Hurricane Katrina

[Shanti418]

Couldn't find this on another topic yet, which is surprising. Some of the walls broke today, and the flooding is much worse.


http://www.nola.com/

This IS getting international coverage, right?


Anyway, the reason I MAINLY bring it up is because we should all have OPR in our thoughts and prayers until we hear from him.

[KingMob]

I miss OPR.

This IS getting international coverage, right?

Yep.

[Kup_1]

I'm currently getting hammered by rain and high winds...

And I'm in Ohio!

[Computron]

The devastation is absolutely immense...it's comparable to the tsunami disaster last December. 80% of NO is underwater, and the outlying areas are as good as gone.

Looting is reported to be widespread, and a mandatory evacuation for the entire area is under effect. That includes the refuges of last resort, such as the superdome. There are about 30k people in there, and the only access to the stadium is by helicopter or boat. You do the math on how long an evac will take.

In addition, several levees have failed, and more are expected to follow.

The recovery is going to be measured in years...

[spiderfrommars]

My thoughts and best wishes are with all those affected by this...

[KingMob]

Yeah, the news sites are offering some really good coverage, but this was the first pic of NO I saw, put up by a chap at another site I visit



Which kinda tells a story all it's own.

[Impactor returns 2.0]

its quite unbelivable when u see the images. i just saw a new bit of film of when the sea walls gave way, scary.

[Metal Vendetta]

Just read that it's nothing to do with climate change or global warming, say top US scientists. Though top UK scientists say the exact opposite. Quelle surprise.

Hope OPR is okay.

[Shanti418]

Well, the problem is that NO is shaped like a bowl and there's no place for the water to go.

But the reason Katrina went from a Catagory 1 to a Catagory 5 in just a week or so was because of the extremely warm water in the Gulf of Mexico, which at least in part could be attributable to global warming.

You have to look at Katrina in a global context, with the draughts AND floods in Europe, with that day of 35 inches of rain in India, with the Typhoon, with the four hurricanes that hit Florida last year, with the horrible heat wave throughout Europe a few years back.....now THAT'S global warming.

[Metal Vendetta]

But the reason Katrina went from a Catagory 1 to a Catagory 5 in just a week or so was because of the extremely warm water in the Gulf of Mexico, which at least in part could be attributable to global warming.

The fact that the average sea temperature in the Gulf has increased by half a degree in the past 30 years is completely irrelevant, apparently, It's all part of a natural cylce.

[Impactor returns 2.0]

but earth used to be a tropical rain-forrest...

[Kaylee]

It's dreadful and so sad I hope everyone here and all their friends and loved ones who might be caught in this get out unscarred.

[Shanti418]

I have a couple of friends who live in New Orleans, but luckily, they were traveling in NY when Katrina came. Now, they're stuck in an airport in NY with no home to go back to yet. But I guess that's better then sitting outside the Superdome.

[Kup_1]

I have a few friends who live in LA, but were okay. Thank the gods.

However, they're now reporting that it will be months before the power even comes back on in most of the state...

The govener is reporting that he believes there are thousands dead, and there have been pics of many many bodies floating int he flood waters.

The rescuers are saying that they are just pushing them aside for now in the hopes that they can reach the living...


Damn.....

[Impactor returns 2.0]

I keep looking at images, but its insane.

I wouldnt even no where to begin to clean up or even how.

I hear theres loads of oil rigs lost in the Gulf aswell

[Impactor returns 2.0]

someone explain to me why there is a crisis situation now in the most advanced country in the world?

[Obfleur]

Why the hell are people firing at the choppers (get to da chopper!) that are trying to evacuate people?

[Nebbie]

someone explain to me why there is a crisis situation now in the most advanced country in the world?

One word. Unprepared.

First, you have a city that's below sea level. Why they put a city below sea level is beyond me, but there you go. The levees around NO were only strong enough for a category 3 hurricane, which Katrina was much stronger. The place has been crying for federal funds to build up the levees for ages, but kept getting put off. And look what happened.

