Katrina

[Schultz]

I can't imagine things getting much worse than they have in New Orleans though. The report I heard on the news today said that fully half of the New Orleans police department had resigned rather than face the gangs and riots happening in the city.

I finally read a report on the police report. i don't know "Exact" numbers but it said only half has came back to work. Some quit because they fear the gangs etc. The rest haven't quit they just won't come back to work as they lost there homes and are dealing with families and such which is understandable.

[Blight]

Are sure you're in college? You don't believe in global warming? I'm trying to decide whether I think all of your science teachers have sucked, or if you're just plain stupid...I think you need to go read a middle school Earth Science book...

I think his teachers are just dumbasses (which would naturally impose that on him unfortunately). I remember he told us once that his history teacher taught his whole class that Ninjas were just made up, that there really were ninjas ever in Japan. What a dumb SOB of a teacher that guy must have been.

As for global warming, Which is now called Global Climate Change (I am currently discussing this in my Environmental Science class), it is more than just a degree or 2 in overall temperature change, it affects when rain falls, the different wind patters and sorts of other crap so that it throws off the balance and somewhat predictability we have attained and can cause droughts and flooding, plus tornados and other weird phenomenon like El Nino (which a gay name for any powerful event).

(RANT: To be honest I feel in am learning more about it than I should have to, because on the first day of class, my instructor said, quite proudly, that she was a tree hugger. So the class is basically a study of what is WRONG with the environment rather than an observation of it.)

[Elcoholic]

And i hate to disagree but you can never fully prepare for this. no one can truely predict what the weather will do. And they didn't plan on levey's breaking which has caused majority of the damage.

Well, the storm even lost a bit of its power before reaching land (went from class 5 to class 4 hurricane). Plus it changed dirrection just before reaching NO. They expected it to be more powerfull in NO a day before it hit so I think the richest country in the world should have prepared for even a worse situation. Also there were reports and warnings by engeniers stating the levey's wouldn't be able to hold back the water with such a storm. It should and could be expected for them to break down. And why wasn't the entire city evacuated? Why does it take ceveral days for troops to arrive while the looting started taking place on the first day? Why isn't there a huge warehouse packed with water and food about where you live so it could have been there in a day? I heard some reporter ask himself why it takes the government a couple of days to get help there while he could drive to he superdome in 2 hours. And there are so many thing that could have been prepared beter. It was ceverely underestimated and that shouldn't happen in the US I think.

African Americans make up 67.25% of the population of New Orleans (whites are only 28%) so it's normal to see a lot of black people, doing all sorts of things (good and bad), it's not bad reporting

Someone on another forum posted 2 news reports from Yahoo news. Both accompanied with a picture of someone wading through the water with a bag of looted goods and one of them was white and the other black. With the white man the comment is he was wading through the water after "finding" goods in a local grocery store and you geuss what they said how the black man got these goods. On tv they only show black people looting and they repeat the same movies all the time. I don't know but to me it all seems on purpose, biased and not good for the already tense race relations in the south.

I'm sorry but this is the dumbest thing i've heard anyone say in a long time. The government isn't going to just leave people there and make up stories of people firing at choppers...

Well, your definition of dumb comments differ from most of us so I won't take it personal.
What I mean to say is I think your government 'might' use this 'news' to cover for the bad preparation I mention above. Try to get the attention away from the real problem. Anyway, I fear that once again noone in your government will take responsibility and use stories like this to cover for their own mistake.

[gubi-gubi]

I remember he told us once that his history teacher taught his whole class that Ninjas were just made up, that there really were ninjas ever in Japan. What a dumb SOB of a teacher that guy must have been.

That might actually be true. There isn't much evidence to say that they really existed (at least like people think they were now). It's said that they could just be a fairy tale that got told to kids and passed down through generations and people sort of made up history to go with it.

