Good Luck New Orleans

2nd that Good Luck New Orleans.

Howard

+1

Yeah I was talking to friends yesterday about this. Some fools don't head warnings and hurricanes can be fled from days in advance. However, here in earthquake country it strikes without warning and its all over in a few seconds.

Still I'd take my area of the country over anything in the south or midwest and east.

glenn

The point made on the Danish news was the abject poverty of very many in New Orleans. Large numbers of people simply couldn't afford to leave. Others were afraid of losing their few possessions to looters. Then there was the problem of obtaining fuel. Leaving many unable to leave even if they wanted to. Interestingly the mafia control most of the vast fortune that pours into New Orleans from the tourists with very little shared with the local population. It sounds as if the old town will never be the same again according to an informed observer who had often played jazz there. The talented will move elsewhere to maintain an income and may never return.

Law and order would appear to have broken down judging by the news reports. The scenes of flooding are breathtaking. Good luck New Orleans.

I wonder if there's any chance the US populace will connect the US/Kyoto Treaty problem with this disaster?

Even if its a subconscious connection it might help to replace the dim puppet in the long run.

Where I live, several years ago, a catagory 5 cyclone was poised to strike the city.
For three days it played cat and mouse with us then disappeared off the radar.
Later we heard that 5000 bodybags were ready to be sent in.
Looking at the images coming out of New Orleans I can now appreciate how lucky we were.

quote:

I wonder if there's any chance the US populace will connect the US/Kyoto Treaty problem with this disaster?

Why would they? There's no connection.

Paul

Nup, just the fact that America has such a huge population it had to happen one day.

I wonder whether my fellow citizens will connect the damage done in NO with the tax policies they've voted for.

The levees were built to withstand a storm that occurs once in a 100 years. Building better protection would have cost a good deal more, but the cost would have been insignificant compared to the losses every 100 years.

But that would have required slightly higher taxes.

A professor at Louisiana State U. says his models showed that the levees would fail where they failed in even a cat 2 'cane, if the path were just so. But Lousiana voters think it's more important to starve the city - where the people aren't white - and it's more important to the political leadership in the US to cut taxes and fight an unprovoked war than to protect our citizenry from an easily predictable disaster.

By the way, the book Rising Tide, by John Barry, has an excellent discussion of Mississippi river engineering and politics and of the behavior of the NO elite in the 1927 flood (which was far more catastrophic overall than Katrina). It's enough to turn one's stomach.

Phil

The devastation in New Orleans has more to do with the disappearance of the wetlands in the delta (due to the methods of drainage and levee engineering) than to global warming; the Gulf gets Cat 5 storms historically, they're nothing new (Galveston 1900, anyone? Andrew?). Unfortunately, blaming the Bush admin for the devastation has the unintended effect of giving the talk-radio goons ammo to attack the left (and by association, the Democratic Party). All this makes any gains by the Dems (who are slightly more likely to do something re: Kyoto & global warming) less likely next year in the elections.

What a f*cking shame. I've always meant to visit, but it may have to be off my list now.

G

Graham

I am sure the good people of New Orleans will be devestated to hear of your future holiday plans being affected.

Regards

Mick

As suggested by Bhazen and Phil above it looks like the finger pointing has already started but by not knowing the politics of this group of papers I can not judge the value of the artical. From what I have seen and heard on the UK news those interviewed roughly follow the lines displayed in this link. I had sort of expectd the National Guard, Army and others to be on site and fixing things in a flash but this is real life not a feel good novella based upon the exploits International Rescue.

As you can see from these few links help is at hand, it is just not as fast and as much as some reporters would like.
Army working to help stop New Orleans flooding
Military Providing Full-Scale Response to Hurricane Relief Effort

Mick

Not quite my point, but there we are.

My best wishes to them all!

G

Lots of lessons available to be learned in New Orleans (but we won't)

Life is fragile
Society is fragile
Law and order are fragile

When the sun is shining, we don't want to invest resources against infrequent disasters
We are ill-prepared to respond quickly to ANY natural disaster
Every man for himself and the poor get left behind

Will the $10 billion aid-package being mooted, be equally distributed/invested regardless of previous wealth, or in proportion to previous wealth.

