Katrina: Two Years Later

[Mule]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Why has nobody asked the obvious question that everyone REALLY wants to know here?



WHERE IS HE TODAY?!?!

You asked for it.

[KFC911]

Just one of many... offered without comment:

http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/us/2007/08/24/cos.amanda.cnn

Scratch that, I've got to comment. Some of you come across as cold & heartless with your commentary...I hope you're not really like that in person.

[Mule]

Originally Posted by FOG

Mule,

My point is blaming the military and others from outside for lack of support when it was ready and waiting is inaccurate. That others were also prepping for the landfall.

I know Texas was prepping before Katrina hit Florida because we were doing lots of informal staff/liaison work with both the TxNG and TANG.

FOG

Outside of "Ma" Blanco, I didn't mention blame. Let me try to explain this. Bush offered help. Being a staunch democrat & fierce opponent of Bush, Blanco said no. She didn't want to give Bush the opportunity to look good. Now people are drowning & rescue workers are being shot at by thugs waiting to plunder. Blanco calls Bill Richardson in New Mexico & asks him to send the NM National Guard. He points out that this is not possible. Here is the extent of Bush's blame. When it becomes obvious that the governor is hopelessly incompetent and US citizens are dying as a result, he should have acted.

Since then Blanco has screwed up the "road home" funds distribution. But let's put this in perspective. The "big dig" in Boston has been a much larger boondoggle. But politicians up north are not corrupt like in LA so it's OK. Was that in response to "the greatest natural disaster in U.S. history?" I don't think so. It was in response to greedy whining politicians.

Remember, in NY every family who lost someone in 9/11 was given millions.

[Red Baron]

Originally Posted by rouxroux

Dude, for supposedly being such a big pal of 'ol Rays, I would at least think you'd be in on his desire to be GOVERNOR. You lost a bit of cred on that one.

As for the "evacuation plan" need I go into specifics of how your 'ol buddy Ray ignored the plan already in place and FAILED to return the calls from the EOC? No, I don't think you want to go there.

As for our family, my in-laws lost their house and my father-in-law died soon after. Did they ask for FEMA or gov't help? NO. They were self-sufficient, bought their own trailer, starting the rebuilding without waitng for a handout.

Of course some of the "people who can be fooled all of the time" will support Nagin AND "cold cash" William Jefferson (can you say "Hep me National Guard") and continue the "womb to the tomb" mentality of many in N.O. (cue Warren Zevon music: Poor, Poor, Pitiful me"

Wanna' talk about you buddy's "outstretched "gimme arms" with Blanco & Katrina Mary after they screwed up the glorious "Road Home program"? Baron, I think you need to move home and help your boy Ray with his campaign for governor. He'll need it along with his pals Boasso and Campbell. Finally, Louisiana is poised to make progress, and it's not by any of the "good 'ol boys".

My mistake not knowing about him running for Gov.

I didn't say I was Best Buds with him but I did say I attended an event with him. Spent the day on a Corp. Jet and at the Master's. And by doing so, I wasn't trying to gain credibility but just saying he's not an idiot. . I had no idea he was seeking the Governor's seat until today because I don't follow the local news there from day to day so that was news to me. While I like his platform ideas as for generating revenue, he would be bad for the state from a political stance so I hope he doesn't win. The guy is a sharp business man and has the credentials and track record to back it. Again, he's not a polished politician.

Blanco (the state)controls the purse strings on the Road home money, no?

I'm sorry about your family's losses. Like you, my in-laws were greatly effected since all of my wife's family was born and raised there. It nearly killed the grand parents and the financial woes this has caused will be tough to overcome. I was unable to live in my house for about 35 days but made out well over all.

You mention the "good'ol boys, however Nagin is far from the old political grip in Louisiana so I struggle to see your point.