Are sure you're in college? You don't believe in global warming? I'm trying to decide whether I think all of your science teachers have sucked, or if you're just plain stupid...I think you need to go read a middle school Earth Science book...

Global warming is still only a theory and hasn't been proved to be 100% true.

When I look back at disasters over the past decade I think of the ice storm in Quebec, the tsunami in Asia and of course September 11. In all of those horrible occurances I remember the overwhelming support that people gave each other and how people from around the world responded with aid and good will.

I think of how badly the government handled september 11th and now this new disaster.

[Schultz]

And why wasn't the entire city evacuated? Why does it take ceveral days for troops to arrive while the looting started taking place on the first day? Why isn't there a huge warehouse packed with water and food about where you live so it could have been there in a day? I heard some reporter ask himself why it takes the government a couple of days to get help there while he could drive to he superdome in 2 hours. And there are so many thing that could have been prepared beter. It was ceverely underestimated and that shouldn't happen in the US I think.

Well one its hard to evacuate people that don't want to go or can't go. If people don't follow the evacuation orders then its no ones fault but themselves. Also people staying behind to help those that need help too. etc etc.. you got alot of reasons.

Also do you really know how much it takes to do a mass military movement? you think it can be done in 2 hours? you can't do that shit instantly. Military has to go through proper channels get special orders and authorizations and then even that they have to accomidate transportation and such. Even so regular times you are expected to be ready to go if called and be gone in 2 days.

Also the hurricane didn't hardly do damage to NO. its all the levey's that broke that has done all the damage.

What the hurricane did destory was Gulport/Biloxi Mississippi which i was there for 4 months at this same time of year last year. Everything on the coast was destroyed from the high winds.

[geo85]

Yes all the polution we have been doing has and is messing up the earth but the problem with global warming is no where near as imediate as some would like you to believe.

Ninjas were real, the roots of ninjitsu was traced to an ideaology that came from sun tsu's art of war book, they were spies and assasins, originaly chinese actually because the Japanese rejected the dishonorable manner of fighting from the shadows and spreading dissinformation, but they eventually adopted that ideaology and were the most infamous.

[Cidien]

Yes all the polution we have been doing has and is messing up the earth but the problem with global warming is no where near as imediate as some would like you to believe.

Ah, our local science expert. Perhaps this should be said one more time. There is absolutely no proof global warming is happening or that we are the cause of it. The earth changes. Just because the earth has been changing a bit recently it doesn't mean it's out fault or that it isn't "normal" for the earth. There are scientists also saying it's part of the earths natural weather cycle. They really have no idea.

Again, could it be? Yes. Do we really have any idea? Not really.

[Ka-Talliya]

Go ahead and comment on how badly the "government" prepared for this. I've stopped listening. Where are the lines between Local government, state government and federal government, huh? So who do we blame? "Blame them all! They should have..." Blah, Blah, Blah!!!
I can tell you there are some agencies that are working their asses off to get some releif to those people down there, like FEMA.
It's a little difficult to get things in and out when the roads aren't in the best conditions. Granted, some agencies were not planning this hurricane to pan out the way it did, but who can predict or control nature.
So, stop blaming the government, that means you not from the US too. Just because things don't go the way you think they should doesn't mean you can stand there wagging a finger. GET OFF YOUR ASSES AND HELP!

[Cidien]

Considering the sheer magnitude of the disaster I can't blame the government for not being prepared for it.

The only thing I want to know I havn't heard anything about is why the buses took so long to get there to evac people. Of course it took even longer since the people there were retarded and rushed the buses like they did when they finally did arrive. I'm just curious what happened, cuz they did prepare for this scenario but it just never happened. =/

[Cidien]

Just went to the red cross' web site. While nothing compared to the damage they've already managed to raise 48+ million. Pretty nice chunk of change.

What would be really cool is to see a lotta companies like M$ and such donating so much in proceeds for games and such sold for a while.