Second, the evacuation was half assed at best. When it started, Katrina was only a category 1, and evacuation was voluntary. By the time that the storm strengthened and the evac made mandatory, it was too late for most of the people to get out.

Third, the deep South is quite poor. Yeah, there are pretty big cities, but around the big cities and everywhere else are the slums and low income housing of people living paycheck-to-paycheck. The people literally could not afford to leave. A friend of a friend was in Florida when Charley hit last year, and he said it cost him $1000 to evacuate. Most of them simply could not get enough money to get out.

So yeah, this is a crisis. There are possibly thousands dead and untold billions in damage. If the Gulf does recover, it will take years if not longer.

[Optimus Prime Rib]

Hey Everyone,

Me, Jessy, and the kids are fine. Shreveport actually didnt get one drop of rain from the hurricane. Because of this, we are the main support city for the military and refugees. Every hotel is booked solid, including the two on either side of my restaurant. Its sad to see a group of 20 people going out to eat and are not able to spend more than 100 bucks because they have to make thier money stretch. The hotels are running out of room and are having to turn people away. The Centurytel Center, LSU-S, Centenary's Gold Dome, Hirsch Colliseum are all open as shelters and are packed to capacity. I am currently helping with planning for tent cities to be erected in rural areas surrounding the north Louisiana cities of Shreveport, Bossier City, Monroe, West Monroe, and Ruston. The government is sending 40k troops in to help arrest and remove the looters, who have overrun the city and are attacking emergency personnel on site.

Most of my friends live in New Orleans. None of thier homes have survived. I randomly ran into my oldest and dearest friend Pam at Wal Mart. She informed me that her house was RIGHT next to the 17th Street Canal.. the first Levee to break. Her house is completely gone. Whats worse is her husband is a NO police officer. He was not allowed to evacuate. He got a message to her on tuesday morning after breaking into a car and charging his cell phone right near a cell tower. Signal was weak and he was only able to tell her that looters have overrun the city. The police have been reduced to wandering packs who are trying to find stranded people with no way of communication with other police. Hopefully they have found the stranded police officers, they are being hunted now by looters.

Nike (Pams husband) said that they (stranded police not yet accounted for by the state) have had to loot stores for food and water.

These are police officers who are fighting for thier lives.

Charity hospital has had to close after being fired on by snipers

Im sorry to make this post so long and depressing, but its important that everyone know that what youre seeing on tv is nothing compared to the real life situation.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, and know that I miss everyone as well.Ill try to keep everyone updated, but please dont get upset if youre not a priority right now. Im sure you understand. We have work to do around here.

[Optimus Prime Rib]

someone explain to me why there is a crisis situation now in the most advanced country in the world?

New Orleans was a badly planned city, period.

Ovr the course of 15 years a series of dams and levees were erected to drain the swampland surrounding the city so a port could be installed at the mouth of the Mississippi River. Unfortunately, noone had the forethough centuries ago to know the devestation that could be caused by this.

Simple fact, New Orleans is a soup bowl. The Levees are Only about 10 to 15 feet above the crest of the Miss river and Lake Ponchartrain, but are about 25-30 feet above the city itself. NO is 25 feet below sea level. The city has the most elaborate pumping system in the world, however it is mostly outdated and has been in disrepair in the poorer areas of the city. The pumps simply cant remove the water. They have finally stopped the water from rising, but it may be too late. If the pumps fail, there is no way to fix them right now. The longer the city sits under water, the worse it gets. Cholera, Malaria, and Disentary are all pressing concerns now. Bodies are floating down the street because of the Mausoleums being flooded. Also, the longer the water sits there, the worse the structural damage to the remaining buildings.

If it hadnt been for the last minute change of direction, NO would be completely gone. Take a look at Gulfport, Mississippi.. Poor city is completely gone. Not underwater, just GONE.

