Katrina

[DragonsLover]

That's terrible all the chaos that was made by Katrina. Thousands of people died and all their house were destroyed. All their lifes disapeared. And the worst thing, there were pillages right after!

What a sad and terrible event!

Tell me what do you think about this... Just look at the TV news!

[JM]

It's horrible. I hate those sort of things that happen. I hope it never happens where I live. It's a nightmare. I'm glad I never lived there.

[Jazzem]

It must be horrible to live in a place that's vulnerable to hurricanes. All the victims of the disaster have my sympathy.

[ccexplore]

It disturbs me the most that there are reports of snipers and armed gangs and the like disrupting such things as hospital evacuation.  I mean, okay I can understand the looting, but disrupting a hospital evacuation at a time like this is just total heartlessness.  I almost want to say something like "why weren't those disruptive people the ones that gets killed by Katrina?"

Anyhow, terrible, terrible.

[JM]

It certainly is terrible. They must be having a very bad time over there.

[AstralLemming]

First we have terrorists attempting to blow up London. Now we have people pillaging and looting corpses and disrupting hospital evacuations.

One sentence describes how I feel about these things: What the hell is humanity becoming?

[Andi]

What the hell is humanity becoming?

Humanity is relative. There are always people helping each other, and there are always people killing each other. If we throw both types together, we have humanity.

[LemSteven]

I feel sorry for all of the people in New Orleans who have suffered losses from Katrina.  I wish that those looters and snipers would quit disrupting the crews that are trying to aid in the recovery efforts.

If this storm had hit anywhere other than New Orleans, the destruction would not have been nearly as bad.  The problem is that New Orleans lies below sea level, so it is especially prone to flooding.

Once the damage reports have been tallied, this will probably be the costliest and deadliest hurricane to ever hit the US coastline.  Evacuees have had to go as far away as Phoenix in order to find shelter.

Fortunately, none of my close friends or relatives live in the New Orleans area (although I do have an uncle who was in Miami when Katrina hit there -- he lost power and some trees went down, but there was no severe damage).

[ccexplore]

One tragic aspect of this disaster is that, if I heard correctly, the levees New Orleans have for keeping out excess water from nearby bodies of water were only designed to withstand a Category 3 hurricane.  Katrina was the first Category 4 that hits the city.  As you know, the death blow came not so much from the hurricane itself (which actually missed a direct hit to the city, thank god), but that the levees were breached, causing a nearby lake to basically dump all its excess water into the city.

Sooner or later someone's going to ask why the levees haven't been re-engineered sooner.

[guest]

It disturbs me the most that there are reports of snipers and armed gangs and the like disrupting such things as hospital evacuation.  I mean, okay I can understand the looting, but disrupting a hospital evacuation at a time like this is just total heartlessness.  I almost want to say something like "why weren't those disruptive people the ones that gets killed by Katrina?"

Anyhow, terrible, terrible.

People are like that because they are desperate and shellshocked. Most of the people left are pretty much going insane. What's really annoying though is how long it took the government to do something; and why didn't they send in busses for the poor people who were stranded before the hurricane?! they knew they were there.

[ccexplore]

Well, part of it is because they didn't expect what happened.  Katrina actually took an eastward turn at landfall and did not head directly to New Orleans, and it weakened to a Category 4.  So I don't think they quite expected what happen afterwards, with the levees broken causing the catastrophic flooding that you now see.  (Though engineers have definitely pointed out the levee issues years ago, so again we came back to the question I mentioned earlier.)

It does seem that the federal response is a little slow, I'm sure the media will discuss and debate this for weeks to come.

[ccexplore]

More reasons for me to dislike President Bush:

http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,1101398,00.html?cnn=yes

Read towards the bottom of the article, which talks about how Bush avoids the worst-hit areas during his Katrina tours.

[DragonsLover]

This paragraph?

Still, his visit studiously avoided the hardest-hit areas of Katrina and the itinerary all but guaranteed that he'd be met with friendly audiences. The displaced persons he met at the Bethany World Church were well cared for and for the most part grateful for their surroundings. In Poplarville, Mississippi, Bush toured a middle class neighborhood where the damage seemed minimal. Homes were intact, although many pine trees were felled. But most seemed to have hit lawns and carports rather than causing real structural damage to homes. Bush joked with Alabama Power workers who were helping to restore power to the comfortable neighborhood, which led Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour to inform the crew that he had "married an Alabama girl." The whole tone still seemed out of step with the utter destruction along the Mississippi coast and the carnage in New Orleans. Until Bush plunges headfirst into New Orleans worst-hit neighborhoods he's going to have a hard time correcting the impression that he just doesn't get it.

[JM]

I don't get that paragraph

[guest]

It means bush is a f***ing ********.