I know all about the evacuation plan, and the Friday before the storm crossed Florida and into the Gulf there was not even a threat to the city. By noon Saturday it was get the hell out of dodge and Nagin was begging people to leave. Had he started evacuating the city on Wednesday or Thursday (according to the 72 hour plan) everyone would have thought he was crazy then too. The guy was/is in a no win situation just like the rest of that state and the people that continue to live there. No matter who becomes Governor, they will be dealing with a completely bankrupted budget by 09.

[NICKG]

Originally Posted by Red Baron

Do any of you wise guys know why the city was built where it is?

There is a specific reason it's located where it is at. Que Jeopardy music

Houston, NYC, Key West all are below sea level also and could be destroyed by hurricane, I guess we should move them also.

nyc is not below sea level.....

[Mule]

Originally Posted by Mo_Gearhead

QUOTE: Does it make you feel good to look at victims of the greatest natural disaster in US history & talk about how superior you are.
__________________

Superior? Are you reading something extra into what I said?

Also, better take a history lesson. Greatest natural disaster in U.S. history? Amusing.

A history lesson? One of us does. What was the biggest? S.F. earthquake? We plowed that under didn't we?

And no, I'm not reading a God damn thing into what you say, just reading it.

[KFC911]

Originally Posted by Mule

... When it becomes obvious that the governor is hopelessly incompetent and US citizens are dying as a result, he should have acted....

+1, and imo it goes even further. Everyone seems to focus on New Orleans, which was just one of literally hundreds of local governments that were WAY in over their head. Same goes with the states, not just LA, but several were in WAY over their heads. That's when REAL leadership at the federal level would/should have gotten involved.

[Mo_Gearhead]

By God, its GREAT to see an individual that (in the midst of the "greatest natural disaster in U.S. history") ...had his priorities in order!

[Red Baron]

Originally Posted by NICKG

nyc is not below sea level.....

Let a Cat 5 hit it then.

[Mule]

Originally Posted by NICKG

nyc is not below sea level.....

Yeah, I saw the East River cliffs and the escalators down to the docks. New Orleans is primarily about 5' above sea level. Some areas are below, like many other coastal cities.

[w21055]

Originally Posted by Mo_Gearhead

By God, its GREAT to see an individual that (in the midst of the "greatest natural disaster in U.S. history") ...had his priorities in order!

Mixing those beers would give me a headache though!

[Mule]

Originally Posted by frogger

Just correcting your errors in your previous statement, Red Baron.

Houston is 13 meters above sea level.

Please check your facts before you type. You risk loosing credibility.

You must mean 13 milli meters.

[sammyg2]

Mule, so you're from new orleans. Why doesn't that surprise me?
For the record, you are wrong in so many ways. I'll go down the list:

I live in Orange country, not LA. I don't like LA. I don't like the people in LA. I don't go past the orange curtain unless I have to. Different place. LA has nothing to do with me. Oh and your reference to the pornography trade? Not LA. Burbank. The San Fernando valley. Get your facts straight.

I don't sit on the San Andreas fault. LA doesn't sit on the san andreas fault. It's 50 miles away.

I have never paid $6 a gallon for gas. I've never paid over $3.60 a gallon for gas. Let's try to stick to reality here. I never complained about the price of gas after the hurricane. In fact I quite enjoyed it as i made well over $100k on my oil stocks right after. I've posted many times on this board that I like it when the price of gas goes up and that I think a fair price should be $5 a gallon.

I fully support oil rigs off the coast and always have.

You say that California has received more federal aid that any three states put together. That might be true.
BUT.... take a good look at the population of California compared to other states. WOW, we have more people living here. Big surprise! Maybe more federal money ends up here because this is where the people live!
California has the 8th largest economy in the world. Twice as much as any other state in the union. California pays many times as much in federal taxes as any other state. Look it up, it's true. We pay more and get back more, but we get back less per capita that Lazyana by far. California carries the rest of the country when it comes to economy, and California feeds most of the country. Did you know that california's largest industry is agriculture? Of course you didn't.

California was ranked 13th in per capita income (according to the 2000 census) . Louisiana was ranked 47th just above Arkansas, West virginia, and mississippi.

