Hurricane Katrina

[Terminus]

Nice sig quote. Too bad 9/10ths of the board won't understand it![;)]

[rhondabrwn]

Looking at today's CNN headlines, it seems like they've finally gotten the right picture of what has happened.
Greenpeace is raising the chemical pollution flag... haven't really seen any mainstream coverage about toxic waste release from New Orleans area petrochemical plants. I know it was forecast that New Orleans could turn into a permanent toxic waste dump if something like this ever happened.

My daughter was in New Orleans about 5 weeks ago for some kind of Marine Biology conference and she told me last night that "everyone" was talking about the elevated Hurricane risk AND the huge exposure to chemical release due to flooding. It sounds like the nightmare may be coming true.

If so, the full impact of this disaster hasn't been conveyed yet to the general public.

I've instructed all of my 7th and 8th graders to watch news coverage tonight. Initially, their reaction was "didn't know, don't care" but once we got some video streams going on the classroom computers the horror of it all started to sink in. I hate to have such an example to use as a teaching aid, but Navajo youth tend to be isolated from the world - which is something I have to help change. This magnitude of death and destruction breaks through their disinterest. Most of them had no idea where New Orleans was even located, but now we're talking about the geography of the disaster.

[Erik Rutins]

This is a pretty good map of the levee breaches and flooding. We are fortunate that the people we knew in the area survived, but I would not be surprised if the count of those who did not reaches the thousands and it will take years for the city to be fully functional again. It's a given now that the city is lost, that all need to be evacuated, I'm just hoping that they can rescue those still alive before we lose a lot more people.

Levee Breach Map

Regards,

- Erik

[Erik Rutins]

If you want to donate to help with recovery and aid for the survivors of the hurricane, this is a good collection of links for charities and other NGOs that are going to be in the area:

Instapundit Flood Relief Links

[nukkxx5058]

Good luck to all of you in New Orleans (but also mississipi and evrywhere the hurricane stroke) etc.) from a French guy ... It's horrible to see such a great city totaly detroyed !

[DamoclesX]

this is nuts

I just found out about this, it looks like New Orleans has been devistated, snipers shooting people, armed men roaming the streets at night, people starving, I cant belive how insane things have gotten in an -american- city.

Is the city a total write off? What I have seen on cnn it look like over half of the city is under water.

[rhondabrwn]

ORIGINAL: DamoclesX

this is nuts

I just found out about this, it looks like New Orleans has been devistated, snipers shooting people, armed men roaming the streets at night, people starving, I cant belive how insane things have gotten in an -american- city.

Is the city a total write off? What I have seen on cnn it look like over half of the city is under water.

I'm sure every effort will be made to rebuild New Orleans, but there is no way that I would personally rebuild in a below sea-level coastal city. I'll bet a lot of New Orleans citizens probably are feeling that way and when they get an insurance check are going to head elsewhere to rebuild their lives.

I don't think anyone has addressed the toxic waste issue which could leave the area uninhabitable. I'm hearing recurring statements about the waters polluted with sewage and petrochemicals, but no hard facts on how dangerous this stuff will be or what the long term effects will be when the water is pumped out and this toxic sediment remains.

I do have some good news, my daughter got a call from one of her best friends who lives in the suburbs of New Orleans and they are high and dry and housing over a dozen refugees (plus 3 dogs and a cat)in their home. There will eventually be heartwarming stories about individual heroism, sacrifice, generosity, and compassion coming out of this. Through all the bad news, we have to remember that Americans are out there helping Americans. It may not be apparent... it certainly isn't going to be nearly enough, but it's a start.

If you haven't donated money to the Red Cross or other relief organization yet... why haven't you?

[Cmdrcain]

The Original New orleans which is French Quarter and some area around should perhaps be rebuilt/repaired, however the areas of what were Marsh before they expanded the City and so created the problemic problem of modern New Orleans should be wrote off, left sunk and not rebuilt, those areas never should have been drained and built on.

[rhondabrwn]

ORIGINAL: Cmdrcain

The Original New orleans which is French Quarter and some area around should perhaps be rebuilt/repaired, however the areas of what were Marsh before they expanded the City and so created the problemic problem of modern New Orleans should be wrote off, left sunk and not rebuilt, those areas never should have been drained and built on.

I'm not an engineer, of course, but maybe major low-lying areas could be left unbuilt, dug out and turned into lakes, and the fill from the excavations used to build up safe areas that are above sea level for reconstruction?

The big problem isn't so much the loss of a great tourist destination, but the loss of a major port. There is no question that a Gulf Port on the Mississippi River is something we cannot do without. Midwest farmers are going to be totally screwed this harvest as their grain can't be shipped through New Orleans. Inbound oil, of course, is another well known casualty of the loss of the Port of New Orleans.

No.. in some form, we need New Orleans, but I don't see it ever being the city it was before the storm hit. [:(]

[RBWhite]

Here in New Jersey million & millions of dollars are spent dredging sand from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to make the beaches bigger. A couple of what we call Noreasters (Storms) over a few years and the beaches are right back to where they were. Might as well just have thrown that money right in the ocean.

The Oceans will always reclaim what was theirs, eventually.

