So how did the destruction of New Orleans happen?

[Dis]

Originally posted by techumseh


Ramblings again.

you're just an *******.

Everything is ramblings except what you say.

oh I guess I should bow before almighty.

You are clearly the most arrogant poster at Poly. **** off *******.

You are the rambling fool if you think the media has never blown a small event out of proportion. Recently too. Natalie Hollaway. Need I name more examples.

You are the fool.

[lightblue]

Originally posted by BeBro
Any construction experts here? I wonder - if most of the city is under water in NO for a long time (heard reports that up to 80 days may be needed to get the water out) - what does that mean to the entire infrastructure, houses etc.? Are they still useable then, or do they have to rebuild many buildings?

And what about protecting the city in the future, this was certainly not the last hurrican. And even without them, I read that the city is constantly sinking and losing ground to the ocean and could be literally wiped off the map by the end of the century even without any more disasters. Wouldn't that mean they need some massive protection system, like the huge one which is built on the Dutch coast?

I've read reports that upto 60% of all buildings in No will need to be rebuild. Water exposure destroys houses, and if it doesn't attack them directly, the mold and other assorted nasties will render large parts inhabitable.

The best way of protecticting NO in future would be to return the coast and Mississippi to their natural states to act as a natural buffer. This entire problem was manmade due to developing mangrove and wetlands into housing and due to the straightening and fencing in of the Mississippi. They're going to need large tracts of land next to the river N of NO that they can let flood.

[lightblue]

Oh and Dis, have you seen the satellite photos? Most of the city IS underwater with all the consequences that entails. Obviously the press is going to pick up on the extremes of either heroism or despair, and not necessarily report the bits in between, but that's the way the press works.

[MOBIUS]

Frankly I am utterly amazed that some people here can go on defending the authorities...

How on Earth in any scenario that doesn't involve complete and total incompetence can the World's only superpower take more than four days to get food and water into NO...?

People can easily die of thirst in less time!

That is utterly indefensible!

The first National Disgrace was that the NO Levees were prevented from being adequately upgraded by the US Govt since 2004!

You just don't evac a whole city for no reason! Nagin mobilised the civilians - someone should have been mobilising the authorities, putting them on alert ready to roll at a moment's notice!!!

People are saying nobody expected the levees to breach - how ****ing stupid are you!!? If a levee is built to cat3 level and a cat4 hits, what do you think is going to happen!!?

The authorities should have EXPECTED the levees to breach!

And acted accordingly!

The whole thing is an unmitigated disaster - and that isn't even talking about Katrina!

I am willing to bet that the number of people directly killed by the hurricane is going to be dwarfed by those killed by drowning, thirst or the disintegration of critical support services - isn't that negligent manslaughter?


The questions a shocked America is asking its President

The questions a shocked America is asking its President
By Rupert Cornwell in Washington
Published: 03 September 2005

Why has it taken George Bush five days to get to New Orleans?

President Bush was on holiday in Texas when Katrina struck. He then spent Monday on a pre-arranged political fundraising tour of California and Arizona, which he did not cancel or curtail. On Tuesday he surveyed the hurricane damage - but only from the flight deck of Air Force One, prompting criticism that he was too detached from the suffering on the ground. He didn't give a speech until Tuesday afternoon - 36 hours after the storm first hit - and didn't embark on a proper tour of the region until yesterday. Key advisers have come under fire for similar levels of detachment. As the full magnitude of the disaster unfolded, the Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice, was seen buying shoes in New York, and Dick Cheney remained on holiday.

How could the world's only superpower be so slow in rescuing its own people?

It will probably take months, even years, to answer that question. But here are a few factors to consider: 1) the federal government's disaster relief agency, Fema, has lost considerable clout because the priority at the Department of Homeland Security has been counter-terrorism; 2) the homeland security director, Michael Chertoff, has no experience in disaster relief; 3) because of Fema's low profile, almost no contingency measures were taken before Katrina struck; 4) the under-resourced local Army Corps of Engineers appeared completely unprepared to conduct emergency operations after the levees were breached; 5) nobody appears to have considered the communications problems inherent in loss of phone and cell-phone service.

Why did he cut funding for flood control and emergency management?

