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Katrina

IrishGolfer

Fac ut gaudeam
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Sep 1, 2004
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Slingblade61 said:
The Navy is bringing in an aircraft carrier, they can hold and feed lots of people.

The government is trying to get some cruise ships in to do the same thing.

I had heard today that the water was close to level, meaning that the levees could now be fixed.

Marshall law has been declared and must be strictly enforced or things could get worse.

I have a friend who lives(ed) in Empire Louisiana. he retired there 2 years ago to become a charter fishing boat captain. He made it to Baton Rouge with his wife and 3 days worth of clothing, that's it.

The eye passed over Empire and he had gotten word that his house (what's left of it) is under 18 feet of water.....a lifetime or personal belongings, 2 trucks and 2 fishing boats.....gone.

He has money in the bank and insurance but he's 66 and has to start life from scratch.

I also have an internet friend who lives in Slidell, a life long loisianan, no word from him yet.

My sister in law, living in norther New Orleans, escaped to Florida to her parents house with hubby and kids but is essentially, wiped out.

I really am at a loss to make any comment here. Time to count our blessings and think of those in their hour of need. I can't begin to imagine something similar happening here to me and my family. The Tsunami at Christmas, the stampede in Iraq, starvation in Africa, this Hurricane.

One thing I know for sure. People are resilient. As long as they have their health, no matter what is thrown at them they tend to cope. Time is a great healer and what seems bleak right now will become lessons to us all in the future.
 

Bravo

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Aug 27, 2004
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Silver said:
One of the things to consider when thinking "aid" is resources. Sling hit it on the head when he said the US has gazillions of resources. Aside from possibly some minerals, metals and maybe some exotic fruit and cheap (legal) labour, I have a hard time coming up with resources that the US is lacking in order to care for themselves.

There are certainly enough willing people within the country, the US is full of heroes (and I mean that, not in the slightest bit sarcastic) and benevolence. You guys will be okay.

Canada is always there to help as well and we are similarly self-sufficient. We can probably even get over the way the US is jacking us around over the $5 billion they owe us from softwood lumber tariffs to help.

I think to the extent that aid is offered to us from other countries, we should readily welcome it for two reasons:

1) We have an incredible financial deficit here. The federal government is spending much more than it receives in tax revenues

2) It would enable people from other countries to travel to the U.S. - to see that we are people just like they are, that we have needs like everyone else does.

KA posted that it would help Americans' "worldview" if they got a chance to travel to other countries and that those of you who live in Europe routinely travel to other countries within the continent. I agree with him.

Conversely -it would help non-Americans to travel here and see and understand that the 'typical' American is really like. How hard we work, how dedicated the typical middle-class American is...and that the vast majority of this country is just that - a middle-class person who works hard..
 

Bravo

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Aug 27, 2004
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My wife called a friend here (Karen) who grew up in Metarie LA which is a suburb of New Orleans...

Her parents lost everything, their house, their business. They brought one change of clothes when they evacuated to here, thinking they would return in a day or so.

She has her parents in her house, her brother and her brother's two sons aged 21 and 23. These guys are bartenders on Bourbon Street and are big party'ers.

Needless to say - tempers are already wearing thin.

My wife went to Costco today on a scouting trip. They need to buy Everything for their apartment which they will rent here for an undetermined amount of time...furniture, dishes, clothes, food. Basically set up a new existence on the fly.

While I am not a true technofile/stereophile - I do tend to upgrade my stuff every few years and I have quite a bit of used but operable audio stuff I can give them...VCR's, DVD players, receiver, etc. This is weird just giving it to somebody - but I am glad I can.

Just got a call from another friend - Lew. He has rented two vans and went to Costco and spent $2300 on various items, mostly canned food, bottled water, diapers etc. They are heading south right now. There is no gasoline in South Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.

Gas supplies are spotty here right now...some stations out completely. Long lines at others. Prices went up 60 cents yesterday alone. I told Lew he may not be able to buy gas to come back. He has already bought 30 gallons and put it in gas cans which he will carry inside the van...this is scary and extraordinarily dangerous. And if somebody in the disaster area saw it - they could be robbed...If they were in any sort of serious accident, the van could explode into flames.

While I admire his heroism, I think it could be a dangerous mission...we will see what happens.

