Hurricane Katrina
 

Hi guys

I hope everybody over the atlantic is doing good and everybody is safe!

My thoughts and prayers go out to all of you!

:huh:

Jest checking out all the news reports on the tv. It does not look good right now. Once the waters recede, these people are going to need a lot of help to get back on their feet again. ...griz ;)

Saw the news about Toronto?

I'm going there at the end of the month. Sept.

Is there anything we should prep for?

Oh.. and Vancouver, on the West Coast is a little windy, a lil damp (drizzled today), but all-in-all are safe.

My prayers are with these people. I know of a friend that was in the local paper, because they opened up their house to some friends that left and had no place to go. This warms my heart. :cool:

OMG its crazy out there. Wow as many as 1000s dead. :(

Don't forget to send WHATEVER you can afford to the Red Cross, people....the need is overwhelming, and every single dollar helps!

[quote=Cyberion]Saw the news about Toronto? /QUOTE]

what happenned in Toronto??

Just seen 48 hours special. :( Seems like more help was sent to NY on 911. Women and children alive after the storm on an overpass with no water or food. 48hrs. interviewed these people and I seen two week old babies out in the sun with no food or water. :mad: Are we still in America?

I wonder if the news teams offered them help? Most of the people will be out of work for at least a year - we are doing what we can at my work (just added a toll free number direct to HR) to help those that are jobless - I can't imagine what it would be like to lose it all and having little children as well :(

Let's all do what we can to help in whatever way that is :)

/JD

Cyberion, everything is wonderful in Toronto. It's heavan right now. I have friends coming from PA for the long weekend tomorrow. It's going to be great.

As for the disaster, I have a long time buddy who evacuated Ocean Springs MS, just across the bay from Biloxi, last Saturday and is now 350 miles north in an RV park. He succeeded today in buying 8 gas cans (limit is 4 to any out of town customer) and is now looking for gas stations to fill them. Gasoline is in short supply all over the south right now, apparently. He's getting ready to head back to see if the house he had built this past summer and outfitted with mostly new stuff, is still there, and if so, what's left after looters might have visited.

The Canadian Red Cross has mobilized specialists to go to the gulf coast to assist the American Red Cross. It seems that financial assistance is not so much the issue as the logistical and information problems. We may not be getting an accurate pictrue of what's going on, but, the seeming lack of managment leadership is shocking.

Don't seem real enough yet for you?

Just take a look (Page 1 of 2414) here Katrina Survivor-Connector List:

http://wx.gulfcoastnews.com/katrina/status.aspx

KingCobra. I didn't mean to imply it's not real. Pardon me. I was referring to the fact that a lot of good people were in there doing positive things while the press seemed to suggest otherwise. The news papers did a wonderful job getting those contact pages going on their sites.

The SunHerald has a lot of aerial picutures posted on its web site. Looks to me like the damage is largely confined to the beach areas innundated by the surge. Seems like the wind damage isn't that bad away from the beaches---at least from what I can see in the photos which seem to be 16 MP jpg's.

New Orleans is a totally special animal, expanded into former swamp land pumped dry just after WW-1, protected by dikes. Mother Nature seems to have a message here. I wonder if it isn't time to consolidate NO with Baton Rouge. There is no economic activity in NO other than Bourbon Street. And probably no chance of a job for most NO residents for a very long time.

My buddy is driving back today to look at his house in Ocean Springs. He's been in touch with neighbors who have been back in to look, and there is hardly any damage. No electricity, gasoline or supplies available locally. Maybe not for a good while. He says there is a major shopping center just north of the city (Wal-Mart, etc.) that has reopened for business. No idea about stocks though.

Meanwhile Bush has assured the world he is "back in control"! <heh heh>

@rikytik - Trust me when I say that my previous post/reply had nothing to do with your reply or anyone elses. I was speaking in general to all the peeps that might be looking out there. Sorry if there was any misunderstanding, but I'm happy you said something so I had a chance to clear the air buddy. :cool:

Here are some GREAT sky photos that are a MUST see!

Aerial and Satellite Images of Disaster Locations

http://www.globexplorer.com/disasterimages/index.shtml

"Meanwhile Bush has assured the world he is "back in control"! <heh heh>"

Better hold yer tongue about Bush til the facts come out. You might be surprised. There is a GOOD chance it was the corrupt Louisianan DEMOCRAT politicians who ignored thier own emergency evacuation plans.

"After reviewing the crisis with Gov. Blanco, Bush summoned Nagin for a private chat - where, according to Nagin, Bush explained: "Mr. Mayor, I offered two options to the governor. I said . . . I was ready to move today. The governor said she needed 24 hours to make a decision."

Reacting to the governor's footdragging, Nagin lamented: "It would have been great if we could have left Air Force One, walked outside, and told the world that we had this all worked out."

"It didn't happen, and more people died."

Source: _http://newsmax.com/archives/ic/2005/9/5/234033.shtml

So according to the (democrat) Mayor of New Orleans, the DEMOCRAT Governor of Louisianan caused a 24 hour delay in Federal response!

