Not to hijack the "good" hurricane thread

2002srt4 · Post by **2002srt4** » Sat Sep 03, 2005 1:30 pm

Sorry guys, this is just a rant. Something i wanted to get out there to make people think.

This whole situation has gotten way out of hand. First to blame should be the governor and mayor of NO. They complain that the government didn't have troops and supplies ready to move in immediately. If they had known how bad it would be then they probably would have had troops. They would not have needed them though because if they were that prepared then the city would've been evacuated long before 12 hours before she hit. They mayor needs to accept the fact that he dropped the ball.

The "refugees," wait....they don't want to be called refugees. Even though they are seeking REFUGE! Refuge from the squalid conditions, refuge from the famin, refuge from looters, rapists, and murderers. They all claim its because they are black and poor. I'm sorry, show me some statistics. What are the ratios of whites to minorities in NO? How many minorities live below the poverty line in NO. The fact that they are black and poor is not why they aren't being helped. Its the reason they were stuck there in the first place. As of this moment, there is no difference between poor and rich. They are all equals.

Once again, the mayor dropped the ball. He should've had school buses and any other city vehicles going to the "poor" neighborhoods. I guarantee his ass wasn't in town when things went down.

The looters, WHAT THE HELL ARE YOU GOING TO DO WITH A 36" FLAT SCREEN?!?!?!? Seriously, the city has no power and won't for a long time. They are under a mandatory evac. Are they going to take the damn thing home and hope its there when they get back? If they get back? I can understand taking food and water, I probably would do it myself. But taking needless physical objects that you will probably never use? I'll leave it at that, I know everyone has their views on the matter.

Here's an idea, bring the buses in. If you have a child in your arms, I say up to about 13, then you have a ticket to get on. If you are elderly, you are your own ticket. If you are a 20 YO that doesn't respect anyone, FUCK OFF!!!!! This is america in the 21st century. Have some fucking respect! There is no need for them to run over the weak and infirmed. I've seen too many young males grab up all of the food and water and run away leaving the elderly looking on.

Here's an idea, instead of standing around using energy to scream and cry for help, fight over a square foot of asphalt, or rape and pillage, why don't you people leave. You could walk there, surely you can walk out. The smartest people I saw this week had nothing, one man had a bucket, a bottle of water, and a small bag of stuff. He was walking down the interstate trying to find anything. Trying to escape. He was not alone, a group of young people had what they could find and put in a shopping cart. They were also walking down the interstate. They knew nothing but escaping. If you people don't like the conditions leave. Its as simple as that. Go to wal mart and find a bottle of bleach and a teaspoon. From the cdc website you can put 1/8 tsp of bleach into a gallon of water and it will sanitize it enough to drink. After that, walk.......search for hope, don't expect it to come to you. You have to take care of yourself, don't rely on my to carry your ass out.

I'm sorry if i offend anyone, there are a lot more things i could say that would probably get me banned. This is just to let out some aggression that otherwise would've been used yelling at the tv.

Basically a lot of people dropped the ball. Don't blame everyone else, blame yourselves. Everyone has done something that they can be held accountable for.

In closing, watching the coverage this week has made me realize how stupid the general population really is. If anybody really stops to think they will realize that the logistics of this whole thing are just astronomical. They want to know why it has taken so long to get food and troops there. Hmm, maybe because they had to get the troops ready, go to the warehouse and get the pallets, then drive 50mph to NO. People need to shut the hell up and realize that we are only human. We are not magic and have the ability to go ":poof: all is better."

I will shut up now. I could go on for days and probably will if i don't post this already.

sirvaliant_98 · Post by **sirvaliant_98** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 1:07 am

I agree with you on a bit of this stuff. Yes this is a huge tragedy indeed. made worse by all the looters, rapists, etc. For god sakes, your shit just got torn up and your first thought is to go out and rape someone and steal stuff. Personally, I would shoot a looter on site. Survival stuff is different, but a tv, radio, etc., not right at all. Yes, why not help each other instead of fighting each other. Take care of each other until help arrives. Whats really sad is all the dead bodies just laying around in the streets. Do your fellow man a favor, designate a location to take the dead to, at least then they will be found and identified so their family will know forsure whats happened to them. As bad as that sounds, i wouldnt want to be left dead in the street or floating in the water.

I think a good chunk of this could have been avoided. All these researchers have been telling the government that New Orleans levee's would not hold up against a storm much bigger than a class 3, but did anything get done about it, hell no. Their reason is the costs, cant fit that in the budget, sorry. What a crock of shit. Now look at the costs, no amount of money it would have taken to fix the levee's to hold up against this size of storm can compare to the loss of lives and communities. Because some people didnt want to make a little less money. Thats what makes me sick the most. Just knowing this much catastrophe could have been avoided, yet nothing was done about it. I think if anyone is to blame for so much loss of life and damage, its the damn politicians who turned down the idea to make the city ready for such a disaster.

