New Orleans

[caulfield]

I can't believe what is happening there! My uncle and his family (wife and two daughters) lost their house (but thank goodness they are all unharmed). The death toll and water level keeps rising. One of the main pumps is expected to fail and the lake where the water is being pumped will just let the water back in until they can fix the broken levees.

Everyone I know who has ever been to New Orleans has told me that it is a place that I really need to visit. It is supposed to be (or "have been") one of the most unique places to see in the entire US. Roger Ebert fell in love with the city and said it is one of his favorite places in the entire world (he also said that if you want to drink yourself to death, that's the place to do it).

I really did want to go and party there and every damn year my uncle begged me to go visit my cousins. Now it looks like it is too late. I still can't believe that this has happened (or "is happening"). What is everyone going to do? I keep hearing that if they rebuild (80% is under 20 feet of water or more), something like this might just happen all over again down the line.

This is simply a nightmare.

-Caul

[JRL]

Yeah man. Isn't it mind boggling? Once more the arrogance of humanity gets sucker punched by Mother Nature.

I can't stop watching the news reports. And it makes me nervous. I live three blocks from the Sacramento River levee. This area used to flood every year, now held back by aging damns and aging levees.

Never say "It can't happen here"

[neonaut]

Hey jrl remember the flood in winter where the levee broke, off the delta, that was too close to home.  

This situation is dire, and even my family in tennesee experience flooding due to the storm.  The only thing I know is that big momma is pissed.......

[laughingwillow]

People get pissed.

Big momma just is....

lw

[subversal]

the "we can't beat em, join em" mentality runs rampant still.  Notice once again the many pay for the mistakes of a few who have forgotten they belong to all.

[laughingwillow]

I just read a story about a couple of local Iowans who couldn't believe the great airfare they found to New Orleans the other day. SO good they couldn't pass it up, making plans to see all of the sites. Dumb fooks flew in as tourists on saturday and less than 24 hours later became refugees at the superdome. We know this only because they were spotted by local family on cnn while waiting in the massive line to get into the refugee camp.

Now, that superdome is sounding like hell on earth.

lw

[senorsalvia]

---- :shock: ---  Sorry about those peeps flying into a disaster, but to my perverted dense of irony, I find that funny as hell    I can just imagine at the reservation headquarters:  There's Jimmy, poring intently over the latest satellite images...  "Quick Joe, dump 200 seats for half price to Indonesia,  Oh wait, hear's another one, a continental catastrophe...  Dump all the remaining seats right now before it hits CNN :wink: --- (As Do King would say:  Only in AmeriKKKa)------------- sal

[JRL]

Well, this proves once again that we are always an inch away from total chaos. It just keeps getting uglier.

[caulfield]

My uncle's company is telling him that if he can get to Texas, they will offer him an immediate position there. His wife is dellusional to some extent and will not believe that their house can't be saved and wants to "wait it out" in her sister's ranch in Louisiana. He is begging her to go with him to Texas or to move in with my parents here in Los Angeles and wait till he can negotiate a possible transfer to a California office (which he says is very possible). My mother also is telling her to do the same, but she seems to be very insistent in her belief that the property is salvagable to some extent and that the sooner they can see it, the more they can do to save it. My uncle has told my mother that no matter what he MUST get to Texas asap with or without his wife and two daughters.

I heard there are still over 100,000 people (alive at least) trapped in the newly formed hell that was once a beautiful and historic city where (at least arguably) jazz originated. The rescue forces can only evacuate about 10,000 people at a time, and one rescue team had to cancel halfway through a shipment because SHOTS WERE FIRED on the helicopter by a random CIVILIAN... It is supposedly things along the lines of "reason, tolerance, and mental restraint" which human beings place as ideals which allow us to believe we are more than mere savages... You know what though? If I could get my hands on that dude, I would go apeshit on him; tear the fucker apart with my bare hands.

The looters piss me off too. Ransacking areas for food and supplies is bad enough. People that are looting valuables are absolutely disgusting. But now I heard that crowds of people rushed a Walmart to get to the firearms. God almighty that is pure insanity.

-caul

[laughingwillow]

I read of cops who were allowing people ot loot a shoe store on Canal St as long as they were stealing shoes that fit them. Now, I'm curious as to how the ultimate decision was really made. Did the cops really check shoe size against those on the feets? Were allowances made for growing children? Some kids feet can grow pretty quickly. Did they get out the foot measuring devices for the close calls between personally taking advantage of circumstances surrounding a natural disaster in a material fashion vs. regular thievery?

lw

[dissident]

I personally don't see anything wrong with looting food, beverages, diapers or other essentials to survive...even alcohol when uncontaminated water is scarce

[JRL]

or how about the guys slogging through raw sewage with 27 inch TVs with no place to plug them in. Just the glee on the faces of the kids with six pairs of shoes around their necks.

What a piece of work is man...........

[senorsalvia]

In a scene of utter chao such as must be in 'da Big Easy,  I would agree with Diss that looting for necessary items to continue to live is morally OK...   I'd also go so far as to suggest that guns-n-ammmo be grabbed  for protection, as well as light and heating supplies...  Don't forget a good shortwave radio as well................  Welcome to AmeriKKKa the Apocolyptic--------------- sal

[caulfield]

I agree with Foamy:

http://www.illwillpress.com/kat.html

Also with Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour:

"The truth is, a terrible tragedy like this brings out the best in most people, brings out the worst in some people... We're trying to deal with looters as ruthlessly as we can get our hands on them."

It's reasonable to loot firearms for protection? The police have already been pleading with people to give any firearms and ammunition in their possesion to the authorities because they are insanely low and the situation is becoming more and more dangerous. I agree that shipping food and aid in is a slow process, but looting food supplies is misguided. More often then not, these efforts only serve to complicate the rescue strategies already in effect, as many of these people likely end up getting themselves injured, sick, or stranded as the situation grows more dire.

[dissident]

you may be right Caul, but if my kids are thirsty in a situation like that...I may just be leading the charge to 'liberate' some clean water from the local convenience store....hell its all just going to sit on the shelves anyway, or someone else will take it.  I am a hunting enthusiast, gun owner and target shooter, so I may just take ammunition as well...no gang of looters is going to rape my old lady or take my stuff.  My goal in a civil emergency or natural disaster would be to do what I can to help as many as I can, I will be the guy handing out Evian to the old ladies that I procured from wherever I got it, and God help anyone that I see victimizing needlessly or committing acts of senseless violence such as the rapes, murders, and outright savagery that seems to be occurring in New Orleans as the scene degenerates into some kind of 'free for all'.