Katrina - Lessons Learned

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That's what I thought you meant - but it got all rolled into one.

Agree with you on both that & the part above.

--->Paul

The most important part to learn from will be in the days to come, in my opinion. How the people who are there, in the situation, act.

Watch how the looters work and how the government reacts.

New Orleans police are patroling the streets with automatic weapons. Notice how the people who COULD live didn't. People fear unknown places more than catastrophies it would seem.

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We are major "preppers" but I never took it seriously that we might not be able to shelter in place. I will take it seriously now and prepare bug-out-bags. I will be sure that I always have plenty of batteries charged for the cell phone and have a radio that works better on batteries than the one we have. I will never go to an attic to avoid flooding unless I have an axe with me!!!

Personally, I think there should be a huge "green zone" along the gulf shores that is available for the enjoyment of all the citizens of this country. I know it will never happen......but I just wanted to put my two cents worth in. It will never be a safe place to live so why not make it available for everyone and just not build there.

I can't watch the images coming out of Louisianna without crying. I've been through a flood and I know what if feels like to have no power, phone, food, no anything. It's surreal. I made the comment earlier about people that didn't leave and the danger they are putting the resuce workers in. But I meant the people that had the means. I know there are people that have no means to leave and those are the ones I feel for. There is a local radio station doing "cards for Katrina" collecting gift cards for gas/food/building supplies or whatever for the refugees here in Houston. I feel like I don't have anything to give, but how can I not? I can find some money somewhere.

My charity of choice is Mercy Corp. Their ratio of the actual amount of money that goes to their causes is better than the Red Cross.

mercycorp.org

http://www.charitynavigator.org/inde...orgid/4078.htm


Here is a website to help you choose a charity:

http://www.charitynavigator.org/

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There was a head of household on the news - or weather station, I forget - that refused to be evacuated (or his family) from his home today. Water was all around it. He was just yelling out the door that they (the govt) need to turn the pumps back on, they will be fine, going to stay home.

I feel both very sad for him, and also very frustrated (and a bit angry) at the situation he creates.

He can't grasp the situation he is in, and that he is placing his family in.

And how difficult he makes it for rescuers, who will need to _eventually_ rescue him, but must waste time visiting him, and keeping track of him & his family. He is using the time & resources that others sorely need.

I do not know his situation, but some of you mention the poor just couldn't leave, they have no choice.

Does that not speak, all the more, to how prepared one is to deal with situations one places oneself? If you can't afford to leave, one shoulda left a long time ago to a place that does not have the potential for such a huge, wide-spread, long term, total disaster.

I guess I see this as different than most of the other hurricanes. The New Orleans area was designed to be a huge, wide-spread disaster. it is a drained pond. Why does one live there if one does not have the resources to get out when the disaster arrives?

Parts of Alabama & Miss are hit as hard or worse for damage, but I can understand living there. We are all exposed to one disaster of one kind or another.

My objections are specific to the NO area - where the disaster of a hurricane have always been known would create the disaster of long-term flooding.

Why live in that spot? Why rebuild there?

In my own state, we had the Grand Forks flood. They are similarly located, if a much much smaller area/ population. Why rebuild on those low spots?

Again, I do not mean to pick on people or events of today, I shed tears for all the devistation & loss as well. But that area will have to do some long-range plannig & rebuilding. Where do they go from here? It should be looked at, discussed, questioned.

--->Paul

I understand your point Rambler. It just doesn't seem logical to live in a place where a natural disaster will eventually hit you. However. I guess I have an unique perspective having lived in las Vegas for 15 yrs. Las Vegas is a flood disaster waiting to happen. In fact it only takes a quarter of an inch of rain to create major flooding there. In the years that I lived there we had two 100 yr floods two years in a row, where we got more than an inch of rain and no way to pump it out. Las Vegas is a deep bowl. If they ever get a storm that packs a wollop like Katrena (just in rain fall) Las Vegas will be destroyed. So why do people still live there? JOBS. New Orleans is much like Las Vegas in that it provides a steady source of jobs. People see that they can find work in New Orleans, and they move or stay there. The problem is, where there is a steady source of jobs, there is also a very high cost of living. A job that pays $10 an hour is just about like getting paid minimum wage. These people look at pay elsewhere (which is much lower) and moving doesn't seem cost effective. You also have to understand that in many Casino based areas such as Vegas, Orleans, Biloxi, Atlantic City, etc...a job also means free insurance and other benefits. As aposed to making less money and having to shell out most of it to make sure your family can see a doctor when need be.
These cities seem to have the power to suck you in and make you believe that you'll never survive (as far as being able to provide for your family) if you leave.

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Therefore, I urge you, brothers, in view of God's mercy, to offer your bodies as living sacrifices, holy and pleasing to God--this is your spiritual act of worship.

The looting could be taken care of if the police would start killing very single worthless scumbag they see doing it. Shoot them dead and leave them lay where they fall. There is nothing lower than a looter in a situation like this. The footage of the looting and the absolute glee of the people doing it was just sickening. This type of scum is the lowest form of life. After this is over the authorities need to pour over all of that footage and ID every single person seen looting and they should be publicly executed preferably by hanging.