Anyways, we are strong and will make it through this tragedy.

titansxt · Post by **titansxt** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 2:02 am

I'll just keep it short. Shit, I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking this way.

MyNeonSaysHi · Post by **MyNeonSaysHi** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 2:06 am

amen. 2002srt4 you hit it right on the button.

kevo · Post by **kevo** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 10:53 am

sirvaliant_98 wrote: I think a good chunk of this could have been avoided. All these researchers have been telling the government that New Orleans levee's would not hold up against a storm much bigger than a class 3, but did anything get done about it, hell no. Their reason is the costs, cant fit that in the budget, sorry. What a crock of shit. Now look at the costs, no amount of money it would have taken to fix the levee's to hold up against this size of storm can compare to the loss of lives and communities. Because some people didnt want to make a little less money. Thats what makes me sick the most. Just knowing this much catastrophe could have been avoided, yet nothing was done about it. I think if anyone is to blame for so much loss of life and damage, its the damn politicians who turned down the idea to make the city ready for such a disaster.

Anyways, we are strong and will make it through this tragedy.

Speaking of that. My sister has an interesting article copied from a national geographic from last year that basically tells the story of the hurricane in detail. How N.O. would flood, the rich would be able to flee while the poor would be left with the devastation.

FYI the pump system is the problem of the state government. Not the federal government. The plans for the pump and levy system go back to the civil war era. It would be another story if they asked for federal aid for this. I dont know about that.

I also had no idea that they had casinos! If the anti-flood system was such a priority to them they could have simply gouged money from there to help upgrade their systems.

Frizbe · Post by **Frizbe** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 3:22 pm

titansxt wrote:I'll just keep it short. Shit, I'm glad I'm not the only one thinking this way.

+1

bossman · Post by **bossman** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 4:56 pm

I just hope everything works out. in my school im supposed to be getting people from New Orleans. I went to church today and barely a serman pastor said i dont watn to keep you i would like to go out and by supplies because we need to fill up to trucks of stuff. it crazy i feel like im in a movie. a city is gone gas is either gone or high. im just tripping on it.

sxt_003 · Post by **sxt_003** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 7:08 pm

OK, here's the thing...I work for a Water Treatment plant and if u add a teaspoon of bleach to any amount of water it isn't going to sanatize it, especially if it has toxic waste, sewage, or human fecal matter. Second off the people that were at the Superdome and Convention Centers were NOT allowed to leave. The only way they could leave was by evacuating on a bus. So i don't understand how they were going to walk away. Yeah a few could have gotten away but in all reality...The heat and humidity would take a veteran athlete out in a matter of an hour or so with no type of hydration or food let alone not having any of that for a few days.

Third and most important and i really want ALL of you to pay attention to this....Most of the stuff they are reporting on CNN and Fox and MSNBC is a bunch of bullshit. There was no riot at the Capitol Building in BR, nobody jumped off the Superdome, and the city isn't on "fire". I chose those because they were some of the most publicized things that weren't true at all. Looting is bad, but its' only uncontrolable in Orleans parish. Surrounding areas aren't as bad if any because most people got out. Also the news was talking about Grand Isle and Slidell being completely gone....FALSE. Only a VERY small portion of Slidell had flood damage, the rest looked fine with the exception of downed trees and power lines. There aren't 6 rapes and 3 murders a day at the Superdome. There was 2 rapes and no murders. A few fights broke out, but lets be real how many of you think you could sit in a building in that bad of shape and not be on edge. I will not sit here and make excuses for any of the problems that are there i just want u all to know that everything u hear is for the most part untrue. Yes, it's bad, really bad. New Orleans will never be the same.

As far as who's fault, Blanco...plain and simple. She should be thrown dead in the middle of it all and beaten. She is the biggest disgrace of an individual that i have ever EVER seen. She turned her back on the people of New Orleans in every aspect of this situation. She did nothing at all to help and has done nothing for this state since she's been in office. Her and Mary Landrieu should be stripped, covered in gas, dropped in a empty tank surrounded by water and set on fire. Even then it wouldnt' be cruel enough. No offense and Diablo i'm sorry but this needs to be said...I'm tired of these pussy democrats getting in office talking about how much they care about this and that and when it coems down to it they turn their backs on the very people, blacks and poor, that put them there and then blame it on everyone else. She sat in her A/C'd office and have press conference after another about how thankful she was to this person and that person when NO ONE was doing a damn thing. Yeah some people could have gotten out, but others couldn't, that's no excuse though. If it wasn't for Bush coming in this thing would never have gotten resolved. State comes before Gov't when it comes to things like this and Blanco knew, yet she didn't make the authorizations she should have soon enough to allow federal help. It's different because these laws don't abide to other nations. That's why it was authorized quicker to send relief to tsunami and iraq places than to LA, MS, and AL.