Also, i'm surprised paypal is running a donation campaign and not taking any fees for the transfers. They're usually more evil than that. Guess even they are moved by a catastrophe of this magnitude.

[Elcoholic]

Well one its hard to evacuate people that don't want to go or can't go. If people don't follow the evacuation orders then its no ones fault but themselves. Also people staying behind to help those that need help too. etc etc.. you got alot of reasons.

Also do you really know how much it takes to do a mass military movement? you think it can be done in 2 hours? you can't do that shit instantly. Military has to go through proper channels get special orders and authorizations and then even that they have to accomidate transportation and such. Even so regular times you are expected to be ready to go if called and be gone in 2 days.

Also the hurricane didn't hardly do damage to NO. its all the levey's that broke that has done all the damage.

What the hurricane did destory was Gulport/Biloxi Mississippi which i was there for 4 months at this same time of year last year. Everything on the coast was destroyed from the high winds.

I hear alot of people who are stuck there saying they had no means of evacuating.

They knew the storm was coming like a week or even more before didn't they? I'm sure the army could have prepared an operation in a week.

And I'm from a country that's larglely under the sea. If our levey's and dams break 50% of my country could be flooded. We know when a big storm comes that those are the weak points. I just doubt that it never crossed their minds that they would break. Maybe if they predicted it and spread the news more people would have been evacuated.

And I'm sorry Ka-Ta but you go ahead and turn a blind eye. I know many people are doing their best to help but they can't magically let blankets apear or botled water or armed police men for protection or busses for transportation. The people giving help must be the most frustrated of all people there. Critisism is needed so next time (lets hope there won't be one) things get handled better.

Luckily the situation has become a little better now with most of the city evacuated. They say it could take up to 80 days to drain the sewage systems.

[Cidien]

The army didn't expect the levy to break like that. It would take a lotta money to mobilize troops in advance for something that might happen...

And yes, they knew it was a weak point. Funny thing is (I guess funny isn't a good word really) they've been talking about it since Clintons time but all of the sudden every other dem is already blaming Bush and the war in Iraq for lack of funding and action....

[gubi-gubi]

Ninjas were real, the roots of ninjitsu was traced to an ideaology that came from sun tsu's art of war book, they were spies and assasins, originaly chinese actually because the Japanese rejected the dishonorable manner of fighting from the shadows and spreading dissinformation, but they eventually adopted that ideaology and were the most infamous.

There is no mention of ninjas in written texts until quite recently. Yes they were secret but then why only in modern texts did people talk about them?

[ladysilverice]

Well, just to input my opinion, you can't mobilize an army every time it looks like a hurricane might come ashore and wreck things. Mobilizing an army takes ALOT of time and money... the kind of money that taxpayers complain about. So really there isn't any way to know what a storm is going to do and how it's going to effect a certain area. I don't think anyone thought the levey's were going to break.
One thought though... I thought that right after 9/11 that NO was a high risk target area because of the two facts that it WAS a potentially dangerous levey and it WAS a high trafficed port where goods wearn't checked until already in port. You would think that they would have done something way way way back to fortify the leveys or do something to protect them. HOWEVER I don't think comparing 9/11 and this tragedy right now is exactly fair because of the differences in culture and manpower. People were at least able to get right up close to the towers right after it happened. Some of the roads in NO are still unaccessable.
Not to be argumentative either, but I think the government is a little stretched as it is with their attention split both in NO and in Iraq. With troops mobilized in Iraq and those countries, it's gonna cost more to mobilize reserves and stuff to fix things stateside.

[gubi-gubi]

Well seeing as America is the richest and most powerful nation in the world yet it's asking for aid from Europe etc it looks pretty bad. Even if they couldn't do anything before they could of got people out quicker and even the people they got out were only the rich white people. I'd compare sept 11th to this as they had proir knowledge of sept 11th yet did not act on it at all. There is a whole mess of lies around it and in general the American goverment look pretty bad.