Another question likely to be the subject of official investigations. Local and former federal officials are in little doubt that the budgetary priorities of Iraq, tax cuts and the "war on terror" are to blame. Disaster prevention experts have been studying New Orleans for years and urging upgrades to its levees and other preventive measures. The Army Corps of Engineers was supposed to carry out some of this work last year, but its funding was cut. It seems the Bush administration considered the risk of malicious human attack and the risk of the ravages of nature, and found itself incapable of holding both ideas in its head.

Why did it take so long to send adequate National Guard forces to keep law and order?

The National Guard is under pressure in every US state because of the strains of deployment in Iraq. More than one-third of Louisiana's 10,000 guardsmen are either in Iraq or Afghanistan. No mass deployment of guardsmen from other states is being contemplated because they are all needed in Iraq too. At first, only 3,000 guardsmen were sent to New Orleans, but that was increased to about 10,000 as looting and gun violence became widespread.

How can the US take Iraq, a country of £25m people, in three weeks but fail to rescue 25,000 of its own citizens from a sports arena in a big American city?

America's obsession with maintaining its pre-eminent position as the world's largest superpower means it is incapable of responding swiftly and effectively to a humanitarian crisis. While it has the firepower for fighting wars, it does not have the leadership and skills to combat natural disaster.

[MOBIUS]

Originally posted by lightblue
The best way of protecticting NO in future would be to return the coast and Mississippi to their natural states to act as a natural buffer. This entire problem was manmade due to developing mangrove and wetlands into housing and due to the straightening and fencing in of the Mississippi. They're going to need large tracts of land next to the river N of NO that they can let flood.

I 100% agree with you! As I outlined in the initial post, arguably some small part of the blame lies with the building of the levees in the aftermath of the 1927 floods and the loss of the Mississippi's ability to replenish the wetlands and delta system with silt.

I mentioned in a different thread reading about the effects of the loss of the wetlands last year - I think Dis actually linked the article I read so I will post it in full...

We need to wake up and realise that we have to live in harmony with nature - not fight against it!

[MOBIUS]

Actually I'll spare you the whole thing...

Gone With The Water

Except for this chilling prophecy at the beginning of the article (this was written in October last year.)

It was a broiling August afternoon in New Orleans, Louisiana, the Big Easy, the City That Care Forgot. Those who ventured outside moved as if they were swimming in tupelo honey. Those inside paid silent homage to the man who invented air-conditioning as they watched TV "storm teams" warn of a hurricane in the Gulf of Mexico. Nothing surprising there: Hurricanes in August are as much a part of life in this town as hangovers on Ash Wednesday.

But the next day the storm gathered steam and drew a bead on the city. As the whirling maelstrom approached the coast, more than a million people evacuated to higher ground. Some 200,000 remained, however—the car-less, the homeless, the aged and infirm, and those die-hard New Orleanians who look for any excuse to throw a party.

The storm hit Breton Sound with the fury of a nuclear warhead, pushing a deadly storm surge into Lake Pontchartrain. The water crept to the top of the massive berm that holds back the lake and then spilled over. Nearly 80 percent of New Orleans lies below sea level—more than eight feet below in places—so the water poured in. A liquid brown wall washed over the brick ranch homes of Gentilly, over the clapboard houses of the Ninth Ward, over the white-columned porches of the Garden District, until it raced through the bars and strip joints on Bourbon Street like the pale rider of the Apocalypse. As it reached 25 feet (eight meters) over parts of the city, people climbed onto roofs to escape it.

Thousands drowned in the murky brew that was soon contaminated by sewage and industrial waste. Thousands more who survived the flood later perished from dehydration and disease as they waited to be rescued. It took two months to pump the city dry, and by then the Big Easy was buried under a blanket of putrid sediment, a million people were homeless, and 50,000 were dead. It was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States.

Sounds familiar?

It then talks about how if the wetlands weren't being gradually destroyed by human action, that the effects of the hurricane could be significantly mitigated...

READ THE ARTICLE!

If environmentalists can correctly predict this - what else are they right about!?

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by Alexander's Horse


It would be a lame troll to make light of this disaster.

