Hurricane Katrina

[Andrew]

Yes it is fake, it is putting the image of bush on on photoop while people were dieing.

Jon Stewart even had the image of bush playing guitar on last night. It was a great show.

[Acriku]

It was a great show indeed, laying out all the problems there are with Bush playing guitar while people die from flooding, etc. Keep in mind that he planned to do this while knowing when the hurricane would hit!

[alchemi2]

Not a Bush fan but come on people get real. Does the USA president make all decission personnally and then impliment them!!!

This was a cockup by the beaucrates and agencies of goverment not one man.

Much of the chaos of rape, murder and looting is down to the high level of drug addicts in that region not getting their fixs or so the Mayor and news agency report. The fact that guns are so easily available in the USA contributed to the problem.

The USA own pride has played a part refusing or delay aid and/or the delivery of that aid, An aircommordor here in the UK openly critisised the US government for arsing around and delay food aid we were sending by 3 to 4 days.

I read a report in the tabloids that stated that the number of rapes and murders throughout the week were actually lower than the normal for New Orleans !!!!

Many people had no means to leave or not enough fuel according to reports and as many survivors have said they had to stay coz they had no where to go.

Just imagine being told that Britian was gonna be hit by a tidal wave and the whole country would need to be evacuated and then rebuilt, how would we react, where would we go, what sort of anachy would have followed.

Yes things could have been better organised and prepared but no one really realised how bad it was actually gonna be. I think overall the response has been amazing and im surprised that the death toll isnt 4times high than being predicted.

[Andrew]

A minimum of 10,000 deaths is pretty high...

Someone is to blame for the deaths

A. People who decided to stay behind (Darwinism in effect weeding out the stupid people)

and

B. Government (local, state, federal) for not evacuating those that could not evacuate and accomodate them until safe to go back.

[Acriku]

alchemi, you're downplaying the entire situation. We knew that a hurricane, at least a category 4, was coming into the gulf and our meteorological technology is good enough to see an oncoming danger the size of the Gulf of Mexico. On the Daily Show, the guest host brought up a serious point: we've been overrun with "scares" and "terrors" in the headlines by the media and government so much that we've become almost used to there being a danger for us with something, and that really affects our judgement of whether or not it's a serious problem.

People knew that if a hurricane or some sort of heavy storm came through southern Louisiana, there would be big trouble. And despite the cries of the Army Corps of Engineers, despite levee operators acknowledging that their systems would not work for this amount of rain prior to the hurricane hitting, the government did not listen and their negligence is shown in real time. Even the federal budget for paying for these things was drained by the war in Iraq, not to mention the National Guard (protecting the US, right?) being active mostly in another country and not where they were meant to be.

This whole situation is a mess.

[Dante]

It does have a kind of (perverse?) glory to it though. The sheer magnitude of the destruction, the majesty of the storm herself; the irony of the location, the idiocy of the reaction, the emotion provoked all over the world. And the overriding sense of annihilation. Majesty and irony, mismanagement and destruction. Bleak, lightless despair. From a detached perspective, the whole situation is beautiful, in its own way.

From a practical perspective of course, it is not quite the same. But I reserve my opinions on that.

I had planned to visit New Orleans in the future. Perhaps I still will.

[ordos45]

Yep it's fake...but there was a lovely speech he gave where you could see him separated from survivors by fences and soldiers with M-16s. 

[Mahdi]

Yep it's fake...but there was a lovely speech he gave where you could see him separated from survivors by fences and soldiers with M-16s.

[ordos45]

True, especially when he chooses the location with the best security already in the city.

[alchemi2]

Acriku- I'm not under playing the disaster. I'm just saying noone believed or expected it too be as bad as it was, call it pride or stupidity but they thought they could handle it.

Even Scar who i respect, made the mistake of trying to sit out a hurricane, one he won't repeat.

You guys seem to think the president can just do as he likes, he won't be allowed to go were he wants or do what he wants, yes he has to take some of the blame as the figure head of goverment but get real if you think he snaps his fingers and everyone jumps.

As regretable as it is aid takes time to organises and with the multi layers of goverment and huge distances in the USA that takes time.

I'm confident that once the machine that is the USA gets going it will be amazing how fast things start to happen any other nation would takes years to rebuild its infastructure and start to return to normality. Here betting things are well underway in 6-8 months in the states and cities affected.

Damn i begining to sound like a fan of the damned Yanks!! ;)

Dante your right mother natures wrath can be awesome, maybe we should respect her more. I mean it's damned foolish too build 2m below sea level when surrounded by water or to build skyscrappers in earthquake zones or to live next to a volcano BUT the arrogance of mankind is at times unbelievable.

[Acriku]

It's the people's choice to underestimate the hurricane's power, but not the government at any level. Especially the local level and state level, each should have been more than ready. One reason they were unable to give relief quickly enough was because the funds made for such reliefs was drained by the war in Iraq. That's why the President and Congress (the body that appropriates funds) are much to blame for the negligence of the government.

Edit: did anybody hear the edited version of that 3 Doors Down song to include bytes of President Bush and others about the Hurricane? Kind of like the Creed song remixed to include bytes about the WTC.

[ordos45]

The Administration may have turned down Russian aid, but apparently not Mexico's.

Mexican Military Convoy Moves North.  First Mexican Military Unit in the USA Since the Two Nations were at War in 1846.

[Acriku]

I'd wish the government officials who turned down Russian aid would tell that to the people suffering in Louisiana personally.

