in all of this?

:undecided

I'll tell you where they are - they're right here, where they have been, just waiting for direction. I heard W was up at 6am today in a series of meetings to coordinate the effort moving forward. That's great - I get up earlier than he does to get ready for a day of shooting. This guy has been hired to NOT SLEEP, NOT REST and definitely NOT VACATION until the situation is stabilized.

To spell it out:

Mobilize 25,000 troops and law enforcement personnel to a minimum of three central command areas located just outside the hotzone;

Locate and coordinate transportation, medical, communications and military assets to each forward command area

Temporarily impose Marshall Law in areas affected and wherever necessary;

Coordinate NGO and volunteer efforts at a global level through military channels;

Provide water, rations, clothing and medicine for refugees;

Locate and execute temporary housing provisions coordinated through the governor's office beginning with those in states contiguous to Mississippi and Louisiana;

Provide logistics management to areas receiving refugees for essential needs - allowing 60 days for one-third more than the estimated displacement at minimum.

- - -

That's a good start for the administration today. If they need help, there are plenty of Americans who would be willing and happy to jump in - just tell us what to do.

e
 
coffee said:
That's due to poor leadership, shame on Bush.

If this hurricane hit The Carolinas relief would of been there the next day as it's a majority middle to upper class. But where the hurricane hit in N.O. it's almost 80% black and 80% poor americans.
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The Carolinas are totally different from New Orleans as far as geography. This City is 10 FEET below sea level and is surrounded by water.
Instead of making this political or racial take a step back and examine the logistics of the job.
Granted Martial law should be in effect, and response may have been faster, YOU CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE because you can only get in by air or boat. And the so called victims emptied out the Walmart of weapons and are shooting people. That's a bunch of fun, hover a chopper (sitting target) pulling someone off from a roof while "that poor black guy with the dear rifle and 9 power scope gets to set his "rest" up and lock and load. Or better yet, let me be the rescue swimmer that has to get in the water with all the feces, gators, cottonmouths and sharks, yes sharks. The reason for the feces? New Orleans is BELOW SEA LEVEL!

As far as the funding, Clinton, Bush I, Reagan and Carter ALL had a chance to fix the dikes and levees in Louisianna. We could have poured 30 billion dollars into fixing the dikes and levees, but what if we had and the same result happened, who would you blame then? Let me guess, "Bush".

The next thing I will see written here is that BUSH ACTUALLY PLANNED THIS, HAD THE AIR FORCE CRANK UP BIG WIND MACHINES TO DIVERT THE STORM.

Put your money where your mouth is and empty your bank accounts, Those people were told to get out and chose not to.

I feel bad for the loss of life and property, but again, IT'S BELOW SEA LEVEL!

I worked there for two months, December last year, and January this year on Dukes of Hazzard, and have done multiple other movie and television projects there. It was a tough city to get around in before the storm, let alone now. We were working in a cow pasture North of Baton Rouge and hadn't had any rain. The cow pasture was soggy because the water has nowhere to go. Why do you think they have mausoleums for their dead? They can't bury them, because THEY ARE BELOW SEA LEVEL!

How long do you think it takes to get helicopters and boats in to rescue those people?
They couldn't stage anywhere near there because of the storm The entire southern U.S. was threatened.

Here's another question, "Should New Orleans be rebuilt?" The exact same thing can happen next week, next month or next year, or every year for several years. Hurricane season runs until November and there are two more tropical depressions in the south Atlantic right now.

Finally, it really does truly amaze me that people are making this a political and/or racial deal...........

Did I mention IT'S BELOW SEA LEVEL
 
Maverick,

I don't see it as being political at all. It is a matter of leadership. Get it done.

I can manage and delegate logistics for three-thousand people for a week at a time under good conditions, I expect our government to have the capacity and diligence to accomplish more.

e
 
Hey guys--I think a lot of us feeling frustrated, angered, saddened, and ashamed about the situation. Please try to self moderate and respect each other on this thread. There's enough collective blame to go around--that's for sure.
 
The Washington Post has a good summation of what is happening so far on Day Five.

"...Louisiana Gov. Kathleen Babineaux Blanco (D), interviewed this morning, said she had heard about the reports on a TV station Web site of about 100 people dying while waiting to be rescued in the Chalmette area of the city but she was not able to confirm any of that information. "Miles, I cannot confirm that for you," she told CNN's Miles O'Brien. "Anything can happen and it has. . . . I don't even know what today is."