But wait! If you bash Bush before midnight, we'll let the DEMOCRAT mayor of New Orleans explain why he didn't deploy more than 2'000 city municipal/school buses to help evacuate the POOREST people as called for in the OFFICIAL emergency manual published by the state of Louisianan. These buses were capable of evacuating over 100'000 people! (50 people per bus)

Well, my rant really belongs in the Politcal forum so I'll simply suggest, before you continue to bash Bush you educate yourselves. I know this will be difficult for those of you who just want to hate Bush but, I think you owe it to youself to learn the truth

No?


}---:?

I myself am not quite sure who to blame. Most likely there are several people/groups and several factors that caused this failure. Time will tell.

it's horrible

Copy you 599.

My buddy arrived in Ocean Springs last night. No damage at all to his home. His fence blew down, that's all. As you know, this is just across the busted up bridge to Biloxi. He's got telephone, but no hi-speed cable no cell phone service. There is gas, but it's generally rationed anywhere from $20 to 20 gallons and of course the price is high, but it's there.

As far as New Orleans, yeah I agree with what you say Tubeboy. It's finger pointing time, big time. The facts will come out with time. I enjoy the Jim Lehrer New Hour's approach to what seems to me to be pretty objective reporting, especially through its interviews with key people involved with the subject.

Thanks for the aerial photo link KingCobra.

I hate the fact that we have to ALWAYS find someone to BLAME in this country when disasaters strike, if the government isn't there within seconds to make things perfect again..
Jeez; a 150MPH hurricane hits a major population center, and the god damn media can't WAIT to start assigning blame to the government for not making life perfect within 24 hours.. I guess the media expects us to move a million people out, plug the levees that collapsed, drain the water, and make life as it once was, all within a few days...

Put the blame where it belongs; with "MOTHER NATURE"!!

Here's what my long time buddy tells me afer arriving yesterday. My buddy was my boss while I was in the US Air Force. He was also best man at my wedding.

Hi, Well I've been out foraging all day.. Started the morning by taking the generator back to Home Depot then I got in a short gas line and topped off the truck.. I then headed for the Credit Union and wow the line was out the door and half way down the side of the building so I left.. Went to the post office was told maybe next week mail service will resume.. Seems the sorting center in Gulfport was severely damaged and mail was being held someplace ! I then went to the base and it's closed due to no facilities being open, and don't know when they will open..

Anyway, yes I'll be staying permanently.. The military is handing out water, ice, and MRE's at many locations throughout the area plus Wal-Mart has a pretty good supply of food again.. But I don't think things will recover very fast.. Everywhere I went there was total devastation and nothing like Andrew in south FL or Ivan last year.. Buildings are totally washed from there foundations and the pictures you are seeing on the Internet are very real..

Oh, I did buy a 20 gauge shotgun before I came back!

If anyone is interested. Things seem to be coming back fast if for people above the area washed out by the surge. Especially newer neighborhoods where power lines and telephone are now buried undergraound. My buddy tells me he's got power and phone. Cell phone service may be up in a week. Water won't be potable for quite awhile, but residents can get bottled water from FEMA trucks.

Apropos this thread, I found this article from the BBC interesting
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/4216508.stm

More or less sums up what various B1 memberrs have said on this thread, and I guess what we all know from watching the news.

A very good read, thank you.

Some might once again feel this is a black & white issue. I think it's a black & white issue only if you make it one. If you choose to focus on black & white, everything can become, or look like, a black & white issue.

If your trying to explain to someone a discription of a person and you say he/she was big, tall, fat or small it's a discription. If you mention their color as a part of their discription, that's fine too as long as they are white. If their color is black and you use that as part of their discription, now your a rasist. :confused:

The debit we owe to the black people is much like the USA debit, we are never going to pay it off... so just sit back and deal with it the best way you know how.

We need more people like that man Jabbar Gibson who was not scared to take the bus to help, knowing he was doing good. He could have done nothing like the people who die in beatings while a hand full or hundreds of people watch, when they could all easily ban together to take over & save a life.

Sorry... END OF RANT!

If anyone has any doubt that the local officals had a plan but didn't implement it as it was SUPPOSED to be, read this story from 14 months ago...
http://www.ohsep.louisiana.gov/newsr...cyexercise.htm

Good read and I hope that lots of people begin to understand we're all on the same team, notwithstanding economic class. I don't think it's a black and white issue (that's an exuse). It's a class issue and that is the most evident difference if you look at Washington DC types--estpecially people close to the White House and the old line Senators. Good posts. Thanks

MY gulf coast buddy tells me hi speed internet is back up. (as is electricity most everywhere except washed out beach areas. Now the gawkers are coming and clogging the roads, buying up the small reserves of gasoline and in general creating a nuissance for local residents. They are even standing in line for FEMA bottled water and MRE's.

It's very sad that tragedies like this are always (ab)used in a political way by those who have to lead us......words,nothing than words,to kill their political opponents,while there are other priorities right now.....
Black,white,grey,whatever colour we have,we're all human,and especially in times of pain and sorrow,we have to stand together and help each other....instead of wasting their energy to put this into a racial conflict,they'd better take a shovel in their hands....