Midwest Floods

[cairns]

I don't understand it. The midwest, in particular Cedar Rapids, has been ravaged by floods and destruction as bad or worse than New Orleans faced during Katrina. Yet there's been no rioting, no looting, no blaming Bush and instead of wringing their hands over the fate of these poor people and pointing fingers at the Government the MSM is barely noticing.

What's the difference?

[Mo_Gearhead]

People that lend a helping hand vs people with their hand out?

What do I win???

[Gogar]

Originally Posted by cairns

I don't understand it. The midwest, in particular Cedar Rapids, has been ravaged by floods and destruction as bad or worse than New Orleans faced during Katrina.
What's the difference?

The floods in the midwest are bad. Around 4,000 people have been evacuated and are staying in Red Cross or FEMA-assisted shelters.

Hurricane Katrina displaced HUNDREDS OF THOUSANDS of NOLA residents, many permanently.

it is not as bad, or worse. It is a bummer, though.


And besides, you haven't given FEMA enough time to fail in Iowa yet!

It IS bad, though. Here's a pic of the Simon Estes Amphitheater in downtown Des Moines. It's a place I visit every summer. Maybe not this summer.

Then



Now

[Danny_Ocean]

Originally Posted by cairns

What's the difference?

LOL. You never lived in the South, right?

[cairns]

Nope born in Columbia SC and grew up in Charleston, lived all over USA and in Europe.

No matter how many people were displaced (Hundreds of thousands v. four thousand total is more than a bit suspect IMO) I think the character of the people makes a big difference. The differences don't say much good about the media much less the people of NO.

[Mule]

Originally Posted by cairns

Nope born in Columbia SC and grew up in Charleston, lived all over USA and in Europe.

No matter how many people were displaced (Hundreds of thousands v. four thousand total is more than a bit suspect IMO) I think the character of the people makes a big difference. The differences don't say much good about the media much less the people of NO.

Here we go again.

First, show me one, just one incident on a scale comparable to Katrina.
Second, yes N.O. & many other metropolitan areas are still suffering the results of LBJ's great society. Katrina pointed this out to the nation. City dwellers already knew it.
Third, if you think it would have been different in Chicago or St. Louis or Philly DC or Baltimore or LA or SF or any other city with ghetto dwellers, you're a fool.

Yes the ghetto's of N.O. house(d) some serious trash. Is it a whole lot different than other ghettos? Go visit one & see for yourself!

[Mule]

Posts from another board by much more knowledgeable folks:

"Insurance companies and FEMA both have gotten away with not paying the majority of damages. Those whom were paid from the damages the amounts and damage provisions covered was and is a joke.

I will give you one example, I know of about a house that still is standing. House is fully flooded up halfway to top of rooms. So flood damages allowed were only what was damaged. iN other words the bottom of the rooms and floor. Minus the deductable that is what that family was paid. Problem is it takes twice that to do the repairs.

There is always more than on side to any issue and so many insurance companies including FEMA have grabbed unto legal loopholes to get out of paying the high damages.

Ed
Ed i fully understand.i had 3 sister in laws that lived in Lakeview and my mother in law.my Mom and dad live in Chalmette and my sister in Arabi.all had about 8 to 12 feet of water in their house.some had insurance and some of them didn't. My Mom and Dad wouldn't take any money and didn't have insurance.they just sold the house for 25000 right before my mom died last month.my sister had insurance and rebuilt only her bottom floor that was damaged with the insurance money.top floor was ok. my mother in law had insurance on her house and got enough to rebuild it.she also had 2 tri plexes that went under but didn't have insurance on them.The government doesn't give you money for a house you don't live in.my other sister in law got 150000 from the government to rebuild and it cost her 250000 to rebuild.she had no insurance.she was glad and should be to get that for being so stupid and not carrying insurance.so some got money and some didn't.I'm just pissed because i pay insurance all these years and people that didn't have it got free money for their stupidity . makes you think ,why have it if the government is going to bail you out?
And I'm talking about flood insurance.insurance companies don't sell that.only the government sells flood insurance.So why did i pay all these years?
People without flood insurance should be grateful they got anything.they shouldn't have gotten a thing.
But in another sense ,id rather an American get help from our government than another country that hates us. so i'm split on this subject."