Michael Brown, the head of the Federal Emergency Management, made the rounds of the morning talk shows and was grilled aggressively about the situation. "By Sunday, I'll have 30,000 National Guard troops . . . We're securing the city," he said on NBC's "Today" program."

30,000? Did it take a meeting at the federal level this morning to come to that conclusion? Don't these people have models for disasters of this proportion for each and every major and secondary city in the United States? Is governor Blanco equipped with a central command center - and what is the federal government doing to support her?

A 7.9 magnitude quake in Los Angeles warrants one kind of response, a biological attack in New York another and this one certainly requires a unique solution. That solution should have been in place within 48 hours of the hurricane's landfall.

What is upsetting people across the country is the knowledge that our government is ill-prepared (red and blue) to protect its citizens in the event of any disaster - whether they be intentional or natural in origin.

It's disgraceful that the thin veneer of civilization has been so quickly and decisively wiped away in the Big Easy.

e
 
I see a city and three states hit by a massive storm. many people decided to ride out the storm. Some had to. This is big and for you guys to blame the federal gov and Bush and the war in Iraq is just plain stupid.

I don't see anyone asking the mayor of New Orleans or the govenor of the state what they are doing or why they had such bad plans for a hurricane.

Here how it works. If a state needs help they have to ask the federal government for help first. And they are helping but this is a massive diaster and they whole system is over whelmed.

G.W. Bush hires people do do these jobs and I think he is kind of pissed today its going so slow but when he sees the scope of the damage he will understand. But he will get more done.

Looters and gangs roaming the streets should be shot on site.

It's a huge mess.
 
maverickprods said:
The Carolinas are totally different from New Orleans as far as geography. This City is 10 FEET below sea level and is surrounded by water.
Instead of making this political or racial take a step back and examine the logistics of the job.
Granted Martial law should be in effect, and response may have been faster, YOU CAN'T GET THERE FROM HERE because you can only get in by air or boat. And the so called victims emptied out the Walmart of weapons and are shooting people. That's a bunch of fun, hover a chopper (sitting target) pulling someone off from a roof while "that poor black guy with the dear rifle and 9 power scope gets to set his "rest" up and lock and load. Or better yet, let me be the rescue swimmer that has to get in the water with all the feces, gators, cottonmouths and sharks, yes sharks. The reason for the feces? New Orleans is BELOW SEA LEVEL!

As far as the funding, Clinton, Bush I, Reagan and Carter ALL had a chance to fix the dikes and levees in Louisianna. We could have poured 30 billion dollars into fixing the dikes and levees, but what if we had and the same result happened, who would you blame then? Let me guess, "Bush".

The next thing I will see written here is that BUSH ACTUALLY PLANNED THIS, HAD THE AIR FORCE CRANK UP BIG WIND MACHINES TO DIVERT THE STORM.

Put your money where your mouth is and empty your bank accounts, Those people were told to get out and chose not to.

I feel bad for the loss of life and property, but again, IT'S BELOW SEA LEVEL!

I worked there for two months, December last year, and January this year on Dukes of Hazzard, and have done multiple other movie and television projects there. It was a tough city to get around in before the storm, let alone now. We were working in a cow pasture North of Baton Rouge and hadn't had any rain. The cow pasture was soggy because the water has nowhere to go. Why do you think they have mausoleums for their dead? They can't bury them, because THEY ARE BELOW SEA LEVEL!

How long do you think it takes to get helicopters and boats in to rescue those people?
They couldn't stage anywhere near there because of the storm The entire southern U.S. was threatened.

Here's another question, "Should New Orleans be rebuilt?" The exact same thing can happen next week, next month or next year, or every year for several years. Hurricane season runs until November and there are two more tropical depressions in the south Atlantic right now.

Finally, it really does truly amaze me that people are making this a political and/or racial deal...........

Did I mention IT'S BELOW SEA LEVEL
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Mave, go take a walk to lower your blood pressure. I have a huge arguement to throw at you but it's worthless... What would come of it? Nothing so I won't go there.
Damn it, I just realized that I wasted my 1000th post on you.... .GRRRRRRRRR
 
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