When I went to Florida to help some friends/shirttail relations after Andrew (talk about an adventure) their neighborhood was having some problems with looters too. Once the bottom feeding scum found out that the locals were ready willing and able to kill them they put word out to the rest of the bottom feeding scum to move on to easier pickings.

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Respect The Cactus!

Probably something to add to the list is a central location for contacting other family members outside the likely zone of danger. For example, your family becomes separated for whatever reason. Can Aunt B. several states away act as a common contact point to relay information?

The most important thing is to save the lives of people, but I also can't help but think about the pets/animals that perished. When Hurricane Floyd devastated eastern NC, there were untold numbers of livestock that drowned, and there were pitiful stories of pets that were wrecklessly abandoned as residents fled the rising water. Lesson learned here: If you have pets and you can't take them with you when you evacuate, at least let them out of their pen, release them from their chain, whatever--just give them a chance to use their animal instincts of self-preservation.

This is truly tragic and I pray for the strength of the rescuers and aid workers to keep going and that those able to help can. I was shocked that there was not mass transportation to move those out (of New Orleans) that had none. Didn't reports say they had planned for a worse-case scenario? Although I do not know the history of this below sea-level city, the mass of it and the continuation of building it over the years (was in at least in hind sight) short-sighted or a product of greed. Mother nature made a statement here. There is only so much mankind can do if we're in her way. Surely, we can see who won. I think it's time to surrender this plot of "land".

Rambler, I see where you're coming from. We all have compassion on the suffering in NO right now and also see that much of this devastation was caused by people deciding to drain wetlands and marshes to build a city below sea level.

My guess is that some people will blame God for this, when the truth is that someone someplace simply ignored common sense.

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LilyRose

I'm just going to highlite this so it gets repeated. Lot's of times even if the communication system isn't down the local lines get overwhelmed. Even if you can't get through to someone locally, you can call out of state with no problems.

Something else I thought of;

If at all possible, don't burn your bridges with friends and family out of state. A friend of mine who lives (lived?) in NO is currently staying with her ex-husband's family in Huntsville. Not the best situation ever, but it sure beats staying in a cheap hotel room with a dog, 2 cats, and 2 kids burning through money she can't afford to waste right now.

Three days of food as fema suggest isnt enough.

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Gary in Central Ohio

We have a number of friends with close connections in the New Orleans and beach cities in Mississippi. Our New Orleans friends evacuated when warned. Yes, they've lost everything except what they carried with them however 3 generations of family survived - and that is every reason to rejoice. That is the lesson.

And now the other side ...
One of my daughter's closest friends talked to his mother Sunday night before Katrina made landfall. She lived in a mobile home in one of the beach towns near Biloxi. John begged and begged her to evacuate but she refused. She signed papers with the Red Cross noting that she was disregarding evacuation orders and the acknowledgement of what the consequences of that would be, when they came door to door advising everyone to leave. She refused all counsel from authorities and family.
John has not heard from her since they spoke Sunday. Her town was destroyed, the Red Cross hasn't gotten in there even as I write this, and we are all as close to certain as we can be that she is dead.

John is a 21 yr old college student. He hasn't slept nor eaten since Sunday night. He has been told they are not gathering bodies at this point and there's no point his even trying to get near the area in hopes of at least identifying her body. All this misery that didn't have to be. That's the hardest part.

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BeckyW. "on the sunrise side of the everlasting hills"

I am very sad for everyone who is suffering throughout the south. I wish them only comfort and safety.

Some of the first evacuation suggestions/orders were given on Friday. The general path of the storm was known. If you started walking on Friday and averaged 2 miles an hour for 6 hours a day....you'd have been 36 miles out of town.

Did anyone without a car consider walking out--far enough to catch public transportation or negotiate a ride?

I am frustrated because they insist on re-building. I really think if you live in a flood zone you should assume the financial risks. Instead, it is spread to all of us through government programs of relief and rescue as well as subsidized insurance. But when those properties increase in value and are bought and sold, no cost is repaid. Why do I have to pay for you to live somewhere unsafe to live in? If you insist on re-building, then you should insist on taking the risk. Period.

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Diana:

I've been thinking the same thing. I think the government should take a 10 mile deep strip along the coast and let it be for parks, swimming, boating, etc. only. No residential buildings allowed. Ice cream and hot dog trucks could provide food & drinks. Can we even think of letting New Orleans be rebuilt. What kind of codes can a city below sea level meet?

Disasters like this is when we really need the National Guard. But of course, most of them are in Iraq...

I am with Jan D. This is why we are not giving to the red cross, we will be taxed and insurance will go up, etc. So we will still be giving money.
In good news, the unfinished destroyer that SANK in the shipyard in Miss. is getting retrofitted by our guys here in Maine, adding 10 million to their work orders. Will delay some of the layoffs that were coming.

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A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines.
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)

Hey,I have a relative just like that.They were almost killed in the fire,then went right back in to protect their property.While there protecting it,a building burned down right in front of em,their water supply had already been lost.
Having worked a burn unit,thats absolutely inconceivable to me,but thats what they did.
Some folks are like that.
Me,we move out and let the pros who know what they are doing do their jobs and stay the heck out of their way and not create yet further work for them.I can replace material things,I cant replace my family,nor will I risk them needlessly.

BooBoo