If anybody out there has any household items they could donate, please let me know as my friend Karen is buying everything from toasters to socks for her parents. Anything in working order that could be shipped here would be appreciated.
 

DaveE

The golfer fka ST Champ
Aug 31, 2004
3,986
3
You're right to worried about your friend Lew. Some of the stories coming out of NO are pretty. scary.

But it's the Lews who always make a difference. They're the guys who rush into a burning building or jump into a river to save a complete stranger. Assuming everthing goes ok, the people he helps will be forever grateful for his unselfish and brave act.

Hopefully stories about people like him will make the news too.
 

Kilted Arab

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Apr 30, 2005
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Bravo said:
Just got a call from another friend - Lew. He has rented two vans and went to Costco and spent $2300 on various items, mostly canned food, bottled water, diapers etc. They are heading south right now. There is no gasoline in South Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana.

While I admire his heroism, I think it could be a dangerous mission...we will see what happens.

Hey Bravo...

When I first read your note, my immediate reaction was that your friend would be better staying out of it and letting the experts do their stuff. I've changed that view.

Just been watching Sky News...they ran a piece on a guy like your friend, Lew. He had loaded up his truck with as much water as he could and had driven South in Mississippi. There were queues of cars miles long, waiting at a gas station. People with no food, no water, no sanitation and no official help.

This guy - I forget his name - was driving down the line handing out his gallons of water. From what I saw, he had at least 50 large plastic cartons of water. That's at least 50 cars, 4 per car, 200 people that he has helped. It was humbling to watch and listen to him and those he had helped. Many made the comment that this guy was helping - but they had seen nothing from official sources.

There was an earlier comment here that the US would manage. The US is not managing. The desperation of this situation is increasing dramatically. Newspapers and TV stations around the world are running stories about starvation and anarchy running rife in a major US city and the surrounding areas. This is in the US, the richest country in the world.

If the UK has not offered aid, then I am deeply ashamed of my country. If we have offered aid and that offer has not been accepted, then there's another problem.

There are thousands, maybe 10's of thousands of people trying to live in a huge bowl of stagnant water, littered with dead bodies and sewage. The threat of disease is real and growing.

It is heartbreaking to watch the news and hear dozens of individual stories of suffering - I saw one today that hit me: one couple stranded in NO with a 3-month old baby. They had no food or water for the child. That tore me up. My colleague here, who I'm sure you know, also has friends and family in that region and hasn't heard from several of them.

If it is any small consolation, sincere sympathies are being expressed by all my colleagues, including the more devout Muslims here, people who ordinarily have no time for the U.S. They tell me this story has touched them and their families like no other, and they tell me the U.S., for possibly the first time, is in their prayers.
 
OP
Slingblade61

Slingblade61

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Thank your friends for me.

The "official" response has been fecking slower than whale shit.

However, the aid IS rushing to the scene at this moment at least. I know that C-5 transports from nearly every state in the union are rushing in water, food, medicine and people. 2 days from now this will be a very different story.

Experts in levee's from the Netherlands are already on scene.

National guardsmen are coming in at a rate of 1500 +/ day from several states to re-establish order.

The nature of the news biz is to report the shit first. It won't be much longer before you start to hear more stories like the one about the water man.

Right now, everyone there needs to leave.

Fix the Levees', drain the city, collect and count the dead...rebuild.

It's gonna happen.
 
OP
Slingblade61

Slingblade61

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A note form my friend, "Hoop"...

Posted on another board from Baton Rouge....

[font=Verdana, Helvetica, sans-serif] Things are looking more and more difficult. Our kids in Kentucky are sending a 5th wheel camper down for us to live in. We will be putting it in the back yard of a person that works for our inlaws. He has 12 of his family members from the city as refugees. The family next to my brother inlaw's has taken in 2 familys. In spite of all the help and genorocity from everyone the violance is spreading into here as I am posting. Yes we can use cloths. There are many who will gladly accept them. When and if I have any extra I will try to distribute them to the ones that will appreciate them.

Unfortunatly this area is about to go into a marshal law area because all the "animals" that have been rescued were brought here. Thier mind set is I am going to take it from you because I want it. This beautiful city is now under staffed with cops and they are about to loose control.