I just saw footage of Police looting. Nw there is shooting. This is serious.

http://zippyvideos.com/8911023771013...ing-in-walmart

I also saw some footage of people hiding in their houses and talking about the gunfire outside. I then saw a clip of the New Orleans policeman who was extremley angry at the situation.

They both seemed like good people, just really scared and frustrated.

The Mayor said that the main reason for the violence is that alot of the people left behind are drug addicts. They don't have their fix, so are literally going mad and will do ANYTHING, to get their fix, so they are going around trying to find some source to feed their addictions.

[lightblue]

Scary stuff MOBIUS. If a National geographic writer could've predicted this to nearly the finest details, then you'd think FEMA or similar organisations should have too, and should've laid plans to deal with the prospect of a large hurricane heading for NoLa.

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by lightblue


I've read reports that upto 60% of all buildings in No will need to be rebuild. Water exposure destroys houses, and if it doesn't attack them directly, the mold and other assorted nasties will render large parts inhabitable.

The best way of protecticting NO in future would be to return the coast and Mississippi to their natural states to act as a natural buffer. This entire problem was manmade due to developing mangrove and wetlands into housing and due to the straightening and fencing in of the Mississippi. They're going to need large tracts of land next to the river N of NO that they can let flood.

Also agree.

Buffer zone

UNfotunatley alot of people that didn't know about the buffer zone are going to lose their land, but it's a step that has to be taken.

[Alexander's Horse]

they'll never do it.

I was thinking of Deliverance too Moby

[Ted Striker]

What's interesting about this whole disaster is that it's been played out before many years ago. The Great Flood of 1927 is very similar to what happened with this hurricane.

For weeks, Will Percy of Greenville, Miss., the son of the Delta plantation owner and Southern entrepreneur-aristocrat LeRoy Percy and the future adoptive father of the writer Walker Percy, had floundered, frustrated by circumstances and his own incompetence as head of the Washington County Red Cross and chairman of a special flood relief committee. Black work gangs and their refugee families resented being held as virtual prisoners in dreadfully squalid ''concentration camps'' set up along miles of the Greenville levee. Water, food and medical supplies were inadequate. Percy's subordinates held him in contempt, and his equals, including his own father, undercut his authority and ignored his decisions.

And now a black man had been killed by a white policeman for refusing to go back to work on levee repairs after having labored all night. The black community seemed certain to explode. To prevent this, Percy, whose family prided itself on its amicable, if typically patrician, relations with black people, addressed a mass meeting of blacks and launched into a diatribe that could have spewed from the likes of Theodore Bilbo. He had ''struggled and worried and done without sleep in order to help you Negroes,'' Percy whined. In return, he said, they had demonstrated a ''sinful, shameful laziness,'' and because of that, ''one of your race has been killed. You sit before me sour and full of hatred as if you had the right to blame anybody or judge anybody. . . . I am not the murderer. That foolish young policeman is not the murderer. The murderer is you! Your hands are dripping with blood. Look into each other's face and see the shame and the fear God set on them. Down on your knees, murderers, and beg your God not to punish you as you deserve.''

Greenville's black people -- perhaps too numb with disbelief to react -- did not rebel, but, Mr. Barry writes, ''the bond between the Percys and the blacks was broken. The Delta, the land that had once promised so much to blacks, had become, entirely and finally, the land where the blues began.'' In that one brief vignette, Mr. Barry peels back layers of self-delusion and myth, inviting us to stare into the racial abyss of the Deep South. And the abyss has stared back.

http://www.nytimes.com/books/97/04/13/reviews/970413.13watkint.html

[Ted Striker]

One more point that also must be made is that New Orleans needs national help because the Mississippi River is a national resource, and manipulating that river, through the Mississippi River levee systems, whether upstream or in the New Orleans river "delta" itself, is a national problem and it cannot be written of as just "New Orleans problem."

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by DanS
I've tried that line, Sikander. But at this point, it smacks of blaming the victim.

It is blaming the vicitim.

[Ted Striker]

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Chemical Ollie
If you include the cost of the security staff guarding her, I would believe it, but not for the shoes alone

You really have no idea how expensive shoes can get, do you? My wife went into Jimmy Choo's (just to look) and found a "cheap" pair for $600 (no, we didn't buy them). Bataglia (sp?) Are even more expensive. And some women are just shoes hounds.