Katrina Rant #3

[slamdunkpro]

Short and sweet;

New Orleans was build below sea level over 200 years ago

For the last 100+ years (ever since Galveston was crushed in 1900) everyone has said that if a major storm hits New Orleans they are screwed

N.O., the State and the Feds have been building levees and looking at this problem since the 30’s. They still said if a major storm hits New Orleans they are screwed.

N.O has dodged major hurricanes for 100+ years - if a major storm hits New Orleans they are screwed.

People have moved into the area, lived, grown up there knowing if a major storm hits New Orleans they are screwed.

Katrina was a major storm – It hit (really just glanced off) New Orleans

New Orleans is screwed

This isn’t’ Bush’s fault, Congress’s fault, The Governor’s Fault, The Mayor’s fault or the government’s fault. This is the fault of the idiots who chose to live in a big bowl between the Mississippi River, A huge lake, and the Gulf of Mexico relying on water-soluble dikes that depended on electric pumps, then didn’t want to leave. One of the problems with living in a free society is that sometimes people make stupid choices.

Everyone who lived there knew this could happen. The infrastructure (Fed, State, and local government) did everything it could over the last 100 years in preventative solutions. Man placed a bet, Nature called, Man lost.

Should we help them – YES Should we review the plans for a major disaster since one of this scale has never hit the US? YES Should we be running around point our fingers saying”it’s the Republicans fault, It’s the Democrats fault”? NO

The model for response should be the Great Alaska earthquake of 1960. No whining, no bitching, no celebrities, no finger pointing, everyone just pitched in and helped.

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The infrastructure (Fed, State, and local government) did everything it could over the last 100 years in preventative solutions.

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Um...no. Nice post otherwise, though.

[slamdunkpro]

OK

The infrastructure (Fed, State, and local government) did everything it could that was technologically feasible at the time and that people were willing to pay for and live with over the last 100 years in preventative solutions.


Better?

[New001]

It's clear that New Orleans was in bad shape from the beginning, but my problem is just that the federal government has seemed to be so inept in the handling of the rescue/aftermath of it. It's not a partisan thing for me, it's just looking at who is responsible for the poor response. If it were a Democrat in power, or at least responsible for the relief effort, I'd feel the same way.

Obviously, some people are just going to use it to bash Bush, just like some people are going to copy/paste the same dumb picture of school busses 300 times. You just have to ignore those people.

slamdunkpro, just to make sure that you are consistent in your thinking, will you also for the record call everyone who currently lives in Alaska and California "idiots" who are making "stupid choices?" I'm just curious if you really fully believe what you are stating.

Also, I see merit in a message of less finger pointing, more digging in and fixing things. But do you understand that if there is NO finger pointing then people who are in charge of this rescue operation will stay employed and in charge indefinitely. If that is the case then the next time you are in need of a rescue, even if you didn't do anything "stupid" to put yourself in that position, that these are the people who you will have left in place to come to your rescue because you wanted NO finger pointing. Good luck!

[New001]

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OK

The infrastructure (Fed, State, and local government) did everything it could that was technologically feasible at the time and that people were willing to pay for and live with over the last 100 years in preventative solutions.


Better?

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Still not quite. As I understand it, a lot of money that was requested for the city's protection was diverted to other places, but I don't think it can be proved how much of a help it would be against this particular storm.

[Stu Pidasso]

[ QUOTE ]
but my problem is just that the federal government has seemed to be so inept in the handling of the rescue/aftermath of it. It's not a partisan thing for me, it's just looking at who is responsible for the poor response. If it were a Democrat in power, or at least responsible for the relief effort, I'd feel the same way.


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IIRC after the 1994 Northridge earthquake we did not see the federals until a several days after the event. People expect the federal government to move like lightening and I hate to break it to you folks, it just doesn't happen.

Stu

[tolbiny]

"IIRC after the 1994 Northridge earthquake we did not see the federals until a several days after the event. People expect the federal government to move like lightening and I hate to break it to you folks, it just doesn't happen."


The diference between an earthquake and a hurricane is the warning prior. With Katrina it became apparent on saturday that it was growing in strength and could be a problem, and on Sunday it became apparent that it was going to be a BIG problem. This is when planning ect for relief efforts should have begun.

[tolbiny]

There is a differnece between NO and Cali (besides the size) is that New Orleans was built in basicially the worst way possible for the natural disaster it faced- and the measures taken to protect it worked up to a point, but after that point those measures will actually make the situation worse (ie levies keeping water in).

I just checked info on the largest earthquakes in contiguous 48 state US history. In the top 15 of recorded history which is around 200 years, these top 15 include Montana, South Carolina, Washington, Oregon, California and pulling down three of the top four spots is MISSOURI! Are all these residents also idiots? Also, now that things are the way they are and all these states including the earthquake hotspots of Alaska and Hawaii are incredibly intertwined and entrenched in out national economy, what do you recommend that they do? And shouldn't all coastal towns, or to be safe let's say 100-200 miles fromt the shore, of all hurricane hotspots be included in the "idiot" category. If not, do you think that you might not be judging New Orleans a bit too harshly just because they happened to be the place that came up snake-eyes in the natural disaster crap shoot? There are so many places throughout the nation that experts have rightly been warning of the precarious position they are in for decades. I'm not saying that you are downright wrong on your views. I just want to give you the whole picture to think about.