Oh yeah.. and there are 2 more storm systems forming right now in the Atlantic.

[Metal Vendetta]

Man, glad you're ok Joey. Hope things don't get too rough, sounds like anarchy down there...

[Impactor returns 2.0]

Its good to hear from you mate. I cant belive whats going on.

WHy cant they get more guard in, more choppers, more everything!.

The US gov should just pay for every hotel in the bloody next 3 states so everyones got a bed for a few weeks or somthing.

I dunno. I keep seeing images, im just appaled at what some ppl are going through its making me angry.

[Denyer]

In addition, several levees have failed, and more are expected to follow.

Any truth to rumours that funds directed towards maintaining them disappeared to embezzlers?

I don't think it's global warming so much as city being below sea level and a disaster waiting to happen.

Glad to hear you're okay for the moment, OPR.

[Kaylee]

It is very good to hear you and your family are alright OPR!

It's so sad all of this... so very sad.

[Pretender Bumblebee]

Bush is the worst.. the most worthless man ever to be called president.

He had to end his five week vacation early due to the hurricane here.. hes on vacation every week.. its amazing he ended it early for this.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050902/ap_ ... ne_katrina

People are being raped, shot, dying from no food or water. Where are all the troops to stop the anarchy in that part of the country? Oh yeah.. they are in Iraq fighing a war no one here wants except for your religous right war mongers.

You were on vacation when you knew a potential deadly and disasterous storm was heading to a major city here and then decide to end it a few days after the storm does its damage. You then release a statement that makes no sense .. you sound stupid.. because you are stupid mr. bush.

It saddens me to see so many suffering and dying when you look lost as to what to do. You are so worried about doing what you want and not about any person but yourself. This is real life Mad Man Bush. You can get the help from your daddy and Clinton all you want.. as they at least did the job seriously.. help those people.. get troops down there.. get food and water and transportation. Get off your damn ass and help the fine people who voted for you. That part of the country supported you.. now you support them even though you mislead and lied to them all.. help them out!!

Whole cities were destroyed, people lost everything..everything.. help the damn people out you sorry excuse for a leader. The whole area is in anarchy with people shooting others and stealing anything they can dying left and right.. its only going to spread .. stop with the speaches and lets get some action already. Why is it we can get whole army forces into another country to take care of violence but we can't do it in our own nation!

Is this really America? or is this just desserts showing people they get what they deserve for voting this mad man in? I feel sorry for the people down there but the whole situation can be stopped if we had a compitent man in control. I fear for the future of my country and of all the people who have to endure much worse sufferings then they should have. The storm was being tracked for two weeks. To wait to the day before to evacuate the city while you are resting on that damn ranch of yours is sick.

I wish everyone in this disaster luck and you got my prayers.. we are all going to be in for rough times ahead.. I fear for the future of my whole country with the path it is headed in now.

[Computron]

In addition, several levees have failed, and more are expected to follow.

Any truth to rumours that funds directed towards maintaining them disappeared to embezzlers?

I honestly don't know either way, but what is clear is that the levees didn't have the structural strength necessary to withstand the storm. Whether it's because Katrina was that powerful, or because the levee's were in such poor shape is unknown.

In any case what we're looking at is the the dissolution of a major American city. It's a bad 80's science fiction movie run amok.

[Shanti418]

Well, one thing I DO know is that after Homeland Security was set up after 9/11, they did a study and found that a major hurricane in New Orleans was the most likely disaster to occur in the US, equal with another terrorist attack in NY.

A multi million dollar aid package was passed to renovate the levies, but apparently over the past few years, Dubya had cut their funding by over $30 million dollars in order to help the military, or in other, more ironic words, "the rebuilding of Iraq"



We're talking at least a million people with no homes, no food, no water, and in the case of New Orleans, months and months of being refugees. It's completly impossible for any of us to wrap our minds around it, let alone comprehend what the situation is there right now.