As I say, lots of lessons available to be learned......

Cheers

Don

My strategy for dealing with this disaster....

Compulsary evauation (Those with no where to go, taken to strategic relief centers) and zero tollerance (shoot to kill) of looters and other law-breakers
Repair the levees
Pump the city dry
Remove the remains of those who perished
Assess the viability of rebuilding the city v building a new city elsewhere v distributing the population around the USA
Rebuilding to be on a utopian "equal opportunity for all" basis.........rather than
The usual survival of the fittest basis.....

Lots of opportunity to observe western "civilised" society when given the opportunity to show its real worth.

Cheers

Don

quote:

Originally posted by Paul Ranson:

quote:

I wonder if there's any chance the US populace will connect the US/Kyoto Treaty problem with this disaster?

Why would they? There's no connection. Paul

I was listening to the head climatologist at the Danish Meterological Office speaking on the radio. While he made no direct connection in answer to the direct question he intimated that increased energy in the system from global warming can't be ruled out.

It seemed a quite reasonable supposition to an ignorant soul like me. Which is precisely why I posted on the subject. I didn't know you were a climatologist? Perhaps you'd like to enlighten us on the contrary mechanisms involved which rule out the effects of global warming where hurricanes are concerned? I'm sure you'll have a captive audience with this subject being so current.

Well Nime, their numbers certainly haven't increased...
numbers

Indeed. Thanks for the link Jim. At a quick glance they actually seem to be reducing in number.

Sky News is making much of the 4 day delay in relief arriving. 90 degree heat without water is going to do start depleting the survivors.

Now they say US central government was warned months ago that the levies were not up to design criteria due to settlement. But again they were denied funding to raise them to the original levels. So Bush's lies are already unravelling.

http://www.livejournal.com/users/interdictor/

have been reading this - quite an insight.

quote:

Originally posted by Mick Parry:
Graham

I am sure the good people of New Orleans will be devestated to hear of your future holiday plans being affected.

Regards

Mick

Mick,

yes, I'm sure every other one of the millions of tourists with plans for the area will be ringing their travel agents to confirm their plans.

Graham will be the only one not going.

I guess people of New Orleans will just have to buck up and ignore their little annoyance.

Martin

This is going to go down in history. Not for the destruction but for the way the US treats poor black people. If this doesn't bring a sea change then the whole rotten system is unfixable.

What little rescue work is going on will come to complete halt to protect Bush from the danger of breaking a manicured nail. While Jerkoff of Home Security is talking about zero tolerance to a traumatised population still thirsty and hungry after how many days?

Isn't it time there was zero tolerance for public racism against your own people? Now we know why the US refuses to allow its citizens to be tried for crimes against humanity. It wasn't to protect their soldiers from repeated accusation of torture, rape and murder. It was to protect its politicians from prosecution!

Now they can find 10 billion? What about the tiny sum required to fix the levy that was refused?

The big question now is: Will Bush be carrying a token gilded bottle of Coke for the US TV cameras? To hand to a pretty little hollywood child star flown in for the event with a a carefully arranged smudge on her rosy cheek?

If you're poor and you're black in God's Own Country then you're utterly expendable. Try and live with it.

Perhaps not enough of them voted Republican last time..

Who would have believed we would see scenes of Third World-style starvation and despair in the world's wealthiest country.

Like Nime and JonR, I am appalled by the lack off humanitarian aid towards the people of NO affected by this disaster. I saw on TV today of people in desperate need of aid, pleading on TV, dead bodies amongst the living, dying children etc, all this in supposedly the most powerful country in the world. SHAMEFUL. How can this be? I would like to think it is not discrimination but I cannot.....

This I did not see when NY was in similar circumstances 2001. I guess, even America, discrimination of the poor and the "negroes" still is strong after so many years.

This is a very sad time for all!