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I know you guys have probably heard enough about this, I know I have, but it's something we can discuss

Last I heard 2 levees broke and the town was submerged 80% in water

it sucks ass big time :(

I've heard too much, and can't watch the news anymore, it's just so depressing.

No kidding, I am disliking the coverage somewhat because they keep bringing people on crying out for help - we know they need help you know?

Judging from the news, it seems to me that the relief work is going on very slowly... is that your perception as well?

Is the majority of New Oreleans population black? Or we are only seeing them because they couldn't leave?

It's sad that so many people have died/are dying, but sometimes shit happens.

At the same time, the scientist in me is curious about how this will unfold. Hopefully, you have heard of natural selection; it's a theory where the fittest creatures survive to see the next day. Obviously, this means that some others die off, because they can't cope or adjust to new conditions. In this case, it seems to be stupid people who are being eliminated.

Why are the stupid people going first? Let's take a look at the city of New Orleans:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Image:New_ ... System.gif
Gee, doesn't look that safe, does it? Most of it is below sea-level, pretty much making it a "shallow bowl surrounded by a ridge of levees," and thus a large water trap. On that point, flooding can occur if it rains more than one inch!

Add a Category 5 hurricane and expect mass destruction. Oh wait, the mayor issued an evacuation notice the day before Katrina hit, saying that he expected that the town would be flooded and that the levees could not stand the pressure of such a powerful hurricane. Yup, something like 24 hours to pack up and leave this great basin that has a history of flooding, and many people just sat there on their asses. Come on, there were buses ready to take them out of the city! This is equivalent to driving out to an army firing range wearing a bullet-proof vest, setting up your lawn chair in front of the paper targets, then complaining when they switch from rifles to tanks.

If this isn't bad enough, the rescue operation that was attempted was severely bungled every step of the way. Most of what I've found has been scattered or incomplete reports of what exactly happened and in what order, but piecing it together, it sounds like the first plan was to store all the survivors in the Superdome and call for help. The National Guard shows up and starts looking for more survivors while trying to move the ones in the Superdome to other locations. Resources are stressed greatly, and everything starts to fall apart, most noticeably the survivors. Murder, rape, and suicide are reported in the Superdome, where the temperature is extreme, the space is constrained, and pure water has ceased to exist. Mass looting/rioting occurs in what remains of the city, and the Guard is instructed to abandon the search for people in trouble in favor of keeping the peace. The Guard (and local authority?) prohibits the Red Cross and other relief organizations from entering the city, and the corpses keep piling up on the sidewalk, filling the air (already saturated with the stench of raw sewage) with the bitterness of decay. Violent, armed refugees fire at rescue facilities and hospitals, adding to the dangers.

Now adding insult to injury, some nutball decides that this would be great fuel to help his religious ideology to become national law, and declares that this was the "work of God" to show His disapproval of abortion.

On the international level, many other nations are offering help, but Bush seems content to ignore them and continue the attempt himself, by himself (even though we all know how it's going right now, and how much we really could use some help).

And, of course, "Reverand" Al Sharpton blames a delayed response not on the claim that nobody expected a Category 5 hurricane to hit, nor that the Bush Administration is seemingly incompetant, but that most of the remaining people are black. (Who's not laughing with me on this one?)

This is really getting out of hand. There is too much media coverage and not enough action. And there is way too much political interest in this -- it's a disaster, not a photo opportunity! Politics and nature just don't mix.

I just saw the interview with Michael Chertoff, the secretary of the Homeland Security. These are the conclusions I made:

It's FEMA's fault, but no, it's HS's fault. Bureaucracy has fucked it all up, but it also made it easier to organize everything. And even though the levee problems have been obvious since 2002, W has said that nobody knew this could happen.

Honestly though, he hasn't answered the signle question. NOT A SINGLE ONE - Everything was either shifting the blame for the horrible response, or just pure bullshit running around the problem. It all reminded me on the presidential debates, when Bush's every answer (to any question) was: yes, BUT in Iraq...freedom...blah. Perhaps there's an obligatory media-dodging course for all the higher administration officials....

Makes me sick.

may the souls of the departed rest in peace.
may the survivors move on with their lives.

pugrit wrote:may the souls of the departed rest in peace.
may the survivors move on with their lives.

well put

heard about that too
everybody is in trouble and some of those new orleaners are starting to kidnap childs and asking for money. i think that's just wrong and desperate.
our school is collecting donate from students and sending clothes to them atm
hope everything is going to be alright

man that's a tragedy .... i hope that god helps all the victims ...

its a messed up thing. Here people bitch because the people didnt evacuate. Hell, that area has alot of poor people. What a tragedy

Most of the poor people might not leave because they don't have cars.
but what about now. Police and army support them with bus and they still refuse to leave. The governor said He will force them. why??
I think goverment just need to do what they have to do to clean the city.
For those who refuse to leave, just let them stay. just don't blame the goverment that abandon them.
and FEMA, what happend in the movie. I watched a movie about yellow sone that erupted in the discovery chanels and Fema was a real hero.
with big screen at command center, wireless PDA to monitor the vulcanic activity and everything. Its verry cool.
NOT JUST PRESS CONFRENCE!!!!

they are being evacuated because theres e-coli in the water swarming around already. E-coli is a nasty thing, but only the beginning of the nasty shit that'll just develop in the water. Imagine a giant see of trash, decaying human bodies and not-so-fresh human waste... I understand the people who wanna stay, and I'd love to see them do whatever they wanna do, but it's a fact that they'll probably get really sick if they stay.

looking better now.
water and electric start running on some area.
and best of all, Bush will not raise tax

This topic gets kinda boring. I don't even watch news anymore, because it just sucks to see the same thing over and over again. The only sad thing about Katrina is that she destroyed Jazz Town. Now the Americans don't have any own culture anymore. =)