Katrina

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

They are getting to the towns, but is a slow task. Again, if they drop a container in the middle of a marsh - no one gets it In any event, they are getting to these people and moreso every hour.

The pilots are skilled enough to drop the containers at strategic locations. Or are you saying our pilots are not skilled enough to do that?
What am I thinking? Shrub was a pilot. Nevermind. You're right on this one.

[gldstwmn]

[QUOTE=strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by dissention

Read for yourself:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050901/...ane_katrina_23

That article does not address whether the dome was getting supplies. The Convention Center is a mile or two down the road from the dome. I am unsure if it was an official evacuation point prior to the strom as it is adjacent to the river.

According to MSNBC, it was.

[gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

It explained nothing and you know it. Nice try though.

I mean do you really think they could have rebuilt all the levees in six months - come on. Moreover, this has been going on for decades - a concept you do not want to admit.

The article talked about the whole history of it. Not just six months.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

The pilots are skilled enough to drop the containers at strategic locations. Or are you saying our pilots are not skilled enough to do that?
What am I thinking? Shrub was a pilot. Nevermind. You're right on this one.

They have to find the people first and there are no landmarks - nothing. But, in the end, this is all arm chair quarterbacking and since you admitted I am correct - so be it.

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by gldstwmn

The article talked about the whole history of it. Not just six months.

Which was my point to wit: to hang it all on W's very recent cut in funding is unfair - this has been going on for decades and essentially existed to line the pockets of poloticians their cronies. Sad, very true.

[David]

Originally Posted by Associated Press

. . . An old man in a chaise lounge. . .

It looks as if a couple of reporters & editors for AP haven't been reading the AP Stylebook -- or any other style or usage guide, for that matter.

[strandinthewind]

[QUOTE=gldstwmn]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

According to MSNBC, it was.

Outside the New Orleans Convention Center, a huge crowd waited on the sidewalks for aid that could be a long time coming. The building was used as a secondary shelter when the Louisiana Superdome was overwhelmed.

www.cnn.com

In the end, the Bush Administration once again has made a great start and apparantly is now failing to follow through in any efficienct or timely manner. It always amazes me how they could f*ck up a wet dream

[strandinthewind]

Rescuers: Boat operation suspended
Thousands still stranded in New Orleans

Thursday, September 1, 2005; Posted: 12:49 p.m. EDT (16:49 GMT)

Displaced people wait for help Thursday on a New Orleans sidewalk.
Image:

The instructions to stand down came during a meeting with officials from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

CNN's Rick Sanchez reported that authorities were concerned for the rescuers' safety because some people have become violent toward the those on the boats.

He said officials were trying to figure out how to safely resume rescues.

Troops and police have been working to evacuate tens of thousands of people, who are growing weaker and more desperate each hour.
_______________________________________________________________

from cnn.com

I suggest they use stun guns or tranquilzer darts - if they have them.

[strandinthewind]

'A scene of anarchy'
Editor's Note: CNN correspondents report back on what they are seeing in New Orleans and other Gulf Coast communities hit by Hurricane Katrina.

Chaos at the convention center
Posted: 10:02 a.m. ET
CNN's Jim Spellman in New Orleans, Louisiana

I don't think I really have the vocabulary for this situation.

We just heard a couple of gunshots go off. There's a building smoldering a block away. People are picking through whatever is left in the stores right now. They are walking the streets because they have nowhere else to go.

Right now, I'm a few blocks away from the New Orleans Convention Center area. We drove through there earlier, and it was unbelievable. Thousands and thousands and thousands of people spent the night sleeping on the street, on the sidewalk, on the median.

The Convention Center is a place that people were told to go to because it would be safe. In fact, it is a scene of anarchy.

There is absolutely nobody in control. There is no National Guard, no police, no information to be had.

The Convention Center is next to the Mississippi River. Many people who are sleeping there feel that a boat is going to come and get them. Or they think a bus is going to come. But no buses have come. No boats have come. They think water is going come. No water has come. And they have no food.

As we drove by, people screamed out to us -- "Do you have water? Do you have food? Do you have any information for us?"

We had none of those.

Probably the most disturbing thing is that people at the Convention Center are starting to pass away and there is simply nothing to do with their bodies. There is nowhere to put them. There is no one who can do anything with them. This is making everybody very, very upset.

Find this article at:
http://www.cnn.com/2005/WEATHER/09/0...log/index.html
______________________________________________________________

Unless they get that train or about 1000 more buses - these people are going to die.

[David]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

Which was my point to wit: to hang it all on W's very recent cut in funding is unfair - this has been going on for decades and essentially existed to line the pockets of poloticians their cronies. Sad, very true.