A lot of the relief efforts are put on hold for the safety of the volunteers.
[/font]
 
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Slingblade61

Slingblade61

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Another opost by Hoop....

Going to the red cross station up the road. Just got some sad word from John Tessier. A friend of ours Capt. Tony and his brother in law Don went from Morgan city into Empire by boat. They saw or recovered about about 20 bodys and say we have property only!!! Our home took a 27 foot wall of water. not even a splinter or wood left for miles.

Will fill you in on details as soon as I can find out more facts

As much as I am holding together the hole is filling in and I am in the bottom of the pit.

Sometimes life sucks!
 
OP
Slingblade61

Slingblade61

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A geographical reference....see the red star.
empiremap01.jpg
 

Bravo

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Katie Couric is a news anchor at NBC in New York.

Today, she posed this question, "If a reporter can get in to do an on-camera interview with starving, dehydrated people - why cannot emergency workers get there also?"

I think this really drove home the point about the failure of the federal government to do the job.

What many of you across the world may not know, is that New Orleans is probably the poorest American city. So in terms of a natural disaster hitting somewhere - this is the worst place for one to hit. So many people there just don't own cars - they could not get out.
 

DaveE

The golfer fka ST Champ
Aug 31, 2004
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The other side of that is that there are emergency workers too afraid to go in and help. I listened to an interview last night with a medical worker who said he would not go back into the Superdome until he could get protection.

While he was there, a period of around 24 hours, aprox. 6-8 women were raped and several people were murdered. Many more people could have received help if the rescuers didn't have to fear for their own lives.

As I watch this I can't decide if I'm watching New Orleans or Bahgdad. My heart goes out to the decent people there but it's just unbelievable how some of the others are acting. And as Sling post was saying, it isn't going to do any good to pick up the criminals in NO and just deposit them somewhere else.

We've never seen a disaster like this in the US and while it's not going as well as everyone would like, I believe people really are doing the best they can. It doesn't help anything when the Katie Courics of the world try to point out every negative, while pointing fingers at every opportunity.
 

Kilted Arab

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Apr 30, 2005
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DaveE said:
It doesn't help anything when the Katie Courics of the world try to point out every negative, while pointing fingers at every opportunity.

I hear what you're saying, but I'm not sure I agree...

By pointing out the negatives it has to increase the pressure on Bush et al to speed up the entire mission, to get things right. And that surely has to be a good thing.

I cannot believe that 4 days after this event, 000's of people 350 miles from Houston can't get a drink of water. This is in the richest country on the planet. It's heartbreaking and frustrating to watch. To gloss over the delays in the relief effort would not, I believe, be the right thing to do.

I also cannot fathom the refusal to accept overseas aid. Every delay is costing lives. People are dying, law and order is breaking down - and GWB says he doesn't need help.

It's not just the news crews getting there - I mentioned earlier, as did Bravo, about ordinary citizens ferrying in water and supplies. They can get through, but official relief cannot?
 

DaveE

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Aug 31, 2004
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KA, it's not that they shouldn't point out the problems, but some the media look for every opportunity to play politics and this just isn't the right time to do it.

At least two interviews I saw last night were people already playing the race card and saying that if the people trapped in NO were a different color then this wouldn't be happening. What purpose does this serve? Will more people be helped now?

No doubt the govt. was not prepared for the magnitude of what has happened. Nor did they expect to be shot at when they got there. Part of the problem is that they're not dealing with the aftermath of a disaster but an ongoing disaster as water continues to pour into NO.

No one, including the govt. wants to see people suffer, even though it's easy to argue they're doing a poor job. But the finger pointing serves no purpose. People are getting there as fast as they can and playing the blame game won't speed things up a bit.
 

Kilted Arab

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Apr 30, 2005
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DaveE said:
People are getting there as fast as they can and playing the blame game won't speed things up a bit.

I'm not sure about that.

For example, how long does it take relief helicopters to fly 350 miles from Houston to the NO superdome, laden with food and water?

How long would it take for flotillas of small boats to travel from the Florida panhandle along the coast, leaving supplies and ferrying away those in need?

How can some guy in a pick up truck be ferrying water and food for two days before any official relief arrives?

Even Dubya has said the relief effort hasn't moved as quickly as it should have done. So I'm really not sure how you can say people are getting there as fast as they can.
 

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