[rhondabrwn]

ORIGINAL: RBWhite

Here in New Jersey million & millions of dollars are spent dredging sand from the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to make the beaches bigger. A couple of what we call Noreasters (Storms) over a few years and the beaches are right back to where they were. Might as well just have thrown that money right in the ocean.

The Oceans will always reclaim what was theirs, eventually.

You are right about the futile effort to maintain tourist beaches, but rebuilding New Orleans wouldn't be that much of a losing proposition. In fact, if they elevated the rebuilt city and removed the levies to let the waters flow naturally out into the delta, nature would start restoring the protective barrier islands and marshlands.

Anyway, I'm just glad to be at 7,000 feet and encroaching water is about the last worry we have here in Tsaile!

[Anecdotes]

From the official website: "Hurricane Katrina has decimated St. Bernard Parish. Parish government ordered a mandatory evacuation Sunday, August 28. No roads into St. Bernard Parish are accessible to citizens return at this time."

While the St. Bernard Parish in LA has been decimated, the good news is that information has been swiftly transacted by the relevant St. Bernard authorities resulting in NO confusion for all those involved. Even the approx. 50,000 names on the flooded computer database were all accounted for and well received by Sept. 1, Thursday (local time.)

rhondabrwn wrote: "You are right about the futile effort to maintain tourist beaches, but rebuilding New Orleans wouldn't be that much of a losing proposition. In fact, if they elevated the rebuilt city and removed the levies to let the waters flow naturally out into the delta, nature would start restoring the protective barrier islands and marshlands."

Just another good example of organization and communication working well in such a terrible natural disaster.

[Anecdotes]

Have been busy consolidating after Hurricane Katrina's wrath. But I've noticed very recent updates about the latest 'Eastern' campaigns to alleviate the problems. Good efforts and anecdotes should be coming soon perhaps even another contributor.

[Anecdotes]

There are more delays because of upcoming professional examinations to ensure relief effort people know what to do in instances of subsequent disasters. Accusations abound of officials getting the jobs because of their connection to the incumbent Administration. These proficiency tests can be most annoying as things compound and pile up: as it is no one here is playing games or relaxing, especially when the competition is intense. One aspiring volunteer doesn't have a driver's license yet... and is desperately working on that before winter and snow's sleet strikes: amidst all the recent years of bureaucratic nonsense. Another one has been so busy working with no time to write letters to his folks back home. Good thing for dedicated volunteers and people like that.

[Anecdotes]

Things are very hectic. The competition levels are intense as everyone is competing fiercely - almost like a war of desperate survival. The beds here aren't the best so good sleep is always welcome.

It appears that almost everyone is engaged in social networking and ass kissing, so the pressure is intense, to put it mildly. Only Darwin's finest will survive - the finest in everything, routine, qualifications, mental and especially social or networking.

The biggest obstacles right now are the competition as (almost) everyone is here for a reason - to stay! Many will fail. Many will fail dismally. Some of the more ambitious wreck their brains thinking of strategies, even those from the northern regions, who find their economies less vibrant. And everyone knows every other's intentions.

Someone new here remarked how racially tolerant this is. That is true, considering everyone treats others as fellow human beings and not as shades of the rainbow, despite the initial accusations of the Hurricane Katrina relief effort. Compared to the old places, those people there needed to be racially educated to be tolerant. After all, a country is only as strong as its weakest link. Stupid British heritage and Anglophiles: the British Empire is gone, dead, kaput: grow up punks. Stop loving cricket you fanatics and learn to love fellow human beings the way God intended.

The Less Lucky Werewolf tavern might be a good possible connection but no sane person is going bang his head against a wall of bigtory and hope for the best. At least two generations are required before down donkeys redeem themselves: hopefully I'm not too optimistic. There are some Wizard of Oz fans here but they are mostly colored yellow, probably experiencing the same bigotry as the cowardly lion back in Oz to that balding idiot Yohann Coward.

Some have brought their games here but after all these months, no one has even bothered to play: the hectic, desperate competition and intensity of the place. With one exception, a few venture out into quick games of blitz chess to relieve stress especially after the hurricane (Sept 2005).

It is good to know of the intensity of the Eastern campaigns. The illustrations do expound on the encirclements of the foes and since a picture is worth a thousand words (probably more!) they do justice to enrichment of the advancement. The real game was over in 4 years, in the victim's favor, but perhaps the chief strategist Wal Brau, in those same 4 years, reverse the tides and might make it to Kamchatka or even Timbuktu!

[Anecdotes]

The convention center was the rallying point for the homeless and those who did not evacuate New Orleans. To add to the busy responsibilities, several of the relief workers parents came to visit, worried that they might have been a victim of nature, only to find them serving the community. As such during their temporary stay, those parents maintain direct contact with them, are duly updated and know the full extent of circumstances and events as they unfold first hand and explicitly. Being the primary witnesses at such federal bungling, these elderly parents and their aid worker children, should be permitted to testify against the incompetent bigwigs, like Mike Brown-nose and guv'nor Kath Blanco the blank, who bungled everything from the start and showed no sympathy for those affected. It must be hard for those workers who find time to balance between helping others and chatting to their parents. One of the parents brought over some games (chess, monopoly etc) but no one had time to play these multiplayer games.