Yes, Nawlins was a disaster waiting to happen. As is sometimes the case (Sumatra last year, for example), the wait was a long one. But the disaster occurred, nevertheless.

Emergency planning for disasters is a complex area of study & activity unto itself: any number of hazards are "known about," but resources are limited, & likelihoods of occurrence have to be weighed against money & manpower supplies. This is a worldwide phenomenon, not just an American one. Look at the stubborn Italians who live & work in the shadow of the geologically very active Etna. There are large, bustling, thriving (for the nonce) cities all around Etna. Etna will continue erupting -- I don't know whether it is expected to erupt catastrophically (you'd have to read the volcanologists), but I imagine the potential is there.

Here's an interesting precis of an article that ran in 2001 -- four years ago -- in Scientific American:

http://snipurl.com/hdf3

Drowning New Orleans
By Mark Fischetti
October 2001

THE BOXES are stacked eight feet high and line the walls of the large, windowless room. Inside them are new body bags, 10,000 in all. If a big, slow-moving hurricane crossed the Gulf of Mexico on the right track, it would drive a sea surge that would drown New Orleans under 20 feet of water. "As the water recedes," says Walter Maestri, a local emergency management director, "we expect to find a lot of dead bodies."

New Orleans is a disaster waiting to happen. The city lies below sea level, in a bowl bordered by levees that fend off Lake Pontchartrain to the north and the Mississippi River to the south and west. And because of a damning confluence of factors, the city is sinking further, putting it at increasing flood risk after even minor storms. The low-lying Mississippi Delta, which buffers the city from the gulf, is also rapidly disappearing. A year from now another 25 to 30 square miles of delta marsh-an area the size of Manhattan-will have vanished. An acre disappears every 24 minutes. Each loss gives a storm surge a clearer path to wash over the delta and pour into the bowl, trapping one million people inside and another million in surrounding communities. Extensive evacuation would be impossible because the surging water would cut off the few escape routes. Scientists at Louisiana State University (L.S.U.), who have modeled hundreds of possible storm tracks on advanced computers, predict that more than 100,000 people could die. The body bags wouldn't go very far.

[strandinthewind]

^^

I know. They were toying with the idea of rerouting the Mississippi, but it never came to anything and may have caused more harm than good

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/teacher...307_flood.html

http://www.findarticles.com/p/articl...59/ai_95845370

Interestigly, it was Lake Ponchtrain that has flooded the city.

[SuzeQuze]

He said he told aides, "Look, when I get back to Washington on Wednesday afternoon I want to have a report on my desk and a cabinet meeting for you to tell me exactly what your departments are going to do."

Is this supposed to be impressive? He should have told them what to do. Order them to do specific things right away. Without water people cannot survive longer than 2 or 3 days! WTF??? I'm so pissed off and devastated I can't even believe it. Where the hell are those 28,000 troops?? NO needs them right now!

[strandinthewind]

Originally Posted by SuzeQuze

He said he told aides, "Look, when I get back to Washington on Wednesday afternoon I want to have a report on my desk and a cabinet meeting for you to tell me exactly what your departments are going to do."

Is this supposed to be impressive? He should have told them what to do. Order them to do specific things right away. Without water people cannot survive longer than 2 or 3 days! WTF??? I'm so pissed off and devastated I can't even believe it. Where the hell are those 28,000 troops?? NO needs them right now!

I know - again, it sort of amazes me that I, alowly citizen, can think up this shiitte in about five seconds and it takes them a week after the fact Maybe he thought FEMA would take care of it prior to the storm. In any event, he was wrong and the buck stops there.

[SuzeQuze]

Originally Posted by strandinthewind

I know - again, it sort of amazes me that I, alowly citizen, can think up this shiitte in about five seconds and it takes them a week after the fact Maybe he thought FEMA would take care of it prior to the storm. In any event, he was wrong and the buck stops there.

He trusted his cabinet to take care of things. That was a mistake. Does he make any decisions?

[skcin]

"I hope people don't play politics during this period of time," Bush said in an unscheduled early morning interview on ABC television. "This is a natural disaster, the likes of which our country may have never seen before.

"And it is a national emergency. And what we need to do as a nation is come together to solve the problem and not play politics. There will be ample time for politics," he said.

This was on Good Morning America this morning. Diane Sawyer kept asking him questions & he kept fidgeting & thrusting his jaw side to side & changing the subject. Asked why help did not start arriving Monday, he said it's on the way now. Great. Thanks.

Now I hear he's going there tomorrow. WHY?!?! He's not needed, his arrival will only delay help getting to people. Stay at the White House where you belong, please.