And before you start jumping up & down about folks without ins. John Stossel did a piece once on how his & other uninsurable, beach front mansions were being rebuilt w/ govt money after a storm, some for the second or third time.

[Gogar]

I did a little more googlin' and looks like the evacuation totals are more like 36,000. I think the 4,000 I found earlier must have been just a Des Moines total or something.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/chi-61508-iowa-floods-governor,0,3662360.story

Nearly 36,000 Iowans have been forced to evacuate their homes this past week, with Cedar Rapids residents accounting for about 25,000 of them.

And, Katrina stats according to some are over 1 million people evacuated or displaced from the storm. almost 30 times as many people.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hurricane_Katrina

Katrina redistributed over one million people from the central Gulf coast elsewhere across the United States, which became the largest diaspora in the history of the United States.[63] Houston, Texas, had an increase of 35,000 people; Mobile, Alabama, gained over 24,000; Baton Rouge, Louisiana, over 15,000; and Hammond, Louisiana received over 10,000, nearly doubling its size. Chicago received over 6,000 people, the most of any non-southern city.[64] By late January, 2006, about 200,000 people were once again living in New Orleans, less than half of the pre-storm population.[65] By July 1, 2006, when new population estimates were calculated by the U.S. Census Bureau, the state of Louisiana showed a population decline of 219,563, or 4.87%


So, I still contend that while both disasters are sad and unfortunate, you can't really compare the two at this point.

[Mule]

Apples to seeds.

[MRM]

Went to church this morning and the senior minister wasn't in the pulpit. I didn't think much of it since we're coming to the end of the church fiscal year and he told me that he hadn't taken enough vacation and was facing "use it or lose it" time. But the assistant pastor said that his wife's brother, who was a farmer in that area drownded in one of his fields trying to open a clogged drainage opening. Kind of brought the thing home. It may not be on a Katrina scale, but it's pretty bad.

[legion]

There is currently flooding in Iowa, Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, Southern Illinois, and Indiana--just about everywhere but here. Levees have broken in Wisconsin, Illinois, and Iowa. Floods have hit the 500-year flood planes in several areas.

[cairns]

Redistributed why? Because they could go to Houston or some other city with their hands out? Because they didn't feel any need to to retain their homes? Because they were too lazy too rebuild?

BS. Something does not ring true about these numbers. Why weren't at least some of the 4,000 (now 36,000) *****ing about the buses that didn't arrive? The lack of Aquafina? Porta-potties? Dominoes pizza?

No one, except Mr. Heineken, has gotten close to what the real differences are. Any liberals out there care to explain a certain lack of self suffiency among the NO population?

[jyl]

How bad is this going to be for crop yields and commodity prices?

[Normy]

Last month, I spent a day in Cedar Rapids. We stay at the Crown Plaza downtown, which is neither "crown" nor a "plaza", for what it is worth.

I slept during the morning, and since we had a late pickup at the hotel [8 PM], I woke up and went running in this Iowa town around 4 PM. This run? This was probably the worst run I've ever gone on. Listen: Cedar Rapids has some NASTY areas-!

The running route that I took was found on "Mapmyruns.com". It took me down 3rd Avenue to a street called "Bever", and then called for me to turn south on 16th and go two blocks, pick up a parallel street, and then return to downtown. I got as far as three blocks on Bever before I turned around. That was the HOOD! There were houses where about 10 dirtballs were hanging out drinking 40's and talking loud, the Hip Hop blasting in the background. "

"Damn, B**ch....run some of that ***** for me!" and such was what I heard from a few as I passed on the street. Uhmm...I didn't fall off the turnip truck yesterday; I got the F*CK out of there!