[ordos45]

My guess is someone stuck in the Cold War Cockfight Mentality.  "We don't need their help...I'd rather die than accept help from the Commies, and so would the hurricane victims". 

Edits begin:

Whoops! Wrong Charleston

FEMA makes a boo boo, who's surprised?  Charleston, South Carolina prepped for incoming injured evacuees at their airport, when really the plane was going to Charleston, West Virginia.

Because good news so rarely makes it nationally:

West Virginia company to take donations of supplies down to Gulf at own cost

Houston opens more schools to help refugee children attend classes

Crime in Houston drops with arrival of Katrina refugees

WV's Preston County opens schools to arriving refugees

Relief supplies begin to arrive from China

Volunteer Arkansas Firefighters head to disaster area

Vermont Organizations and Businesses raise funds to aid hurricane victims

[Megashrap]

They may need to send Haz-Mat suits along with the other relief items. Thats just becoming an ultra toxic wasteland every day it seems.

"Searchers were armed with proof of what many holdouts had long feared: The floodwaters are thick with sewage-related bacteria that are at least 10 times higher than acceptable safety limits. The muck contains E. coli, certain viruses and a type of cholera-like bacteria.

[Mahdi]

E. coli?  Jeez fella's, what's that?

[Andrew]

Mahdi is being sarcastic. He is originally from Walkerton... Google it.

EDIT:

How can Bush appoint a director to FEMA that has no experience with emergencies.

He judged horses in his previous job.

http://business.bostonherald.com/businessNews/view.bg?articleid=100857

    Before joining the Bush administration in 2001, Brown spent 11 years as the commissioner of judges and stewards for the International Arabian Horse Association, a breeders' and horse-show organization based in Colorado.

    ``We do disciplinary actions, certification of (show trial) judges. We hold classes to train people to become judges and stewards. And we keep records,'' explained a spokeswoman for the IAHA commissioner's office. ``This was his full-time job . . . for 11 years,'' she added.

    Brown was forced out of the position after a spate of lawsuits over alleged supervision failures.

    ``He was asked to resign,'' Bill Pennington, president of the IAHA at the time, confirmed last night.

Rediculous.

Can someone explain how a Canadian based rescue team got to St. Bernard parish 5 days before the US army?

http://www.cbc.ca/story/world/national/2005/09/08/louisiana_canada_thanks_20050909.html

EDIT

Mississippi resident tells cheney to go fuck himself

http://ww.dailykos.com/storyonly/2005/9/8/123441/6549

Both Bush's go fishing in NOLA ;)

[Dude_Doc]

Don't forget that Cuba offered about 1000 medical personnel to help in the disaster - the same country that the US has blocked since the 1960's...

[Lord J]

  Well, as the only Mississippian on the member map, I suspect I should share what life has been like in the magnolia state.

  Does the word "hell" cover it?

  Actually, for most of us in Greenville life's been sort of a surreal take on normality.  Life continues on its merry way, but between the influx of out-of-staters, the rising gas prices and the panic stricken shoppers last weekend, it's been one hell of a week.

  My Abnormal Psych instructor runs the mental health clinic here in Greenville, he said that there are thousands of displaced people invading this city.  Gas prices are not that high just yet, except for price-gouging we haven't passed the $3 mark, though I doubt it will be long in coming.

  As to the status of society in New Orleans, I think it really reveals how ready the US is for an anarchal social movement.  I must admit, I wonder what my friend the anarchist has to say about Louisiana.

[Andrew]

FEMA Colorado evacuee site like "a concentration camp"

I'd be scared to live in the USA.

It probably was easier for a reporter to get inside Gitmo on Tuesday than to penetrate the force field around Lowry.

But survivors occasionally breached the lockdown and came to the fence to tell their stories, each one astonishing.

Walker, a 55-year-old disabled Vietnam vet, was trapped in his home when the floodwaters inundated New Orleans. On Aug. 30, rescuers picked him up in a boat and deposited him on an interstate. From there he rode in a truck to the New Orleans Convention Center, where he watched his friend, a diabetic, die for lack of food, water and insulin.

The only problem was she couldn't get near the survivors.

USA a Military state?

Pretty sure lots of universities are taking in students. I know some atlantic provinces are taking them in, and I think UPEI may be.

[ordos45]

Meanwhile north of Lord J, it's been above $3 for roughly 6 or 7 days.  Anyhow, glad to hear you're safe.

[Acriku]

The University of Central Florida (the one I go to) has taken the students from LSU without even a filter, they just have to call and they're in. I had one friend from high school that went off to LSU, I hope she's okay.

[ordos45]

Breaking news at 12:24 pm CST: CBS News has learned Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertoff will announce the removal of FEMA Director Michael Brown from his role overseeing Hurricane Katrina relief efforts.

That's from a friend who signed up for breaking news e-mails.  I personally applaud the decision.  I wonder if it was due to the public outcries, the media stories on FEMA concentration camps erm...refugee camps..., the horse racing scandal, or the recent TIME expos

[Andrew]

He still has not lost his job though...

Just moved back to Washington where it is safer for dummys like him.

[Andrew]

Bush lifts wage rules for Katrina

So now they are bringing in the mexicans so the contractors can make lots of money. Bush can not afford to hire non-cheap labour. Wonder how long until he changes it back? A year? Wonder if this labour is protected under labour practice laws or if they will be treated fairly.

No, I am not racist, it is a fact, as observed from people in new orleans.