Hurricane Katrina Poised to Flood Big Easy... - Page 9  

you dont know that everything went well after the tsunami 100%...I've always believed that in the case of a natural disaster or any other event that takes people out of the ordinary the number one thing you need to worry about is other people...For instance, the number of young girls that were kidnapped after the tsunami and brought into the child sex trade is disturbing...people are going to struggle over the necessities and fight each other over them...it's like the way countries fight...what i mean is that in recent years, a quater of the worlds armed conflicts have involved a struggle over natural resources. Yeah sure on the whole people will try and be as civil as possible, but there will be those groups that try to 'run the city' and loot stores for consumer items, and yeah it's disgusting, but im not suprised...

This is a portion of Haley Barbour, governor of Mississippi's interview with Larry King tonight. You can read the whole transcript here.

"On Saturday we asked people to evacuate. On Sunday, I went on television and I begged people. That's the word I used. I beg you please evacuate. But still when I did that on Sunday, I had no idea that this was going to become a category five hurricane and the people who want to have convenient memories and hindsight expectations that for several days everybody knew this was going to be something terrible, look we begged people to evacuate and some people chose not to...I'm not blaming them. I'm just telling you we got hit by the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States and a lot of people, God bless them, a lot of people got hurt....So, I commiserate with them but I don't -- I don't sympathize with those who want to blame somebody."

Blame the 24 hour news cycle for our microwave popcorn set of expecations. If we hear about something happening, 6 hours later we wonder why it hasn't been fixed. If something happened 3-4 days ago, people act like it has been happening all their lives, and if it happened a few years ago, people behave as if though it is ancient history (9-11, anyone?).

What scares me is that this disaster, while definitely damaging, is nothing compared to the what a well planned terrorist attack on a major city would do. The inability of the government to properly plan for the aftermath of the storm is terribly disappointing, and for me, casts a serious shadow on their ability to react to an even more disasterous event.

Everything I've read, and every personal account I've seen, seem to indicate a complete breakdown in local law enforcement organization. Didn't they know it was coming? Did they watch the news? Although I can understand the difficulty national guard and FEMA have coming in from the outside trying to supply food/water/aid (although I still think things have been planned before the storm hit), I'm baffled by how poorly prepared the local authorities were. I've been planning on buying a handgun for a while, for fun and self-defense, and after seeing the way things degenerated in New Orleans, I'm even more motivated to do so.

I am also baffled by the lack of preparedness. Headphone geeks like us follow the storm all the way from a week ahead of landfall and government authorities were twiddling their thumbs?

This is the second time they've been caught napping - once is bad enough, twice is inexcusable

Were they hoping that the storm would just dissipate...or go away towards Mexico by some lucky twist of fate?

Maybe they'll hope that an ICBM with a warhead capable of annihilating the country will also *miss* or blow up en-route

The effect of Katrina is very close to what would have happened had the terrorists dropped a nuke in New Orleans. Priorities may be different for Homeland Security -but- the end result is the same. People suffer and it is really a domino effect.

They say "Learn from history"

America has learnt to "Ignore history"


The current state of affairs are pathetic. I am now seriously worried about the students who are busy planning their relief efforts. I think it would be wise for them to call it off and pray that the army and the proud marines fight where their hearts tell them they are needed...here at home!

Pathetic...

I couldn't agree with you more, AML. The damage to the city is appalling. However, even more odious is the fact that people have taken the attitude of "if I can't get out, no one can" are and performing these acts of violence against their own kind and preventing those in dire need of medical assistance from being evacuated. It's one thing to be hungry, and it's entirely another to be dying.

I'm very much a pacifist, but I really hope that the National Guard (or another properly-armed force) can get in there and straighten this out soon enough that at least a few lives are saved.

There are many days that I have felt inclined to lose faith in the human race, and the last 3 days have been chief among them. When people are committing these horrors after what will likely turn out to be the most deadly and costly natural disaster ever in the US... what is there to say?

Not to get gross, but there will be mass-scale cholera breakouts soon (as in days, not weeks) if the water is not pumped and the corpses disposed of properly. I hope so dearly that each and every family will be able to get their deceased loved ones back to pay their respects, but I know that this cannot happen. I've seen what water does to a corpse, identification is nearly impossible, and even if someone were to identify it, I would feel horribly for them having to see their loved one in such a state. I can only hope that comfort is somehow brought to those who cannot have closure with the passing of their loved ones.

I know two things for certain at least.

#1: Once things return to a semblance of normality, a lot of hard questions are going to be asked, and I don't anticipate the authorities having good answers.