[I've hung out at "houses" and drank "40's" myself a few times....so I kind of knew what was going on~]

The long and short is that I think there are two reasons why CID hasn't degenerated into the situation that NOLA turned into after a flood: 1. Size, as mentioned. 2. New Orleans is probably a close second to Detroit in shear, pure violence. There is a culture of violence in NOLA that doesn't exist in provincial Iowa cities. For example, in New Orleans, crack whores give their children handguns and tell them to run up to tourists in the cemetaries and shoot them in the head. After the tourist is dead, they are supposed to bring both the gun and the wallets/purses back to their mothers. If they forget either they get the beating of their life!

That sort of local "culture" doesn't exist in Iowa, so there aren't the same problems as in NOLA.

N!

[legion]

Originally Posted by jyl

How bad is this going to be for crop yields and commodity prices?

BAD.

Do a search. Corn is at an all-time high. I'd expect wheat and soybeans are there too.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/13/business/13crop.html?ref=business

CHICAGO — Commodity prices continued to rise on Thursday, with the price of corn remaining above $7 a bushel. Soybeans also moved higher.

Wheat, which rose on Wednesday, fell on Thursday.

Corn prices, which have been hitting new highs for a week, are reacting to six weeks of heavy rains and cool weather in the Midwest. That prevented planting in some areas, leading some farmers to abandon the crop in the last few days. It is still raining.

The bad weather comes as supplies of corn, wheat and other staples are already tight thanks to soaring global demand.

The higher commodity prices are likely to add to a worldwide inflationary picture that seems to worsen by the day. Prices of many grocery items in the United States have been rising briskly, with some goods like eggs and milk — produced from animals fed with corn — up by 13 to 30 percent in the past year.

“You know those complaints you’ve been hearing about high food prices? They’ve just begun,” said Jason Ward, an analyst with Northstar Commodity in Minneapolis.

[strupgolf]

Iowa---Educated, New Orleans---not educated, 'nuff said.

[dipso]

Originally Posted by cairns

I don't understand it. The midwest, in particular Cedar Rapids, has been ravaged by floods and destruction as bad or worse than New Orleans faced during Katrina. Yet there's been no rioting, no looting, no blaming Bush and instead of wringing their hands over the fate of these poor people and pointing fingers at the Government the MSM is barely noticing.

What's the difference?

No blaming Bush? Yet. It wont take long, this is just happening.
I'll start.
2,700,000000,000,00,,00000000 and change, to a war of choice.
0 to U.S. infastructure.
= breeched levees.

No big deal, just more citizens.
Billions of cash is missing in Iraq and the guy who's money it is loses his home.
S.O.P. with this bunch.

[5axis]

Originally Posted by jyl

How bad is this going to be for crop yields and commodity prices?

Bad +1

Driving back from Topeka on 6/8 we were chasing a storm front all the way to Chicago. Sometime in the evening I noticed the reflections of bilboards in the fields????? It took a second to sink in, the fields had become shallow lakes as far I could see. Things have gotten a little worse this past week.



Crops up $
Live stock down$ (gotta buy feed)

[dmcummins]

The river is cresting here but so far except for the areas that always flood its no problem yet. There are two bars down by the marina that you can't get to but that is to be expected. The 93 flood took out the lower areas and that area was made into a park. No new construction is alowed unless you build at a minimum of 2' above the 93 level. The current crest is 5' below that.

Pic of road to marina and bar that always floods


Pic of marina that seldom floods.



Area that flooded in 93 and is now a park.



My house that is high and dry as I built 9' above the 93 level. I hauled in hundred of loads of rock and dirt.


view of river bluffs from my front porch.


Our main problem could be that if the water got high enough and the levees break that the roads could be closed.

[dmcummins]

It is also my understanding that the laws conserning flood insurance changed a few years ago keeping people from rebuilding in flood prone areas. I am only allowed one major claim and then I would not be eligble for flood insurance on this property again. I recieved a letter stating that there have been no claims to date so I am good. I only have flood insurance now because my homeowners insurance gave me grief about not having it. And if I wanted to sell I could show that due to my elevation it really isn't that expensive, and would be required for a mortgage.