I find the media's chastising and the law's anger over looting to be completly ridiculous. And I find the racial undertones to be absolutely unbearable.

[Obfleur]

Hm...

[Kaylee]

I think this makes pretty good analysis of Bush's current challenges:

It's an ill wind that blows no good for Bush
By Bronwen Maddox



IT WILL not be easy for President Bush to look like a hero in trying to save New Orleans.
For a start, the nature of the disaster would diminish any President. September 11, 2001, elevated Bush, lifting him out of the tentative fragments of his first eight months in office. It became the clarifying moment of his presidency, as the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing was for President Clinton.



In Osama bin Laden there was an enemy to fight, easily pictured, like one of J.R.R. Tolkien’s villains, sitting in a cave with forefinger raised as he declared war on America.

But with a hurricane, even one cutely named Katrina, there is no one to fight (although jihadi websites yesterday claimed that “Private Katrina” had enlisted on their side). The spectacle would make any leader look impotent, as if he were, well, trying to hold back the waves.

To be the President of the world’s superpower and to lose an entire, world-famous city within hours is humbling. El Salvador’s offer last night of troops added inadvertent insult to injury.

Then there is the swirl of accusations against Bush now taking shape. Democrats in Congress have blamed him for diverting funds to homeland defence that should have been used to shore up New Orleans’s sinking levees. They say he reacted too slowly. They add that troops ordinarily available at home to help with disasters are tied up in Iraq.

More subtle is the complaint that Bush (and his predecessors) have allowed too much of the US oil industry to be concentrated in the west of the Gulf of Mexico, making it vulnerable to a single storm. Katrina has cost the US a fifth of its production and more than a tenth of its refining capacity.

Even if these grumbles never build to hurricane force, they are a real problem for Bush to tackle. He will be well aware of the risk, having seen the flak directed at his father 13 years ago, when he was preoccupied sending jets to fly over Iraq, even as Florida was struggling to recover after a hurricane.

Bush, who spent yesterday appearing across national television, will today visit the disaster zone on the ground. Some will say that it is already too late. And yes, his decision to return to Washington from his Texas ranch holiday two days after the disaster does leave him vulnerable. Image counts. But it is hardly the most damaging charge against him.

Similarly, he should be able to brush off the complaint that more should have been done to reinforce the levees. This is a long-standing grumble. It is hard to make a charge of unusual neglect stick on Bush.

But other accusations have more power to damage him. The charge that he has sent so many troops to Iraq that he has left the US unable to cope with natural disasters strikes at a very vulnerable point — the growing distaste of many Americans for the Iraq war.

The second is that he has mismanaged US energy interests. If there is one business that Bush and Vice-President Dick Cheney are supposed to understand, it is oil.

Soaring petrol prices have led to petrol shortages across the southeast of the US. Bush’s move in releasing some of the national reserves — which are crude oil, not refined — will have little effect on petrol prices and may seem only a gesture. Nor does the mammoth Energy Bill he signed into law last month directly address the vulnerabilities exposed by Katrina.

He will be judged by how he responds to those charges. But above all, he will be judged by whether he manages to haul New Orleans back from the dead.

It won’t be entirely his choice. No doubt many in the city, receiving insurance money, will choose to go and build a house somewhere else, on higher land.

But to many, the obliteration of a city overnight, let alone one of such luminous reputation, will make the War on Terror seem a battle of lesser urgency, a long way from home.

Bush isn't a stupid man imo, he has the brains where it counts in politics- being able to say the right things to the right people and to shake the right hands. This dreadful disaster has nailed his true colours to the mast tho i feel.

EDIT- the racist implications that seem to be filtering through from some of the broadcasts are pretty sickening, I do hope they are isolated.

[Eline]

I had no idea things were this bad until I saw the news this morning.

Why were they not better prepared? This is not a third world country. And the racism is unbelievable!


Take care OPR, good to know you're okay and helping others.