My water comes from wells. The city I live in pumps it out of the ground. We have what's called an aquifir and it isn't sea water.

You see on the news a house in California that slides down a hill and that makes you think all of california is sliding down a hill? asinine. There are millions of homes in California. Nice homes, not single wides or shacks. If 5 or 10 slide down a hill that is not a statewide or city wide emergency. It is a drop in the bucket. Same with fires.
Yes there is a threat of earthquakes here, about every 150 years or so a big one will hit somewhere up or down the coast on the SA fault. When that happens some houses will be damaged in that particular area but not all of them and they will certainly not all be under water.

How often does NO get hit by a hurricane? Sometimes it seems like every few years but it can't be that often. How many times has NO been hit by a category 4 or 5? Lets see, there was that one in 1947, then betsy in 1965, then camille in 1969, then georges in 1998, and Katrinna. wow. No one in his right mind would live in a place that is on the coast and below sea level when they know they have hurricanes that often. No one.

BTW California isn't going to slide off into the ocean (your education reference, or the lack of). About half the state is moving upwards, not out. About 1" a year. In a couple of hundred thousand years LA will be close to san Francisco. How many hurricanes will hit NO during that time?

The definition of a desert is a place that receives less than 10" of rainfall annually. Orange county gets almost 13" of annual rainfall annually, so your claim that it's a desert is wrong. Again, check some facts before you knee-jerk into another post.

So, you are a member of the LSU football team? Good for you. I personally don't play football anymore, and I never played for USC.
Oh, you mean you are a fan, and that makes you part of the team? Lame, really lame. USC is not my team. I don't root for USC, I don't care about that team. I also don't have to live vicariously through a sports organization to feel important. Obviously you do.

You really think that California relies on Gasoline from Louisiana?
WRONG! We have refineries. There are 5 refineries within 3 miles of me right now. We make gasoline. I make gasoline. Where I work we make over 4 million gallons of gas a day. I had an opportunity to go to work for a refinery in krotz springs, louisiana a while back but I said no thank you and that they didn't have enough money.
If all the refineries in Louisiana shut down the price here would go up (and i would make a fortune) but we would not run out. we would not be walking. You obviously don't know squat about the oil business.

I don't know rodney king and my name isn't holmes.

New orleans sits on average 6 feet below sea level and is protected by earthen levees. That is true, right? sure it is. They have huge pumps that constantly pump the water out of the city and if these pumps all failed the city would flood even if they didn't have a hurricane. Even in fair weather the city would flood without these pumps. And that makes sense to you?
New Orleans will flood again, and again, and again. Building a city on the coast that is below the water is a stupid idea. Rebuilding it is even more stupid. Living there and then begging for someone else to support your butt when you get flooded out is worse than stupid.
The fact that much of NO has so much crime, so much welfare, so many people who will not list a finger to support themsleves reinforces my opinion that is isn't worth rebuilding except as a favor to Louisiana's surrounding states. It's not fair to them to have to support the low lifes and it's not fair for them to have to deal with the crime. I guess if we put all the low lifes and the criminals back in NO at least they would be easier to keep track of.

Now about Ray. I don't know the man personally. I have seen him open his stupid yap many times, saying things that only a moron would say. so based on that I would say he is a moron. He may be a very nice moron but he's still a moron. How's his vision of building a chocolate city coming?

[Mule]

Originally Posted by Mo_Gearhead

[img]
By God, its GREAT to see an individual that (in the midst of the "greatest natural disaster in U.S. history") ...had his priorities in order!

So Mo, since you've got the big brain tell us what was the the "greatest natural disaster in U.S. history."

[Dueller]

While the original article in the initial post by legion deals with disatisfaction along racial lines, the problems and frustrations in Nola are really along class lines. Keping in mind that pre-Katrina the black population was 70% its undertandable that it appears to be only a racial issue. I am troubled that some posters seem to allude that this is solely a function of race without saying so outright.