Sorry, but i'm just fed up with all this and tired of the media getting ratings off false information and people suffering. Don't just stand their with a camera and report what's going on, get your ass in gear and help people, then talk about it....

o and 1 other thing...I have been a HUGE Kanye West fan for a while. Though he's very arrogant and cocky i still like him, his beats, and his lyrics. What he did the other night was a typical occurance when u follow the media and don't truely know what u are talking about. Once more, International law doesnt have restrictions when it comes to receiving aid and what not. Laws put into place by our Four Father's were done so that State couldn't be overrun by gov't. This is why the Civil War took place so easily and no one was punished for it. State has to authorize stationing of military troops and this must be done by the Governer.

Mr. West must not know any of this. Otherwise his beef would be and should be with Mrs. Waste of Space Blanco and her crew. She paniced and as so many in the country love to do, Kanye West put the blame where it had no right to be. What is he doing btw. I've heard of tons of celebrities donating and even going to all the places to help out yet i don't see him doing antthing. You'd think with all his Raulph Lauren Clothing that he could at least spare some of it...Yeah that's right, he's another one that complains the someone left the water on, but rather than turn it off, he would just sit there and talk about how horrible it was that someone did this. I have no respect for him anymore and i will not support his false lifestyle anymore.

2k2patriotblueneon · Post by **2k2patriotblueneon** » Sun Sep 04, 2005 10:05 pm

My take is, if you wanna live where its summer all year long then deal with the negative shit. Nothing is perfect....pisses me off that my taxpayer dollars have to go to rebuilding a house for some asshole I don't even know when the damn thing will be destroyed again in 20 years. Because we all know that only 10% if that will take this as a learning experience and turn tail to run.

kevo · Post by **kevo** » Tue Sep 06, 2005 10:55 pm

www3.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature5/

CU_rob · Post by **CU_rob** » Thu Sep 08, 2005 6:57 am

From Wall Street Journal...

http://www.opinionjournal.com/extra/?id=110007219

Quotes:

The actions and inactions of Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin are a national disgrace due to their failure to implement the previously established evacuation plans of the state and city. Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin cannot claim that they were surprised by the extent of the damage and the need to evacuate so many people. Detailed written plans were already in place to evacuate more than a million people. The plans projected that 300,000 people would need transportation in the event of a hurricane like Katrina. If the plans had been implemented, thousands of lives would likely have been saved.

In addition to the plans, local, state and federal officials held a simulated hurricane drill 13 months ago, in which widespread flooding supposedly trapped 300,000 people inside New Orleans. The exercise simulated the evacuation of more than a million residents. The problems identified in the simulation apparently were not solved.

A year ago, as Hurricane Ivan approached, New Orleans ordered an evacuation but did not use city or school buses to help people evacuate. As a result many of the poorest citizens were unable to evacuate. Fortunately, the hurricane changed course and did not hit New Orleans, but both Gov. Blanco and Mayor Nagin acknowledged the need for a better evacuation plan. Again, they did not take corrective actions. In 1998, during a threat by Hurricane George, 14,000 people were sent to the Superdome and theft and vandalism were rampant due to inadequate security. Again, these problems were not corrected.

The New Orleans contingency plan is still, as of this writing, on the city's Web site, and states: "The safe evacuation of threatened populations is one of the principle [sic] reasons for developing a Comprehensive Emergency Management Plan." But the plan was apparently ignored.

Mayor Nagin was responsible for giving the order for mandatory evacuation and supervising the actual evacuation: His Office of Emergency Preparedness (not the federal government) must coordinate with the state on elements of evacuation and assist in directing the transportation of evacuees to staging areas. Mayor Nagin had to be encouraged by the governor to contact the National Hurricane Center before he finally, belatedly, issued the order for mandatory evacuation. And sadly, it apparently took a personal call from the president to urge the governor to order the mandatory evacuation.

The city's evacuation plan states: "The city of New Orleans will utilize all available resources to quickly and safely evacuate threatened areas." But even though the city has enough school and transit buses to evacuate 12,000 citizens per fleet run, the mayor did not use them. To compound the problem, the buses were not moved to high ground and were flooded. The plan also states that "special arrangements will be made to evacuate persons unable to transport themselves or who require specific lifesaving assistance. Additional personnel will be recruited to assist in evacuation procedures as needed." This was not done.