#2: When people are ordered to evacuate next time and given means to do so, they will.

The blame falls both on the residents themselves as well as the government. Pitiful all around.

Oddly enough...the purpose of "Freeways / Interstates" is to fecilitate rapid evacuation, armed forces movement etc.

Population and traffic is growing...
More money is being spent in the middle east for whatever reasons...
Interstates are just not large enough to handle the traffic on a day to day basis - how can they come in handy during an emergency?

I think more money needs to go into improving the interstates and making sure the contractors do their job. There is a patch of interstate here in Austin that has been under repair since I got here. Nobody seems to be working on it...they've just cordoned it off and left it like that for months!

The system is failing. People are going to take the law into their own hands...

The first good news since quite a while, thanks, Micaela.

I hate to say this - but I think that this is going to become more of a common occurance over the next 10 years or so, (especially the next 7). I say try and make your peace with everyone when you can. You never know what tomorrow (or next week) may bring. This may sound whack, but there's a huge planetary eclipse coming up, and no doubt the gravitational impact will be felt in our solar system, if not our planet. I'm not predicting the end of the world or anything..Just that now is not the time for Anarchy or war, but a time for peace and reconciliation.

On one hand I want to sympathise with the residents of new orleans, on the other I think that(with all due respect) it was naive and ignorant of those who stayed, especially with the amount of warning. But I'm on the other side of the world, I've never experienced anything like this close to home, so I don't know how I'd react.

The breakdown in communication is staggering. Mike Brown in an interview Thursday said that FEMA had only learned about the situation at the convention center earlier in the day.

Yup; could not have said it better; I do not want to be a Monday Morning QB, but why couldn't we have bit the bullet, spent the money and shored up the levees?

I'm pissed off. I have read nothing of this thread. Where's the help for the people? **** the officials, they have let everyone down. We knew this was coming. Why are there people still dying? This is pissing me off.

With fire coming from odd places within any objective, surrounded by the needy, Mike, there is no solution for the military - they cannot just return fire....Helicopters are just loose assemblages of parts that wanna stop flying on their own, without fire...

The officers who have lost their homes, and some have even lost their families, and who are unlikely to get paid anytime soon, or fed, or have a place to sleep, or time off, are getting shot at, and are turning in their Badges by the hundreds. They cannot stop their cars to "Give Help" because the wilding crowds would devour them, and the officer, his purpose, and his equipment would be disappeared without any effect, and even if it survived, it is then no longer available to use for police purposes.

You want them to stop for any citizen on the street? then fifty, a hundred people would surround it. Then, if he had any supplies in the car, a fight would break out for however much food he had. People would want to get somewhere, right? One gets in the front, four get in the rear, then three sit on each fender, eight stand on the roof, eight on the hood, eight on the trunk, and the car is ruined. That is what would happen if they stopped.

Think!

The rescue workers are loading buses as fast as they can, but the inflow of refugees is overwhelming the effort - they have sent over 11,000 to houston, but overnight, the people at the Superdome has swelled to over the capacity of the Dome over 30,000...they started the night with around 24,000.

Furthermore, there are people "Taking" buses from other places, loading them with other people (they are coming from wherever they rode out the storm) and heading to the Houston facility for some of that free housing and free food and new people to steal from, new people to rape, new people to victimize...Many of these are legitimate refugees, but many are intent on wilding...Neither the relief workers, nor the National Guard, nor the Police can distinguish these malicious people from the needy citizens...

Those who are out of New Orleans, Biloxi, Gulf Shores, etc., number over a Million! If even a tenth of them are intent on doing evil, how many Officers and Military do YOU think should be sufficient? Now, gather that many officers, their equipment, their supplies, and transport them, give them a place to stage near to the need, and send them in...how long do you think it will take? There is over 90,000 SQUARE MILES of land that is passable by Helicopter only! This has no parallel in the history of the United States.

If we mobilized A MILLION officers, that would be TEN PER SQUARE MILE in an Urban Environment, where each officer would need a Helicopter or a Boat to move around....Still think you can solve the problem?? Still think that Ten Officers per Square Mile would stop the rapes, the fights over bags of ice, etc.?

The Washington National Guard had been Officially on Notice (standby orders to the personnel) since Saturday here in Washington (farthest from the problem), and they have all been told to have supplies with them to sustain them for three days. Many are in place, and the last of them are en Route today.

This sounds like a bunch of excuses for the failures of this government. The logistical problems should have been addressed long before this storm hit. The possibility of this disaster, as we see it today was known for years.