But I digress. Many of you seem to think that all the "whiners" should just pick themselves up by their boot straps and not look to the feds for assistance. Just take their insurance checks and rebuild. Sorry, but most of the folks in the 9th ward in particular had no insurance. Why? Most of that arae is not owner occupied. The owners/landlords got their insurance check and chose not to rebuild. And why shouldn't they expect some assistance from the feds...after all, prior to Katrina HUD was subsidizing rents and that money was going into the pockets of the owners.

Many of the people who have been displaced were the working poor. Those folks you never see when you left coasters come to the Big Easy to party in the Quarter. Those folks who made sure your beingnets were hot when you stopped in at the Cafe du Monde. Who made sure your creme brulee was glazed perfectly at Brennan's.

The infrastructure in Nola still is a mess. Only 40 % of the schools are reopened. People are still living in FEMA trailers 2 years after the storm. Fema trailers the Feds paid $25K apiece for that are reslidtically worth $4K...trailers where the contracts were farmed out to mfr's 1000's of miles away when mfr's were available less than 200 miles away but didn't have the right "pull" with Congress.

Lets see...I guess the disgruntled working poor and elderly should just band together and start their own schools and build their own homes and establish their own utilities systems... meanwhile billion$ are being sent abroad. And Halliburton is a strong buy on Wall Street.

[frogger]

Originally Posted by Mule

You must mean 13 milli meters.

LOL!

[KFC911]

This is an idea:

http://www.cnn.com/2007/US/08/29/martin/index.html

[KFC911]

Dueller, you are so correct...

[Mule]

Glad to see your response Sammyg. So if all the earthquakes, fires & mudslides are "just a drop in the bucket" why do all you smart, rich folks out there in paradise keep SUCKING UP FEDERAL MONEY TO FIX 'EM HUH?

As to your population, if it hadn't been for crooked deals to get federal money, most of that population would have never showed up.

So KALIFORNYA carries the rest of the country? I'm sure that statement garnered respect from everybody.

As far as hurricanes hitting N.O., try again, 1947, West LA, Betsy, yep, but the city didn't flood, Camille, close but no cigar, Georges, not worth talking about. So your superior education has apparently failed you again. Since 1718 when the city was founded, once. That's right one time in 287 yrs.

As far as agriculture, it runs on water from a river that's not even in your freakin state. Know how the water gets there, federal money my rugged individualist friend, federal freakin money.

And if you think the country can run as well on 60% of the current oil supply, one of us doesn't know much about the oil business but it's not me.

As for the football comments, I know Karnac the Magnificent was from out your way. Are you his kid or something. I'm wondering 'cause you purport to have some knowledge about my football playing ability. I'll save you some strain on your obviously already overstressed brain. No I don't play ball for LSU. And I mentioned the Trojanmen 'cause that's the only real football team on the whole west coast.

So when you get ready to "plow under" N.O. remember this. One half of the grain exported by the USA passes right by me. 40% of all the oil used by the USA does too. 25% of the US seafood supply comes from right down here on the bayou, as does 25% of the coffee the country drinks.

So get out your map & sharpie and draw those dividing lines between LA, OC, Burbank, etc a little darker. The rest of us just see Metro Los Angeles. By the way, I live in Metairie, not N.O., and it's primarily rebuilt. I'm apparently just not quite as embarrased as you.

Have a nice day out there in Mexifornia okay holmes.

[Mo_Gearhead]

QUOTE: "I guess you would have put drivers (who?) in them and drove to the projects and yelled ALL ABOARD and all of those folks would have jumped right on? I mean really, the people living in Public Housing would have just jumped right on the bus to nowhere."
________________________

Well, as a Governor or Mayor, knowing what was COMING (no water yet) and how possibly BAD it might get ...what a novel thought! Yes, FIND some drivers for the busses and at least ATTEMPT to get people out! If the dumb bastards want to refuse and stay, fine ...but at least give them the opportunity to get out if they have NO OTHER MEANS!

Another state, controlled by Democrats for decades. It should have been a mecca of perfection! Why didn't we all want to live there? Baffling.