The evacuation plan warned that "if an evacuation order is issued without the mechanisms needed to disseminate the information to the affected persons, then we face the possibility of having large numbers of people either stranded and left to the mercy of a storm, or left in an area impacted by toxic materials." That is precisely what happened because of the mayor's failure.

kevo · Post by **kevo** » Fri Sep 09, 2005 11:13 am

heres another

http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/09/08/katrin ... index.html

2002srt4 · Post by **2002srt4** » Sat Sep 10, 2005 9:06 am

What gets me the most now is that they were in the process of coming up with more plans, that probably wouldn't have been implemented, to provide temporary housing. If Blanco and Nagin had pulled their heads out earlier and stopped throwing beads then we wouldn't have to support people for who knows how long. I'm sorry but if a tornado came through Kansas and destroyed my home I probably wouldn't see a thing from the government. Let alone the entire nation.

Here in wichita they are acting like the hurrican victims are pets to take in. "ooh ooh, give us some! Yay, there are 500 coming monday!" I don't want to seem like an asshole but the entire country is helping. Everyone is trying to feel good and make it seem like they are donating so much more than everyone else.

The media frenzy needs to stop. I turned on the tv last night and was assaulted by millionaire celebrities telling me I needed to donate to the relief effort. Excuse me, F&$# You! Your watch costs 3 times what i make in a year and you're telling me to donate. I have an idea, if they all care so damn much then why don't we make them donate 1 million each. There are so many actors and singers that the poor blue collar foundation of this country people wouldn't need to donate. Won't we do plenty supplying new lumber, concrete, equipment, and underpayed labor when this is all over? I don't need someone who spends more on dinner than I do on my house payment, telling me to "open my heart, and help support the needy families of New Orleans".

Baal · Post by **Baal** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 6:08 am

agreed that kind of celebrity crap makes me want to stab the TV

slowmopar1 · Post by **slowmopar1** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 1:23 pm

I do hate that the people of New Orleans are turning this into a political and even worse, racial thing instead of the statistical fact that it is. Of course had it been me I would have had my thumb out on the highway before it ever happened. I mean can anyone honestly doubt that people wouldn't pick them up. I mean I would! 'Get in! Don't know where we're going yet but it's better than here.'
The media also pisses me off because since the people of NO are making this a political and racial thing that's the news. You don't hear about Biloxi which was actually hit the hardest by the storm. Since the people there are all going ' Well damn that sucks, time to rebuild.' they aren't news worthy. It's sad that this is the state of our country.
Good things have come out of this though, some things that I was happy to see:
Sri Lanka donating money. Although not much it was touching to see a country that we had helped giving what they could to help. Granted 25K isn't much by global standards they are still recovering from their tsunami so it was real cool to see them help us in return.
Notice what countries are here to help. It's one thing for a superpower to send money but another for a 'minor' (for lack of a better word) country to send troops. To date I have seen news of the Mexican, Dutch and Netherlands Navy's landing on the shores to help. I wouldn't have expected any of those to help and it was great to see.
Someone was talking about the false generocity in their northern state. I was imported to MS from WA and have never been proud to be a Mississippian till now. We are always catorgorized as a red-neck state full of inbreed idiots but right now MS is pulling together more than any other state and they are happy and proud to do so. I've never seen the people of Columbus, MS pull together like this even for our own disasters.
I volunteered at a donation drop off to do what I could and it was heartwarming to see that it wasn't just the rich people who could afford to giving. It was the families that you could look at and tell they were making a real sacrifice that moved me. I saw displaced people from LA coming into the drop off to try and get help and it honestly nearly made me cry. These people were proud and it was un-imaginably hard for them to ask for assistance. I saw a young teen girl nearly cry as she asked for something as simple as ice and water. These families didn't want anymore than they absolutely needed. We were loading them up and they would tell us that's too much. Take that back and send it to the coast.
Yes this disaster has brought out the worse in a lot of people but the good is too often overlooked because it isn't news worthy.

This was in a British newspaper and I felt it was very meaningful:
"The sight of a superpower humbled is in itself humbling," the Daily Telegraph wrote in an editorial.
A lot of people will say we weren't humbled and that's pride talking. Yes we were we got our ass handed to us and we made a lot of mistakes. Now it's time to rebuild our pride and learn from our mistakes.

Baal · Post by **Baal** » Sun Sep 11, 2005 9:26 pm

What really blows is that a 5% reduccion in the military budget would be enough to re-build it 10 times haha